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The 100: Every season of The CW’s sci-fi series, ranked

By Amanda Mullen

The 100 -- "Sanctum" -- Image Number: HUN601b_0157r.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Jordan Bolger as Shaw, Sachin Sahel as Jackson, Tasya Teles as Echo, Bob Morley as Bellamy, Eliza Taylor as Clarke and Jarod Joseph as Miller -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The 100 -- "Sanctum" -- Image Number: HUN601b_0157r.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Jordan Bolger as Shaw, Sachin Sahel as Jackson, Tasya Teles as Echo, Bob Morley as Bellamy, Eliza Taylor as Clarke and Jarod Joseph as Miller -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. /
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The 100 — “Sleeping Giants” — Image Number: HU503a_0009.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chelsey Reist as Harper, Chris Larkin as Monty, Richard Harmon as Murphy and Luisa D’Oliveira as Emori — Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
The 100 — “Sleeping Giants” — Image Number: HU503a_0009.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chelsey Reist as Harper, Chris Larkin as Monty, Richard Harmon as Murphy and Luisa D’Oliveira as Emori — Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved. /

Season 5

Octavia Blake and Charmaine Diyoza carry The 100‘s fifth season on their backs — and had their storylines been the only ones the show chose to focus on after its five-year time skip, this season might find itself much higher on this list. There’s no denying that fighting a war over the last survivable land on Earth — and destroying it in the process — is very on brand for The 100. And despite the plot playing off themes we’ve seen before, it never felt stale.

Much of that has to do with the underground bunker storyline, which is portrayed brilliantly by Marie Avgeropoulos. Octavia’s descent into madness and tyranny is a villain origin story done right — and it never fully paints the character we know and love as unredeemable, even as she inches closer and closer to becoming so.

Seeing the characters who have spent the past six years in space change into more mature, responsible adults is another one of the small joys of season five. The relationships formed up there became some of the highlights of the later seasons — when they weren’t completely dismantled — and they certainly made Monty and Harper’s losses more painful during the fifth season finale (which is arguably where the writers should have wrapped up and called it a day).

That said, season five definitely marks the downfall of Clarke’s character. Countless critics have commented on how Clarke is minimized to a motherly figure and nothing more during the later season of The 100  — and a toxic one at that. This is where fans first see just how far Clarke is willing to go to protect Madi (and how irrational she’s willing to become). Perhaps we should have known season seven was coming after watching season five.

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