The 100: Why It Should’ve Ended With Season 5 (& Why Season 7 Was The Better Ending)

Season five acted as the end of Book One on The 100. The fifth season was a culmination of emotion after spending six years waiting to be reunited. However, things did not go as anyone hoped. No one was expecting Eligius prisoners to appear and create more conflict. Still, season five does an impressive job of flipping the script, turning Skaikru into Grounders for a season that is eerily similar to the first season. But, this time, the stakes are higher with only one piece of survivable land.

But, season seven’s job was to wrap up the story. The final installment of episodes needed the main characters to deal with their biggest antagonist yet: extinction. Humanity itself was on the line with Cadogan wanting to open the door for transcendence. While the show ended in strong fashion in some ways in others, it would’ve made more sense to wrap up in season five.

10 Season 5: Clarke And Bellamy’s Relationship

After six years apart, Clarke and Bellamy have an emotional reunion. It is clear that they have missed each other and are thankful to see the other alive. After opening the bunker, Clarke and Bellamy face conflicts as years apart prove their priorities have changed. Having Clarke and Bellamy on opposing sides was nothing new to the story, as the duo has bounced between being a team and not agreeing since they met. Still, the finale gives their relationship a much happier ending.

Clarke and Bellamy have forgiven each other for their past actions and decide to move forward as a team. In the last moments of the season, Clarke and Bellamy look out over their new home together, and it looks like things will become happier for them.

9 Season 7: Raven Understands The Hard Choice

Raven spent a lot of time judging Clarke for her choices, so it was intriguing to watch Raven handle a similar situation. She must live with knowing she had let people die for the sake of the many. Raven is emotional about it and doesn’t like that she was responsible for so many deaths.

However, this was a moment that needed to happen for Raven to stop judging Clarke so harshly. It also gives Raven a better perspective when it came to trying to save humanity.

8 Season 5: Hopeful Note

Clarke and Bellamy’s relationship isn’t the only part of season five that holds a hopeful feeling. Clarke and Bellamy awaken to a new world with Earth destroyed and Jordan Jasper Green. Even with how horrible things had become, such an ending gives a feeling that things can and will get better with time.

Octavia had given up control of Wonkru to Madi and understood she had made mistakes. While it would not answer everything, such a finale would give fans the chance to fill in the blanks on their own regarding their new habitable environment.

7 Season 7: Octavia’s Redemption

Octavia does have a brief moment of redemption during “Damocles Part 2” when she sacrifices herself for Wonkru. She survives the encounter, but things between Octavia and everyone else are still shaky. Season seven gives Octavia a chance for the redemption she deserved.

Octavia spent years on Skyring with Diyoza and Hope, unwinding from years of fighting and learning how to live in peace. She understood that fighting wasn’t the answer and that as the Disciples and Wonkru were all that was left, they shouldn’t have a war with all that remained of humanity.

6 Season 5: Earth

Something season five gets right is keeping the main location on Earth. The show held a massive conflict over the only survivable land on the planet. Praimfaya had changed Earth so much that it was an entirely new landscape, so areas that everyone would’ve usually been familiar with had dramatically changed, leaving only Clarke Griffin with extensive knowledge of how the world had changed.

Season seven chooses to expand beyond Sanctum. The final episodes visit Skyring, Etherea, Nakara, and Bardo before revealing Earth had been reborn. There are so many locations it is harder to keep up.

5 Season 7: Clarke’s Relationships With Raven And Octavia

Clarke has very complicated relationships with Raven and Octavia. While each dynamic began friendly enough, they each morphed into something far less kind. They became relationships out of necessity and experience rather than genuine friendship. They had all been through so much together that they were practically linked for life. However, season seven allows previous grudges to dissolve.

On Skyring, Octavia describes Clarke as her family to Hope. The two also have a conversation about how Octavia understands Clarke so much more after raising Hope. Meanwhile, Raven and Clarke’s friendship, which seemed reconciled at the end of season six, continues to play out strongly throughout the seventh season.

4 Season 5: Leaving Some Things Unresolved Is Ok

Season seven held many questions, specifically about the Anomaly, Anomaly Stones, Disciples, and life on Bardo. That was in addition to unresolved questions about the series as a whole. Season five held some unresolved details as well, but given how it was handled in the following season, fans likely would’ve been fine with not receiving direct answers.

Kane’s state of life does not look good when everyone goes into cryosleep. Still, he wakes up in the following season only to go back into cryosleep for several episodes before waking up in someone else’s body for the Prime storyline, then dies that same episode. None of that was necessary, and while Kane’s fate would have been upsetting, it would’ve been less complicated than the way it resolved. Even when Kane dies, it is a short emotional moment before being overshadowed by Abby’s death a few episodes later.

3 Season 7: Murphy The Leader

One of the more unexpected moves was turning John Murphy into a leader. Murphy was always a cockroach or a creature of chaos, so giving him a position of ensuring peace among multiple different groups was an exciting change. What makes it better is how Murphy succeeds at it and his devotion to protecting the people, especially the children, from the danger Sheidheda brings.

Murphy’s relationships with Emori and Indra are essential to the storyline, and it even shows him step up for Madi when she panics at having to return to the role of Heda.

2 Season 5: The Sanctum Setting

Sanctum is a vastly different experience than Earth. Given how Sanctum only plays a major role for two seasons, it feels almost unnecessary. Sanctum had the potential to be intriguing, but by removing nearly every main character from Sanctum in the seventh season, and how the pacing became problematic due to flashbacks and time moving at different speeds, the entire thing just became too much.

Had the series ended in season five, Sanctum would’ve been a nameless, uncertain but exciting possibility for the future.

1 Season 7: Ending On Good Terms

Even if things didn’t end quite the way viewers expected or hoped, there’s always something pleasant about the main characters ending the series on good terms. This is an area that season five would not have succeeded in. Clarke and Octavia were on bad terms with nearly everyone, and relationships were barely hanging on by a thread.

Seasons six and seven gave time to heal and fix broken relationships. In the final moments, everyone appears happy to be together and willing to spend the rest of their lives as a group.

About The Author

Lindsay Press
(274 Articles Published)

Lindsay Press is a freelance writer. As a graduate of SUNY Purchase College with a degree in Screenwriting and Playwriting, Lindsay has loved television shows and movies since childhood. In addition, she loves to create stories and enjoys dystopian futures, teen drama, and fantasy worlds.

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