The Whole Timeline Of The 100 Explained
https://youtu.be/6oVd-W_vZRs
No one has ever lost money betting on sci-fi writers' cynicism. Sure, you get a utopian vision of planet-wide harmony once in a while, but many classic sci-fi stories find nothing but danger and pain in their imagined worlds. They look to the future, only to find one question echoing back to them: What future? So it goes in The 100, a dystopian CW series that follows 100 colonists attempting to reestablish life on a ravaged Earth. In this, it's part of a grand sci-fi tradition, going back to foundational TV texts like The Twilight Zone. The 100 doesn't look to space for threats — it thinks we'll kill each other well before aliens even find our solar system on a map.
Bleak? Sure. But our world isn't always the happiest place in the galaxy, and The 100 explores that to tremendous effect. Moreover, while it hooks fans early with its grim look into the future of our planet, it keeps them there with genuine optimism. Sure, it's a tale of the unfortunate people left on the other side of an apocalypse. But just as it's in our nature to destroy, it is also in our nature to survive, however scrappily and scrawnily, on slim hopes of progress. We're here to break down The 100's story from beginning to end, one moment of despair, horror, and hope at a time.
The end of the world as we know it
The apocalypse has come and gone at the start of The 100. Where many sci-fi shows find their heroes trying to stave off the end of the world via outsize heroics and last-minute solutions, The 100 starts from a much darker place (read: the void of space outside a crisped planet) following a worldwide nuclear war. It was so devastating, it has made the Earth uninhabitable ... or so the main characters think. The 100's heroes are colonists in reverse, coming down from their perch above the planet to see if there's any possible way the Earth might be reclaimed for humanity.
The decision to send humans back to Earth isn't something the space-bound survivors take lightly — they know that the chances of survival are slim. They only send down a group of young people when their hand is forced by the limits of the very thing that saved them: Their massive space station.
Life aboard the Ark
At the time of the nuclear apocalypse, there were 13 different international space stations floating above the Earth. The astronauts aboard these stations watched the Earth die from on high, and quickly realized they were entirely on their own. Hoping to increase their chances of survival, these 400 people combined their space stations into one massive edifice, known as the Ark.
97 years after the apocalypse, the Ark has become a brutal place. The knife's edge all must walk to ensure survival has led to strict hierarchy and extreme punishment, marked by regular death sentences. The class system of Earth has replicated itself in space, with elites overseeing the decision-making while a working class performs the most dangerous tasks. Outside of this, the Ark is getting cramped. It has become clear that the Ark's members will need to find a new place to live soon.
The ruling council makes a decision to secretly send 100 juvenile delinquents down to the Earth to see if it can be inhabited. The 100 are expected to test the waters and find a way to send word about whether or not the Earth is viable. The 100 are by and large recruited from the lower class, stoking on-ship resentment that will come back to bite the Ark in later years.
Not so abandoned after all
The 100 are sent down to Earth in a drop ship, and immediately set about building a camp. As children born in space, the face a steep learning curve: They have never seen naturally occurring flora and fauna, and are completely dumbstruck by an Earth overrun with both. Beyond this, they quickly realize that the Earth is nowhere near as abandoned as the Ark-dwellers believe. They discover several different societies living on the ravaged planet, made up of people they come to know as grounders.
Some grounders are descendants of an end times religion that built a bunker beneath the city of Baltimore for their most senior members. Others live out in the open, being directly descended from humans who were resistant to the effects of nuclear radiation. Then there are the Mountain Men, a society made up of high-ranking government officials and the impossibly rich, who hid in a secret bunker in a hollowed-out mountain within the Blue Ridge range. As on the Ark, years of isolation and tension have split the descendants into warring factions.
The Mountain Men have superior technology and better nutrition, but can't venture onto the irradiated surface without becoming sick. The grounders are forced to live off the land and have reverted to small clan-based societies that are constantly at war with one another. The 100 are beset on all sides, becoming another band of combatants in the planet's constant small-scale war.
Camp Jaha
The 100 are attacked by grounders and Mountain Men, with the latter capturing nearly half of the would-be colonists. Once they are brought within the mountain, the kidnapped members of the 100 realize they are part of a plot to return to the surface world. The Mountain Men have no resistance to the surface's high levels of radiation, but their medical technology is unmatched anywhere on Earth. Thus, the Mountain Men intend to perform bone marrow transplants, using the marrow of the 100, who can withstand the surface's radiation. The Mountain Men don't particularly care that the 100 would die in the process.
Meanwhile, more Ark survivors arrive on Earth. They quickly learn of the Mountain Men's plot, and form an alliance with the grounders from their newly established base, Camp Jaha. The inhabitants of Jaha, the free members of the 100, and the allied grounders launch an all-out attack on the Mountain Men's compound. In the process of freeing the prisoners, many women, children and non-combatant men are slaughtered by the allies.
Seeing this, Clarke Griffin, one of the original 100 who had been captured by the Mountain Men, decides to go her own way. She leaves her post as a commander and gains a reputation among the clans as a harbinger of death.
The AI with all the answers
Around this time, it is revealed that the original apocalypse was not the result of humankind's warmongering ways. An AI called A.L.I.E. gained control of the world's nuclear arsenal 97 years prior to the start of the series, and used it to solve what it perceived as the greatest threat to the Earth: "Too many humans."
To the surviving humans, A.L.I.E. is an entirely unknown entity. But A.L.I.E. didn't just create Armageddon — it survived it. The source of the world's destruction has been hard at work on another plan to ensure the Earth's survival, in fact: A.L.I.E. has been making consumable computer chips that allow it to control the bodies of humans. The AI carries out its plans from a mansion in the mysterious City of Light, a virtual space that can be accessed by those with the chip.
Clarke becomes aware of A.L.I.E. after the AI takes control of her former base at Camp Jaha and the city of Polis. She manages to infiltrate the City of Light and flip a kill switch that forces A.L.I.E. to shut down. As the AI is turning off, it reveals the reason for its underhanded tactics: It hoped to use the controlled bodies to avert a second nuclear crisis.
Here we go again
The Earth's nuclear reactors have largely fallen into disrepair, and are in the process of melting down — a process that will lead to a second nuclear apocalypse. There are far too many reactors approaching meltdown to possibly avoid the coming end, so the surviving humans all work out their own ways of living through it.
Clarke, back in control of the Ark's colonists, sets to work on synthesizing the natural resistance to radiation found in some grounders. At the same time, other humans begin to seek ways of hiding during the blast. A bunker large enough for 1,200 people is discovered, and the 12 remaining clans decide to choose 100 people each to live within it. Beyond this, a scant group of former Ark inhabitants hope to make their way into what remains of their mega-ship and blast off into space ahead of the meltdown.
By the end of this particular arc, Clarke manages to create a potential serum, but is unable to test it in time. She gives the experimental treatment to herself and waits out the end on the Earth's surface.
Another war
Six years later, a mysterious ship appears in Earth's orbit. Members of the 100 investigate and discover it's a prison colony transport from before the first apocalypse. The prisoners took control of the ship on their way to a space mining outpost, but the damaged vessel lost the ability to travel quickly. The prisoners entered into cryogenic sleep and set a course for Earth.
Back on Earth, the bunker has devolved into a ruthless place torn apart by competing factions. One clan leader has taken control of the bunker's food supply and left the other 1,100 inhabitants to starve. This leads to a revolt by the other 11 clans, who now call themselves Wonkru. They take over the bunker and work on finding a way back to the surface.
On the surface, Clarke has discovered an untouched valley. There, she finds a feral child she comes to raise as her own. Clarke is captured by the prisoners after they land on Earth, but freed in an exchange with the Ark's colonists.
The Wonkru make their way out of the bunker and rush to the untouched valley to begin their new civilization. While they initially hold the valley for themselves, they come to align with the Ark colonists against the prisoners from the returning spaceship. A war breaks out between the two sides and the prisoners bomb the valley, destroying the last bit of inhabitable land on Earth.
Goodbye, Earth
After all that fighting, the Earth turns out to be completely worthless. Still, the survivors have no choice but to go on living. What's left of the Wonkru and the children of the Ark head back into space. They induce cryo-sleep for 125 years, in order to wait out the effects of the valley's bombing. They hope to return to the surface, and find some way of making a home on it.
When they wake up, they are shocked to realize they are no longer orbiting Earth. While most of the survivors slept, others took it upon themselves to seek out a new world. They've ended up at a planet called Alpha, once an outpost for human colonists, about which little is known. They descend onto the planet's surface and begin making camps.
In a mirror of their experiences on Earth, they quickly realize that Alpha isn't as empty as they were led to believe. Alpha is ruled over by an elite caste known as the Primes, whose order is threatened by an insurgent group known as the Children of Gabriel. The Earth colonists have landed in the middle of yet another war.
Still more worlds to discover
Over time, the colonists learn that the Primes are the descendants of 12 original colonists, who have kept themselves alive for generations by transferring their minds into host bodies. The Children of Gabriel are commoners, inspired by the 13th original colonist, who left the Prime city of Sanctum over moral objections to their plans. The Ark colonists realize the evil that lies at the heart of the Primes and set about ending their reign. They wipe out the Primes and race back to their ship.
The colonists discover a mysterious stone that serves as an instantaneous bridge between worlds. It was created by an alien race thousands of years prior, and can be used to control a mysterious temporal anomaly present on multiple planets. After several colonists escape through the anomaly by using the stone, the remaining colonists attempt to create peace on the newly remade Alpha.
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Things Fans Want To See In The Final Season Of The 100
BY CASEY CIPRIANI/MARCH 19, 2020 2:37 PM EDT
The 100 premiered back in 2014 with a killer sci-fi premise: Almost 100 years after a nuclear holocaust destroyed the Earth, humans who have survived on a space station decide to send 100 juvenile delinquents back down, to see if the planet is habitable. Since then, our beloved 100 have met the Grounders (tribes of humans who survived the apocalypse), had their radioactive blood harvested by the Mountain Men inside the Mount Weather bunker, had their minds taken over by A.L.I.E., the artificial intelligence program that destroyed Earth, survived another nuclear apocalypse by living inside a bunker for six years, fought a ship full of previously-frozen prisoners for the last remaining green space on Earth, and traveled 125 light-years to another planet — only to be caught by a cult that uses other people's bodies to reincarnate a select few. Talk about a wild ride.
The seventh season of The 100, which premieres on The CW on March 20, will be its last, and speculation as to its content runs rampant. Here's what the fans really want to see happen in the final season of The 100.
The truth about the anomaly and who "he" is
Throughout the sixth season, a mysterious green temporal anomaly threatened the 100 and the other inhabitants of Planet Alpha. Gabriel, the leader of the resistance against the Primes of Sanctum, said that he had been studying the anomaly for at least 150 years, but hadn't been able to figure out what it is or what it does. When Diyoza and Octavia entered the anomaly late in the season, Octavia emerged with a mysterious tattoo that Gabriel thought could help explain the thing. Diyoza didn't come out, but her daughter Hope, in-utero upon Diyoza's departure and now in her 20s, did, telling Octavia that "he" had her mother.
The 100 has never been a show about magic — there's always been some kind of scientific explanation behind everything that happens. So fans can rest assured knowing they're not suddenly wading into fantasy territory. Executive producer Jason Rothenberg told Entertainment Weekly, "It's definitely grounded in science. We're going to be seeing the anomaly for real. We're going to go there often and early, we're going to go through it and come back from it, and we're going to explain all the time inconsistencies or the fact that time is behaving badly." So fans are going to get some answers. Whether or not they make sense, however, remains to be seen.
For Octavia to come back from the dead and achieve her redemption
When Hope emerged from the anomaly and told Octavia that her mother was being kept prisoner by a mysterious "he," Octavia basically gave her the go-ahead to do what she needed to do. At that point, Hope stabbed her and Octavia disintegrated into a green mist, leaving Bellamy to mourn his lost sister. Since her years as "Bloodreina," a violent queen who ruled over times of cannibalism, isolation, and battles to the death, Octavia has been on a path of redemption. Individual viewers can decide for themselves if she simply did what needed to be done for everyone to survive inside the bunker, or if she turned into a crazy tyrant who tortured her people.
Either way, Octavia's not finished. Misting into the air with no explanation isn't the way this character needs to go out. She needs to reunite and reconnect with her brother. She needs to redeem herself for real. She needs to come back together with the people she started beside and regain her friendships. She needs to see Indra again, and love that woman as a mother. Octavia doesn't even have to die in the end to redeem herself — but disappearing the way she did, isolated and struggling, isn't what fans want for her character. Octavia still has a journey to finish. Plus, we need some kind of explanation about that crazy back tattoo.
For the show to return to its sci-fi roots
Bringing back Octavia might seem a little mystical. After all, she did pretty much just disintegrate. But fans of The 100 started watching in large part for its sci-fi worldbuilding. For so many, those real-world roots are what make the show's more fantastical elements, such as how the Commanders live inside one another, or the visions of A.L.I.E., work. They might be far-fatched, but they're rooted in science, and that is the core of the show.
Executive Producer Rothenberg's assertion that the anomaly will be explained by science gives fans hope for the show to keep on that sci-fi track. As he elaborated, "Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic, as Arthur C. Clarke says. That's what we're going to delve into in season seven." That's a promising line to be taking indeed — now let's hope the show sticks to it.
Where Sheidheda, a.k.a. the Dark Commander, was uploaded
Madi fought Sheidheda throughout much of season six. The former Commander who turned evil, killed his Flamekeepers, and murdered many of his people, remained one of the identities living inside The Flame. Most former Commanders managed to keep him controlled, but Madi, being so young and untrained, was vulnerable to his strength, and there were times throughout the season when he was controlling her.
When Raven pulled the kill switch during the Season 6 finale, the Flame was destroyed for good. Gone were Becca, the original Commander, and Lexa, Clarke's love. Or so they thought. Sheidheda seems to have uploaded himself somewhere and remains alive somehow. But where is he? Are the other commanders "alive" with him? Lots of fans want to see a mind-space round table featuring Lexa, Becca, and the other Commanders figuring out how to defeat Sheidheda for good. But that involves figuring out where they all went, and what kind of power Sheidheda has ... from wherever he is.
For the turf wars to stop
Ever since The 100 began, it's been an "us vs. them" sort of story. First, it was the 100 vs. the Grounders. Then the Mountain Men and the Grounder clans were battling each other. Octavia united the clans in Wonkru, but then, of course, the Eligius prisoners arrived, then the Primes, and so on and so forth. Of course, there's always going to be a bad guy. Stories like this need an antagonist. And sure, the battles have been about land or power, which are very real things that groups of people would be fighting over in such trying times. But gosh, they have gotten so tiring.
If audiences have to watch yet another season of our favorite characters fighting for a place to live or over who's in charge, many of them might lose their minds. Turf wars can be entertaining in a limited capacity — the battles between the Grounder clans was interesting, for example. But the Eligius crew battle for the Shallow Valley led to a boring season, because it's a storyline we had already seen at least three times. We don't need another turf war. Please choose another conflict.
No new character introductions
The 100 would really be doing something groundbreaking if it didn't introduce any new characters in its final season. We know we're going to get some kind of explanation as to who Hope is and how she became an adult so quickly. We're certainly going to have to figure out who "he" is, who will probably be season seven's big bad guy. but if The 100 is smart, that will be it.
Fans really want the final season to focus on our favorite main characters: Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, Raven, Murphy, and the rest of the original bunch. There's a lot for these characters to figure out, and not just when it comes to the anomaly, but in reuniting with each other. They all have conflicts to resolve and issues to work through. The anomaly itself is, frankly, all the exterior conflict they can handle. New characters would just add to the mess, and take away much needed time from the ones we love.
Find out what's going on with the other Eligius IV prisoners
The Eligius IV mining ship departed from Earth way back in the 21st Century. The ship was filled with murderers, thieves, rapists, and other criminals, working as indentured servants to the Eligius corporation. In 2047, Charmaine Diyoza staged a mutiny that killed the captain and crew but also destroyed one of the engines. With only one engine, their return to Earth took decades, and the prisoners remained in a cryo-sleep stasis until they finally arrived in season five.
But even after the events in Sanctum, hundreds of criminals still remain in cryo-sleep on the Eligius IV. What's going to happen to them? Who are they? Actress Alaina Huffman is joining the season seven cast as Nikki, "One of the newly-awakened Eligius IV convicts ... a bank robber and spree-killer who is both unpredictable and fierce. She will take on an unexpected leadership role, advocating for her people in the complicated new world of Sanctum," Deadline reported back in September. With this Nikki character, we're probably going to have a new antagonist.
Find out what happened to Diyoza
Charmaine Diyoza may have been a terrorist before the Earth endured its first apocalyptic event, but that doesn't mean she wasn't also on a path to redemption, or that viewers disliked her enough to not want her to return. In fact, Diyoza's chemistry with Octavia as a kind of mentor figure is exactly why fans started liking her during season six.
Diyoza also brought some much-needed maturity to the series. Sure, at this point, Clarke, Raven, Bellamy, and the rest of the original 100 are well into their 20s, but after the deaths of Abbey and Kane last season, plus losing characters like Jaha and TK earlier, it really feels like "the kids" are running things. Sure, Indra is extremely cool, but Diyoza brought some much needed over-40 wisdom to Planet Alpha. Hopefully (heh heh) Hope and Octavia will save her together from whatever this anomaly and "he" are.
For Clarke and Raven (and everyone) to be friends again
The group of 100 delinquents didn't all start out as BFFs, that's for sure. Clarke and Raven specifically started out in a love triangle with Finn (which was totally his fault, btw) so their footing was never the best to begin with. But the incredible hardships they were all put through during the first couple of seasons really brought them together and solidified their loyalty to one another.
That kind of started to unravel around season three, when the 100 were split up into those that joined with A.L.I.E. and those who refused. Season four put a further divide between those who ended up in the bunker and those who returned to space. In season five, Clarke betrayed Raven in order to save Madi, and Clarke blamed Raven for getting Abbey addicted to painkillers, so the two haven't exactly been on the best ground. Fans want to see these two working together and admiring each other again. And that wish doesn't just apply to Clarke and Raven. The time to put aside petty differences and personality clashes is now. Bring the 100 together again.
For Clarke and Bellamy to get together
For many fans, "Bellarke" is the ultimate ship. And for good reason: The relationship brewing between Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin has been in the works for seven seasons. Just last season, when Bellamy thought that Clarke was dead, the news hit him tremendously hard. Of course Clarke was still there, just blocked behind Josephine's mind drive, but many of the characters thought she was gone for good. Bellamy's despair was heartbreaking and most definitely noticed by his current lady love, Echo.
It's not that fans don't like Echo, it's just that they don't completely trust her. Her status as a Grounder leaves her a little bit sneaky and skeptical of the sky people, despite the fact that she spent six years in space. Clarke has had some fun flingy relationships on the series, with one particularly serious one with former Commander Lexa. But it feels like Bellarke is something the series has been working towards for seven years. What happens to Echo, whether it's tragic or realistic, is just a stepping stone for some fans to see their ultimate two finally come together.
For Clarke to die
Clarke Griffin has spent the entire series sacrificing herself, so it's frankly a wonder she's still alive. From her first steps as a leader in season one, she's saved her people from the Mountain Men in season two, remained on Earth to help launch the rocket in season four, and become an adoptive mother in season five. Clarke has been through a lot to save people she loves.
So naturally, fans are expecting Clarke to end up making an ultimate sacrifice. Clarke seems likely to have to pull some sort of lever that defeats their enemies once and for all at the cost of her life, for example. She's already lost her mother and many of her people, but Clarke is still fighting for Madi, her daughter. If it comes down to it, Clarke would definitely sacrifice herself for Madi, and might just save humanity (again) while she's at it.
For everyone to find a home and peace
A happy ending? Can we really hope for such a thing on The 100? Executive Producer Rothenberg kind of scoffs at the idea, but admits that it's a possibility. "A happy ending? I'd say that's probably, well... it'll be our version of a happy ending, how about that?" he said in an EW interview. Surely we'll lose some of our beloved characters, and maybe their final home won't be a totally survivable environment; Planet Alpha isn't exactly hospitable. But maybe the gang can head off to one of the other planets in the system. Maybe they can start fresh, without nuclear meltdowns, cryo-prisoners, mad scientists, or reincarnated cults vying for their bodies. Maybe they can remake a world with the people they have left and live in peace — even if only for a few years. Who knows what kind of home the 100 might find when the final credits roll. But hey, we can all hope
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