Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW
Last season of THE 100 brought our survivors to a brand new world — a planet that the Eligius mission had set out to find. After refusing to be put in cryosleep with the rest of his friends, Monty and Harper lived out their lives together and had a son, who woke up Clarke and Bellamy after more than a hundred years flying through space. After playing the pair a video that Monty cobbled together from years of messages to his friends, Monty and Harper’s son, Jordan, opened the ship’s window and showed them a new planet.
When THE 100 returns for its sixth season (it has already been renewed for a seventh), our survivors will face a new set of challenges as they try to navigate complex interpersonal relationships that were made even more difficult by the events of last season. During a visit to the set of THE 100 last fall, we spoke with the cast about what’s to come in season 6.
Bellamy and Clarke. According to Bob Morley (Bellamy), the pair “still have to kind of resolve what went down last season with Madi, putting the chip into Madi, being left in the fighting pits, and being on opposite sides of warring factions. So that’s something that definitely is touched upon and they have to figure out a way to be able to get through that. But it’s really taking in that mantra from Monty, ‘do better and be the good guys,’ that they’re both trying to adopt and work upon. It’s a work in progress, as it is most seasons. The challenge of trying to do the right thing and even trying to define what the right thing is and the ‘good guy’ terminology is in a new planet where everything’s new basically.”
An Exploratory Mission. One of the first things that the survivors do after waking up some other key people is take a ship down to the planet to scope out of the terrain. But before they do that, they have to wake up some other people. Morley hinted that “the exciting thing about this season is there’s a whole kind of new adventure squad and a whole new group of people. Bellamy obviously has ties to Spacekru, but you know, this exploring this new planet he’s not too familiar with, there’s a bit of deliberation about who to take.”
Bellamy and Octavia. These siblings have had a rocky road over the years, but nothing as bad as the rift that opened between them last year. Marie Avgeropoulos (Octavia) says “This season will be very interesting for Bellamy and Octavia since they were at such odds last year. Octavia threw Bellamy in the pit last year, so I’m sure that’s pretty hard for him get over.” And Morley explains that “I think it takes some time to even be able to address the situation between the two of them, and I think they both have a lot of their own healing they have to do before they can even start to speak to each other on terms where it’s amicable or the ability for it to grow into a more healthy relationship. It’s never really been that healthy….I think that Blake sibling relationship is a real barometer of how Bellamy’s feeling in any given season or where he’s going. I don’t think it’s something that they can walk away from that easily. That old adage of blood is thicker than water definitely rings true for them, but it’s just there’s got to be a lot of water under the bridge before they can kind of develop into something more. But it’s not something that the two of them would happily walk away from, so there’s a lot of work to be done.” Before departing, Avgeropoulos also left us with this teaser: “it’s an interesting thing that happens between them this season, and it will shock the viewers, so I’m really excited for everyone to see. Big decisions are made.”
Welcome, Jordan. The introduction of Jordan causes Bellamy and Clarke to act as his surrogate parents, according to Morley. “Jordan’s such an interesting character because he’s spent his whole life on a spaceship with just his mom and dad. I know if I spent 24 or 25 years with just my parents, I’d probably be a little bit insane. Take from that what you will. Shannon [Kook is] a great addition to the cast, and he’s a lot of fun. Jordan is a very quirky kind of character that I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen that much on our show, so I think Bellamy is a little taken back by it, not really sure how to deal with that situation, but it’s an exciting addition that’s for sure. “
Bellamy and Echo. After spending years together in space while waiting for the earth to heal, Bellamy and Echo become a couple and their relationship has continued from last season into the current one. Morley hinted that “I think we delve into a bit more of Echo’s backstory this year, which is quite nice. I think it’s something that we needed to flesh out and to start to understand where Echo is coming from. But yeah, those two, [are] still very much in love.[Tasya Tales] does some great work, which I’m really excited for everyone to see. We’re going to get into the emotional realm with Echo and Bellamy, so that’s a story to check out this year as well.” Meanwhile, when asked how Echo will be adapting to the new world, said “Echo is so wild to play because she came from a place where she had a very strong belief system that completely vanished and then when she was, I say loosely brainwashed by this Azghedan way of life, she’s very much being loyal to the Queen and serving the Queen, and then she spent six years in space with people that taught her a whole new foundation of how to live life. You don’t have to kill everybody all the time, you can chill out, have some discourse. Have a relax. But that was in space with the same people so being in a society again, she’s still learning. She’s still adapting to these new principles in a society whether it was on Earth in season five for a hiccup of time or in season six. She’s a warrior born and bred, that will always live in her, so part of her exploration this season is testing out these new theories in a different space.”
Octavia’s Redemption. “There’s a lot of animosity towards Octavia after she had she stepped down from being the Red Queen,” Avgeropoulos explains. “Octavia didn’t want to become the Red Queen. My favorite episode from last season was the flashback episode. It allows her to become a little bit more human and pass the blame to Abby a little bit. So Octavia spends a lot of time this season dealing with a lot of her own inner demons, as well as, the exterior factors that they’re also going to face. The group also has a lot of ill feelings towards Octavia when everybody starts to wake from cryo and she feels very isolated.” She did hint, however, that “Octavia does have some relationships with people this season that you would be like not thinking it would turn out that way. They’re very unlikely.”
A New Tone. Morley explains that even for a show that tends to reboot itself year after year, the show really does feel new and fresh going into season 6. “We have some new writers to the team. You can tell there’s like new voices coming in. The show feels quite different. We still hold strong to the same core values and stuff like that – whatever values we do have, brutal values – but yeah, having a new set of writers, you can hear their voices come through and the world being totally different. It’s different for sure, but it’s exciting. I’ve always thought that Jason [Rothenberg] and his writing team have found a way to recreate the wheel almost every season, and this is basically just doing that all again but on a lager scale.” Richard Harmon (Monty) also hinted that the new planet “does — much like the irradiated Earth that we had — the planet does become its own character and its own way, as well. Which I think is very good because Earth did eventually, in like seasons four and five, become its very own character, especially in [season] four when it was kind of the pressing bad guy was just Mother Earth just coming to hurt us. So I think the new planet does become its own character in its own way. I won’t say in what way but it definitely has its own quirks and personalities that earth did not have.”
THE 100 returns for a sixth season on April 30 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
