11 Things to Expect From The 100's Insanely Awesome Season 2 Premiere

Executive producer Jason Rothenberg dishes on all the jaw-dropping, dark and thrilling action

By Sydney Bucksbaum Oct 22, 2014 2:00 PMTags
The 100, Eliza Taylor, Raymond J. Barry Cate Cameron/The CW

If you thought that white room reveal at the end of The 100's season one premiere was mind-blowing, you haven't seen anything yet.

We were oh-so-lucky to watch the first three episodes of season two in advance of tonight's jaw-dropping premiere (Yeah, try to contain your jealousy, people. Just try.), and let's just say that if you thought season one was action-packed and dark and brutal, this season, it's taking it to a whole new level.

But in keeping with the now-famous mantra of The 100 executive producer Jason Rothenberg—aka #nospoilers—we're not going to spill on who made it safely to season two alive. You'll have to watch the episode to find out that scoop. But we can bring you 11 things you can expect from the epic hour from our lengthy chat with The 100 boss himself to tide you over until 9 p.m. tonight! Then check back here for a postmortem on all the juicy drama after the episode airs.

Cate Cameron/The CW

1. Unlike season one, this season wastes no time getting to the action. In The 100's smash hit first season, it took about three or four episodes to really get to the good stuff and become the groundbreaking show it is now. Trust us when we say that isn't the case this season. "I actually think that the first three episodes of this year are way stronger than last year's first three episodes," Rothenberg told us. "The show is off and running right away right from where season one left off, and it felt right to pick right back up literally in that white room teaser. It's moments after the finale ended last year. But then the first act literally picks up with somebody, who shall remain nameless, running his ass off through the woods."

2. The adults from the Ark are going to assume they're the leaders on the ground instead of the 100. Now that "mom and dad are home," they're going to ruffle some feathers. "Here comes mom and dad and all the people from the Ark and we'll find them judging what the 100 have done on the ground negatively," Rothenberg said. "They're like, ‘There's not very many of you left. And yet you started this war?'"

3. The white room will be explained very quickly. Like we said, this show is wasting no time giving us answers to questions we've had all summer long. "We will understand Mount Weather, and who the Reapers are, how they got like that, and we'll understand the Grounders way more than we do currently, mainly through Lincoln and Octavia who take us into that world pretty intensely," Rothenberg said. And most of that is in the first episode alone! This show, man. So good.

Cate Cameron/The CW

4. Season two is about reunions. And we'll get some surprising ones and new relationships formed in the premiere. "There's a lot of emotional reunions coming down the pike which I'm really excited about," Rothenberg said. "Plus we get to put characters together in all these different situations that haven't interacted before, and that's been really fun to write."

5. You won't have to wonder about some characters' fates for much longer. Within the first 10 minutes of the premiere, fans will find out if Bellamy, Finn and Raven are alive or dead or somewhere in between. And if you think you can predict who survived and who didn't, you. Are. Wrong. Seriously, we were ready to head to Vegas with our bets and it's a good thing we didn't.

6. Get ready to feel sorry for...Murphy?!? Yes, everyone's least favorite member of the 100 is about to steal your heart, and that's exactly what Rothenberg wanted. "It's all about moral complexity," Rothenberg said. "There are no straight-up villains and there are no straight-up heroes. Our heroes do things that are quite awful sometimes and we'll see that more and more this season. Our bad guys are real and it was important to me as we sat down to write the premiere, one of the things over the summer that I started to realize was that I don't think we nailed Murphy. Richard Harmon is such a gifted actor and he's always the arch-douchebag. I wanted to, not humanize him, necessarily, but for people to understand why and how he got that way."

Cate Cameron/The CW

7. Octavia and Lincoln might not get to the sea as quickly as they expected. Although Lincoln planned on taking Octavia to another clan of Grounders at the sea, her injury from the season one finale battle will slow them down and lead him to make some decisions that Octavia won't be happy with...for good reason!

8. Yup, the Reapers are going to haunt our dreams for the foreseeable future. Get ready to finally get a nice close-up of what a Reaper's face looks like. And then get ready to have all of the nightmares. You've been warned.

9. Clarke will not stop being a badass, and we love her for it. No matter what, Clarke will always fight to keep her people safe. We saw that all throughout season one, and we'll see that in season two. This is one girl you do not want to mess with. You hear that, Grounders, Reapers and people of Mount Weather?

10. We'll meet the leader of the Mountain Men. Dante may seem like a kindly old man who likes to paint and wants the best for everyone. But looks can be deceiving.

11. There's a "white room"-esque twist at the very end of the premiere, but we won't tease who it's about. Or what it's about. #Nospoilers, but oh. My. God. You're going to scream. We certainly did. This show.

The 100 season two premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on the CW.