Just in case you thought that perhaps The 100's newest apocalypse couldn't possibly be that bad, allow us to direct you to the end of tonight's premiere.
As we watched some poor girl on the other side of the world burn alive, suddenly Clarke's (Eliza Taylor) determination to survive the impending onslaught of radiation sounded a little less brave and lot more impossible. We all knew fire was bad, but that fire was really, really bad. Executive producer Jason Rothenberg wanted to include that scene because he wanted us to know just how bad this fire really is.
"We needed to put the monster in the water," Rothenberg tells E! News. "We needed the audience to see what was coming for our heroes."
Thanks, we guess, for that horrifying imagery. According to what Alie said at the end of season three, the full meltdown of all of Earth's remaining nuclear power plants is still about six months away, but that obviously doesn't make it less of a problem.
"It's way on the other side of the world right now, but it's making its way towards our heroes," Rothenberg says. "Every second of every day its getting closer, and really, this entire season could have a clock on it. I think the ticking clock is something that will never be too far from the front burner, because they have six months, and then they have two months, and then they have two days, and then they have two seconds, and then it comes."
It also doesn't sound like we'll have to wait the full six months for the radiation to start taking effect.
"From beginning to end, we feel that, and it's harder and harder to breathe, and it's harder and harder to live, and it's harder and harder to escape the reality that this death wave is coming as the season progresses," Rothenberg tells us.
Season four will continue a few of the issues in season three, like power struggles among the clans and what the flame actually means now (as we saw in tonight's premiere), but the primary issue is the end of the world, which will, most likely, coincide with the end of the season.
"That was sort of the bigger plan for the season: one story, told from beginning to end," Rothenberg tells us.
So basically, if this season could just never end, that would be great!
The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on the CW.