The 100 season 6 premiere: “Sanctum” promises a dark and difficult season for our heroes

The sixth season premiere of The 100 contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s earlier episodes, but “Sanctum” also promises darker episodes to come.

Fans of The 100 have been awaiting the sixth season premiere since Monty dropped a major twist at the end of season 5: that 125 years passed while the characters were in cryosleep, and he and Harper found a new planet for them in the meantime. Talk about a productive 125 years.

And “Sanctum” wastes no time jumping into the New World the showrunners are introducing this season. The episode opens with the major characters watching Monty’s video message to Clarke and Bellamy, and it shows them embarking for the new planet almost immediately afterward.

Their journey to the New World, holds plenty of parallels to The 100′s first season—in fact, the premiere seems to go out of its way to poke fun at the pilot episode of the show. When the exploratory team lands, they wonder whether anyone has anything better to say this time around other than the iconic “We’re back, bitches!”

Murphy also dives into the water for fun, a moment that’s reminiscent of Octavia’s near-fatal dip during the very first episode. And, of course, it just wouldn’t be The 100 without all of the characters ragging on Clarke for her past mistakes.

But as much as “Sanctum” resembles the show’s first season, it definitely has a more mature feeling to it than the earlier episodes do. A shift in tone makes sense, especially given that this season marks what showrunner Jason Rothenberg refers to as “Book Two,” or the next chapter, of the series. And season 6 wastes no time diving into difficult subject matter—whether its the lingering tensions between characters, the dangers of the new planet, or even killing off characters unexpectedly.

That’s right, we’re only one episode into this season and we’ve already lost someone. Zeke Shaw, Diyoza’s trusted pilot and Raven’s new love interest, perishes midway through the premiere, the result of a run-in with a radiation fence the exploratory team discovers while wandering around the new planet.

Shaw’s death is probably the most shocking moment of the episode because, while The 100 isn’t afraid to kill off characters, it usually doesn’t do it quite so abruptly. And although Rothenberg explained that the decision to kill Shaw off was primarily due to actor Jordan Bolger’s other acting commitments, the scene still sets an unsettling precedent for the rest of the season.

Plus, Shaw may not be the only character we’re forced to say farewell to early on this season. Fans knew that Abby would revive Kane from watching the season 6 trailer, but no one could have predicted that a verbal confrontation with Octavia Blake would render him in critical condition only minutes later. (Niylah had one job.) 

Abby seems determined to bring him back again, even if she needs to return him to cryosleep to do it, but the hopeless looks in the other characters’ eyes don’t bode well for his chances of survival.

John Murphy—who has lost none of his sass while in cryosleep—might also be in trouble during the second episode. “Sanctum” ends with the exploratory team finding a children’s book about the dangers of the sun eclipsing, officially introducing the audience to the eclipse-induced psychosis mentioned in the trailers.

And just as they realize that this book might be a warning (because the abandoned buildings with restraints chained to the walls apparently weren’t foreboding enough), Emori snaps and begins stabbing Murphy for annoying her with his singing and dancing.

Luckily, the others appear to pull Emori off of him before she can do too much damage. But with the eclipse coming on, it’s only a matter of time until the rest of them begin having similar impulses. Clarke’s exclamation that “it’s in the air” is worrisome, especially for a bunch of characters who already have enough pent-up emotions they can barely control. Add in the fact that their spaceship—and only means of escape—was stolen while they explored their new home, and the sixth season is already promising plenty of obstacles for our heroes.

The 100 airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.