The 100 Season Finale Review: “We Are Grounders – Part 2” (Season 1, Episode 13)

Warning. The season one finale of The 100, “We Are Grounders – Part 2,” may have just blown your mind.

Like most shows, the first season is merely an introduction period. You meet the characters, and the characters meet some sort of challenge that seems really ultimate and life changing, but eventually will be overshadowed by whatever is coming next. In hindsight, the characters will look back at the first season problems and wish they could go back to those simpler times. The characters who survived the battle with the grounders probably have already reached that point.

The writers pulled a fast ball on fans in the beginning of the episode when they tricked viewers into thinking that the 100 were actually going to make it more than 500 yards out of camp. Bravo. But that’s not the only surprise that The 100 had in store for us tonight. Both on the ground and up in space, the story gave way to heroism, blossoming relationships, and was a testament to the value behind maintaining grace under pressure.

There’s never been any doubt that the main characters on this show have guts, but tonight we saw them put everything they had on the table in two very different life and death situations. In space, Chancellor Jaha (Isaiah Washington) made the righteous decision to go down with the ship after there was a malfunction at take off. For a moment it looked like Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) was going to have that honor, but this choice makes much more sense. Kane is a character that has shown tremendous growth over the course of the season. Imagine what he could do with more time. Jaha, on the other hand, has remained more stagnant. He started off as a firm but fair leader, and he will go out the same way.

Now that Abby (Paige Turco) and Kane have landed on Earth, they’ll have their work cut out for them finding the missing teens. At least one of the other space stations definitely didn’t make the trip, but my best guess is that only the one we saw at the end survived the trip. The better questions is what will they do when they find the drop ship and what’s left of the camp? I doubt the soldiers stopped to clean the place up before they hauled any survivors off to quarantine.