While set in a post-apocalyptic future, complete with interplanetary space travel and malevolent artificial intelligences, The 100 has always leaned more into its survivalist aspects than its science fiction possibilities. The CW series does have tropes and underlying elements that have fluctuated over the course of the series, but the seventh and final season leans more into its sci-fi potential than seasons past. And this is done with fast-paced season premiere, before the series begins to pull back the curtain and explain the mysteries seeded over the course of Season 6 while setting up what's destined to be an epic, and bloody, showdown.
In Season 6, the final remnants of humanity left the uninhabitable Earth to travel for a century to a faraway world known as Sanctum. Led by longtime primary protagonists Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake, the survivors discover the moon not only has its own deadly secrets and environmental dangers but was settled generations ago by another group of interstellar colonists from Earth. When the leading faction of colonists, known as the Primes, made their sinister intentions known, Clarke brought about their eventual downfall as leader of the opposition force known as the Children of Gabriel.
Season 7 opens shortly after the conclusion of Season 6, with many of the survivors from Earth who traveled in cryosleep awaking to settle on the brave, new world. However, as new factions begin to form, tensions rise to the surface as Clarke faces new challenges to keep the peace. Meanwhile, Gabriel and Echo face their own dangers as Bellamy is targeted by a mysterious faction while they contend with new enigmas related to the temporal anomaly that appeared last season on the planet's surface and claimed one of their own.
The 100's new season hits the ground running -- literally -- barely giving its characters and, by extension, its audience, the chance to breathe as the stakes are raised once again. Previous seasons served as more accessible entry points for those who hadn't necessarily kept with the ongoing story. Now moving toward its own endgame, The 100 isn't as interested in bringing in new viewers. The show doesn't waste any time picking up where it left off, and setting its characters on one final adventure as humanity gets one last chance to rebuild civilization. However, that's if it can put aside its differences to endure the perils on the planet.
And while this is carried by much of The 100's returning cast, there are newcomers, most notably Shelby Flannery, who had briefly appeared in the Season 6 finale. Portraying Diyoza's time-displaced daughter Hope, Flannery provides an entertaining foil opposite returning actor Tasya Teles while the two join Gabriel for their own investigation of the temporal anomaly. And one returning character takes a considerably darker turn early in the season, likely establishing themselves as the overarching antagonist of the proceedings, as a tenuously fragile peace is maintained on Sanctum.
With 16 episodes in all, The 100 is getting the full-bodied send-off that it deserves as the cast is brought together one final time.
The 100 and stars Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulos, Bob Morley, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Tasya Teles and Shannon Kook. The series will return for its seventh and final season Wednesday, May 20, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.