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Creator and showrunner Jason Rothenberg breaks down Night Bloods, Jasper's continued "suffering" and a troubled sibling relationship.
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Thursday's episode of The 100, "Watch the Thrones."]
The 100 isn’t a show know for pulling back the punches, but after Thursday’s brutal hour, there were more than a few fans holding their breaths thanks to an epic showdown between Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Roan (Zach McGowan) and Nia (Brenda Strong).
Just when it looked as though either Lexa or Roan were going to be killed off the show, it was Lexa — in clear victory — who spared Roan’s life by ending his mother’s instead. And with that, the banished prince became the accidental king, setting up a potential new alliance of sorts.
Meanwhile, back at the Sky People’s camp, things took a turn for the worse when Pike (Michael Beach) was elected the new chancellor, with a hardened Bellamy (Bob Morley) at his side.
To break down what the new leaderships mean for the respective camps, how viewers will respond to this new Bellamy and what the addition of a Night Blood could mean going forward, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with showrunner Jason Rothenberg.
What does this new Bellamy mean for the progress he’s made as one of the show’s "good guys?"
That’s based on what your perspective of the Grounders is. We know the Grounders are not all bad. But Bellamy’s worldview is formed by the fact that when has a grounder ever proved they’re anything but hostile? Lexa abandoned them and left him to die at Mount Weather and he lost friends because of that. They attacked him personally, mercilessly in season one. But they had their reasons for doing it. So for Bellamy, it becomes under the influence of Pike.
Pike, this season, shows up and he has a different view that’s informed by a different set of circumstances that are 100 times worse than the experiences our heroes have had. Bellamy becomes influenced by Pike’s view and his charisma, especially after he loses Gina. It’s a dark turn but I don’t think he’s a bad guy.
What does this mean for his relationship with Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) and how will people react?
In season one, Bellamy was out for himself and doing things to save his own ass. In season three, he’s doing what he thinks is right for his people. He’s a soldier for a cause but he’s not acting selfishly. Hopefully there’s a little difference. It’s still dark; it’s still going to be hard for people because Bellamy in season two really became a shinning, pure good guy. He was too good on some level. We wanted to take him back to a darker, morally more complicated place and still hopefully love him. And put him on the other side of Octavia. That was the bigger sort of dramatic challenge and something that I really wanted to try and do — see how far could I push them.
How will Pike’s appointment further divide the camp?
Pike is like the very tight, militaristic government, wartime, war-footing, marshal law. It becomes pretty bad. And it will eventually right itself, but it gets pretty intense. They have Clarke and Kane and others who really have made strides and believe in peace through unity, and those people really are out of power and in trouble because of what happens. Pike’s view is more about peace through strength. We’re just going to muck them up before they can do it to us. We hit them hard enough for long enough and it won’t matter that we’re fewer people. That’s a legitimate political, military perspective. I personally don’t think it’s right, but that’s what he believes and it gets tested.
Is there any hope at all for Jasper to get out of this funk?
Jasper is suffering in a major way. He was at the center of that group in Mount Weather that lost people. It’s sort of like the people that kept Anne Frank alive in Amsterdam in World War II, that family that let her hide… Clarke killed that family and the other families of people that were helping. Those people meant a lot to Jasper; they kept him alive. So yeah, he’s messed up. It will be a while before he can find some happiness for sure. And he will. There will be moments, but we’re trying to be honest, psychologically, with the way people grieve.
Now that Roan has been made king, what kind of leadership style will he take?
Roan is sort of the accidental king. All he wanted to do was go home. He was banished after Nia killed Lexa’s previous lover. Lexa had the foresight or whatever to be able to tell Nia she could join her coalition because it’s good for everyone, but she had to banish her son in order to feel her pain. Being king now will change him in interesting ways.
Are there sparks between Clarke and Roan?
I don’t like love triangles really, so I try to avoid them as much as possible. We did them in the beginning and they work sometimes. But no, I don’t think that’s happening. There was a story we were playing with that Roan wants to get home to his true love who he’s been banished from, but I think that’s kind of fallen by the wayside just out of necessity because there’s too much story to tell.
Is this the last we’ve seen of the Night Blood girl?
It becomes a very, very important story going forward. That’s its introduction. We like to turn the heat up slowly. That’s a concept that becomes more important as the other stories form.
Now that Jaha knows the City of Lights has an immortality to it, is he starting to question it?
We do begin to see Jaha spreading the City of Light as a place. It’s almost religion, a place that he believes is better where there is no death or pain. It becomes a bigger and bigger part of the show going forward. The first half of the season, it’s the subplot or the B story. It’s going to take a while for audiences to embrace it. Hopefully they do eventually because it becomes much more important later. And by the time they do, they’ll understand.
The 100 airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Who do you think will be the next casualty? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @amber_dowling
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