'The 100' EP Jason Rothenberg Answers Your Burning Finale Questions! (Spoilers!)

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!

Tonight’s second-part finale of The 100 left us utterly speechless.

Between Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and Bellamy’s (Bob Morley) decision to use radiation to kill all the Mountain Men – including Maya! (Eve Harlow) – and her gunshot to Dante’s chest, it was a finale full of surprises all around.

Not to mention, Clarke decided to pack her bags and head out on her own, while Jaha (Isaiah Washington) and Murphy (Richard Harmon) both encountered clues to what happened to life on Earth 97 years ago.

JJJ caught up with executive producer Jason Rothenberg who answered some of our burning questions and gave us a preview of what’s to come in season three!

JustJaredJr.com: Let’s talk about Clarke first. She’s had to make some really tough and not-so-popular decisions this season for the sake of her people. And now she’s leaving. Tell us about her journey and where she’s headed!

Jason Rothenberg: There are two really big decisions, right? The first of course is the decision to pull the lever and kill everyone in Mount Weather to save her people. And the second, as a result of that and really everything she’s had to do since she’s been on the ground, to just break away and get away from it all. For me, the season has always been about…I knew going into the season that Clarke was going to have to do something so horrible – although it was going to achieve her goal of saving her friends – ultimately, in the victory of that, she wouldn’t be able to celebrate. She wouldn’t feel relief, or happiness, or excitement. She was going to have to be pushed so far and so dark in order to get it done. The result is that is, at the end of this episode, when everyone is walking into the gates, she refuses to go. She was unable to be reminded of what she’s had to do by looking at their faces every day. It’s probably the first selfish thing Clarke’s done since we’ve known her. And I think she’s earned that on some level. In season three, we will find her out there in the world – whether she’s just on a walkabout, just sort of Rambo-style living in a cabin in the words, or whether we find her on some type of other course or mission, we need to wait and see. But it’s a very real choice for her to break away from these people and go off.

Click inside to read the rest of our interview with Jason Rothenberg…

JustJaredJr.com Interview – Jason Rothenberg

JJJ: Do you think there was any residual guilt or hurt after being betrayed by Lexa?

JR: I don’t know. I don’t think so. Strangely, though her heart was broken and she was absolutely betrayed and feels awful about it, and probably on some level is going to want revenge for it, she also understands it. Lexa did what she had to do to save her people and there was a horrible cost to it. But Clarke did what she had to do to save her people and there was a horrible cost to do. Dante did what he had to do to save his people by telling Cage to make that deal, proposing the idea to kill the Grounders. It essentially worked. The death of the 44 kids that he tried to protect. The whole season was about pushing people to those decisions and seeing how far they would go to save their people. And I think at the end of the day, all three of those decisions are totally understandable – if you’re looking at the story from the perspective of those characters. We care about Clarke. She’s our hero and we’re telling the story through her.

JJJ: Talk about Bellamy and Clarke’s last scene. These are two characters that have become good allies and obviously, there’s a huge fan base for them romantically too. How important was it to have that scene, and also the one with him helping her push that lever to kill all the Mountain Men?

JR: Important. Bellamy and Clarke are the leaders of the kids, certainly of The 100. They are two of our heroes. And they’re a team. They compliment each other. They complete each other. I think they both realize now that they are indispensable to the other. Getting them back together to sort of finish the job was important, for sure. And Bellamy’s gesture there to put his hand on top of hers and do it together – in some way take on the burden that he knew Clarke would be taking on in that moment � was certainly something that was important for him to do. I think Clarke appreciates it, but I don’t think it lessens anything in Clarke’s mind. I don’t think he takes half the burden and suddenly it feels half as bad to her. But certainly the bond, at some point in the future, that will serve to deepen their connection, for sure. Once they have time to process this.

JJJ: And poor Jasper! He’s grown so much this season and now he’s lost Maya. How will he cope with the loss? Will we see a different Jasper when we come back?

JR: He has grown so much. This season has been a coming of age for Jasper. It’s cost us on some level as fans � you know, I’m a fan of Devin [Bostick] and the character just like the audience is � and he was so fun-loving and happy-go-lucky, and obviously in some ways he’s been forced to lose that. I hope he can get it back. I think he probably will, but his heart is broken. Everything he’s had to do, he’s become a hero in his own right. He kept those people together, almost single-handedly. Monty was huge also, of course. But Jasper was sort of the driving force in keeping together when they lost Clarke this season inside Mount Weather, giving them a reason to continue. And yet, at the end, he feels betrayed. I don’t think that will be something he gets over very quickly. So it will certainly make for good material between him and Monty, and he and Bellamy, and he and Clarke in fact.

JJJ: As for the end of the episode, Jaha finds that robot woman who has nuclear missiles and Murphy finds a bunker that once belonged to a man who killed himself because of those missiles. We are so confused! What can you tell us about that?

JR: It’s hard to say whether that’s a good development or a bad development. It’s safe to say it’s probably not a good one. But I don’t want to definitively say that yet. What they found was the cause for the end of the world. There are enough bread crumbs there to lead you to the conclusion that A.L.I.E., this AI, is responsible for launching the bombs that ended the world. Of course, that’s not the way it looked for the people on the Ark who were watching their world get blown up � or I just say for the people on various space stations 97 years ago. I hope to tell the story of how all that went down in more detail in season three. And that guy in the bunker is in some ways related to that AI and in some ways he blames himself, and the guilt that leads to his suicide in the video Murphy was watching. He says, “She did it, but it was my fault.” He feels guilty about the end of the world. And then we meet her, who is unlike anything we’ve seen in the world of the show. And that’s what we try to do. I love the fact that season three now promises to be different from season two, like season two was from season one. The story of A.L.I.E., and what she is? And what does she want. And how is she there still? All of these questions will be answered.

JJJ: Lastly, we’re been loving the Wick and Raven relationship these past few episodes. Please tell us he’s sticking around!

JR: Yes. We love him too. Steve Talley is great. He brings the whole energy�you know we lost Jasper as comic relief in many ways as I’ve said before, but Steve Talley, Wick really brings a similar sort of lightness. And of course, in this episode we see him in a different way. But yeah, that’s a real relationship. Raven, in episode 15, finally admitted her own sort of�we all need help and she asked him not to leave her there. And that was a big moment for her. And he of course says, “I’m never leaving you.” That’s a relationship we’ll definitely continue going forward. I hope for our sake Steve doesn’t get a pilot and disappear into another show (laughs). He’s so good.