The 100 cast and crew have all been teasing an exciting season 4 finale, and they did not disappoint. It was exciting in an all new way for the show, they didn’t capitalize on death in the finale. Though we know there were hundreds of deaths for those locked out of the bunker, we don’t actually see any death in the episode. It hinged instead on suspense with the clocking ticking down, almost in real-time, and really got your heart racing. “Praimfaya” was written by Jason Rothenberg and directed by Dean White, and here is what went down:
“This is your time.” | The episode kicks off with Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) saying their goodbyes over the radio, but it cuts off before Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is able to say bye to her mother. Indra (Adina Porter) gives O the pep talk she needs to lead 1,200 people in a bunker for the next 5 years. She addresses her people dressed in the gear of the Commander and tells them they are all one Kru, and to survive they need to work together. Suddenly everything begins to shake, the radiation has hit and Polis is collapsing on top of them.
90 Minutes to Lift-Off | In Becca’s lab the remaining delinquents [plus a couple grounders] watch video footage of Polis being destroyed. Raven (Lindsey Morgan) tells them they’ve got a lot to do and only 90 minutes to do it in. But that isn’t the worst part, the worst part is that they’ll only have an hours worth of oxygen to get to space and dock on the ring of the Ark.
Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Monty (Christopher Larkin) are finally paired together, though there is a lot of tension between them. They find the oxygen scrubber they were looking for, but can’t fit their hands far enough back to pull it out. Monty decides he has to take his gloves off in order for them all to survive, so in taking one for the team he gets the scrubber and severe radiation burns. With Murphy’s help he gets his gloves back on and is determined to help carry the scrubber back to the lab, but ultimately passes out from pain. Murphy has to make a choice, and decides he needs to get the scrubber to the lab, leaving Monty alone with just minutes to go before the radiation hits.
Inside the lab, Echo (Tasya Teles) and Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira) are loading the rocket while Bellamy watches, boggled that grounders will be going to space. Clarke disrupts his silly thoughts with something more serious; she thinks shes going to die and needs him to be the great leader she knows he can be. He has a great heart, but she reminds him to listen to his brain too. Their moment is ruined by an explosion, rendering their comms useless. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means they cannot turn on power inside the Ark. Raven terminates the launch sequence, she’s given up. But Bellamy takes Clarke’s advice and uses his head, telling Raven exactly what she needs to trigger a memory. A.L.I.E. used satellites to beam herself up to space [does this mean she’s still there?], reminding Raven they can use the satellite tower a mile away to manually turn on the power! She resumes the launch sequence.
Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven begin their journey to the satellite tower when Murphy shows up with the oxygen scrubber and informs them of what happened to Monty. They decide to split up, Raven takes the scrubber inside while Bellamy goes with Murphy to rescue Monty. This leaves Clarke to go to the tower alone, but before she leaves Raven informs her that she will need to leave the tower with at least 10 minutes left to get back to the lab, otherwise they’re leaving her behind. So of course we all know that Clarke will get left behind now.
Monty wakes up with 14 minutes left on the countdown and struggles to his feet just as Bellamy and Murphy get to him. He thanks Murphy for choosing the machine over him, saying he may not hate him anymore. They get back to the lab, but Echo is missing. Bellamy goes looking for her and finds her covered in warpaint, she’s about to sacrifice herself. Bellamy is once again the voice of reason this episode and talks her out of it. He admits to her that he’s afraid too, but they’re going to need her up there to survive. They may never fully trust each other, but they understand each other, and that may be why Echo listens to Bellamy and decides to try out space.
Clarke isn’t back and they’re out of time, Bellamy and Raven make the heart wrenching decision to leave Clarke behind. They don’t know if she got the power on, but they can’t stay any longer, They launch.
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“My fight is over.” | Clarke gets to the tower with just over 11 minutes to go, she’s cutting it pretty close. She plugs in the tablet, but it doesn’t work. She realizes she needs to climb to the top of the tower to plug it in up there. This is where she realizes she isn’t going to make it back in time. She begins to ascend the tower. As she’s climbing she can see the radiation wave coming, everything is on fire. Moments later she sees the rocket launch and witnesses her friends soaring off into space. She knows she needs to get the power on in the Ark, so she keeps climbing. Once at the top it’s still not working, until she realizes she needs to move the satellite dish to point in the right direction. Once she does that it switches on, then flicks off from the radiation. Clarke screams from frustration and throws the tablet. She climbs down and literally runs for her life back to the lab. But in doing so she trips and cracks her helmet. By the time she reaches the lab she is covered in sores and throwing up blood, then loses consciousness.
“She gets to take her spacewalk.” | The rocketkru make it safely into space, and it’s time for Raven to spacewalk her way into the hangar bay. The ring still appears to be powerless, but they’re limited on oxygen and options, so Raven does it. When they all have less than 15% oxygen left the ring begins to power on, Clarke did it! Raven makes it inside the hangar, but is dangerously low on oxygen. They get the rocket docked, and everyone inside but Raven is struggling to breathe. They need to install the oxygen scrubber, but they’re all running low on air now. They all begin passing around oxygen tanks before slowly losing consciousness. Only Bellamy is awake enough to pull it off, and with directions from Monty he successfully installs the scrubber and flips the switch, turning it on and saving all their lives. Later, Bellamy and Raven look down over the Earth’s fire-engulfed surface, they know they need to survive for Clarke.
“6 years and 7 Days Later” | The episode ends with a huge time jump! Clarke has survives Praimfaya and is now rockin’ shorter hair with a fun pink streak in it and a badass new outfit! She sets up a satellite and tries to radio the Ark, just as she has for the past 2199 days. According to her, the planet has been safe for over a year, she doesn’t know why they haven’t returned yet. She also mentions that the bunker is silent too and that “we” tried to dig it out. WE?!? She suddenly hears a ship descending, it must be her friends returning! She runs to the rover and inside is a sleeping nightblood girl, Madi (Imogen Tear). Madi realizes this ship seems too big, and she’s right. Clarke realizes this is a prison transport ship for Eligius Corporation. She tells Madi to get all the guns.
What a stressful finale! Who is Eligius Corporation? What’s going on in space and why haven’t they returned? Why is the bunker silent too? Are there any other nightbloods? At least we think everyone survived! Leave your comments and theories for next season below!
Look out for The 100 season 5 premiering in 2018 on The CW!