Six years. That is how long the survivors of Praimfaya spent waiting for the radiation to clear so they could finally go home to a green world. But when The 100 Season 5 actually premiered, fans weren't greeted with a peaceful homecoming. Instead, we got a brutal, claustrophobic war over the only patch of living land left on the entire planet. It was a reset. Honestly, looking back at the show's entire run from the 2014 pilot to the 2020 finale, this specific season feels like the moment the series stopped being a YA survival drama and became a full-blown Shakespearean tragedy in space.
Most people remember the "End of Book One" twist. You know the one. But the journey to get there was messy. It was dark. It was, at times, incredibly frustrating to watch characters we loved make the absolute worst possible decisions.
The Time Jump That Changed Everything
The 100 Season 5 didn't just pick up where the fire left off. It jumped forward 2,199 days. That's a massive gap for a TV show to bridge, and showrunner Jason Rothenberg used it to fundamentally break the personalities of the core cast.
Take Clarke Griffin. She spent those six years as a "Mama Bear" to Madi, a young Nightblood she found in the ruins of Shallow Valley. By the time we see her in the premiere, "Eden," she isn't the leader of Skaikru anymore. She’s a mother. That shift is vital to understanding why she betrays literally everyone she knows later in the season. She isn't thinking about the "greater good" or "her people" in a broad sense. She’s thinking about one kid.
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Then you have the bunker. Oh, the bunker.
Octavia Blake's transformation into Blodreina is probably the most polarizing thing the show ever did. While Clarke was playing house in a valley, Octavia was presiding over a literal bloodbath. The "Dark Year"—which the show teased for weeks before finally revealing—turned Wonkru into a cult of necessity. They ate people. They had to. If they didn't, they would have starved. When you realize that Octavia had to force her friends to become cannibals just to keep the human race alive, her "villain" arc starts to feel a lot more like a mental breakdown.
New Villains, Old Problems
One of the coolest things about The 100 Season 5 was the introduction of the Eligius IV crew. For the first time, our heroes weren't the "advanced" ones. They were the "grounders."
The prisoners from the Eligius ship were cryogenically frozen criminals from before the first apocalypse. They had the guns. They had the tech. They had Charmaine Diyoza. Played by Ivana Milicevic, Diyoza wasn't a mustache-twirling baddie. She was a tactical genius, a pregnant former Navy SEAL turned terrorist who actually had a more logical plan for peace than most of our protagonists.
But then there was McCreary. He was the chaotic element.
The conflict in Shallow Valley wasn't just about survival. It was a property dispute. You have three groups:
- The Eligius prisoners who claim the valley by right of arrival.
- Wonkru, who need the valley because the rest of the world is a desert.
- Spacekru (Bellamy, Raven, Murphy, etc.), who just want everyone to stop killing each other.
It’s basically a microcosm of human history. Even when there is only one habitable place left on Earth, humans would rather burn it down than share it. That is the core cynicism of this season. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it makes the drama incredibly high-stakes.
Why the "Bellarke" Dynamic Fractured
If you were on Twitter (or X, whatever) during 2018, you know the fans were losing their minds. The relationship between Bellamy and Clarke—often called Bellarke—is the emotional spine of the show. In The 100 Season 5, that spine snapped.
Bellamy spent six years in space with Echo, Raven, Murphy, Emori, and Monty. They became his family. When he finally reunited with Clarke, he wasn't the same guy who followed her every move. He was a diplomat. He poisoned his own sister (Octavia) to prevent a war. Clarke, meanwhile, was so protective of Madi that she actually left Bellamy to die in a fighting pit.
That hurt.
It was a bold writing choice. It showed that time changes people more than shared trauma does. The "head and the heart" weren't working together anymore; they were actively sabotaging each other. While it was painful to watch, it felt more "human" than most sci-fi shows where characters stay frozen in their dynamics forever.
The Dark Year: The Secret We Didn't Want to Know
We have to talk about the cannibalism.
In episode 11, "The Dark Year," we finally see the flashback. Dr. Abby Griffin—who, let's be honest, had a rough season battling a pill addiction—tells Octavia that they have to make the people eat the processed human meat to survive a protein deficiency. Those who refused to eat were executed.
This is where the show really leans into the "there are no good guys" mantra. Octavia didn't want to be a tyrant. She was coached into it by the "adults" like Abby and Kane. By the time the bunker opened, she was so far gone that she burned the hydro-farm just to force her people to march to war. She couldn't handle a world where her crimes weren't justified by the struggle for survival. If there was peace, she was just a murderer. If there was war, she was a leader.
The Technical Shift: From Earth to the Stars
Visually, this season looked different. The Cinematography took a leap. Shallow Valley was lush and green, contrasting with the dusty, orange-tinted ruins of the rest of the world. The production design for the Eligius ship felt "heavy" and industrial, a far cry from the sleekness of the original Ark.
But the real MVP was the finale, "Damocles – Part Two."
When McCreary realizes he’s going to lose the valley, he launches a "Hyllus" nuclear device. He decides that if he can't have the last green place on Earth, nobody can. It’s the ultimate act of spite.
The characters flee to the Eligius ship and head into orbit. They watch the Earth—the planet they fought so hard for—burn for a second time. This time, it’s permanent. The Earth is dead. Gone.
The Ending Everyone Talks About
The final ten minutes of The 100 Season 5 are arguably the best in the entire series.
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While everyone else goes into cryosleep, Monty Green and Harper Rose stay awake. They decide to live their lives on the ship. We see a montage of their life together through video logs as decades pass. Monty realizes the Earth isn't coming back. So, he spends his entire life running calculations and searching the stars for a new home.
When Bellamy and Clarke finally wake up 125 years later, they aren't greeted by Monty. They are greeted by his son, Jordan.
Monty’s final message is a gut-punch: "I hope we’re the good guys this time."
He found a new world. A binary star system. A place for a fresh start. This transitioned the show from a post-apocalyptic Earth drama into a deep-space sci-fi epic for its final two seasons. It was a perfect ending for Monty—the only character who truly stayed "good"—and a haunting beginning for the survivors.
Common Misconceptions About Season 5
People often think Octavia was the villain of the season. Honestly? She was a victim of circumstance. If you re-watch the season, pay attention to Abby and Kane. They are the ones who pushed her over the edge.
Another mistake is thinking the season was "too slow." While the first few episodes spend a lot of time on the bunker, that setup is necessary. Without seeing the horror of the Fighting Pits, the march to Shallow Valley doesn't have the same weight. You need to feel the desperation of Wonkru to understand why they’d follow a "Red Queen" into a suicide mission.
Actionable Steps for Fans and Rewatchers
If you’re planning to dive back into this chapter of the story, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Watch the "Dark Year" clues: Pay attention to how the characters react to food in the first half of the season. The clues about what happened in the bunker are hidden in the dialogue long before the reveal.
- Track the Eligius history: The backstory of the Eligius Corporation actually ties into the later seasons (6 and 7) in ways you might not notice the first time. Keep an eye on the names of the missions mentioned in the ship’s logs.
- Contrast Clarke and Diyoza: Both are mothers trying to protect their children. Look at how their methods differ—and how they are surprisingly similar.
- Listen to the score: Tree Adams’ music during the "End of Book One" sequence is some of the most emotional work in TV history. It’s worth a second listen on its own.
The 100 Season 5 wasn't just a bridge to a new world. It was a brutal examination of whether humanity actually deserves to survive. It asked the question: if we keep destroying every home we find, are we the heroes of the story, or are we the disaster?
The answer, as Monty Green reminds us, depends on what we do next. If you're looking for a show that challenges your morals and keeps you guessing, this season remains the gold standard for high-concept sci-fi. It’s time to go back and watch the Earth burn one more time.