Interview from theTVaddict with Jason Rothenberg:
This season we saw a tug-of-war for leadership between Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Clarke (Eliza Taylor), yet in the finale, that seems to be finally resolved. Why now? What’s changed so that one of them concedes their power to the other?
JASON: I wouldn’t agree fully that they conceded their power. In my mind, Bellamy and Clarke have reached an understanding, which is Clarke obviously recognizes that there are certain things that Bellamy does well that she may not do as well, and certainly Bellamy has realized what a real leader Clarke is and the real importance of Clarke to the group. I feel like in Episode 12 when she was missing, Bellamy was spinning a little bit. He was losing it. We hadn’t really seen him like that. It wasn’t a romantic loss, it was more of “we lost our figurehead” or “our queen is gone,” and when she came back, she brought with her the hope of survival on many levels. Then, of course, Clarke and Bellamy do disagree hugely at the beginning of the finale on how to proceed. Bellamy hasn’t accept her edict that they are leaving. But he is left with no choice and she pleads with him in the beginning to come because she knows how much the group needs him as well. It’s more a story of both of them realizing the importance of the other to the group.
The other curious thing I took away from this season was how these were kids that were thrown away as juvenile delinquents, thrown away to be on this poisoned planet, yet as we watched their journey through the first season, they all ultimately became leaders and heroes in their own right — which was interesting.
JASON: In a lot of ways, they go through the crucible — “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” They were fuck-ups, many of them coming into the season, and this adventure, this stress that they lived under constantly really turns them into almost a military unit. Certainly by the end that’s true. I think that’s what happens. We send kids off to die in wars and fight in wars when they are 18 years old. That’s how old most of the hundred are. So someone signs up for the military and when they’re done, they are usually mature. It changes them in many ways and I think that’s what happened. I think it’s a good analogy for what the hundred go through. We throw them into the fire. Baptism by fire.
JASON: I wouldn’t agree fully that they conceded their power. In my mind, Bellamy and Clarke have reached an understanding, which is Clarke obviously recognizes that there are certain things that Bellamy does well that she may not do as well, and certainly Bellamy has realized what a real leader Clarke is and the real importance of Clarke to the group. I feel like in Episode 12 when she was missing, Bellamy was spinning a little bit. He was losing it. We hadn’t really seen him like that. It wasn’t a romantic loss, it was more of “we lost our figurehead” or “our queen is gone,” and when she came back, she brought with her the hope of survival on many levels. Then, of course, Clarke and Bellamy do disagree hugely at the beginning of the finale on how to proceed. Bellamy hasn’t accept her edict that they are leaving. But he is left with no choice and she pleads with him in the beginning to come because she knows how much the group needs him as well. It’s more a story of both of them realizing the importance of the other to the group.
The other curious thing I took away from this season was how these were kids that were thrown away as juvenile delinquents, thrown away to be on this poisoned planet, yet as we watched their journey through the first season, they all ultimately became leaders and heroes in their own right — which was interesting.
JASON: In a lot of ways, they go through the crucible — “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” They were fuck-ups, many of them coming into the season, and this adventure, this stress that they lived under constantly really turns them into almost a military unit. Certainly by the end that’s true. I think that’s what happens. We send kids off to die in wars and fight in wars when they are 18 years old. That’s how old most of the hundred are. So someone signs up for the military and when they’re done, they are usually mature. It changes them in many ways and I think that’s what happened. I think it’s a good analogy for what the hundred go through. We throw them into the fire. Baptism by fire.
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Interview from TV Fanatic with Rothenberg:
TV Fanatic: There’s so much with the fear of the Grounders and the Reapers going into the finale, is there more behind them we should be fearing either in this finale or moving forward?
Jason Rothenberg: I would say yes, there is more behind that, for sure, and the world is complicated. One of the things we did this season was really begin to steer people’s understanding of the Grounders, which, obviously, is a term from the Ark…they don’t refer to themselves [as that]…but steer people’s perception of the Grounders from just being the big bad antagonistic force to an understanding that there’s some complexity there.
That they may, actually, be more like Lincoln than we first thought. Obviously, in the finale, they remain a huge threat but there are worse threats out there, the Reapers being one, and as the final beat of the episode indicates, the Mountain Men are the other. I mean, they may, in fact, be the worst of all.
TVF: Clarke says in the show ‘the more we learn about this place, the less we know.’ Is that basically a philosophy for the whole series not just this first season?
JR: Absolutely, yeah. One of the things in season one is to keep in mind that the kids have only been on the ground for something like 29 days. The 100’s only been there for 29 days and they know almost nothing about this world. We have been experiencing the world through their eyes, and so, as an audience, we know almost nothing. It’s not really until the beginning of episode 11, when [Clarke] tries to save that little girl, but on that journey back is when we introduce the Reapers, and it’s when we really begin to peel the layers of the onion, as it were, and in season two that continues. We really will understand this world much better in season two.
TVF: I don’t know how much you can talk to this, but will we see Monty in the final because he’s been missing for a bit?
JR: A lot of our questions will be answered in the finale about all of our characters. I think that it’s safe to say bigger questions will be asked. I don’t want to answer the question other than to say you’ll have to wait and see.
Jason Rothenberg: I would say yes, there is more behind that, for sure, and the world is complicated. One of the things we did this season was really begin to steer people’s understanding of the Grounders, which, obviously, is a term from the Ark…they don’t refer to themselves [as that]…but steer people’s perception of the Grounders from just being the big bad antagonistic force to an understanding that there’s some complexity there.
That they may, actually, be more like Lincoln than we first thought. Obviously, in the finale, they remain a huge threat but there are worse threats out there, the Reapers being one, and as the final beat of the episode indicates, the Mountain Men are the other. I mean, they may, in fact, be the worst of all.
TVF: Clarke says in the show ‘the more we learn about this place, the less we know.’ Is that basically a philosophy for the whole series not just this first season?
JR: Absolutely, yeah. One of the things in season one is to keep in mind that the kids have only been on the ground for something like 29 days. The 100’s only been there for 29 days and they know almost nothing about this world. We have been experiencing the world through their eyes, and so, as an audience, we know almost nothing. It’s not really until the beginning of episode 11, when [Clarke] tries to save that little girl, but on that journey back is when we introduce the Reapers, and it’s when we really begin to peel the layers of the onion, as it were, and in season two that continues. We really will understand this world much better in season two.
TVF: I don’t know how much you can talk to this, but will we see Monty in the final because he’s been missing for a bit?
JR: A lot of our questions will be answered in the finale about all of our characters. I think that it’s safe to say bigger questions will be asked. I don’t want to answer the question other than to say you’ll have to wait and see.
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Interview from BuddyTV with Rothenberg:
Bellamy and Clarke have very different opinions on what the group should do next. Their leadership relationship has grown immensely, where are they at going into the finale?
I think Clarke's perspective is informed hugely by what she just went through in the previous episode, in the first half of the finale, episode 12. She was with with Grounders, she's seen the world, she knows what's out there. Bellamy, for better or worse, has been hunkered down in that camp and so they have different opinions on how to handle it. And, ultimately the choice is taken away from them.
It's one of the things we did well this year was that evolving dynamic in terms of leadership between Bellamy and Clarke. One of the things that I loved the most about the show and certainly about Bellamy and Bob Morley's performance is how nuanced it is and how much he's gone from a guy who was essentially just a douche in the premiere to someone who's almost like a full on legitimate hero by the finale. So that's quite a magic trick to pull off in one season.
Likewise, I think it's interesting that Clarke started out virtuous and pure and all theoretical and now she'd gotten her hands dirty, literally has blood on her hands. In many ways, I think they're going in opposite directions and one of the things that Clarke has learned is that leadership is hard and you have to get dirty sometimes to forward the progress of the group. To keep everyone alive, some people have to die is essentially what she's learning sadly.
I think Clarke's perspective is informed hugely by what she just went through in the previous episode, in the first half of the finale, episode 12. She was with with Grounders, she's seen the world, she knows what's out there. Bellamy, for better or worse, has been hunkered down in that camp and so they have different opinions on how to handle it. And, ultimately the choice is taken away from them.
It's one of the things we did well this year was that evolving dynamic in terms of leadership between Bellamy and Clarke. One of the things that I loved the most about the show and certainly about Bellamy and Bob Morley's performance is how nuanced it is and how much he's gone from a guy who was essentially just a douche in the premiere to someone who's almost like a full on legitimate hero by the finale. So that's quite a magic trick to pull off in one season.
Likewise, I think it's interesting that Clarke started out virtuous and pure and all theoretical and now she'd gotten her hands dirty, literally has blood on her hands. In many ways, I think they're going in opposite directions and one of the things that Clarke has learned is that leadership is hard and you have to get dirty sometimes to forward the progress of the group. To keep everyone alive, some people have to die is essentially what she's learning sadly.
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Interview from zap2it with Rothenberg:
Rothenberg is extremely grateful to both White and the rest of the crew for being able to pull off the "incredible" action in the episode. "Every episode, to me, is like a little movie, and we wrote all these almost-unproducable television scenes, like movie scripts within a television show," Rothenberg says. "Our crew in Vancouver, including Dean, are all just magicians who figure out ways to actually make it happen, and the finale more than any other. The finale really is a big movie with episode 12 and 13 together."
So how did Rothenberg approach planning out such a complicated battle sequence?
"Originally we decided to use a movie like [1986 film] 'Platoon' as the model, which is a war movie where there are a bunch of American soldiers being attacked in the third act by hundreds of enemy soldiers, but you only see about five of those enemies at a time," Rothenberg says. "But you never miss that you're not seeing those other enemies. ['Platoon' director] Oliver Stone was able to show that there were hundreds of people attacking only by hearing radio signals and things like that. And that's where we began. That's what we intended to do. But little by little, we found more money and the studio was generous and the network was generous and we were able to get hundreds of extras. We had about 200 Grounders which is crazy."
So how did Rothenberg approach planning out such a complicated battle sequence?
"Originally we decided to use a movie like [1986 film] 'Platoon' as the model, which is a war movie where there are a bunch of American soldiers being attacked in the third act by hundreds of enemy soldiers, but you only see about five of those enemies at a time," Rothenberg says. "But you never miss that you're not seeing those other enemies. ['Platoon' director] Oliver Stone was able to show that there were hundreds of people attacking only by hearing radio signals and things like that. And that's where we began. That's what we intended to do. But little by little, we found more money and the studio was generous and the network was generous and we were able to get hundreds of extras. We had about 200 Grounders which is crazy."
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Interview from zap2it with Ricky Whittle:
Something that both Whittle and the fans are excited to see explored in Season 2 is the Grounder culture and history on Earth. "There is still so much of the world that we need to see and learn about," Whittle says. "We need to learn more about the Grounders and their history. Are they survivors or are they people that came down from the Ark before? Are there more dangers out there? What about the other tribes?"
Whittle continues, "Earth is a huge place and we just landed in one small area and already we've seen the Grounders and heard talk of Mountain Men. That's something that [executive producer] Jason [Rothenberg] and the writers can explore in Season 2."
Over the course of the first season, Whittle has enjoyed watching the characters on Earth evolve in massive and major ways, and he can't wait to see those change even more.
Whittle continues, "Earth is a huge place and we just landed in one small area and already we've seen the Grounders and heard talk of Mountain Men. That's something that [executive producer] Jason [Rothenberg] and the writers can explore in Season 2."
Over the course of the first season, Whittle has enjoyed watching the characters on Earth evolve in massive and major ways, and he can't wait to see those change even more.
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