The 100's Series Finale Will Change Everything

When the end comes, it will change how everyone felt about the beginning and the middle. 

Alongside showrunner Jason Rothenberg, a number of cast members from the CW's post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama The 100 virtually reunited for a pre-recorded Comic-Con@Home panel that aired on Sunday, July 26, 2020. The series' appearance at this year's pop culture convention largely centered on what's ahead for The 100 season 7 — and during the discussion, Rothenberg revealed how the final episode has the potential to change everything fans previously felt about The 100.

"The ending of a story is the moral of that story, and we really wanted to say something with this season — which I think, when people do get to the end and they see how the story ends, they'll perhaps come to look at the whole series differently," he stated. "We were not just saying [that] people are awful and would do anything to protect their loved ones and kill anybody who's taking their stuff, which is unfortunately a big part of human nature. We're kind of making more of a statement about that — without getting into too many details because I don't want to ruin it."

The showrunner also shared that the remaining episodes of The 100's final season, which will return to the CW with episode 10 on August 5, will continue to answer questions raised throughout past seasons. "We definitely started this season wanting to make sure we didn't leave anything on the field, meaning there were certain unanswered questions over the seasons that we wanted to answer," said Rothenberg. 

As far as what exactly will happen on the series finale of The 100, there's no telling as of right now since the show could go in a number of different directions before reaching its conclusion. The broader truth that permeates the uncertainty, though, is that The 100 is going to conclude precisely the way that Rothenberg and the show's creative team want it to. "It'll be our version of a happy ending," Rothenberg said of season 7 in an August 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly. 

Since The 100's cast and crew constantly operated under the knowledge that the show could at any moment be canceled, Rothenberg and the writer's room had to ensure that every single season finale could work as a series finale as well. He explained, "We legitimately were on the bubble and were always trying to engineer something that could possibly be a series-ender and a season-ender, you know? I have for a while known thematically and [...] in a general way what I want the ending to be. I knew what I wanted it to feel like, I knew what I wanted it to say. But it was about getting some assurances from the network that I could actually tell the story when I wanted to."

Now, that time has come. Rothenberg told the outlet that The 100 will wrap up the way it was meant to — no rushing, no pressure, and nothing left unanswered or unsaid. "Getting to end on our terms, it's a rare thing," he said. "I'm grateful for it, for sure."

The 100 season 7 returns on August 5 on the CW.