In a post-apocalyptic setting, The 100 both entertained audiences and left them with questions about difficult decisions in the face of impossible odds. In a show full of unbearable choices, the cyclical nature of humanity's conflicts, and a look at a possible future, The 100 reached an ending that didn't satisfy every fan.
The finale of The 100 is incredibly divisive. While some fans might see the series as coming to its logical conclusion, others were confused about the seemingly late addition of a whole new group of beings that changed the course for humanity. As a result, just whether or not the surviving characters had satisfactory endings to their narratives isn't something everyone agrees upon. Clarke Griffin, who was the leader at the center of the stories from the beginning, is one such character. Plenty about her ending is fitting, but there are also aspects that make no sense.
Fitting: Clarke Is Happy Madi Feels No Pain
Much of the force driving Clarke in the final seasons of The 100 is her love for Madi. She becomes Madi's mother during the show's initial time jump; they're the only two people on the surface of a radiation-soaked planet, so it makes sense they would bond.
What ultimately happens to Madi in the final season is horrific. Cadogan prods her brain in search of information about humanity's final test and it leaves her unable to move or communicate. Madi is simply left behind by Cadogan and his Disciples. Clarke learns that when Madi transcends, she doesn't feel any pain. That helps to ease Clarke's own pain of being separated from her daughter, and it makes sense that she would want better for Madi than she does for herself.
Nonsense: She Never Has More Children
One of the stipulations of transcendence is that humanity will not continue in a new generation. Though Clarke is just a teenager when the series begins, not thinking about the potential of a family, becoming a mother is something that changes her. Being a parent is certainly not everyone's dream, but it comes to matter immensely to Clarke.
Clarke thinks less about herself and more about hope for a next generation. She wants Madi to have a chance at a future. While Clarke might be happy that Madi will never feel pain, it also means Madi never gets the chance to grow, and Clarke never gets the chance to help any other child grow either.
Fitting: Clarke Always Believed Her People Were The Last Of Humanity
It's one of the common through lines in the show that the main characters always believe they are the last of humanity. When the first 100 make it to Earth, they are surprised to find the Grounders. The Grounders and Arkadians unite, only to find a prison ship has people who were in cryo-sleep for 100 years. When the ship takes what's left of Earth's inhabitants into space, they find multiple colonies on other planets.
When Clarke finally returns to Earth after humanity's final test, however, her people really are the last of humanity. It's fitting that the statements from the leader of the 100 about being the only people left are finally true.
Nonsense: Clarke Accepts The Judgment Of The Beings Of Light
It's never explicitly stated just why Clarke - or the rest of humanity for that matter - are expected to accept the judgment from this race of beings that create the "beings of light'' Cadogan talks about. Why can't humanity just opt to be left alone instead of having to deal with the consequences of the one individual who takes the test?
Clarke, who has never shied away from challenging the authority of any of the civilizations she's come across, is the kind of character who would have asked those questions.
Fitting: She Returns To Earth
Clarke's dream, as she admits from the first episode of the series, is to get to the ground. Living on the Ark, she wonders what it would be like, draws pictures of how she imagines it, and takes Earth Skills as a class.
To Clarke, Earth is home. That's why it's important the final season does make a return to Earth. It's right that she doesn't have to end her days on a spaceship or another planet in the far reaches of the galaxy. Her final years are spent on the planet she loves.
Nonsense: She Never Gets To See The Rest Of Her People Again
While there are a few humans who opt not to do so, the bulk of humanity transcends after Raven passes the final test. It's made perfectly clear that there is a difference between dying a natural death and transcending.
Bellamy, for example, dies before humanity takes their final test, so, despite his belief, he doesn't transcend. Since Clarke won't transcend either, she will die a natural death. That means all of the people she knows from the Ark, the ground, and even Sanctum, who choose to transcend are essentially lost to her.
Fitting: Clarke Lives Out Her Days With Her Found Family
Though Clarke might not have the chance to reunite with the people who transcend, she does get to live the rest of her life with most of the people she's closest to. She's not the only person who doesn't transcend but survives the season.
Octavia, Raven, Echo, Emori, Murphy, Indra, and more choose not to transcend. They are the family Clarke has built around herself over the course of the entire series. Not everyone she cares about survives to make the choice between being the last of humanity or transcending, but at least she doesn't live out the rest of her life alone.
Nonsense: She Doesn't Get To Share Her Fate With Bellamy
One of the most beloved aspects of The 100 is getting to see Clarke and Bellamy grow as leaders together. Their friendship grounds the show. Even when they're on opposing sides of an argument, they still manage to find common ground - until the final season.
Bellamy's arc in the final season of the series is one of the most hated in the show. Not only does it rob Clarke of her best friend, but it also robs her of the chance to share humanity's final fate with him. Bellamy found faith and believed in transcendence, but never had the chance to say goodbye to Clarke.
Fitting: Clarke Has To Pay For Her Misdeeds
Transcendence is treated as the ultimate reward for humanity. According to Cadogan and his Disciples, it's the goal. Humanity still has a choice. Clarke, however, does not.
Clarke believes this is another instance of her having "to bear it so they don't have to," but that's not the case. She isn't punished for all of humanity's transgressions, just her own. She entered humanity's final test with a gun and shot the test subject, after all. When the entire series is about breaking humanity's cycle of violence, Clarke's final violent act on behalf of humanity can't go unchecked.
Nonsense: Clarke Fought So Hard Against The City Of Light
Clarke's acceptance of humanity's transcendence is one of the plot points in the final season that doesn't make any sense at all. When humanity transcends, there is no pain, no death, and no real freedom. The part of humanity that chooses to transcend becomes part of a collective consciousness of sorts just as has happened with every civilization that has passed this final test.
Transcending is exactly like people taking ALIE's chip and joining the City of Light. There, they were free of pain as well, their minds bound to ALIE's cognitive world. Why would transcendence be okay with Clarke if the City of Light wasn't?