‘Praimfaya’ has arrived on The 100 Season 4 finale.The fight for survival will be full of challenges and sacrifice.

BuddyTV spoke with Executive Producer Jason Rothenberg to get a preview for tonight’s finale. He discusses the race against the clock for survival, the characters’ history and Bellamy and Octavia’s separation.  

The 100 Recap: The Final 100 Are Chosen >>>

What’s the biggest challenge of surviving Praimfaya for those on the island?

Rothenberg: Time. Time is going to be the biggest challenge, of course. They have almost no time left and they have a lot of work to do. Many things have to get accomplished before they leave the ground and let alone before they have what they need to survive once they are up on the ring. The episode is really a race against the clock. Much like the whole season was, but now it’s ticked down to zero. 

The episode unfolds in almost real time, which is something we hadn’t ever tried before. It’s breathless. And I think, oxygen speaking of breathless, is another huge, huge issue as the story unfolds. We’ll see that first they run out time and then they run out of– potentially anyway– run out of air. It’s obstacle after obstacle. 

Can the heroes that we’ve gotten to know and love clear those hurdles? It’s really a physical episode in many ways. Physical challenges, obviously emotionally as well, it’s going to ring them out like every episode of the show does. This ones really different in the sort of pure physical challenge of it.

Over the four seasons, these characters have developed special dynamics with each other. How does their history play into the finale?

I sort of hope that our show never forgets its history. We often call back to things that have happened before. This episode is very clearly bringing certain relationships to a head, and bringing other certain relationships into sharper focus for the perhaps the first time. 

On Bellamy and Octavia’s separation

Bellamy and Octavia’s journey this season was leading to this moment to where Bellamy needed to let his sister walk on her own and be her own grown-up really on a familial level, universal level. We all come to a point in our lives when we have to let our children– granted they’re not father and daughter, it was a pretty paternalistic relationship– and he needs to let her go and be the adult that she’s going to be. And that necessitated the separation. 

Her story this season was to sort of find her place and where she’s meant to be as a leader on the ground and a unifying figure that we see at the end of the season. To take her away from that world would have been a mistake. Obviously, it’s hard to separate those two characters who mean so much to each other, but I think it will be good for both of their development as holistic people.

Check back after tonight’s finale for the second part of our interview with Jason Rothenberg.

The 100 season 4 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on the CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.

(Images courtesy of the CW)

Carla Day

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV

Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.