‘The 100’ Series Finale Review: Mixed Emotions about the Bittersweet Ending

The CW

The series finale of The 100 just ended, and I’m still struggling with some mixed emotions about the bittersweet ending. There were some plot holes and some disappointing moments. There were some sweet moments. But I can’t decide if the ends justify the means. How about you?

This article has major spoilers for the series finale. 

Sheidheda Had Too Much Plot Armor

Sheidheda had way too much plot armor and shouldn’t have lived long enough to create all the mayhem that he did at the end, almost costing humanity’s opportunity at transcendence. I still don’t understand why Clarke didn’t kill him back when Bellamy was threatening to give him Madi’s book. It would have been the easier and more obvious play. Or when Indra had a chance to kill him but didn’t, deciding she would let the poisoned air kill him instead. Or when Clarke made a deal with him so that she could try to save Madi. None of that makes any sense. Sheidheda clearly can’t be trusted and he’s clearly evil. Acting as they normally would, any of these characters would have killed him earlier to remove him as a threat.

Then there’s the matter of his having The Flame’s memories too. Were we ever given a reason why Madi had the “key” memories from Becca while Sheidheda didn’t, even though timeline-wise he was closer to when that occurred? I don’t get why Sheidheda’s memories weren’t probed before Madi’s, since he’s the easier “kill.” But really, the Dark Commander shouldn’t have even lived that long.

Bellamy Suffered the Worst Fate of All Because He Was Right

I had always written off Bellamy’s falling for Cadogan’s cult religion as part of his personality flaw. Bellamy always has this tendency to follow flawed-but-strong leaders. (Remember Pike?) I also never understood why he saw all those transcended beings and didn’t immediately suspect an AI at work, much light ALIE’s City of Light. I chalked that up to Bellamy being really worn down by living an apocalyptic life for so long by the time he saw the descended beings.

But as it turns out, Bellamy was right. Transcendence was real. Bellamy was not wrong. But Clarke killed Bellamy for it, and now he doesn’t even get to transcend. It’s really not fair. (By the way, I’m guessing Bellamy’s mom appearing to him is just an indication that the alien lifeform appeared to him in the form of his mom? Because there’s no way his mom was able to transcend.)

Murphy’s Decision at the Very End Didn’t Make Sense

Now let’s look at how it ended. Clark was not allowed to transcend, which made sense in a way (though in another way, it seemed unfair.) Now she’s on a beautiful, lush Earth with her dog, Picasso. I almost expected to see some human survivors there, a new “100” group that Clarke would restart the human race with. Instead, we learn that some of the people from her own crew are there. As it turns out, they decided they did not want to transcend after all. But the cost is that they will grow old and die (and not transcend later), and they can’t have kids.

The confusing part to me was seeing Murphy and Emori there. Murphy has evolved and grown a lot, but he really didn’t seem to have the personality type that would choose to give up immortality just to spend a few last years with his friends, knowing they were ultimately safe anyway.

Isn’t This Essentially Just the City of Light?

Remember when everyone fought so hard not to be caught in the City of Light? They basically could live forever in the City of Light, without pain or sadness. They had to give up all their memories of past pain to get there and subjugate themselves to ALIE. But is this transcendence really that different? They’re becoming a part of a greater consciousness rather than being individuals anymore. Some might argue that at least with the aliens they had a choice, but did they truly? They can’t even procreate if they choose not to transcend. The human race has died.

The Aliens Were Kind of Out of Left Field

Are we still certain the aliens weren’t another kind of Becca-led AI? I mean, we never encountered aliens before on this series. To have them suddenly appear at the end feels a bit deus ex machina to me. No, they didn’t save everyone — they pretty much ended humanity instead. But it would have made more sense if we found out they were some kind of highly advanced AI.

The ending tied everything up — I can’t complain about loose ends. And it was a very beautiful ending too. But it was also quite bittersweet and dark in a Childhood’s End type of way.

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