After seven years (give or take a century) of deciding whether or not to pull the lever on various threats for the sake of protecting those they loved, humanity as represented by The 100 finally faced its own test. Yet for all that the series finale purported to grapple with the show’s themes, its outcome didn’t actually satisfy the moral arguments posed by Clarke Griffin and her fellow juvenile-delinquents-turned-survivors. Nor did it even fulfill season 7’s messy storytelling, opting instead for bringing back some fan favorite characters within the context of humanity’s “Last Test” in a way that rang hollow.
Ultimately, The 1oo’s series finale felt like another television casualty, a series that lost sight of its original, dynamic premise and scrambled to throw together something adequate. It wasn’t quite Game of Thrones-level fumbling, but the final product is just as narratively sloppy.
Spoilers for The 100 7×16 “The Last War”
To be fair, season 7 should never have happened the way it did. Bringing back Bill Cadogan and retroactively introducing the Disciples was simply too much new worldbuilding when our heroes had barely finished reckoning with Sanctum and its god-like Primes. At least Russell Lightbourne and his technologically-immortal kin were an extension of established mythology around the Flame (storing the minds of past Grounder commanders) and engaged each of the core characters in ways that augmented their characters arcs. The 100 breaking its own rules about death last season was a fantastic example of how a long-running series could still look within itself and find something fresh to say.
Buy the Book
Remote Control
Instead, all of the mishigas about the “Last War” reads like someone skimmed the CliffsNotes for this series and decided, Hey yeah, let’s make it all about them being the ones who are judged worthy of survival for once! By omnipotent, ascended, alien beings, no less—despite the series never once engaging with the presence of extraterrestrials. While the characters fit naturally into season 6’s plot, almost all of the “arcs” this season felt shoehorned in: the time dilation skewing everyone’s relative senses of time, Bellamy going full sheep and Clarke killing him to save Madi, last week’s ableist outcome in which Clarke almost killed a locked-in Madi without her consent. The only character who really benefited from this season’s wacky wormholes and time loops was Octavia (more on that later).
The reveal that Cadogan and his ilk had mistranslated “Last War” from “Last Test” wasn’t even much of a twist, because (a) of course it’s a test, after years of Clarke and co. deciding who deserved to die so they could find a new home and (b) the violent, self-preserving tendencies that these humans have always demonstrated left very little doubt that there would be some sort of fight as part of the test.
That Clarke opens the episode by remorselessly gunning down nameless Disciples is a mockery of the consideration and anguish with which she has approached past genocides. That she murders Cadogan before he can answer the first question of the test should make it clear to the celestial judges how the exam is going to go. While Bill Cadogan has absolutely no business speaking on behalf of the human race, Clarke Griffin isn’t a much better pick.
The problem with the Last Test, and with transcendence, is that the rules are never made clear until we’re in the moment. We know nothing about these ascended beings other than that they have the power to invite other civilizations to become “infinite” with them, or to annihilate them by way of reforming them into crystal statues as a testament to their failure. The beings seem to be so far beyond any human emotion or experience—yet they are supposed to possess the nuance to judge human behavior—so their solution is to appear as a crucial figure to the test-taker.
Thus, it is a brief joy to see the return of Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey), even though it is immediately apparent that this is Lexa in form only. On the one hand, going by the judge’s explanation, it reinforces that Lexa was both Clarke’s greatest teacher and her greatest love. Yet that means very little if it’s just a comforting mask mouthing familiar Trigedasleng mantras without the personality or perspective to accompany her counsel.
In the early seasons, Clarke represented the best and worst of humanity: She was the one willing to make impossible decisions, to pull the literal lever that places humanity permanently on the other side of a devastating choice. More than once she sentenced herself to death or exile or isolation so that she could bear that pain while others could prosper. But this final season has warped her character into a shrill, single-minded maternal figure who is so short-sighted she can’t consider anything beyond her adoptive teenage daughter’s safety, treating Madi like a helpless infant instead of someone the same age that she, as a juvenile delinquent, was sent to Earth to fend for herself.
The Last Test sees Clarke self-righteously describing her pain to an elevated creature who might be able to feel it but cannot actually fathom it; who responds by saying that Clarke has just passed on more suffering to others, that she is unable to follow a slogan other than the Grounders’ jus drein jus daun, or “blood must have blood.”
So of course, when judged through Clarke-as-proxy, humanity is found wanting. But she was never meant to represent humanity as a whole; she embodies its worst impulses and gravest decisions. Yet by the judges’ rules, humanity is deemed undeserving of transcendence.
The thing is, our heroes had no interest in transcending their existence before they came across the Disciples. Even though their every encounter with another civilization ended in competition and bloodshed, they never gave up on the hope that the next time they would be able to co-exist with another set of humans. Remember that Clarke chose to destroy the City of Light and its weird digital afterlife, knowing that Praimfaya was on its way, because that sterile approximation of existence was not the way humanity was meant to continue on.
So for them to suddenly be faced with this ultimatum—transcend or become extinct—puts them in an impossible position. Thank goodness, then, for Raven Reyes, who never met an impossibility she couldn’t take apart.
In this case, it’s treating the Last Test as a relay race. Raven demands the chance to retake it, prompting the judge—as Abby!—to teleport them to Bardo in real time to see that the Last War is indeed happening, between the surviving Grounders and the indoctrinated Disciples. Both sides’ entire cultures are built around fighting as the immediate and reflexive choice; whether they’re shouting jus drein, jus daun or “for all mankind,” it’s the same self-preserving violence. So even if the judge were willing to consider the whole of humanity (which at this point is a couple hundred people, tops), they’re modeling the same behavior as Clarke.
The only thing they can do, then, is decide that their fight is over—not because they die, but because they stop fighting.
Raven, as some weird ghostly observer, can’t interfere with the action. So it’s especially heartening to see Octavia and Indra come to the realization on their own that this isn’t the Last War in the sense of a final, winner-take-all fight, but the Last War meaning that they have to break the cycle of violence. Indra finally gets rid of Sheidheda (several episodes too late!), while Octavia gives everyone a pep talk about being Wonkru. (Hmm, maybe they should have tried for that at the start??)
This is what good character growth looks like: Octavia Blake, the girl in the floor, Blodreina, had to put all of her anger aside, had to grapple with her bloodthirst, in order to break her own ingrained cycle of killing-as-control. Yet even her big speech has shades of Tyrion Lannister’s “what’s most important is a good story” spiel in the Game of Thrones series finale; it all feels too on-the-nose.
“We can change,” Raven tells the Abby-judge, “we just need more time.” Apparently those few minutes are all that’s required, because the judges reverse their decision and allow humanity to transcend: some combination of the Doctor’s golden regeneration and The Good Place’s final visual, with all of the humans inexplicably joyful at this mass exodus from their corporeal forms.
All except Clarke, who once again is cast as the martyr and pariah, intended to live out the rest of her mortal existence alone. To be honest, the Lexa-judge makes a good point that Clarke was the only test subject to commit murder during the test, so it makes sense that there would be a consequence…yet it’s not as if the Last Test had any clear rules.
And then the final scene undoes everything in this episode and in the series as a whole, all due to another twist of new information not previously available: Transcendence is a choice, and all of Clarke’s friends have chosen to reject it in favor of joining her back on Earth.
That means Murphy, Emori, Niylah, Jackson, Miller, Octavia, Levitt, Hope, and Jordan all chose mortality over some City of Light-esque infinite existence, just so Clarke wouldn’t spend the rest of her days talking into a radio with no one to listen on the other end. (No Madi, because she knew Clarke wouldn’t want a future with no peers or love interests for her, and that’s fair, give the poor girl a break already.) Frankly, this makes sense; as I said above, these characters never even wanted transcendence; they just didn’t want to be annihilated. So they came back to try again
It’s all very heartwarming, yet the whole time I felt more emotionally manipulated than anything else. It also raises so many questions:
Is Earth just fine? Was Monty completely wrong about Earth recovering from the Eligius IV nuke, and they could have just stayed in cryosleep a bit longer? If the Disciples knew that Earth was fine, why not just send our heroes through it at the start and let them live out the rest of their brief lives in ignorance, rather than risk them messing up the Disciples’ plan? Yes, that would have led to humanity going extinct, but that’s a hell of a convoluted way of getting back to Earth.
But the most disturbing fallout of this narrative choice is that The 100, a series about humanity’s constant struggles to co-exist, ends on the message that everything is fine when there’s no one you have to put aside differences with. Paradise for Clarke and co. is being with each other and not having to worry about invading anyone’s land, or assimilating with anyone else’s culture, or being tempted to wipe out any supposed enemies for their own survival. It’s one thing for them to have realized it’s possible not to fight when faced with an opposing army, but to reward them with a lifetime in which they will never have to fight with another conflicting force doesn’t feel like they actually learned anything valuable.
Thematically, the final visual of them setting up shelter on the shore does swing back around to the Ark’s prayer of “may we meet again”: In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again. They always spoke it over their dying, which is ironic considering that transcendence did not allow for the dead to join. Instead, the mantra describes Clarke and her friends.
So, The 100 managed to weave in new meanings for both your fight is over and may we meet again. That, at least, is poetically done, though I wish that everything leading up to it had been so different.
Final Thoughts
- The dock on which Cadogan starts his test made me crack a joke about “is he in The Good Place?” which was only the first of many times that I pondered how The Good Place did all of this SO MUCH BETTER.
- While there was no doubt that Clarke needed to stop Cadogan, it was frustrating that she did so before he could be adequately interrogated as to why he thought eliminating love from the Disciples would help save humanity.
- Hope sitting on Blodreina’s throne in the bunker was such a random but enjoyable visual.
- “Without you I would just be surviving, I wouldn’t be living.” If Clarke is Wanheda, then Murphy is the survivor; the series has always set him up as grimly ruthless concerning his own survival, so to reverse that when he realizes that without Emori that kind of existence simply isn’t sufficient? It’s perfect for his character.
- Also though, the Murphy/Emori resolution felt very Dollhouse.
- Jackson and Miller deciding to spend their final moments dancing is why they are one of the series’ most enduring couples.
- The number of times I have muttered “Sheidheda, you shady bitch” this season…
- The slowed-down cover of R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” just made me laugh. I know the music choices worked for others, but I found them distracting.
- There was a trippy vaping commercial right after the transcendence that was so weirdly timed, I wasn’t the only person who wondered if it were part of the episode.
- GEE, BET CLARKE’S GLAD SHE DIDN’T KILL MADI LAST WEEK.
- It is hilarious that Clarke thinks Murphy and Emori might also not have transcended.
- So dogs don’t deserve to ascend?!
Well, that was certainly an episode of television. What did you think of The 100’s series finale?
Natalie Zutter will someday rewatch The 100, but will probably stop at cryosleep and call it a day. Share your thoughts on the series with her on Twitter!
I did not like the series finale . It made no sense to have TRANCENDENCE be the end game of the show. The only people who wanted that were the Disciples. It was not part of Skycru or Grounder culture or the Prime worshippers . It was all weirdly Stargate season 9-10. I wanted Codogon to be judged and fail the test but, only him personally not all of humanity. I really wanted the aliens to explain how he got everything wrong and heal Madi. If were doing magical aliens they might as well be useful. The writers should have just stopped the final battle after getting rid of Codogan and Sinheda . Then everyone left can go back to Earth and live together in peace becoming one tribe in a generation or two. I did like that Clarke would not be alone and would have her friends with her. Will everyone else transcend when they die ? Only Clarke can’t join the others, or join the afterlife with all the humans who didn’t transcend?
“. But this final season has warped her character into a shrill, single-minded maternal figure who is so short-sighted she can’t consider anything beyond her adoptive teenage daughter’s safety, treating Madi like a helpless infant instead of someone the same age that she, as a juvenile delinquent, was sent to Earth to fend for herself.”
Of course. Shes exactly like her mom was down to every detail.
“Will everyone else transcend when they die ? Only Clarke can’t join the others, or join the afterlife with all the humans who didn’t transcend? “
Nope. Any of them that chose to go back will die a natural death but cant make any offspring either.
It was simply boring and say half of the episode looking like fillers. Maybe their budget got really thin or the “creator” just gave up on his own show. It has already been clear that he took way too large bite for his own writing capacity, trying to go into real Sci-Fi and stumbling every step of the way but it didn’t have to degrade into something pointless and lukewarm.
At the very least he could have done some basic research into Sci-Fi literature (or paid someone to do it) to find and copy scenarios/ways in which a “superior being” collapses because of a hidden flaw that happens to be triggered by something in/about humanity. It wouldn’t be particularly original but at least wouldn’t be boring and say 99.9% of the audience wouldn’t even know that is was snitched from something say 20-50 years old. Sci-Fi has a long history of such twists. Doesn’t have to be on the level of Picard’s wit vs. Q, just not to be totally boring.
Say everyone ended up on that “new Earth” (for one reason or the other) and then Clark did something that made transcendent folks implode, collapse or at least have these copper “balls with symbols” burn so that they are no more and she died in the process. That would be “in style” for a show that has been killing off characters left and right all 7 seasons and there would be a few chances for SFX much better than “golden puffs”.
Just a little more effort not to go out with a whimper.
They should have brought back all the dead characters just before the transcendence event, and then a total of 99 would decide to come back as living their new mortal lives with Clarke and the dog. It can’t be impossible, since the comeback obviously resurrected Emori’s body just fine. That would have justified the series title at the very end of the story.
But I liked pretty much all about the finale anyway.
Yeah, this episode–and for that matter, the entire 7th season–was really disappointing. If I ever rewatch or purchase it, I’ll stop at Season 5. That last shot of Clarke and Bellamy in the Eligius looking out at the new planet Sanctum should have been the series ending.
It was a terrible end to the worst season of a great show.
Comparing it to Game of Thrones, it would be like if the Night King had never been mentioned until the last season, and he ended up being the reason why Jon kills Dany.
I mean, I understand why some people might compare the two. Some wounds may never heal. But The 100 ended so much worse, it’s not even close. Virtually nothing that happened in the last season was even hinted at in earlier seasons. Nobody can say that about GOT.
Transcendence by super advanced aliens is just as dumb as it sounds, and no amount of mental gymnastics is going to make it a good ending.
The Dog isn’t human so it would have to take the test for all dogkind 🤣🤣🤣
I actually liked the song at the end, didn’t know who it was so thanks for the heads up.
You forgot that Indra & Gaia both came back from transcending, your the 2nd person that didn’t mention their names.
I was happy with the way they ended it in a way it was as when they started but with just less of them you could say the last of the 100. And they just never wanted to be apart again and to live there one life and when there time to die came it was over why do we really need to life forever Just look how long they had lived already can anyone say that they had found the perfect peace and happiness I would have to say not so why not just live your one life and enjoy the ones true friends and family and just enjoy every day to the fullest
It was a good end, if we forget about the fact, that Clarke killed Bellamy and he is not there with them (I still can’t make a peace with that). But there is one thing about that transcendence – it feels a bit like a betrayal to humanity. I mean, so many people have decided to give up being humans and by that action erase humanity. I know, they haven’t been perfect, but isn’t that the definition of human? Pain, mistakes, love, hate, possibility of selfdevelopment – that is what makes us US. So for me it is like – they accepted transcendence and they accepted also the fact, there will be no offspring, no more humans and they just became some “alliens” who don’t basically feel anything. And also, I agree with “may we meet again”. I mean if there is just the slightest possibility, that after they die, they can meet with people who they fought for and loved, then they shouldn’t transcend. At least I wouldn’ want to spend my eternity without people I loved. So I choose to believe that this is one of the reason why our group didn’t transcend. Not only to live their lives as human beings and make Clarke company, but also to reunite with loved ones after death. This is my happyending.
Sabina- i liked what you said, and maybe also gabriel’s words: ‘death is life’. So they’ll prefer to live and die normally and by that have a life, but it clearly not life whatever the got on the final.. anyway i really loved the review..!! This season was the worst.. and for me the series is over with bellarke’s hug in 6×13
I only watched the first season of this show and reading this summary of the final episode is a trip for sure.
The 100 is one of my favorite shows, but the first three seasons are still the best in my opinion.
As for this season. I really liked it up until the last episode.
-Clarke should have definitely been the one to kill Cadogan, but the way that it happened felt out of place.
-The entire season was spent building up this transcendence thing, but when it actually happened…it was extremely dull.
-Bellamy was right all along and he died for no reason. He should have been on the beach with everyone else at the end
Also, they only get to their beautiful “let’s stop killing each other” epiphany by murdering Sheidheda first, because Jason got sloppy with his villain and never made him in any sense human, which was what made his other villains so cool. So it’s like “I really want to make this point about how violence solves nothing but hold up I just have to kill this inconvenient character I’ve used as a boring plot device all season reallllll quick.” His big overarching “thesis” couldn’t even be smoothly rolled out in one scene, let alone the episode, season, or show as a whole. Terrible writing.
This final season just should have never happened the way it did. It just completely jumped the shark – I get what the writers tried doing – but up to season 6, the themes in the show (an arc in space, artificial intelligence, a virtual afterlife, the Flame, mind drives, etc.) could be possible in real life with advanced technology. Season 7 delving into the supernatural/spiritual world and the existence of a higher power or deity was just bizarre.
As a huge fan of the show, to say that season 7 was a disappointment is an understatement. I am not even sure I want the prequel to happen knowing that everyone is just going to end up as balls of light or dying as the last generation of humans on Earth.
can someone help ? will clarke and madi ever meet again like when clarke dies or even when she’s on earth will they ever get to see eachother?
@16 – it’s my understanding that they will never meet again. Avatar Lexa was clear that the remaining humans don’t get to transcend when they die. However, she also said that Madi was there with her in a sense so I think Madi can “see” Clarke since Madi is now an undying infinite ball of light with no corporeal form. I don’t think Clarke will ever get to see Madi again.
I thought that vape commercial was apart of the episode too!! I kept thinking to myself,”Maybe it’s gna be some crazy transcended palace of some kind?😟🤔” 😂😂😂😂
I also loved when she immediately started yelling for Murphy at Sanctum 😅😂😭😭😭 maybe because Murphy always thought he was going to hell? Still hilarious though 🤣🤣🤣
thoroughly enjoyed your read!
I’m ok with the ending
In the final moments…. Did anyone else notice how the view of the beach, as the camera panned out, was superimposed over a woman drawing something? It reminded me of the cell when Clarke was fighting inside that woman’s mind
it was an ending…. the show was ready.
the season was a tad sloppy, and it took away from the only realistic aspect of the world building with the secret language of the cult leader’s daughter.
but in the end, I liked that it ended.
yup, could have have been better… like if we saw Clarke age alone, in 10 years bury her dog, 10 years after a glimpse of her deteriorating mental faculties and dying alone. not every Good ending has to be a happy one.
because in the end, she wasn’t much of a martyr…. everyone else is for coming back and losing their ability to return to the hive consciousness.
that all being said
I did like the ending, I didn’t Love the ending.
I’m also happy it’s done. so many shows just drag on or fizzle out.
Horrible ending to an overall amazing series. By the way, transcendence is based off individual species, so of course the dog didn’t transcend.
Great review. Personally I thought the ending was a bit of an anti-climax, like the writers had basically run out of ideas and needed to wrap it up. Disappointing after watching it for so many seasons.
Not sure why they chose to use U2’s “Bad” as the song in the final scene. That’s a song about heroin addiction.
The series wasn’t bad over all, great production value, maybe a little to much drama, but hey, that’s sci-fi now…
At the point the show was, they could have just ended with everyone dying by some Transcended-made drone doom machine (along the lines that any civilization/species/race in this universe have their time and then they just disappear, not every single one makes it, etc, sad but true).
Or they could have just left Clarke alone on Earth to grow crazy and/or kill herself; or not. Or corrupt and kill the Transcended by the natural corruption and violence of the human race admitted too early among them.
Whatever.
But just don’t happy-end it like they did after 7 years ripping-off from all the known sci-fi device known to man, except maybe time travel, although they had a hint of that as well.
This finale just made me sad. Not to be dramatic but it kinda ruined my day after watching it. The more I thought about it, the worse it got. I just cared about this show a lot, and I was just really was hoping for… not this.
It wasn’t absolutely terrible, but it definitely didn’t feel like the show we’ve been watching for so long. It was such a big shift from what the show started as, and not in a goos way. It was as anti climactic as it was unsatisfying. Just felt hollow.
It’s kinda bleak. They’re going to make a log cabin or two and live for what, another 60 years, with only themselves – and then that’s it. Mankind is just gone and nothing meant anything. Also, Bellamy deserved to be in the finale, not just disregarded because of some rules that it seemed like they just made up on the spot.
Honestly I much prefer the season 5 finale to this, the saying goodbye to a friend in an emotional way and looking onto a whole new planet with hope and the promise to do better. That was successfully bittersweet, the end of an era but still a new beginning.
Also, why exactly was judgement day even a choice via solving some glorified puzzle box in the first place?
For me it was a big ole swing, and a hard miss
I agree with those who say Season Five would have made a better ending. I also agree that it was ridiculous to leave Bellamy so out of character and missing from the survivors. Mostly, though, I think that if the writers were going to give us the “happy ending” of the main characters coming back to keep Clarke company, they could just as well have given us a fuller happy ending.
If humanity “passed” the test, give them what they earned when they put their weapons down, and what Raven asked for. More time. Let the disciples ascend, and anyone else who chooses to. Allow those who want to come full circle, stay on the reborn Earth and restart humanity. Since some were healed and returned, let Madi do that, too (since there wouldn’t be the problem of no peers for her).
Oh, sure, some fans might complain that they’ll eventually make the same mistakes, yada, yada, yada. But, like I said, if you’re gonna give us a contrived “happy ending” anyway, go ahead and do it all the way.
They should have saved the whole “discovering that the Earth has renewed itself” for the finale. It was wasted the way the writers did it. Octavia could be the first one to walk out, just as she did in Season One, but now more mature, with Hope nearby. For kicks, you could even do a flashback to earlier scenes so we could visualize the “before and after” of the remaining characters, and honor ones we lost. Clarke could lie down in the grass or on the beach, and Lexa would return in her dreams to celebrate this new beginning. Oh. And when the crystals did all that weird breaking up and dissolving thing, the crystals covering Hope’s mother would have fallen off, and she would be with them all, too.
Okay. I feel better now. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the true finale. The End.
After 7 years of religiously loving this show the last season was soooo disappointing, I still haven’t recovered from GOT for goodness sakes.
The transcendence was so stupid and missed the entire reason Clark has fought for survival this entire time. Her killing Bellamy was so stupid, Bill or watever his name was was bound to get Maddies thoughts, sooo stupid
And then even after they choose not to transcend now all the couples Octavia n Levit, Emori and Murphy, ect. Can’t have kids to continue the human race, n seriously Madi and her friends from sanctum can’t come back and live normal lives???
Seriously wat was the point of soo many people sacrificing there lives every season, For wat???
So DISAPPOINTING 🤬🤬🤬
Mothers do what Abbey and Clark did. No complains to that. Hated her like hell and loved her too. Clark’s character could have been better.
Ballemy deserved better. Octavia’s character showed what character development truly looks like. Murphy and Emori are total love. Murphy’s character development was poetic.
“You always did it for YOUR people, but you’re all one. At least Cadogan got that right.” I guess show delivered what it meant to deliver. Technicalities apart. Msg was clear.
Clarke saying “Pencils down” was the best part of the entire finale.
@19 – that was a very brief flashback to the pilot episode where Clarke was drawing/dreaming about living on Earth while still up in the Ark.
So mankind can’t go on no babies can be born you’ve got three couples and some single women. So mankind can’t continue, no babies can be born you’ve got three couples and some single women that’s a bizarre ending!
I would have loved the finale to be a final battle between wonkru and the disciples, sorta like in GOT when the white walkers fought in winterfell , but with Octavia, Bellamy and Clarke leading the line with Codogan at the other end, this would have led to the death of the disciples and the rest of wonkru would have returned to earth and live out their lives as a single tribe.
i was also expecting an introduction of the other eligus ships in the last season
Why don’t we see Emori at the end with all the others? She transmitted too right? But I didn’t see her with the others to welcome Clarke. Is this a mistake in the season?
I think they should have brought back only Bellamy. Let the whole Adam and eve thing suggest a new chance for humanity. Show was great overall kept me fully interested! Now what can top this? So much went into this I’m almost sad to see it end…and how dare you compare 100 to GOT. This show had way more options and realism. Example no zombies but who knows the covid vaccine might get us there anyway.
Now that I have watched all the seasons of the 100, without any knowledge of the storyline of the books, I do intend to read the books that some of the series are based on to compare. My question is for the storyline of the prequel series–will it explain a few unexplained questions? First of all -are we going to get a better detailed explanation of the need for “selected members’ of humanity to leave Earth. Also when did we link up with the aliens to work to achieve the “enlighten state”, which to me, sounds more like something pushed by a cult-minded leader.
@34
Oh, dear… the books are vastly different from the tv show. For one, the first book hadn’t been written yet when they got a go ahead for a tv show based on the books. So, premise is the same… where they go is very very different.
The entire point of “The 100” was that they are the last of humanity or so we all thought and they are supposed to rebuild the population of the human race. The fact that the entire series was about humanity surviving and rebuilding was completely destroyed by this ending. They should’ve ended it with everyone coming back to earth and rebuilding the population. No wars and no fighting. Just rebuilding a new Society not based on war and selfishness. #Pathetic #Couldnothavegoneworse!
Lack of imagination Finale, why will some so advance race will judge another inferior race based on their acts? and why will only a couple people represent all humanity in a final test? Firs if they were so advance, what about teach us how to be better humans and if I was going to be send to heaven or hell, definitely I want to respond the questions myself, so the whole finale is based in human judgement of situations not some millions of years advanced race mentality. So yes the writers could done a much better script!
The ascended alien entities were evil. At the very least, if they are supposedly beyond human ideas of good and evil, they were still jerks. “Let one member of your species pass an arbitrary test, or else we will wipe out your entire species?” Just because a species isn’t ready “at the moment” to achieve enlightenment, that doesn’t mean they never will. The avatar admitted herself, “I’m glad we were wrong” about humans being worthy. Really? You were WRONG? Great, how many other entire species were you wrong about when you obliterated them? Maybe the ascended beings want to wipe out other species who come close to being ready, before giving them a chance to fully evolve, because, just like the humans, they fear for their own survival, and they don’t want any competing ascended beings out there who are not part of their own collective. So it’s basically, “You are either with us, or we kill you.” Sounds like so many of the humans in the show.
Yeah, the ascended aliens were evil jerks.
Clarke was right; they are just as bad (worse, in fact) than humans, since they have the power to help and guide lesser beings, but instead they choose to engage in genocide for those they deem unworthy, based on the test of a single individual.
Even at the end of the show, they said the remaining humans would not have offspring. What gives them the right to interfere in humanity’s natural processes, for those who decided to remain human? Again, they are effectively causing the extinction of humanity, making sure humans never get the chance to achieve enlightenment on their own….
If some greater cosmic beings exist to judge them, they too are lacking and should be wiped out, as for all the beings they unjustly killed, and for being evil jerks.
Unlike most, I thought Season 7 (with a few notable exceptions) was far better than Season 6. Season 6 felt hokey. At least in Season 7 they managed to connect back to earlier themes on the show. Season 6 was like watching an entirely different show.
My problem with Transcendence is that it is basically the City of Light debacle all over again, just elevated a little. Very little. And to have that crackhead antagonist of the whole season, Bill the Shepherd, be right all along was just plain bad writing. Much like Clarke shooting Bellamy, it made all of the work the characters did in the season completely pointless. They could have arrived at a “the only winners of war are those who choose to stop going to war” point without making everything in the season, and really the show, moot.
I agree with an earlier commenter, also, that they should have done something around the number 100. Save 100 humans. Bring back 99 loved ones from transcendence and the dead so they can all live out their lives together. Something besides a couple of people who were there in the beginning. I wanted Bellamy there. They could have brought back Jasper and Jordan’s parents, Abby and Marcus and Lexa and Finn. Maybe they couldn’t have all shown up for the finale but they could’ve easily have gotten some of them.
There were just MUCH better ways to end the show that didn’t throw away most of the points about the show. If it weren’t for the amazing character arcs of Octavia and Murphy coming full circle, I would’ve thrown something at the TV.
So the solution to avoid crimes against humanity is transcendence and the reward for stopping commiting crimes against humanity is also transcendence.
Notice that to fullfil that arbitrary criteria that the aliens invented, which, for some reason, can’t be stopped with the other alternative being complete genocide of the species, is to stop war at the exact point the question is asked. Forget about building a society that’s just and doesn’t create conflicts before it, just choosing no war is good enough. And the war hawks, like Sheidheda or people who killed him, don’t count for some reason.
The 100’s Humanity was not ready for transcendence. In my opinion it had to develop a more peaceful and just society before, with everyone actually learning to cooperate, and people learning to forgive. It was kind of going that way, with the kid’s plot of communities that hated each other learning to grow up together, but then it forgot about it.
Yo she was on the beach @@@@@ matthew. I had to look like 5 times. In purple shirt by water. U barely see emori tho
basically it was disgusting you see humans are violent terrible creatures but not all of them judging them all because of one selfish persons actions is not fair but i have never seen any race in any show as disguisting and not deserving existance as much as those “transcended” aliens if any race deserved pain and exctinction it was them you see i hate those dumb creatures playing god they are pathetic clark was right about them man when she started flaming them and they were gonna still kill them but in the end they didnt but i dont like how the aliens won they got there way because nothing happened to them and the humans just went with them think of all the other races 100s if not thousands maybe that will soon come quadrillions of lives being taken by those disguisting creatures if they want to bring the series back they need to kill off those dumb aliens
Personally, I thought it was a good ending to the show. While the last season was sloppy to say the least, the ending ultimately ties the show together.
The entire motive behind all of the actions in the show, was to try and find a peaceful life without conflict. That was what almost every character wanted (hence the creation of disciples, and onecrew). For most humans, they believed that the only way to do that was to transcend, where there is no need for conflict and war. That final battle would have ended the human race, and Octavia opened their eyes to that.
If you noticed, the crew that returned were the ones closest to Clarke. The reason they returned is because they realize they could finally have peace back on Earth with Clarke. The only reason any of them ascended was because of the emotional pain they felt from the loss of someone close to them, or because they had a fatal wound. They returned because they were all able to become physical beings without any of the fatal injuries.
Emori should have been at Murphys side at the end. Instead the stars are showcased, with all the extras off to the side. Murphy wouldn’t approve, but apparently the person who plays Murphy went along with it. She is there, but I had to look at the above photo to find her.
Also, if transcendence is a choice, continuing the species is a choice. Besides, who wants to be one mind with these aliens when its either join them or die, even when one fanatic agrees to the test for the entire human race?
And so on…
Basically……. (shakes his head in disapointment)
It should of ended with season 5.
Need I say more? I’m too flusterd by the series ending too write more.
I just wanted Clark and Bellamy to end up together. And the finale be a complete “closure” feel, like it would be a renewal of life and the human race. Not the absolute end of humans. That’s a bummer
Terrible season, even worse final for a fantastic show. Such a shame for wasted potential season 5 finale brought.
From this perspective, it should’ve ended with season 5 and if they were so keen to continue show (which they obviously weren’t) they could easily setup spin-off show and run 1 season to checkout fan pulses.
Going forward with season 7 (6 was watchable), they tried to fit like at least 3 seasons of story (not so well or creatively written) into 1 season with so to say weak and somewhat confusing time-line. And that’s not even the worst thing, worst thing is, most of those episodes don’t make any sense, and most of episode that make any sense could fit in 10 minutes, so basically you got like hour and a half material stretched to 16 episodes that try to speak story of at least 48 episodes.
From episode 1 show was about saving humanity just so you can literally end humanity in final episode, that is without any comment…
Final thoughts, rushed, badly written and completely of the main story that made this series great.
While I loved the show as a whole the final season was terrible. It betrayed everything the show was about in the prior 6 season. Season 5 finale could have been the series finale and it would have went out on the highest of high points. As it stands now because of season 7 we got a ripoff combination of Stargate and Childhood’s End. The 3 episode complete character reversal and characters assassination of Bellamy was unforgivable. You want to kill him fine but have him go out heroically saving the others not because he’s become a cult member for 3 episodes. The show was always about a more grounded and somewhat plausible future. Not that they never took liberties, but technology integrating into human bodies is already happening, humans evolving over centuries scientifically possible, nuclear war leaving the planet mostly desolate is possible, warring tribes of surviving humans definitely plausible, mutations due to nuclear fallout definitely possible, and cryosleep during space travel while impossible currently will probably someday be possible if we plan to travel long distances. Then all of a sudden last season it dumps plausible reality and became all about spirituality literally out of the blue. No backstory to it seeded in earlier seasons. The show began with humanity finding a way to survive human nature only to toss all the “shades of gray” aside for the black and white you go to “heaven” or you go extinct. So human kind got raptured, or assimilated into the borg collective or yes Childhood’s End. What in essence this means is the first 6 seasons meant nothing as humankind didn’t matter, only either being in the collective or having an alien supposedly superior entity commit genocide on us rendering humans extinct. Said “superior beings collective” were the thinnest veiled hypocrites I’ve seen on screen in any show ever. Their motivations or test was an utter joke, and while Clarke might not exactly be the best of humanity, she was at least always fighting for her people, not committing genocide on less evolved species just because they can’t pass some arbitrary test. There was stuff I liked about this season but it felt like such a betrayal of the previous 6. They also say humans left can’t reproduce…what about all the embryos on Barda that were growing. Even if naturally the crew that declined transcendence were rendered sterile there still exists the ability for humanity to continue. Sorry this final season, especially the last few episodes, were terrible and did such injustice to the cast and an otherwise amazing show.
The 100 really blew me away when the series aired. It was all about the purist kind of surviving on planet earth in a critical state that was always a might be scenario due to today’s actual human behavior.
A big plus were the really surprising twists and clever plots.
The 100 should have never left earth in my opinion, that was the first of many fails of the series to not be able to solve the problems. It just kept going on and shifting and it really became more and more annoying and kind of stupid. I just watched it to the end because hope dies at least. But it did in this case. Thanks for the good article anyways.
If all of Clarke’s friends could make the choice of “Nah, I wanna go back to Earth and be with my family to live out our days,” then they didn’t really “ascend”. They’re still very much human, just living in some hive-mind in space (or wherever this unnamed alien species is located).
What’s stopping someone else, such as a scored Grounder who just lost his friend, or a Disciple who only put their guns down because the collective was doing it, from choosing to come back and kill Clarke and her friends?
Clarke and everyone will die, but for the duration of their lives, there are hundreds of “immortal beings” who can choose to un-transcend at any point and annihilate them. The finale didn’t really specify if they decided to stop transcending after the process had begun, or if it was days later and they were like “Man this sucks let’s be flesh sacks again.”
This entire season was an enormous disappointment. Season 6 already had its shaky points, but it fit in with the lore they developed, with technology. Magic space aliens? Come on.
Can some please explain why, at the very end, with everyone on the beach, they edited in an overlapping image of Clarke writing something? It’s driving me mad. What was the point of that after the happily ever after? What’s she writing? Why? To who?
The only way this season’s plot would have had a satisfying ending would be to let humanity keep living after choosing not to fight. Never mind that the transcended beings’ test made no sense (an entire species judged by one person’s actions? You start the test by simply finding their celestial phone number? And committing genocide against entire species means the aliens have no right to judge anyone).
Raven said “we need more time” to be better, more peaceful, more connected. It would have been satisfying if rather than transcend, the humans were allowed to live and keep improving. They weren’t ready to transcend, but the fact that they chose not to fight could have been enough to give them more time. They could have decided to give peace a chance and return to earth which now has enough space and resources that there would be no need for conflict for a very, very long time. Humans could use that time to be better. Instead the writers wrote this cheesy nonsensical stuff. At least it’s all fiction so I can write my own ending in my head 🙂
Someone asked about the ending scene. I read this explanation on another site:
https://screenrant.com/100-ending-transcendence-final-scene-clarke-explained/
“The 100 season 7’s final scene flashes back to Clarke drawing in her cell from the pilot episode – in fact, it was the opening scene of the series. While it’s hard to tell what Clarke’s drawing it was, it looked like a drawing of people on Earth. This was an idealistic drawing of what it would be like to be on Earth. When she was still considered a child, back before she knew what things were like on the ground, Clarke was imagining the peaceful idea of what life would be like when people returned to the ground. The scene Clarke walks into is that expectation realized. This is everyone who has survived every challenge alongside Clarke, and they now get that chance to live peacefully on Earth. She’s finally at peace, getting the ending that she’d dreamed of all those years before.”
If only the rest of humanity could have joined in that new-found peace…..
The last season was a wasted. In season 6 when they introduced the time dilation, particularly with the tree sap ‘medicine’ they had the perfect way to save Marcus and instead went with the mind drive plot. Then using the same time dilation McGuffin they could have developed a plot for season 7 where perhaps they get to go back in time to stop Alie and prevent the nukes from going off. Or failing that, they could have moved everyone to Skyring where there were no red moons and killer madness bugs.
The debate surrounding the finale often centers on the shift from survival-based sci-fi to a more metaphysical conclusion. Many fans analyze whether the concept of Transcendence aligned with the show’s earlier focus on human agency and tribal ethics. It remains a significant case study in 2026 for how long-running ensemble dramas navigate the transition from gritty realism to high-concept mythology.