Honestly, if you weren't there when the season 4 finale of The 100 aired, it’s hard to describe the absolute whiplash the fandom felt. One minute we’re watching Praimfaya—that massive, world-ending wave of radiation—literally melt the planet, and the next, we see a "6 Years, 7 Days Later" title card. It was a reset. A total gamble. The 100 Season 5 didn't just continue the story; it basically threw the previous four years into a blender and asked if any of these characters could actually survive a world that wasn't actively trying to kill them for five minutes.
It’s messy. It’s brutal. It’s probably the most polarizing stretch of episodes in the entire CW run.
The Problem With "Eden" and the New Status Quo
When the show returned for its fifth outing, the landscape was unrecognizable. Most of Earth was a "Dead Zone," except for one lush, green valley in Shenandoah. This is where the conflict gets claustrophobic. Instead of the sweeping tribal wars of the Grounder eras, we got a fight over a single patch of dirt.
Clarke Griffin spent those six years alone—well, mostly. She found Madi, a young Nightblood, and suddenly the "Wanheda" we knew became a "Mama Bear" archetype. This shift is where a lot of viewers started to struggle with The 100 Season 5. Clarke’s priority shifted from "my people" to "my child," and that meant she made some genuinely questionable choices. Trapping her friends? Sure. Leaving Bellamy to die in a fighting pit? Yeah, she did that too.
It's a tough pill to swallow. You’ve spent years rooting for this leader, and then she turns into the antagonist of someone else's story. But that’s the point. Jason Rothenberg, the showrunner, has always leaned into the "there are no good guys" mantra. Season 5 just took that to its logical, uncomfortable extreme.
Spacekru and the Octavia Problem
While Clarke was playing house in the valley, the group in space—Bellamy, Raven, Murphy, Emori, Echo, Monty, and Harper—became a family. They changed. Murphy became slightly less of a jerk (only slightly), and Echo went from a hated spy to a vital member of the team.
But the real drama was underground.
The Second Dawn bunker was supposed to be a sanctuary. Instead, it became a slaughterhouse. Octavia Blake had to keep 1,200 people from killing each other in a confined space with limited food. Her solution? Wonkru. "You are Wonkru, or you are the enemy of Wonkru." It sounds cool until you realize it involved forced cannibalism during the "Dark Year."
The psychological trauma of the Dark Year is the secret engine driving the tension in The 100 Season 5. It’s why Octavia, now Blodreina, is so terrifyingly committed to the war for Shallow Valley. If there isn't a war, if they don't get to the valley, then all the horrific things they did in the bunker—the eating of their own people—was for nothing. She needs the war to justify the trauma.
The Eligius IV Prisoners: A New Kind of Villain
We can't talk about this season without mentioning the prisoners. For the first time, our heroes weren't fighting "savages" or AI or mountain men; they were fighting people from our time. Well, technically from the late 21st century, but they felt contemporary.
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Charmaine Diyoza is arguably the best "villain" the show ever produced. She was a navy seal turned terrorist, pregnant, tactical, and incredibly smart. Unlike the zealots of previous seasons, Diyoza was a pragmatist. She wanted the valley because it was the only place to live. Simple.
Then you had Paxton McCreary. He was the foil to Diyoza’s logic—a literal psychopath who would rather burn the world down than lose it. This internal power struggle within the Eligius crew added a layer of unpredictability that kept the mid-season from sagging.
The Breakdown of the Bellamy and Clarke Dynamic
For many fans, the heart of the show is the "Bellamy and Clarke" relationship. In The 100 Season 5, that heart is put through a meat grinder.
They spend most of the season on opposite sides. Bellamy is thinking about the survival of the human race and his new family from the Ring. Clarke is hyper-focused on Madi’s safety. When Bellamy puts the Flame (the AI chip) into Madi’s head against Clarke’s wishes, the rift becomes a canyon. It’s painful to watch. It feels like watching a divorce where the kids (the rest of the survivors) are being dragged through the mud.
Why the Finale "Damocles" Still Hits Hard
The two-part finale, "Damocles," is a masterclass in "going for broke."
McCreary, realizing he’s lost the war for the valley, launches a Damocles bomb into the only habitable patch of land left on Earth. It’s the ultimate "if I can't have it, no one can" move. The remaining survivors scramble onto the Eligius IV ship and flee to space.
Earth is gone. For real this time.
Then comes the twist that nobody saw coming. Monty and Harper decide not to go into cryosleep. They stay awake, living their lives on the ship while everyone else sleeps, watching the Earth through the windows. They wait for it to turn green again. It never does.
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Monty Green, the moral compass of the show, spends his life finding a new home for his friends. The final ten minutes of the season, where a 125-year-old video log from Monty plays for a newly awakened Bellamy and Clarke, is heartbreaking. He tells them about the new planet—Alpha—and gives them one final piece of advice: "Be the good guys."
It was the perfect ending. Honestly, some fans argue the show should have ended right there.
What to Keep in Mind if You’re Rewatching
If you’re diving back into The 100 Season 5, or maybe seeing it for the first time, look for these specific narrative threads that often get missed:
- The Parallel of the Pit: Notice how Octavia’s fighting pit in the bunker mirrors the "floating" system on the Ark. It’s all about population control disguised as justice.
- Echo's Redemption: Many people hated Echo for what she did in Season 3 and 4. Watch how she operates in Season 5; she’s the most competent person on the screen, often doing the dirty work so Bellamy doesn't have to.
- Abby’s Addiction: This is a controversial subplot. Abby Griffin’s descent into pill addiction is hard to watch, but it’s a raw look at how even the "healers" broke under the pressure of the bunker. It humanizes her, even if it makes her frustrating.
- The Cinematography: This season shifted to a much darker, desaturated color palette to reflect the death of the planet. Contrast the dusty, orange hues of the wasteland with the hyper-saturated greens of the Valley.
Actionable Steps for the "The 100" Fan
To get the most out of this specific era of the show, you should:
- Watch "The Dark Year" (Episode 11) with the sound up. The sound design in the cafeteria scenes is intentionally nauseating to put you in the headspace of the characters.
- Compare Diyoza to Kane. Look at their conversations about leadership. Marcus Kane, the man who used to float people for stealing oxygen, finds a strange kindred spirit in a 21st-century war criminal.
- Read the "Shallow Valley" geography. Understanding that this was the only place left on Earth makes Clarke’s "betrayals" much more logical, even if they aren't likable.
- Listen to the score. Tree Adams did incredible work this season, specifically with the "Wonkru" theme which sounds like a heartbeat and a war drum mixed together.
The fifth season represents the death of the "Earth" chapter of the series. It’s the bridge between a gritty survival teen drama and the high-concept sci-fi that follows in the final two seasons. It demands a lot from its audience—mostly that you forgive your favorite characters for becoming monsters just so they could see the sunrise one more time.