'The 100' actress Eliza Taylor says Clarke's main goal will be to promote peace and find her missing friends
The final season of 'The 100' is nearly here and we don't have to wait for long to see the beginning of the end. When 'The 100' first aired in 2014, it was a show about 100 delinquents sent to Earth to see if it was viable for life. It soon became a story of survival and by the end of Season 5, Earth was finally no more.
In the final season, viewers can expect a lot of answers. MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) spoke to Sachin Sahel previously who promised that the premiere will be "batsh*t crazy." Luisa D'Oliveira told us that Season 7 would start with a bang and Richard Harmon teased a potential leadership role for John Murphy and Emori.
MEAWW recently spoke to Eliza Taylor, who plays the inimitable Clarke Griffin, about the final season and what fans could expect. She tells us that Clarke's focus this season would be to rebuild Sanctum even though she has seen multiple societies being destroyed in the past on 'The 100'. Clarke will focus "on restoring order and promote peace."
However, Eliza cautions that there are many different factions vying for space in Sanctum, which could make her job difficult. Moreover, her daughter, Madi (Lola Flannery) is "struggling to acclimatize to life after the Primes and Sheidheda." Additionally, another issue Clarke will have to face is that of friends who go missing, Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos) and Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley). Come back after the Season 7 premiere airs to find out who Eliza was talking about.
Will Clarke will be coming to terms with everything she has gone through and all of the people she has lost? Her mother Abby Griffin (Paige Turco) was killed by the Primes in Season 6. She tells us "I think it is safe to say yes, but it is a hell of a bumpy road." She says, "Abby’s death was tragic and while Clarke does her best to cover her grief, it is bound to rear its head. Abby is certainly felt in the final season."
Eliza says, "Clarke has always tried to do things on her own, which has failed her many times. This season she needs to repair the damage done between her and her friends so that they can come together so they can live peacefully once and for all."
She continues, "When it comes to Madi, she’s not exactly up for ‘mother of the year’ she will continue to struggle with trying to protect her teenager who has a mind of her own and the rest of her people."
A major part of Season 7 will deal with the anomaly on Planet Alpha that viewers first saw in Season 6. Eliza tells us that the show hits the "sci-fi element hard in Season 7," something she is personally excited about. She says, "It won’t so much change the dynamics but will make for more twists, and higher stakes."
As Clarke, Eliza Taylor has hard to play physically demanding scenes, as well as those that are mentally arduous. She says, "In this season, being the last one, emotions run high. I found the emotional element to be especially challenging this year. Not in a bad way, but it certainly tested my chops!"
For Eliza, the last scene filmed on 'The 100' was an emotional rollercoaster. She tells us, "Knowing it was the last scene we’d ever shoot of the show we’ve all been doing for the last seven years was heart-wrenching."
Many of the actors who had wrapped up earlier and were not in the last scene stuck around to watch, Eliza adds, saying, "I gave a speech through floods of tears, which made me extraordinarily nervous! How do you sum up seven life-changing years in one speech?" Of course, there were a lot of hugs going around.
While we as fans have certain favorite episodes, Eliza has many memorable episodes as well. She did tell us a couple of episodes that stand out, ones that would excite Bellarke and Clexa fans. The first one was the eighth episode of season 1, 'Day Trip', which saw Clarke and Bellamy go on a hunt for some supplies.
Eliza says, "It was the first time I worked with Bob properly one-on-one. We worked so well together, and it was exciting to see these enemies become friends and gain respect for one another."
Another memorable episode for Eliza was the finale of Season 3, 'Perverse Instantiation Part 2', where a lot of scenes took place in the City of Light.
She said, " It was so different for our show, and shooting in the middle of Vancouver city with hundreds of fans watching Lexa kick butt in a fight sequence was very cool. We’re so used to shooting in the forest with nobody around, we really felt the fandom that day."
There are a few things Eliza thinks fans should look forward to. She tells us, "The anomaly and where it leads is one to get very excited about! The prequel pilot where fans will have questions answered about what happened before the first apocalypse, and I’m personally very excited about Octavia’s story this season."
In the first season, Finn Collins (Thomas McDonell) tells Clarke that they have to "do better." This is repeated by Monty Green (Christopher Larkin) toward the end of Season 5 -- something both Clarke and Bellamy try to abide by.
Will they achieve in doing so in the final season? Eliza says, "It certainly is a recurring theme and the ultimate goal of our heroes! Whether or not they can achieve this… Time will tell!"
Fans may have noticed a few scenes between Clarke and Raven Reyes (Lindsey Morgan) in the trailer for the final season. Eliza assures us that she does share more screentime with Lindsey this time around, saying, "Clarke had a lot of friendships to mend, and more prominently, her relationship with Raven. It’s important they set aside their differences to become allies again in this whirlwind of a season."
She continues, "Lindsey and I hadn’t worked with each other much the past couple of seasons so it was great to dust off our skills with one another and pair up again."
So, if Clarke and Bellamy were not around, who does Eliza think would make a good leader? She tells us with hearts in her eyes, "I’m a huge Octavia fan, in fact, I think she is my favorite character, I think given everything she has been through and the mistakes she made as Bloodreina the first time around - she would make an incredible leader. Marie is a bad-ass too, there is nothing that woman cannot do!"
Most ardent fans would also know that Eliza Taylor is the co-founder of Koh Tao International Primary School in Thailand, which she founded with her best friend, Claire Wyndham.
Eliza told us what inspired them to start the school, saying, "Claire and her children were living on the island of Koh Tao and they noticed the educational system was floored. There were a lot of kids not going to school at all, and those who were a couple of years behind kids their own age. We wanted to do something to help the parents who couldn’t afford to educate their children and also the ex-pat community living on the island."
She continues, "Our hopes right now are to keep the school alive through online education as it isn’t safe for the kids to go to school. It is difficult though, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding and a lot of people are out of a job and not as inclined to donate."
Eliza adds, "The generosity of some people floors us daily. We’ve still been getting donations of school supplies, and people buying merchandise which is our lifeline!"
Moving forward, Eliza and her team hope to "get the build done on our new land so the kids have proper classrooms and a better environment to learn in. Beyond that, it's all about getting the school to a place where it is more self-sustainable financially, it’s a long way off but we will get there."
Follow MEA WorldWide's (MEAWW) countdown to the final season of 'The 100' for more details. The final season will premiere on May 20 on The CW at 8/7c.