The 100 originally premiered on The CW network in the U.S. in March 2014, and later that same year, it became available on Netflix in October. The show itself is derived from a world ending apocalypse: the ultimate nuclear firestorm that forces humanity to flee to space. After hundreds of years in space, humanity begins to recover, and our story begins with our main character, Clarke Griffin. Clarke is a young girl aboard the Ark, the name of the spaceship that harbors the remaining groups of humanity. She’s always dreamed of seeing Earth again, believing in the possibility of life returning to the planet.
But when the Ark’s leaders discover they are running out of oxygen, they make a desperate decision: send down a test group of 100 juvenile miscreants, to test the world to see if it is finally habitable. Clarke is unknowingly thrown in the mix. This mission becomes the show’s inciting incident — the fight for survival on a changed Earth.
Across its seven seasons, the original 100 grow, struggle, and adapt. The core of the show always returned to one central question: should survival outweigh morality? That question drove much of the show’s conflict and tragedy. Characters constantly faced impossible decisions — often sacrificing morality to protect their own people. These choices weren’t always right or wrong; they were gray, complex, and painful. That moral ambiguity made The 100 compelling.
However, the final season took a sharp turn. After Earth is no longer viable, humanity travels to a new planet where they encounter other human survivors and are introduced to a mysterious, advanced force. Here’s my honest take: the show twisted its own foundation into a confusing and overly abstract ending that didn’t match the themes it spent years building.
Throughout the series, there were hints and speculation about higher powers — especially within the culture-centric Grounder societies — but nothing concrete. Yet, for the finale to completely take a dutiful, “This is THE higher deity, and what THEY say goes, meaning anything they don’t agree with is WRONG”, is totally disgracing what the entire show stood for as a whole.
This is where I became completely lost.
No one started off truly wrong-willed, and in the last fight of humanity, there still were no bad sides. Each group, under harsh survivalistic circumstances, fought to protect their own beliefs, homes, livelihoods, and people. To me, that is the ultimate classic epitome of humanity and the show: in the end, survival HAD to overcome moral choice. And for higher deities who have luxuries to avoid these situations, to judge upon humanity that is forced into this inescapable corner and is still learning and growing, simply makes no sense to me.
What made it worse was Clarke’s final act. Clarke was punished for her decision to murder the representative that would have killed humanity anyways. She herself said that it was unfair to pass judgement on an entire race, and decide whether or not they deserved to live, as if they were superior authorities. And for what – to gain eternal peace? I didn’t realize it was wrong to experience life: where you can make decisions, gain memories and wisdom, explore all different types of challenges, and learn about who you are. This show’s ending basically spits right at you saying life is simply suffering, and your peace is determined by our will of judgement.Â
And honestly, the ending feels suspiciously close to a concept like the Rapture — except with no proof that this “divine” race is actually connected to any spiritual or religious reality. It’s just a highly evolved civilization making unilateral judgments. Worse still, the show makes it clear: those who died before this transcendence go… nowhere. No afterlife. No peace. Just erased, as if their sacrifices didn’t matter.
Whether or not the writers intended it, this contradicts much of what the show established — that our choices matter, that pain is part of growth, and that survival often comes with a cost.
While I have no issue with stories that explore spirituality or divine intervention, The 100 wasn’t that story. It was about human resilience, moral compromise, and the brutal cost of survival. In trying to end with a “higher meaning,” the finale abandoned the gritty realism that made the show great in the first place.
It didn’t feel like a twist. It felt like a betrayal.