Push came to shove, and Clarke Griffin, the heroine of The CW’s “The 100,” crossed a moral line she hoped she’d never have to in the show’s Season 2 finale on Wednesday.
Faced with losing her mother and her friends to the Mountain Men, Clarke (Eliza Taylor) made the decision to eradicate the entire Mountain population, including innocent children and people who helped her and her friends in their mission along the way.
As he watched his sister Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) get captured, Bellamy (Bob Morley) came to the same conclusion that there was no other way and the two reluctant co-leaders of the juvenile delinquents flipped the kill switch together.
They’ve shared burdens before, but this time Clarke is not letting Bellamy shoulder the responsibility with her, and walks off into the woods alone, leaving her people behind.
“[Bellamy] is against the plan up until the very last second, while she was planning to do it all along,” showrunner Jason Rothenberg told TheWrap. “I don’t think him doing that alleviates her feeling of responsibility over her decision.”
Elsewhere, on the distant shore known as the City of Light, Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Jaha (Isaiah Washington) each discovered something disturbing.
On a video screen Murphy is watching, a man appears to commit suicide after confessing “she got the launch codes,” while Jaha came across a woman who appears to be nothing more than a hologram. “You were meant to come here, I realized it when I received your gift,” she tells him. His “gift”? Apparently the missile warhead he rode down to Earth on.
Rothenberg talked to TheWrap about where exactly Clarke is headed, what Bellamy and Clarke’s last conversation meant for the future of their relationship and just how much of a game-changer the City of Light revelations are.
TheWrap: That finale seemed like a perfect set-up to do a time-jump at the beginning of Season 3. What are your thoughts on that?
Rothenberg: That’s interesting. Too early to tell.
Where is Clarke going? I have a feeling we might see her pop up in Polis, the Grounder capitol previously mentioned.
Also too early to say where Clarke is. Whether we pick up when she’s just on this walkabout, wandering around, or whether we pick up with her in the midst of another mission of some sort — we’ll see.
Bellamy very deliberately shared responsibility with Clarke in the decision to kill all the Moutain Men to save their friends. Why did she still feel like she had to shoulder it alone and why did he let her go?
Well, I don’t think Bellamy lets Clarke do anything. When Bellamy put his hand on hers on the switch, that was the ultimate moment of self-sacrifice for him. He knew she was going to have to shoulder this decision and he decides to share it with her. But he’s against the plan up until the very last second, while she was planning to do it all along, so I don’t think him doing that alleviates her feeling of responsibility over her decision.
As for Bellamy, I think we’ll find him in a very different place when we come back. He had that moment with Kane where he said, “You did good,” which is a long way from where the two of them began at the beginning of the season. So he’s in a very different position going forward.
Now they’re separated again. How does their last scene set up their relationship in Season 3? Do you still think there’s nothing romantic between them?
Clarke certainly isn’t feeling anything romantic towards Bellamy in that moment, she’s broken, she’s dust at this point and needs to get away. Whether Bellamy is in love with Clarke, that’s open to interpretation. It’s not in the script but these two actors obviously have insane chemistry, and it’s something we’re all aware of. Of course, the relationship is canon in the books so for people who are really dying for that Bellarke dynamic, they can certainly look there. I’m not beholden to that story. That being said, these two characters certainly need each other, depend on each other and probably love each other in a very real way. Whether that’s romantic or not … It certainly hasn’t happened yet. But there’s always Season 3.
The City of Lights reveal reminded me of the hatch reveal on “Lost.” Does it signify as much of a seismic shift for the show as that was?
Yes. We’re definitely turning the page into a very different Season 3. For me, building the world out is the most fun. Peeling the layers.
Is the goal to get everyone else over to the City of Light too at some point? It all has to converge right?
We shall see.