Episode 10 (called “Survival of the Fittest”) of The CW series The 100, already renewed for a third season, sees characters team up, each on their own path to make life better for their people. Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and Lexa (Alycia Debnam Carey) encounter a new enemy, Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) agree to work together to break into Mount Weather, Murphy (Richard Harmon) helps Jaha (Isaiah Washington) confront his past, and Indra (Adina Porter) makes Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) an offer she can’t refuse.
During a recent interview at The CW offices, show creator Jason Rothenberg and actor Ricky Whittle talked about keeping things fresh and different, from season to season, that the world is getting larger, when we might see more of the Ice Nation, inter-cutting storylines like a rope intertwined, the struggles that await Lincoln and Bellamy at Mount Weather, Octavia’s transformation, what’s to come for Monty (Christopher Larkin) and Jasper (Devon Bostick), and whether the battle at Mount Weather decide the war, or is it just one stop on the journey. Be aware that there are some spoilers.
Question: What can you tease about where things are headed for the rest of the season?
JASON ROTHENBERG: Season 1 and Season 2 are very different, and you can probably bank on Season 3 being as different from Season 2, as Season 2 was from Season 1. I think that’s going to be a hallmark for us.
RICKY WHITTLE: There are always parallel worlds going on, which keeps things fresh for a versatile audience. Some people are into the forest stuff. Some people are into the space stuff. Now, we have Mount Weather, this year. The City of Light and that journey seems to be another path we’re taking now. The world is getting larger. It’s Earth, at the end of the day. We’ve seen, from the first season, how much the world grew from just the drop ship. They realized that people were alive, and then you had the different clans. That’s going to continue to grow, as we start to really investigate what else is out there.
What is the Ice Nation?
ROTHENBERG: One of the things I like to do is drop little things early, and then they don’t come back until much later. The Ice Nation will definitely play a role in the bigger story, but maybe not for awhile. They’re part of the coalition. There are 12 Grounder clans and, right now, despite what Lexa said they did to her girlfriend, she brought them to the table anyway. She was able to somehow overlook that and bring them to the table. So, they’re a member of the 12, but who knows how steady that relationship is.
Will you continue to weave storylines together, throughout the season?
ROTHENBERG: We inter-cut stories, a lot, in the show. With Season 1, we went back and forth between the ship and the kids on the grown. Season 2 has four or five storylines that are really like a rope intertwined. It works, in my mind, and it’s exciting for me to watch that.
WHITTLE: It works on screen, too.
What kind of struggles await Lincoln and Bellamy at Mount Weather?
ROTHENBERG: It’s going to be bad news for awhile, for both of them. There’s a big conflict coming. Whether they make it out or not is hugely in question. Bellamy is a big part of the plan, obviously. Now, they have their inside man, but he’s not exactly going to be very helpful, right now. He’s not going to have the same journey inside the mountain that Lincoln had. Lincoln became a Reaper, and Bellamy’s journey is different.
What’s it like to see Bellamy and Lincoln come so far that they can hang out and actually be friends?
WHITTLE: They had quite a journey in the first season. I still have scars from that episode on my stomach. So, they started off on bad terms, but Bellamy was just trying to find the antidote for Finn. It wasn’t something that he wanted to do. You saw that torture in him. He wasn’t a bad person. It was a means to an end. He was just looking for the cure. You saw the pain in him when he had to strike Lincoln and do all of that. And then, throughout the end of the first season and the beginning of this season, he’s seen Octavia and Lincoln and the passion that they have for each other. When Lincoln was captured several times, the strength that Octavia showed in trying to find him and the determination in his little sister, who arrived as a spoiled little brat that he had to look after, who’s now this sword-wielding little warrior. He’s seen that Lincoln is good for her, and that he’s brought this strength out, but Lincoln always saw that strength. He was just able to coerce it out a little more and allow her to be more of herself. Lincoln is not a Grounder who fights first and asks questions later. He’s trying to understand the world, much more so than most. He says that the world has been trying to turn him into a monster, as long as he can remember. Ever since childhood, he’s questioned the Grounder ways and the brutality of it all, and then he found someone, wanted to care for them and wanted to learn. Lincoln is not just a warrior. He’s very much a curious young chap who wants to know more about different worlds, so that they can all help each other.
Octavia is between worlds right now. Do you think that’s because she never had a normal life on the Ark?
ROTHENBERG: Octavia was never accepted. She was ironically a second-born child on the Ark, which meant she was persona non grata and had to live under the floor essentially as a secret, so she never belonged anywhere. She felt a bit of belonging, in Season 1, with the hundred and certainly with Lincoln. Now, she’s definitely drawn to the world of the Grounders. I think her arc is one of the most exciting in the show, from a spoiled kid saying, “We’re back, bitches!,” to where she is now. I could not imagine the character, as she currently exists, saying that line. I think she’ll find her place.
Could Octavia be more accepted by the Grounders than Lincoln has been?
WHITTLE: You’ll see quite an opposite journey between the two. Lincoln starts off not even speaking. He’s a silent warrior who’s very stoic. You’ve seen him become more climatized to the Arkers. He listens to their ways and he understands that they’re not as brutal in their ways. On the other side of the spectrum, you have Octavia saying, “We’re back, bitches!,” coming right to saying, “You can shove it up your ass,” and she takes a pounding from a Grounder and keeps on going. She’s got braids in her hair, and it’s a whole transformation. She’s coming who she is. This is what she always was. She was always strong. Even in the pilot, she was a strong girl. So, you see this journey that’s physical and emotional for Octavia. She’s becoming who she’s meant to be, which is this strong warrior. I guess that’s why she was drawn to Lincoln. She saw this strength in Lincoln, as he saw in her. They both seem to be coming more towards a middle ground.
ROTHENBERG: They’re bridge characters. They bridge the worlds.
WHITTLE: It’s not necessarily whether two halves can make a whole, but whether two individuals can make something better. They’re taking the best from each world and hopefully creating a superhuman race.
ROTHENBERG: I have always seen them as the romantic heart of the show. It’s the one real relationship in the show, romantically. Finn and Clarke were, but that’s a thing of the past now. To me, that relationship is symbolic of what two people can do. If they can make it work, then maybe the Grounders and the Sky People can make it work.
What can you say about where Monty and Jasper are at?
ROTHENBERG: Monty is screwed. He’s in a bad way. Whether he makes it or not, you’ll have to tune in and see. Obviously, Jasper is going to be at his wit’s end because his best friend is missing. But, that’s a story for the next episode. We get heavily back to the Mount Weather story now, for the rest of the season.
There are clearly some big battles coming up. Will the battle at Mount Weather decide the war, or is it just one stop on the journey?
ROTHENBERG: The story gets told, this season. I like it when things change. Otherwise, I get bored, creatively and watching as a fan. We tell story very quickly. Some would say too quickly, at times. But, we will resolve things. We’re not going to leave big mysteries out there, hanging for years and years and years. I don’t love that. We just finished making the finale, and we turn things around again, the way the White Room turned things into this season. Because we’ve been amazingly blessed to have been told that we’re having a third season, it was already my plan to do it, but there were a few conversations about whether I should make a series finale or a season finale. Now, we know that we’re going to keep telling the story and playing with these characters. I think people won’t be disappointed with the big turn that we take, next season.
The 100 airs on Wednesday nights on The CW.
