Why Is ‘The 100’ a Rerun Tonight? When Does It Return?

The CW

If you tuned in to watch The 100 tonight, then you’re going to get an unwelcome surprise. Instead of Season 5 Episode 7, you’ll be greeted by a rerun episode playing on The CW. What happened to The 100‘s new episode and when will it return? Why is the show taking another break so soon after the last hiatus that was just  a couple weeks ago?

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing a new episode of The 100 tonight. Tonight, Season 5 Episode 2, “The Red Queen,” is airing an encore (fancy word for “rerun”) episode instead. You’re not imagining things. We are on a hiatus again. But you won’t have to wait long until a new episode premieres. Season 5 Episode 7 will air next week on June 19.

The CW hasn’t announced an official reason why we don’t have a new episode tonight, but there are a couple different possibilities. The show’s absence this week is likely due to planning for July Sweeps. Yes, the World Cup is also happening, which might be playing some kind of role, except it’s not airing today at the same time as The 100. There don’t appear to be any major events happening tonight that would compete with the show. And nothing major is airing on The CW tonight either, just a rerun of The 100.

So more than likely, the decision to take a hiatus has to do with July Sweeps. The CW often builds hiatuses strategically into its series to make sure they can take advantage of sweeps. Last year The CW put The 100 on a three-week break in April because of Sweeps. Typically the season ends before July Sweeps happens, but because the show started later this year, The CW will actually be able to air the show during summer sweeps, which is June 28-July 26. The CW likely wants to make sure they air some of their best episodes during July Sweeps.

The last episode of The 100 has only continued to fan the flames of fans’ theory that Octavia is going to end up being the new “big bad” in the series. One fan had even called that theory way back in episode 2 of this season. And yet, Octavia reacted surprisingly well to Madi’s revelation. When Madi defied Clarke and revealed her Night Blood origins to Octavia, Octavia didn’t kill her. Instead they made a blood oath, and now Madi is under Octavia’s protection. In fact, Octavia intends to train Madi, which was a surprising decision.

But Octavia did order her people to shoot everyone who fled Wonkru in order to join the prison ship, except for Echo. A few people survived, and in a way it makes sense that Octavia felt no one would believe Echo’s escape if it didn’t look real. But still, some fans are wondering how much of Octavia’s decision are needed to survive in such a harsh world, versus how many might be indicating that she’s turning evil.

Next week’s episode, which is new, is called “Acceptable Losses.” The summary reads: “Clarke and Bellamy make a startling discovery about Wonkru’s battle plans as Echo risks her friendship with Raven to complete her mission.”

It’s already being reported that next season is going to be 13 episodes long, which is a disappointment to some fans who wanted a longer season. However, other fans point out that this means we won’t have any dreaded “filler” episodes. But honestly, it’s pretty entertaining to watch survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, so I personally can’t imagine a “filler” episode of The 100 that I wouldn’t enjoy watching, at the very least for the character development even if the plot wasn’t advanced in a major way.