Interview form TVLine with Jason Rothenberg:
TVLINE | That was not how I was expecting the finale to end. It’s going to be a completely different show next season.
In many ways, it will be, for sure. Obviously the Ark is on the ground now, for the most part, so we don’t have that to cut back to. But we will have Mount Weather, which will function — certainly aesthetically or energetically — in a similar way. We’ll cut back and forth between the exploding-with-life wilderness to this claustrophobic, airless, dying world inside the mountain. We’re also exploring the world much more completely in Season 2, as opposed to just staying in the perspective of the 100, who know almost nothing about the world. Lincoln and Octavia take us into the Grounder world; Clark, Monty and the other 47 people in the drop ship take us to Mount Weather; and everybody else is trying to find those people.
TVLINE | That would be Abby, Kane and the rest of the Ark residents?
Oh, we’re definitely going to deal with what happens when mom and dad show up at the party.
In many ways, it will be, for sure. Obviously the Ark is on the ground now, for the most part, so we don’t have that to cut back to. But we will have Mount Weather, which will function — certainly aesthetically or energetically — in a similar way. We’ll cut back and forth between the exploding-with-life wilderness to this claustrophobic, airless, dying world inside the mountain. We’re also exploring the world much more completely in Season 2, as opposed to just staying in the perspective of the 100, who know almost nothing about the world. Lincoln and Octavia take us into the Grounder world; Clark, Monty and the other 47 people in the drop ship take us to Mount Weather; and everybody else is trying to find those people.
TVLINE | That would be Abby, Kane and the rest of the Ark residents?
Oh, we’re definitely going to deal with what happens when mom and dad show up at the party.
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Interview from TV After Dark with Rothenberg:
TV After Dark – There were so many moments in the finale we’d consider jaw-dropping, but nothing seemed more devastating than the explosion that may have ended Finn and Bellamy’s life. Is there a chance these two survived and are happily swapping war stories over a campfire somewhere?
Jason Rothenberg – Is there a chance that they survived? Of course there is a chance that they survived. There’s also a chance that they didn’t survive. But yeah, if you think about it, they knew what was coming so maybe they ran.
Trust Murphy to be the reason The Grounders were picking the 100 off like flies. He’s like a cockroach that just refuses to die. Is there redemption for someone like him, do you think?
Well there may be redemption in the long run for someone like him, but he would have to go through some serious abuse before he got to that. I mean he’d have to really, really earn his redemption. But you know he doesn’t, like, I think it’s fairly clear that he does not die in the finale. So I think it’s safe to say that the cockroach will scuttle away and return again to fight another day.
In a way, it always felt like Jaha would be the one left behind on the Ark. What was it like deciding his fate? Did you know from the start this would be how he’d meet his end?
No, you know, I didn’t know when you say from the start, I didn’t know from the start that we were going to be bringing the Ark down, let alone how that would happen. I knew I’d be bringing the Ark down eventually but I didn’t think it would be at the end of Season 1, when I started Season 1. Round the middle of the season as we were breaking the story to the writer’s room, one of our writers Bruce Miller, suggested that we do that in the finale. I didn’t know at the beginning of the season that that’s how that story would play out. I definitely (as we were breaking it) it came to me that it would be really kind of nice, it would have nice resonance if he were sort of like Moses who delivered his people to the promised land but didn’t get in himself, or of course, the captain going down – or in this case, staying up – with his ship. All that made really good sense to me, and it sets us up I think, it put him in a really hard place as we begin Season 2. I had to talk to Isaiah Washington before he read the script because I didn’t want him to be too freaked out by what we were doing with that character.
Jason Rothenberg – Is there a chance that they survived? Of course there is a chance that they survived. There’s also a chance that they didn’t survive. But yeah, if you think about it, they knew what was coming so maybe they ran.
Trust Murphy to be the reason The Grounders were picking the 100 off like flies. He’s like a cockroach that just refuses to die. Is there redemption for someone like him, do you think?
Well there may be redemption in the long run for someone like him, but he would have to go through some serious abuse before he got to that. I mean he’d have to really, really earn his redemption. But you know he doesn’t, like, I think it’s fairly clear that he does not die in the finale. So I think it’s safe to say that the cockroach will scuttle away and return again to fight another day.
In a way, it always felt like Jaha would be the one left behind on the Ark. What was it like deciding his fate? Did you know from the start this would be how he’d meet his end?
No, you know, I didn’t know when you say from the start, I didn’t know from the start that we were going to be bringing the Ark down, let alone how that would happen. I knew I’d be bringing the Ark down eventually but I didn’t think it would be at the end of Season 1, when I started Season 1. Round the middle of the season as we were breaking the story to the writer’s room, one of our writers Bruce Miller, suggested that we do that in the finale. I didn’t know at the beginning of the season that that’s how that story would play out. I definitely (as we were breaking it) it came to me that it would be really kind of nice, it would have nice resonance if he were sort of like Moses who delivered his people to the promised land but didn’t get in himself, or of course, the captain going down – or in this case, staying up – with his ship. All that made really good sense to me, and it sets us up I think, it put him in a really hard place as we begin Season 2. I had to talk to Isaiah Washington before he read the script because I didn’t want him to be too freaked out by what we were doing with that character.
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Interview from The Hollywood Reporter with Rothenberg
Are the Mountain Men the new big bad?
The hundred have only been on the ground for several weeks and they're still relatively new to the beings with whom they share the Earth. "They know almost nothing of this world," says Rothenberg. The Grounders "started out the big bad," but as the season progressed, "we began to drop hints that, maybe, they're not so bad [and that] they have their own point of view." After Lincoln confirmed that the Grounders had more empathy than previously thought, Rothenberg said it was important for them to "steer" into a new villain. "We needed something that was the big bad," says Rothenberg. That was where the reapers, and finally the Mountain Men, came in. "We don't know fully how the groups are related," he says of the various group dynamics, though "we know that they're at war with each other."
Who was right: Bellamy, who wanted to stay at the camp, or Clarke, who wanted to leave?
One of the most interesting dynamics has been the Clarke and Bellamy dynamic, with their opposing views over how to keep everyone safe adding tension to the core group, and that's one question that will be left unanswered. As Rothenberg sees it, the "best episodes" involve conflicts factoring in the group nature. Even though they sometimes fail to see eye to eye, "Clarke and Bellamy come to an understanding of the importance of the other to the group," Rothenberg says. "[But] if there's a hierarchy, she's probably higher up."
The hundred have only been on the ground for several weeks and they're still relatively new to the beings with whom they share the Earth. "They know almost nothing of this world," says Rothenberg. The Grounders "started out the big bad," but as the season progressed, "we began to drop hints that, maybe, they're not so bad [and that] they have their own point of view." After Lincoln confirmed that the Grounders had more empathy than previously thought, Rothenberg said it was important for them to "steer" into a new villain. "We needed something that was the big bad," says Rothenberg. That was where the reapers, and finally the Mountain Men, came in. "We don't know fully how the groups are related," he says of the various group dynamics, though "we know that they're at war with each other."
Who was right: Bellamy, who wanted to stay at the camp, or Clarke, who wanted to leave?
One of the most interesting dynamics has been the Clarke and Bellamy dynamic, with their opposing views over how to keep everyone safe adding tension to the core group, and that's one question that will be left unanswered. As Rothenberg sees it, the "best episodes" involve conflicts factoring in the group nature. Even though they sometimes fail to see eye to eye, "Clarke and Bellamy come to an understanding of the importance of the other to the group," Rothenberg says. "[But] if there's a hierarchy, she's probably higher up."
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