It is always unfortunate when the final season of a show doesn’t deliver the way it could have. The potential that Season 7 of The 100 had was crushed pretty quickly.
When it was made clear that the male lead wasn’t going to be getting adequate promotion or screentime, it was only a matter of time before everything else caught up with the circumstances.
The 100 had the chance to send off the series with respect to the original story that was being told and with respect to the fans that have been around all this time.
Instead, fans found themselves feeling robbed of a proper ending, of a real final storyline, and of the resolution that we have been waiting years for. The last season was a hollow exploration of what the show once was, getting distracted with too many antagonists and not enough emotion.
There was no heart left on the show, and everything suffered as an extension of that loss.
It isn’t clear who The 100 was trying to please with its final journey, but it definitely wasn’t the audience actually watching said content. That audience found itself being partially mocked by the same show that they spent years supporting.
It was the choice that was made, although not a very good one.
That is why as we reflect back on our time with the show, what everyone was robbed of stands out more than ever.
1) Bellarke endgame.
Let’s not pretend this doesn’t deserve first place. Not only was this a disappointment for the final season of the show, which will be touched on later, but this has been a seven-year mess.
The 100’s entire run was full of scenes with romantic undertones, promises on social media, and teases in promotional interviews. It was always about dangling enough of that hope without fully committing to anything.
Of course, that is the show’s choice because who wouldn’t want to write something with a lot of potential and then not explore it? That makes so much sense, just like the final season made so much sense.
At least Bob Morley was able to confirm for fans that Bellamy and Clarke were approached as a romantic ship in terms of the writing and how the actors were told to play it. None of us are shocked, but we can pretend to be.
Regardless of the predictable way that The 100 couldn’t commit to what it spent six previous seasons building, that doesn’t take away the power that Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin’s relationship had within the narrative.
Even a vindictive out of character writing choice couldn’t take away from the actual story that was being told.
The final season of the show was a disservice not only to the character the show spent all this time creating, but to whatever legacy The 100 hoped to leave behind.
Bellamy and Clarke’s chemistry and their love for one another was so terrifying that even the show couldn’t face it. Even if The 100 couldn’t handle exploring Bellamy and Clarke together, that doesn’t mean their story wasn’t full of meaning and promise.
The legacy of their journey, the hardwork that Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor put into their connection, and the support from fans is the real everything. Frankly, The 100 probably didn’t deserve Bellarke, their possible endgame, or the fans who spent so much time rooting for it.
2) Clarke Griffin, the female lead, getting adequate screentime for the last time.
The last season of The 100 announced that there wouldn’t be as much focus on their male lead because Bob Morley asked for some time off. That doesn’t extend to the female lead, so what is the explanation for her absence?
Clarke was a character in someone else’s story during Season 7, always there to let the plot push her instead of her pushing the plot along.
A lot was off base about the final season but forgetting who your main character was had to be one of the worst choices.
3) Bellamy Blake, the male lead, getting adequate screentime for the last time.
Even if Bellamy Blake couldn’t be as front and center as he was in previous seasons, he still deserved more.
For the short time that The 100 knew they had Bellamy in the final season, it should have been his story and not him appearing for brief moments. The 100 Season 7 Episode 11 wasn’t enough, especially when Bellamy was just used to push a concept that didn’t even make any sense.
The bottom line is that Season 7 proved how little the show understood Bellamy’s value.
4) Bellamy and Octavia getting the resolution they deserve. Or even getting the chance to talk one single time.
The 100 spent years building this sibling relationship up and then messing with it for the sake of conflict. Then when it was finally coming to a place of reconnection, it was like the two of them were strangers to each other.
As someone who sometimes struggled to see both sides of the Blake arguments, they made so much progress by the end. This was going to be their season, so it makes absolutely no sense that The 100 couldn’t find any time for them, especially if they knew Bellamy was going to die.
It was infuriating that Octavia wasn’t allowed to feel, and they weren’t allowed to speak. And then in the end she hugged her brother’s killer and said that is what he would have wanted. Make it make sense.
5) The delinquents coming together again.
The show thrived when it tapped into the found family aspect that brings so much investment to every show that explores it.
But of course, instead of returning to those roots that made many people start watching the show, it was like that group of people never formed genuine bonds, to begin with.
The rare scenes that the delinquents and original characters had together fell very short. These were no longer the kids that found a home in one another; they were just strangers that were written into brief scenes together as if it meant anything in the end.
6) Bellamy and Clarke being partners, soulmates, best friends, and just enjoying each other’s existence.
If the show wants to throw its own work into the garbage after six years of circling around a Bellamy and Clarke romance, it can.
But aside from that, the show was built around Bellamy and Clarke. So to turn around and forget what brought everything together each season was just wasting the season and The 100.
When Bellamy and Clarke don’t have one another to rely on, then slowly other things fall like dominoes as a result.
7) A theme or really any meaningful message after all this time.
There was all this talk of a theme, but in the end, what was that even?
The show didn’t know where it was heading, and it showed. So a final scene that could have been powerful just ended up bare and lacked the emotion we all deserved to experience.
8) Recycling plastic once and for all.
The 100 just loves returning to the useless technology aspect that comes up at the last second. Every. Single. Time.
It is like the show can’t let go of old storylines, so just like the flame, they have to unearth what is already six feet underground. No one even remembers or cares about the flame anymore, but the show has to bring it up one final time to prove that they didn’t learn anything. And then the flame was destroyed a few episodes later, further proving that it was only there to waste time?
What was the point of saying the flame is eternal if it was destoryed once more? All we know is that The 100 valued the flame more than other actual characters.
9) Investment in all different kinds of relationships.
Before the show entered its last season, TV Fanatic mentioned that exploring relationships would be a really wonderful way to wrap everything up.
It would be a chance to celebrate the friendships, family bonds, and even romance that exists between people every single day.
Except none of that was explored because why would it?
10) Giving Octavia the chance to grieve her brother
Octavia was the one who saw Bellamy “die” during The 100 Season 7 Episode 5, and yet it was like she didn’t even know it happened.
It was insulting to Octavia to have her comfort someone else about the loss of Bellamy.
She spent years trying to get back to him, she saw him die, and she was just reaching a place of understanding with him. He was her brother, and suddenly, The 100 felt like there was no room for her feelings and treated it like an inconvenience.
Then when he died a second time, it was like Octavia didn’t even care about her brother anymore, or more like the show didn’t have time for her to. She showed more emotion about her Blodreina arc from two seasons ago than about the man who raised her being murdered.
Sometimes, it really blows your mind where The 100 thought the investment should be in these episodes.
11) Jordan actually being a character that the show cared about and invested in.
It comes as a surprise to absolutely no one that Jordan Green was undervalued and underutilized within the narrative. He is Monty and Harper’s son, so he should have been a legacy on The 100, but instead, he suffered from the same issues they did.
Jordan mirrored Harper in the way that they both were forgotten in the context of the show. As for what was passed down from Monty to him, that familiar weight of reminding the others to do better only to be ignored, we could have all done without.
It just felt like the show didn’t know what to do about Jordan except to frame him as a legacy character, and so instead, they did nothing. All of that came off as a big mistake when Jordan Green and Shannon Kook have so much to offer.
12) A villain or conflict that centered the season as a whole.
Did the show even know what the conflict was this season? One good villain sets the scene for one good point of conflict to drive everyone to stop it. If this is the last story, it should encompass all of that successfully.
Instead, they couldn’t even choose one villain to focus on. Who was the Big Bad of the season? Cadogan? Sheidheda? The Last War? The Last Test? The Flame? Judgement Day? The Groot lights on Etherea? The crystallization on Bardo? The season itself?
13) Connection to the characters the audience spent six previous seasons bonding with.
It isn’t about some character that was mentioned once three seasons ago. It is about the characters that have been there since Day 1.
The 100 lost sight of who mattered a long time ago, but this was still one final letdown for all of us.
A season that could have allowed the characters still standing to reflect on characters who may not be around anymore decided to once again focus on anything else.
14) Raven having screentime. Or consistent characterization.
Much like many of the other characters within the show, Raven only exists when The 100 needs her. She only says the things that conveniently need to be said at that point in the story. She only does what serves a random purpose at that point in time.
Her passing the test was probably the most the show was able to understand her this season. Outside of that she was just there to judge specific people for their choices and then giving free passes to others.
It isn’t fair to Raven, a character who means so much and had such rich storylines in previous seasons. But it isn’t that surprising since The 100 hasn’t known what to do with her for a while now.
15) Addressing literally anyone’s trauma or tackling the subject of mental health at all.
If you’re going to put your characters through extreme trauma, the least you could do is acknowledge it.
A great example is Clarke, a character-driven to decisions that didn’t even make sense for her anymore. But according to Jason Rothenberg, it was more fun to have your heroine get punished in the end for her actions when every other character around her somehow never did anything wrong in their lives.
Now the choices Clarke made weren’t right, but they were also a result of a story that wanted to be edgy. At no point was Clarke’s mental state taken into account, and instead, the burden kept pilling on without any thought of what comes next.
Clarke kept getting threatened by isolation, stripping her of any ability to channel her emotions because she was never worthy of having people in her life. Instead, The 100 condemned Clarke to no real human interaction since Season 2 and never looked back.
And this is the tip of the iceberg with issues like PTSD, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and more all been forced upon various characters, but there was never time for it to be explored.
It didn’t matter then, and it didn’t matter now.
16) Conversations of every kind.
People should talk, not at each other but with each other.
The 100 struggled in grounding itself when it came to letting the characters on the show just talk instead of focusing on the plot to distract the audience that week.
17) Surprising and shocking twists.
Twists aren’t always what you want to have happen on your favorite show, but they should at least make the show better for it. Most of the plot twists were seen a mile away, and the ones that weren’t probably were better off now happening to begin with.
18) An actual reconciliation between any of the characters that were at odds in previous seasons.
It is easy for the show to have characters fighting for more drama. But it is harder for them explore the path to reconciliation.
Having everyone choose to return and live out their lives with Clarke is sweet. It would have been a nice idea to execute if these characters hadn’t spent the last two seasons proving how little they cared about Clarke. That whole group didn’t have the friendship necessary at the end of the series to make that twist count as payoff.
It’s probably our fault, though, for expecting The 100 to be about relationships when those don’t even exist unless they need to.
19) Bellamy, Clarke, and Gabriel going on an adventure together.
Fact: The 100 couldn’t handle the power that these three could have had.
20) More LGBTQ representation and storytelling.
It is easy to pride yourself on a world that exists without labels or assuming sexualities. Saying that a lot of the characters aren’t straight isn’t the same as showing.
It is even worse when so many of your actors have chemistry that is never explored further than what can only be assumed as an accidental connection.
Raven and Luna. Octavia and Niylah. Gabriel and Bellamy. Hope and Echo. Bellamy and any guy ever. Raven and any girl ever.
21) The chance for Gabriel to exist beyond convenience.
This one hurts.
It should be made clear that Gabriel Santiago made Season 7 better because of the way he appeared more on screen. But just because he had more scenes doesn’t mean it was about him.
Most of Gabriel’s time on the show didn’t come with the narrative thinking about the character as it should have. Allowing Gabriel to organically exist on the show instead of as a plot device or as a way to take some heat off Echo would have helped the final season significantly.
22) Octavia getting to explore a romantic relationship properly.
It isn’t that Octavia and Levitt weren’t adorable; they very much were. But that was all because of the chemistry between Jason Diaz and Marie Avgeropoulos.
The narrative actively made it more difficult to ship them, between Levitt disappearing for episodes at a time and the way they bonded, to begin with. There should have been more time dedicated to their romance, especially since Octavia is a main character, and her happiness hasn’t been explored in a while.
In fact this relationship reflected Octavia this entire season, the show just didn’t want to give any of them the focus they deserved in the final season.
23) Doing better.
There is always all this talk of doing better in the very last seconds of each season, but there is never an active attempt to explore that.
Instead the show sterilized the main characters so they couldn’t reproduce and had the human race die out. But at least they were on a beach together, right?
24) Gabriel and Bellamy bonding over their love for cardigans (and presumably the folklore Taylor Swift era).
It is embarrassing how hard Gabriel seemed to be crushing on Bellamy, and no one did anything about it.
They shared cardigans, they both would stop at nothing to save the blonde women that they loved, and they both looked good in white on Bardo. The romance just writes itself.
Especially coming off of The 100 Season 6, there was an opportunity to at least give these two a nice friendship. Even if Bellamy wasn’t around much, these two were Cadogan’s favorites on Bardo and were struggling with the right choice for their people.
An actual crime that we were deprived of all the quality Bellabriel content. All of it.
25) Female friendships getting the devotion they deserve.
It is one thing to say that the women on your show are friends, it is another thing to show it.
For friendships like Raven and Clarke, the promise of actual reconciliation and healthy growth disappeared a long time ago. It was frustrating to see one last time how little this mattered to The 100.
26) One last inspiring speech from Bellamy Blake.
Hope for the future can only exist if Bellamy Blake tells us to believe in it.
With him gone, there is no promise looking forward and that is somehow perfectly fitting.
27) The women of color being explored like they actually deserved.
This is a recurring problem, with The 100 getting criticism about how the WOC are explored throughout the seasons. They don’t get the attention they deserve, and as always, there aren’t any more chances to correct that now.
28) Men of color not getting treated in the problematic way that they usually are.
There were three episodes in a row where a man of color found himself brutually murdered on screen.
First it was Nelson getting shot in the head after his people were slaughtered in front of him. Then it was Bellamy shot through the heart by his partner and soulmate in the last seconds of the episode for shock value, leaving him alone on the cold Sanctum floor. Finally the triangle of problems was completed with Gabriel being killed three different times in the bunker on Earth.
Overkill feels too weak a word to describe how The 100 treats its MOC on the show, both in life and in death. There is no peace, value or respect shown to characters that should offer important representation for the audience.
Instead Wells, Lincoln, Ilian, Jaha, Pike, Shaw, Monty, and more were positioned in a storytelling way that left much more to be desired.
29) Miller and Bellamy actually having that deleted talk.
There seem to have been quite a few cuts from The 100 Season 7 Episode 12, but the Miller and Bellamy one hurts the most. Miller already didn’t have much of a voice; it would have been crucial to see the two of them talk.
In fact, how can Miller mention the conversation in a scene when the audience didn’t actually see that talk?
They have trusted each other since the show started, and yet it is like their friendship doesn’t matter.
30) Madi and Clarke having a healthy relationship and individual arcs instead of being a way to justify writers’ room choices.
There are actually no words to describe the many mistakes that the show made when it came to Madi and Clarke, as well as their relationship.
Giving Madi and Clarke the chance to be separate characters instead of revolving around one another was probably the best choice that was made since The 100 Season 5. So it only made sense that they then swiftly went in the complete other direction.
Madi and Clarke were doing their own things, only for them to reunite and for Clarke to once again be demoted to Just A Mother. And she wasn’t even a good mother at that considering the emotional trauma she put on Madi. Killing “for your child” and then telling said child that it is because of them that people they cared about are getting killed isn’t the best parenting approach.
Also not hearing out what your child wants slowly becomes them choosing to put their life at risk, only to have their life actually at risk.
That then became Clarke giving it a five second thought process before she decided to euthanize her child (Jason Rothenberg’s own words).
All of that and in the end Madi transcended and stayed behind. Clarke’s entire characterization was regressed with the reasoning that it was for her child, and still the show couldn’t even commit to that.
Clarke lived her live without Madi around and that somehow was meant to excuse the ruined development, the broken relationships, and the dead characters along the way.
It speaks to the flimsy story that The 100 pretended it was telling about Clarke and Madi, and it didn’t benefit either character in the end.
31) Indra and Gaia getting time to talk to one another, exist as a family, or even reflect on how far they have come together.
Indra and Gaia add so much value not only to one another’s storylines but to the show. They are a family but just like every other relationship this season, they were forgotten about when Gaia disappeared.
They had one conversation during The 100 Season 7 Episode 14, which was just meant to wrap up their stories instead of giving them any weight.
32) More Nelson.
Nelson was a pleasant surprise, making Sanctum a bearable storyline when so much dragged on. But a character with potential never sees the end of the tunnel, and Nelson was no different.
He still left a fascinating mark on the show, if only he had more time to offer the audience more.
33) Actual time spent exploring the different planets we were introduced to.
The 100 excelled at worldbuilding when done side by side with characters exploring these places.
Penance and Bardo were explored, but none of the other new planets really were. It doesn’t feel real that the only promise out there in the universe is planet after planet, full of war and cults.
34) Romance, romance, and romance
The CW won’t explode just because two characters kiss. I promise.
Still, Season 7 of The 100 lived in fear of precisely that, shying away from any romance because it wasn’t “that kind of show.” But in an effort to pretend that this show wasn’t being written for a female audience that might care about two people romantically interacting with one another, nothing else of substance left a mark on the final season.
35) Jordan and Hope actually getting quality build-up between them.
The 100 didn’t want to invest in romance, so the only new couple they introduced was Jordan and Hope.
These two could have gotten together in a story that the audience could invest in the long term. Instead, they had approximately three or four scenes that accelerated their relationship at a remarkably quick pace.
There wasn’t even really time to understand that Jordan and Hope were becoming something before it was over.
36) An explanation for the glitches.
This is the hill that I will die on.
The 100 Season 7 Episode 5 had momentary glitches that meant something. There were two moments, right before memories that were played back for the audience, and there was more to it than meet the eye. Just because the show forgot about it doesn’t mean there was something there.
I said what I said.
37) A proper burial for Bellamy.
Is he still on the cold Sanctum floor? Is he on Nakara? Is any of this okay?
No.
38) Levitt getting the chance to exist outside of just conveniently serving the plot when necessary.
New characters on The 100 are always fascinating, but here is the issue; they aren’t actually given the screentime that fans want for them.
Levitt was yet another example of the show knowing that they had something with Jason Diaz but not realizing how much more the fans would want to see from this character along the way.
He sort of appeared and disappeared at random, and it didn’t always make sense.
39) Less last season of Game of Thrones inspiration.
The final season of Game of Thrones wasn’t exactly remembered fondly, so trying to replicate wasn’t particularly promising for The 100.
40) More Team Gay.
There should have been a way to explore this group of people, but maybe not with guns. Because if there is anything to worry about on this show, it is Clarke with a gun.
41) Nelson and Gabriel reflecting together on their time apart.
Lee Majdoub mentioned this in an interview with TV Fanatic, but Nelson and Gabriel deserved to see each other one last time. Both of them went on different adventures focused on some variation of personal growth; it is only fair they reconnected after all of that.
42) Good outfits for all the characters.
Seasons upon seasons, the audience asked for the characters to get new outfits. Here they were exploring all these new places, but they couldn’t change their clothes?
43) Respect for Monty’s hard work.
Monty didn’t sacrifice his life just for Earth to mysteriously reappear with no clear understanding of how.
It was canon that it would take thousands of years for the Earth to return, and yet there it was exactly how everyone left it? Monty and Harper (and Jordan) deserved better.
44) Answers to questions that mattered.
It makes no sense to throw out all these questions that never get the answers they deserve. We don’t want to know all about Sheidheda’s time on Earth; we want to know more about the endless space travel and the possibilities there.
It is almost like the audience has more significant expectations than the show has for itself.
45) Time for Hope and Diyoza to get to spend with one another.
Diyoza had what is probably the longest pregnancy of all time, but when it came to her actually getting to spend time with her child, we saw barely any of that.
Obviously spending time with Hope and Diyoza doesn’t fit the dark and edgy tone that The 100 is going for. Still, it was unfortunate to see another mother/daughter relationship not get the attention the show thought it wanted to give them initially.
46) Parallels throughout the season that meant something.
When Season 7 started, we created a list of parallels that the show felt like it was leaning into. Except, the show wasn’t really doing any of that.
At first, the show was known for creating parallels between characters and relationships because of the depth it provided the story. But along the way, that fell apart, and once again, fans were doing more work than the narrative.
47) A real Becho break-up.
Bellamy Blake died a free and single man, there is no doubt there.
But the audience didn’t suffer from their lackluster “chemistry” for several seasons, only to be treated to the exact same kind of break-up. If the audience has to put up with a useless flashback to a scene that didn’t provide anything useful to the show, then have Bellamy and Echo’s relationship shatter in front of us too.
48) High stakes that actually drove the plot somewhere.
At some point, the endless rollercoaster of highs that don’t have a resolution just become empty examples of what could have been.
49) An answer to how Cadogan just showed up in Bellamy’s vision with the same exact outfit he was actually wearing in Bardo.
Bellamy literally only saw Cadogan back on Earth in his regular clothing.
But somehow, his vision, which we have to assume was real, had Bellamy correctly identify the outfit that Cadogan was wearing at that time.
His new Etherea boyfriend did have a similar outfit, but it wasn’t exactly the same. Yet Bellamy figured out how Cadogan would look, and we just need to pretend to believe it? Or did The 100 have magic all along?
50) Gaia having value to the narrative in any kind of way.
It is possible that Tati Gabrielle had to film for other projects and wasn’t available to be Gaia for long. That doesn’t excuse how Gaia was written off with a disappearance that didn’t make much sense.
Why create a journey for her in the first four episodes of the season if you don’t plan for her to exist? Just don’t then?
51) Miller being remembered by the show.
Miller wasn’t the only original character who had the potential to offer more to The 100, only to be forgotten. But he was one of the few who made it to the very end, and the show still couldn’t manage to offer him full-fledged storylines.
It was unfair in the beginning, and it still feels unfair to the character now.
52) Indra not being let down by the show.
The way that Indra had multiple opportunities to kill Sheidheda, only to be let down by the show. Sheidheda needed to be a random obstacle every other episode, which meant that Indra had to look like a fool who couldn’t do what she kept teasing she would.
Was it worth it? No.
It wasn’t what Indra would have actually done, so her character was altered to prolong an arc and keep a “villain” around that felt stale a few episodes in.
53) An answer about what happened to Reese (and Callie).
Everyone who wants to shame me for this one, please look away.
The last season would never actually give us these answers because they want their prequel show, but I just wanted to know what actually happened to the two characters that caught my eye and move on.
54) More mindspaces.
It was fascinating to see how other characters set up their memories in their minds and what they valued most actually to have on display there.
We saw Emori’s this season, which was wonderful, but there is always room for more. It is a small detail, but it defines every character, and that would be very attention-grabbing for longtime fans of the show.
55) Less sketchbooks, or no sketchbooks at all.
Art is dangerous and so are the books for said art.
Burn it all.
56) Any information on the Crystal Giants.
Levitt spent all that time educating Octavia, Hope, and probably anyone else who could listen about the history that came before them. It was heavily hinted that there was more to the story … but there wasn’t.
57) Any context for the aliens that somehow decide the fate of the entire human race.
This Judgement Day theme hovered around the season, but there wasn’t enough information actually given about this alien race that decided everything for the humans?
Who were they that they had the authority to literally decide who lived and who died?
58) Bellamy and Cadogan getting the scenes together that were advertised.
Several scenes were promoted but didn’t make it into the actual episodes. All of them involved Bellamy. Just putting that out there.
It was unfortunate because, once again, Bellamy’s whole storyline was tied to a new character, and the show made the executive decision to cut that content out. What would have given context to the male lead and his choices suddenly didn’t matter, and it was an example of a much bigger issue.
59) Nelson, Indra, and Emori finding friendship again.
Lee Majdoub mentioned Nelson’s potential and his interactions with Emori and Indra in our Looking Back interview.
If all this time was going to be spent on Sanctum, at least focus on characters who had this organic chemistry together.
60) Murphy’s sudden connection to children within a five mile radius getting an explanation.
Every single episode Murphy was helping a child or showing concern for a child. His experience during The 100 Season 6 could have changed his perspective on things, but the way he looked out for every kid felt like a solid hint about something.
Except it meant nothing because, of course.
61) Memori baby.
Speaking of Murphy’s constant connection to children, the hints about Emori glowing and the two of them sleeping together always weren’t far behind. The reasonable foreshadowing would be a baby. Keyword reasonable.
62) Madi existing as her own person and not a mouthpiece.
It was always unfortunate the way that Madi existed as an obstacle for Clarke. This character existed to keep Clarke from fully joining her friend group again during The 100 Season 5.
But what about Madi? What about her growth and her motivations?
During The 100 Season 7 Episode 14 is the only time that Madi spoke up for herself instead of letting the show’s writer’s room have agency over her, and just as quickly, she was stripped of that again.
63) An explanation of what Murphy saw that got him on such a different journey.
Murphy saw his own version of hell, which drove most of his choices from that point on.
Maybe the truth of the matter is that someone needed to make good choices in Sanctum, so Murphy suddenly needed to be the hero. He spent all of the previous season using hell as a way to only think about his future (and Emori’s), and now he used hell as a way to never do anything that wasn’t considered good.
Regardless, you can’t dangle some big thing that happened offscreen over and over but never actually let the audience know what the character saw, Come on.
64) Not having to worry about the bindi again.
After years of people bringing up how offensive it was to use the bindi when it came to the Commander “outfit,” the choice to once again have it in the final season felt intentional.
There is this awareness that it isn’t okay to keep letting all these white women wear a bindi as part of a costume, and there is no respect shown to the people insulted by these choices that didn’t need to happen. Characters could just not wear a bindi.
65) An explanation of what Becca saw that got him on such a different journey
Becca was terrified during The 100 Season 7 Episode 8 when she experienced Judgement Day. It was built up to be this scary event, only for all the characters to go in the end willingly.
Was Becca terrified of the inflatable tube things from the car dealerships? This promise of something deadly at the end of the Anomaly rainbow just didn’t add up.
Or maybe women’s opinions don’t matter.
66) Moments of humor.
Maybe laughing through the pain would have made all of this worth it.
67) A use for Gabriel’s favorite mind drive and just about every other mind drive around.
All of these mind-drives existed and they weren’t even used. It isn’t that anyone actually wanted more of a focus on the strange technology aspect of the show, but spending four previous seasons on this and then just dropping it?
Sounds like The 100.
68) An understanding of Orlando.
Orlando was prominent on Penance and even had hints of information that we never learned more about. He knew about Hope and facts about her that he wouldn’t know, considering they were strangers to one another.
But he knew she liked pumpkin seeds, and he was this promise of more that Bardo never fully explored.
It wasn’t fair to jump into the season by spending two entire episodes with a character who wasn’t remembered again from there.
69) Cohesive storytelling.
Several mentions of major rewriting were going on in this final season, but it showed way more than it should have on our end. The audience shouldn’t sense the inconsistency that happens when all these last-minute changes are made.
70) Nostalgia.
Either The 100 forgot where it came from, or it just didn’t care.
This wasn’t a show saying goodbye to its legacy or its fans; this was another attempt at a shock value story that didn’t stick the landing (or the actual journey). But it was ridiculous the way that The 100 couldn’t be bothered to reflect or respect anything that got it to this final point.
71) An explanation of why we spent all this time with Sheidheda.
What was the actual point?
JR Bourne is such a talented and charismatic actor that it was beyond questionable why his skills were underutilized this much.
72) An explanation of why we spent all this time with Cadogan.
On the other hand, John Pyper-Ferguson, who spoke with TV Fanatic about his time with Cadogan, created so much potential in his portrayal. There was room for Cadogan to be multilayered, a villain nonetheless, but still.
But unfortunately, Cadogan jumped around from humor to danger to a random death that didn’t give us any real answers about who this person we spent all this time with was.
73) Jordan’s cult storyline from the previous season.
Jordan didn’t have much going on during Season 6, which the show tried to make up for by teasing a future cult storyline. Then suddenly that was wiped away too because again the character didn’t get any screen time
74) Heavy topics being handled with care and consideration.
In the last few episodes alone, the show introduced topics like euthanasia and sterilization without feeling like any thought was actually put into these conversations.
Having Madi not be able to talk or move quickly became the narrative deeming her disposable.
Clarke pulled out a gun to kill her before even considering that her daughter was still alive and able to live a life worth fighting for. It was offensive to depict euthanasia so carelessly, especially without putting much thought into audience members that might be insulted by this.
But that wasn’t the end.
Soon after that, Clarke’s friends came back to live their lives out with her, but only if they were sterilized first. What kind of care was put into depicting this odd approach that takes away any agency that these characters have over their bodies and their future? And for what?
75) Octavia getting credit for developing and maturing into herself.
There was already a discussion about this during The 100 Season 7 Episode 2, but why did Octavia have to go through exactly what Bellamy went through to finally mature and relate to him?
It wasn’t comparable to say that Bellamy helping raise a child at around six years old was the same as Octavia helping raise Hope when she was an adult. It also didn’t do Octavia any favors, with the narrative not allowing her to grow unless it was directly parallel to Bellamy’s experiences.
76) Way more Dev.
If you are going to put more focus on new characters and not the actual main characters, then at least follow the ones that steal the show.
Dev was a fan favorite from the second he appeared on screen, which probably explains why he only lasted for one sequence.
77) Aliens.
Jordan’s reaction to Nakara was very relatable.
Who cares about other humans when you are exploring other planets in different universes? There should have been so many interesting aliens that could have crossed their paths before they got to Bardo.
And yet.
78) Time used in an inventive way.
Which brings us back to utilizing aspects of the show beyond surface level storylines.
If anything, The 100 used time to confuse the audience and themselves. Bardo was moving so quickly that Sanctum needed to waste the entire season with a repetitive circle of events to explain why the plotlines couldn’t align yet.
Using time to drive a story is useful, but that was usually where the show struggled. Time always complicated things more than it ever helped anything.
79) More focus on depictions of disability representation with characters like Raven and Emori.
Raven and Emori both offered important representation to fans of the show over the years.
But especially in the final season, so much was put on the back burner when it came to creating more conversations about disabilities within this world. Raven’s injury wasn’t always remembered when it should have been in the narrative.
Emori and Nelson shared a really memorable conversation about being outsides, but there could always be more.
We’re greedy like that.
80) Raven getting the chance to fall in love and stay in love.
Much like many of the other characters within the show, Raven only exists when The 100 needs her. She only says the things that conveniently need to be said at that point in the story. She only does what serves a random purpose at that point in time.
It isn’t fair to Raven, a character who means so much and had such rich storylines in previous seasons. But it isn’t that surprising since The 100 hasn’t known what to do with her for a while now.
81) Echo being her own person.
Looking back on it, The 100 probably thrived on not allowing Echo to be anything other than an occasional spy and a foil to Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship. Or maybe just a foil to Bellamy’s relationships with the two most important women in his life.
Even when she had a whole season without Bellamy, it was all about him. She could have formed her own friendships so she could grow out of someone else’s shadow yet again. But all she did was revert back to needing someone to follow, even post mortem. Echo couldn’t exist without revolving her actions around him, and then he came back.
Unfortunately, a show that risked so much by investing in Echo didn’t even respect her in its narrative.
82) A fan version of a happy ending.
Sometimes the happy ending isn’t about the shocking and random storyline that you introduced last second. Sometimes it is about the fan version of a happy ending that invests in what they came to love about your show.
83) Bringing back old faces.
The 100 brought some faces back around recently, but there could always be more. More nostalgia and more acknowledgment towards certain characters in death that they didn’t get when they were alive.
Wells Jaha. This is all about Wells Jaha.
Regardless, for any fans hoping to get some more fun closure from their favorites over the seasons, TV Fanatic has done an exclusive “Looking Back on The 100” collection. There are quite a few interviews with past cast members about their characters and the iconic memory they left behind just for fans of the show to enjoy.
84) An explanation for why Echo was even made into a Nightblood.
There come moments in the story when a decision feels big. There aren’t that many nightbloods, and usually, if one is created on The 100 then there is a reason for it.
Except for Echo. There was absolutely no plan in place when she became one, and a season later, it was once again of no use.
85) A story of faith that didn’t feel rushed.
If you want to tell a story about faith, then do it. But don’t pull it out of nowhere in the finale and expect the concept of ~magic~ to explain away every single detail that didn’t make sense.
The 100 spent years mocking those who followed a faith within the show. They were seen as blind sheep who were so invested in their belief systems that they didn’t see reason. Any believer on the show was at one point made out to be stupid and easy to manipulate.
As someone who doesn’t have a real tie to any faith, it didn’t make sense that, in the end, it all added up to some make-up concept of an afterlife that didn’t get an actual explanation. All these characters that mocked blind faith jumped at the chance to join an alien belief system.
Make it make sense.
86) Change.
Every season it is all about doing better, and by the end, everyone continues to do none of that.
Empty promises breed empty actions.
87) Bottle episodes that achieved progress of any kind with the characters involved.
The 100 has always found success in bottle episodes, possibly because it was always about characters in one place talking about their feelings. It wasn’t revolutionary to the story, but it was still valuable.
Season 7, though, made it feel forced whenever characters spent prolonged amounts of time together. It wasn’t for their benefit; it was out of plot convenience.
So to have bottle episodes that focused on the characters would have been a real treat.
88) The current show that is wrapping up taking priority over an attempt at a prequel.
How is it possible to sell a show steaming from an original when you don’t show any care for the prequel’s inspiration?
Everything the episodes this season cared about had to do with plot points that the showrunner promised would get explored in the prequel. But if no attention is given to the original, how does that sell the idea that the prequel will be treated any different?
89) The feeling that The 100 values and cares about its fandom.
It is unfortunate when you watch a show, and you can sense the disdain that the content has for its viewers. Everything is like an extra insult to injury, letting the audience know that what they love has no value to the show itself.
No group of fans deserves to feel like that.
90) Respect for departed characters that meant a lot to The 100.
Name a character who died; odds are they were mentioned a few times after they died and then were never heard about again.
The show’s lead just lost her mom, and even that wasn’t a connection strong enough for the show to remember for an adequate period of time. The narrative doesn’t dwell in feelings or about things that aren’t visible on screen, and it becomes so disrespectful towards the characters who had such an impact on the show as a whole.
91) Happiness. For the characters or the audience or anyone.
It wasn’t up to The 100 to make a show that brightened a 2020 type year that was full of nothing but dread and disaster. But if a final season airs and the audience can’t come away from it with some kind of happiness, then there is something wrong.
Because watching television is all about finding a way to escape what is happening in the world that isn’t great, and much of that was happening way before just 2020.
The fact that The 100 existed in its own bubble of never-ending depression and edgy darkness is a perfect reminder of how little the show cared about the message it was providing its audience.
Humans can never change, and they will always harm one another. But if we are lucky, maybe an alien group will come down to judge us all for our auctions as a whole.
92) Confidence in our ability to analyze media and subtext.
The fact that the audience spent so long questioning what they saw on screen is ridiculous.
This series-long gaslighting was one of the worst things for The 100 to be known for, but at this point, it is now the show’s legacy. Constantly making your viewers think they were wrong for seeing what you were writing, just because you couldn’t actually commit to properly telling these stories.
The audience isn’t at fault for the show’s inability to follow through. And spending seven seasons tearing fans apart for analyzing, thinking, and caring is the biggest mistake that the show managed to make.
93) A happy ending for Clarke Griffin.
Clarke Griffin ending up on a beach without the child she risked everything for and with a group of people who hated her a few days ago isn’t her happy ending.
How will she ever know peace after the people she killed? All of their lives for the life of her now absent daughter won’t stop following her. And the psychological torture of her now being left to survive all on her own twice, for however short a time, is also something that won’t go away.
The narrative yanked Clarke’s mental health around for years, and now she is just happy? Yeah. No.
And this is before we consider the harsh reality of how she took Bellamy’s happy ending away. None of that will sit right with her.
94) A happy ending for Bellamy Blake.
Bellamy deserved to be on that beach with everyone. Bellamy deserved to transcend and see what he fought the others to believe in with him.
Bellamy deserved to have any kind of ending that he wanted for himself after seasons of wrecking himself for those around him.
95) Continuity.
It is startlingly how quickly The 100 forgets the rules of its own show, from time dilation to a whole planet resurfacing as it was when it exploded to hints in episodes not getting explored.
When the fans are more on top of continuity than the season itself, that’s not great.
96) Clarke being herself and not only a mother.
The 100 never knew how to tell a story about a mother. You were either a character with agency or you were a mother.
97) Octavia being properly explored one final time.
This final season was all about having the plot push Octavia and none of the time was it about her. At least not in the present timeline, which is exactly where the narrative should have dug into her progression and the plot benefitting her journey.
But I digress.
98) Not enough Picasso.
At this rate the prequel just needs to be the Picasso show.
You can’t have the dog not transcend to weird alien heaven and pretend that is okay.
99) The human race actually getting to live.
Spending seven years with a show only to be told that the human race deserves to die out is quite a lesson.
10/10 would not take the class again.
100) A proper ending with actual closure.
So many things didn’t make sense; they still don’t. So much of the ending felt like a disappointment.
For example, how is it fair that the characters who believed in transcending were exactly the ones who didn’t get to have that in the end? Instead, only the characters who mocked it found their alien peace.
How is it possible to walk away from a final season of a show thinking it ultimately hated its main audience?
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For any The 100 fans looking for some nostalgia as the series concludes, TV Fanatic has a surprise interview series for you! “Looking Back On The 100” centers on monumental cast members and characters from the show that left their mark.
We spoke with Eli Goree about his time on the show, as well as Michael Beach about the journey he had, and we even took a walk down memory lane with Christopher Larkin and Aaron Ginsburg. We even checked in with Zach McGowan about that surprise return to the show.
We also spoke with Leah Gibson about #GinaWasReal and Nadia Hilker about creating the character of Luna.
Chai Hansen also looked back at the show with us when it came to his time on it as Ilian. And Charmaine DeGraté expanded on her writing journey with the show, as well as what it was like to write for Bellamy and Octavia Blake.
Eve Harlow spoke with us as well about Maya’s pure presence on the show and about Maya’s relationship with Jasper. Ivana Milicevic reflected on the message that Diyoza left behind after her exit.
Lee Majdoub also shared about Nelson’s connections and his final moments on the show. Jason Diaz shared the lessons that his Levitt learned and the happy ever after that he found with Octavia. John Pyper-Ferguson spoke with us as well about bringing Cadogan to life and the work behind such a surprising character.
Luisa D’Oliveira, who played Emori on The 100, looked back at her time with the show, the purpose that her character found, and the ending that Emori chose for herself. And Shelby Flannery, who played Hope DIyoza on The 100, looked back at her time with the show, the lessons Hope learned, and the bonds that she was able to make.
Keep checking TV Fanatic for more upcoming interviews with surprise cast members from seasons past!
Share all your thoughts with us in the comments section! Stick around TV Fanatic for more final features, slideshows, and interviews of the last season, and watch The 100 online if you need to catch up on the adventure.
Yana Grebenyuk is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.