WARNING: This contains spoilers
The 100 has been an extremely popular television show on the CW channel that recently ended in Sept. 2020. It follows a group of 100 teenagers who, in a post-apocalyptic world, are sent from their home, a spaceship called “The Ark,” to go to Earth ad see if the ground is survivable after being covered in radiation. It quickly became one of my favorite shows, but as the seasons went on I became more and more disinterested in keeping up with the latest episodes. Now that the show has come to an end, I have many problems with both what the show became and certain decisions for how it would end.
I really think that the beginning of the show was a perfect mix of science fiction and relatability for teenage viewers. The first few seasons focused on questions of morality and good vs. evil which gave the storyline a perfect amount of depth. As season five came around, which introduced characters such as Maddi and Diyoza, I grew a little weary of the showrunner’s decision to include numerous new main characters and complicated plot points. As season six brings them to Sanctum, the show really lost its charm for me. I may have liked the idea of having to leave Earth and find another planet if the plot at Sanctum wasn’t so complicated. I never found myself dying to see another episode and by the time the seventh and final season aired, I skipped over a lot of it to save myself the headache.
Bellamy’s death is by far my biggest problem with the ending of the show. Bellamy is killed off in episode thirteen of season seven and somehow it is at the hands of Clarke. The two main characters from the very beginning deserved a lot better of an ending to their story than this. Even though I definitely shipped “Bellarke,” to see their stories come together at the end as at least two best friends who had leaned on each other through their incredible journey would have been enough. They constantly looked to each other for support while also being able to critique each other on the choices they made. Bellamy basically dies for nothing which ruined his entire storyline of trying to be a good person and making the right decisions. The writers of the show could have at least given Bellamy the death he deserved.
The end of the show also left me with way too many questions left for the future. Of course, this happens with a lot of shows, but I felt it was too much in this case. Clarke sees that her friends have refused transcendence and instead decided to live the rest of their lives together. I did skip a lot of the final season. so I may be able to understand things better by going back and watching it through, but this leaves so many things unclear. These characters have gone through so much and now they are going to be able to live quietly by themselves for the rest of their lives. How does that work out? Are they really able to get over all of the choices they’ve made and move on? Especially Clarke killing Bellamy? To me, at least things don’t seem to add up and I’m not fully convinced this would be the right ending.
Overall, I can’t say that I loved the way the writers chose to move the show in the last few seasons. I did, although, love the initial seasons enough to not write the entire show off. Perhaps I’m too bitter over Bellamy’s death and need to give it another chance, but something doesn’t feel right about such a happy, calm ending for all of the other characters after he dies.
I know a lot of fans were also unhappy with his death, but it is pretty clear this is the end of the road for The 100 and its characters.
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