The 100 Season 4 Trailer Breakdown & Analysis

The 100 season 4 trailer is here, and that means we have about a million more clues about what to expect in the upcoming season of the post-apocalyptic thriller. Here are our biggest takeaways from the trailer…

The end is seriously nigh.

We knew season four was going to be an “environmental distaster” story, but things look bad in the opening seconds of The 100trailer. In voiceover, ALIE reminds us that the Earth’s remaining nuclear power plants have begun to melt down and, soon, 96 percen of the Earth’s surface will be uninhabitable. Yikes.

What does that look like for the human characters we’ve been hanging out with the last few seasons? Black rain, no drinkable water, and pre-cancerous lesions. In conclusion: death. We get a shot of Bellamy wearing a protective suit as he walks through the aforementioned black rain.

And is that Roan who is dealing with pre-cancerous lesions in the following shot? We know Zach McGowan will be a series regular this year. Will he spend that whole time with spots?

ALIE might still be alive.

At the end of season three, Clarke pulled the plug on The City of Light, effective killing ALIE1… or so it seemed. ALIE did upload her consciousness to the part of the Ark still orbiting and, in the trailer for season four, we see something pursuing Miller, Raven, and the others through the woods. It has a Terminator-like target screen and, as Raven dodges the bullets, she seems to look up to the sky. Are ALIE’s drones still chasing the Arkadia clan? And, if so, does this mean ALIE is still alive?

Octavia is hanging with Trikru.

We get a brief snippet of Octavia fighting with what seems like a member of Trikru, based on the garb and makeup (very Anya-like). We know Octavia will become an assassin in season four. Is this training? It seems more training-like than combat-like.

Murphy seems happy.

Murphy finally gets some alone time with Emori in season four. The two are caught making out in the trailer. But where are they? It looks like it could be a medical room, but it also looks kind of Polaris-like. Is this a dream or reality?

Winter is coming.

Um… is this nuclear winter or regular winter? That seems like an important distinction. Also, is that the Ark’s crashed Factory Station in the distance or something else?

Clarke is embracing leadership.

We hear Clarke tell the people of Arkadia in voiceover: “I know you’re afraid. I know you’re angry. But, if we stick together, we won’t just survive, we’ll thrive.” It seems like she is finally stepping up to take that leadership role she more or less vacated in season three. Has she already told the others about Earth’s oncoming apocalypse at this point?

The Grounders are on the move.

We see Roan greeting Clarke while on horseback, along with a hundred or so of his closest Grounder friends. Has she struck a deal with the Grounders? Has she even told them about the environmental apocalypse? Is it obvious? Given the stakes, an alliance with everyone else on the planet doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

Monty and Clarke are fighting.

“You’re the one going too far and using the same old justification: it’s all for my people,” Monty says to Clarke in a tense conversation between the two. “It is,” Clarke insists. Is Monty mad that Clarke has seemingly made a deal with the Grounders? Or is this about something else? Given the way Monty is lashing out in the subsequent shots, he’s not in a good place right now. Having to kill your mom will do that to you.

The radiation is the biggest immediate threat.

“We have to focus on the radiation,” Raven tells Bellamy, among others, “finding someplace safe.” Though this seems like a relatively cut-and-dry plan, it’s less easy in execution. In the next sequence, we see Bellamy, Miller, and Monty fighting against some of the Grounders. Can’t we all just get along guys? 

Perhaps the Grounders are extra on edge because they might be more effected by the radition? We get a shot of Luna laid up with lesions on her face. It certainly seems like there are more Grounders affected so far than Sky People.

Is Bellamy finally getting his act together?

Season three was marred by Bellamy’s frustrating choice to side with Pike and slaughter a whole horde of friendly Grounder soldiers. Is he turning his act around in season four (please let the answer be yes). In the trailer, we hear him tell Clarke and others: “I am not sacrificing any more innocent lives.” 

New Grounder characters.

There are lots of Grounder-heavy shots in the trailer, but the new Grounder who stands out most of all is the young man featured in the screenshot above, crying as he holds the body of a loved one in his arms. As we pan out, we see that others lie dead around him. Is the new character Hugo we’ve heard about? If so, it seems that Hugo was responsible for the death around him after being chipped.

Yep, Jaha is still around.

“Decisions you face just whittle you down, piece by piece,” Jaha helpfully (and thematically) tells someone. He seems to be in a similarly cushy place as Murphy. Could Jaha and Murphy get a season four reunion? And how is Jaha feeling about bringing about the ALIE revolution?

Octavia is going to a dark place.

Sometimes, literally, as we see in that top screenshot. All of the time, figuratively. Guys, things just look like they’re going to get very intense for Octavia in season four. But there will be more horseback riding! So at least there’s that.

Kane is trying to protect his people.

“I will shoot the next person who touches this man,” Kane yells into a mob-like scene. It’s all very Battlestar Galactica.Who is he protecting? “We can’t kill our own people,” Miller’s dad tells him, later. Kane explains that he’s trying to do the opposite. “Justice and vengeance are not the same thing.” It seems like, perhaps, Sky People are turning on one another following the events of the chipping.

The Grounders continue to play an integral part.

Between the new Grounder characters and returning faves like Indra and Roan, it seems like the Grounders will be more important than ever in season four. In the above screenshot, it seems like Indra and Roan are the ones training Octavia to become an assassin. While Indra seems conflicted about Octavia’s path, Roan seems ready and willing to use her as a pawn in his game.

Later, we see another Echo whispering in Roan’s ear about power: “I can help you do what your mother never could. What Ontari never could.” “Rule everything.” #AchieveableGoals This is very Game of Thrones. Later, we see a return from Niylah, the Grounder woman who Clarke had a brief rendezvous with in season three. Niylah is now hanging with Octavia.

Murphy and Clarke are fighting.

“Maybe you forget: the last time you saved us, I was saving you!” Murphy yells at a visibly affected Clarke. Damn, Clarke is getting in fights with everyone this season… but she seems way more sad about it than she did in season three.

Bellarke alert!

That’s it, really. Bellamy puts a comforting hand on Clarke’s shoulder. Clarke puts her own hand on top of Bellamy’s. This is not a drill.

“Do you still have hope?” Clarke asks Bellamy later in the trailer. “Are we still breathing?” Bellamy shoots back, with a smile. Oh, you two.

Abby and Miller are going on a boat trip.

We see Abby and Miller (where’s Bryan?) taking off on a boat somewhere. Might they be going to find Luna? Or perhaps they are going in search of a safe place to hide from the radiation, a top goal Raven mentioned earlier in the trailer. “First we survive, then we find our humanity,” Abby tells Raven in the trailer. Abby is nothing if not focused.

Marper alert!

In general, this seems to be about 100 percent more romance in this season than in seasons’ past. Obviously, it is all tinged with sadness. “Everytime we think that, something bad happens,” a gloomy Harper tells Monty. But, hey, at least they’re together!

Jasper and Clarke are on talking terms.

This might not seem like a big deal, but, given that Jasper hasn’t been Clarke’s biggest fan since she killed Maya by letting radiation into Mount Weather, it actually is. They might not be singing “Kumbaya” together or anything, but they are having a reasonably civil conversation. Clarke asks Jasper, “Don’t you want us to survive?” “No,” Jasper replies. “I don’t want us to survive. I want us to live.” Yep, that’s a civil conversation for these two.

Kabby alert!

Seriously, 100 percent more romance.

The Spirit of the Commander returns.

This lady seems to be doing something with the spirit of the commander, aka the AI that holds the consciousnesses of every Grounder commander since Becca. Is she a Nightblood? Or does she have another role to play in bringing the flame to the next commander? After all, Luna is still kicking this season, pre-cancerous lesions aside.

Clarke doesn’t look so good.

I’m calling this one right now: total dream sequence, right? I’m thinking either Abby, Bellamy, or Clarke herself dreams of Clarke developing the lesions we see so often in the trailer. Or The 100is going there, which, frankly, I wouldn’t put past this program.

Well, that’s all for now, folks! Why don’t you go take a nap until The 100season four premieres on February 1st. Don’t worry, we’ll wake you up if any more season 4 news drops. May we meet again…