Thankfully, The CW drama series The 100 has already received a pick-up for a third season because the Season 2 finale, called “Blood Must Have Blood Part Two,” will be shocking and not everyone will survive. Having seen the episode, trust me when I say that you will be very anxious to know what happens next. The journey Jaha (Isaiah Washington) and Murphy (Richard Harmon) are on to the City of Light continues, as Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), Bellamy (Bob Morley) and the rest of the group must struggle to break free from Mount Weather.
During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, showrunner Jason Rothenberg previewed what fans can expect from the conclusion of this season. He talked about what viewers should braces themselves for, as a result of the aftermath of Pt. 1, that he’s had a plan but a general one, his desire to have every season be different, why he likes to drop early hints that he returns to later on, and that he never approaches a season by asking who’s going to die. Be aware that there are spoilers.
Collider: Since so much has already happened in Pt. 1 of the finale, what would you say viewers should brace themselves for with Pt. 2?
JASON ROTHENBERG: That’s a good question. Obviously, we have left our characters – all of them – in a really bad position. It’s always darkest before the dawn, I could say, but this is The 100 and it could always get darker. By design, the first half of the finale was meant to take us to the brink of this triumphant battle, and then pull the rug out and leave our heroes without the advantages that they had going in. Now, it’s going to be, how far are they willing to go? Can they find another way to get the job done? They went in trying to be good guys. That very elaborate plan of Clarke’s was about, “We’re going to do this the right way. We’re not going to kill the people that have helped us. We’re not going to murder the children to get the job done.”
That’s the way the United States, we hope, goes into armed conflicts. We go in only when we have to, and we do it the right way. We try to minimize casualties. If there is such a thing as a good war, that’s fighting a good war. How far is Clarke willing to go to get her people back? That’s the question that she’s forced to ask, in this episode. In Episode 15, Lexa crossed her line. She sold the Sky People out to save her people. Dante crossed his line. He had set this line in the sand, morally, of not doing this thing to the 44 that he’d done to the Grounders, and he thought that was him being a good guy, but he was forced to cross it by Cage’s ineptitude, really, by proposing the deal with Lexa. Now, we’ll put Clarke at a line and the question is, will she cross it or not?
When you started this show, how many seasons did you have planned out, and by the end of Season 2, how close are you to that original plan, and how much have you totally deviated from the plan you thought you’d be taking?
ROTHENBERG: I had a plan, but the plan was very general. The plan was that I want to tell a different story, every season. I want every season to be different. I want it to be a constant exploration of this world and of this universe. I wanted it to always be about survival. Obviously, that’s what we’ve done. I went into Season 2 with a very strong plan of what Season 2 would be, and it worked out almost exactly as intended. The writers come together in the room and elevate everything. I come in with, “Well, Clarke is going to kill Finn in the middle of the season,” and then the room takes over and we figure out how that’s going to happen. The how of it is always better than what I had hoped or thought, originally. I know that, ultimately, they were going to save their friends in Mount Weather and that Clarke was going to go so far that she wasn’t going to experience any joy or relief or celebration in that, and that’s exactly what’s happened. That’s really the way I work. It’s more about surprising myself and keeping myself entertained by continually changing the story, changing the world, and building it out.
Have you always had a board up with all of the clans that you eventually wanted to get to and explore, or have you added some along the way that you weren’t expecting?
ROTHENBERG: Yeah, it’s always a process of adding, expanding and elaborating. I like to drop hints early, and then come back to them later. The seeds we plant early bear fruit, seasons later. We talked about Mount Weather quite a bit in Season 1, in the beginning, and ultimately that’s where we went in Season 2. There have been many seeds sewn this season about the Ice Nation, and we’ve talked about Luna at the Sea for quite awhile. Those are all possibilities for us, going forward in the storytelling. That’s one of the things that I get the most satisfaction from. I have the most fun with the world-building aspect of it, and we’ll keep doing, that for sure.
You’ve killed off a lot of characters on this show, both major and minor, which has made for very unexpected and exciting storytelling. But now that people have come to expect that, are you looking to somehow change things up in and even more different way for Season 3, to keep people guessing?
ROTHENBERG: Yeah. As a rule, I don’t think, “God, who are we going to kill next?” My wife and I actually had a conversation about that this morning, where she asked me a similar question. My answer is, if the story is good, we’ll tell that story. Obviously, the world needs to be dangerous. I like keeping people on their toes, off-balance, not knowing what’s going to happen. Main characters can die. One of the things that does is that it keeps people guessing, but incorrectly, most of the time. Honestly, I do not ask that question. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, but I don’t say, “Who’s going to die this season?”
The Season 2 finale of The 100 airs on The CW on Wednesday, March 11th.
