Ranked: The 15 Saddest Deaths on CW’s The 100

7. The Culling

The Culling in “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” is our last mass death on the list, but it’s the first one on the show and the only one of its kind. It’s also very difficult to talk about without getting teary.

See, in season one, much of the Ark’s plot hinged on the storyline that the space station was running out of oxygen. It’s the entire reason the delinquents were sent to Earth to see if the planet was a viable means of escaping their fate. The problem, however, is the Ark Council didn’t believe in transparency because they feared a revolt by the public.

Kane and Jaha planned to quietly kill the Arkers in one section by shutting off the oxygen while they slept. This way they could claim that it was a tragic accident without having to tell their people that they have to cull 320 members of the station in order to give themselves more time to find a solution to the decreasing oxygen levels in the Ark.

Unable to let this happen, Abby releases the video of her husband, Jake, talking about the oxygen shortage. He’d been executed in his attempt to tell his people what was going on. But instead of mass hysteria, people volunteered to give up their lives to give their loved ones more time.

320 Arkers made the ultimate sacrifice in a selfless act to save their people. The Culling is the only time in The 100 where a mass death was done willingly in order to save others. It’s the one point in the series where faith in the capability of selflessness in humanity is given space to be believed in without cynicism and with overwhelming proof.