Not bad for a midseason genre series on The CW.
My sensibility for it has always been dark, and the pilot itself had a very dark twist.
Jaspers character gets speared at the end and dies, actually, in the script.
Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/The CW; Jason Merritt/Getty Images
you’re free to go darker.
[Laughs] I said, Mark!
How much darker can youget?
Hes a good number one fan to have.
What was the key to that transition?
We dont set up and say, How much darker can we get?
We like to set up impossible choices for our characters.
Thats sort of our secret ingredient.
… How far can you go to preserve your people and still be heroic?
When did you realize thatwasthe secret ingredient?
Tonally, for sure, there were choices our characters faced in that episode that were impossible.
So with that said, when do you think the show really hit its storytelling stride?
First of all, frankly, I think that our worst episodes are the pilot and episode 2.
I feel like, if not for those two episodes, our audience would be so much bigger.
Lots of people turned the show off based on those two and never came back.
The Mount Weather story grew out of that.
… Thats my favorite part about this show.
Its an endless canvas to keep building and playing with.
But that said, I do think our show is an incredible binge show.
One of the things we like to do is almost every episode ends with abigcliff-hangers.
When you [do that], you drive people to want to keep going.
… And so I do see it online.
Did that knowledge affect how you were writing the third season at all?
No, were not telling the story any differently to cater to the binge of it.
How about the fans?
Youre active on Twitter, and youve seen people arguing about ships.
Doesthataffect how you write the show?
Not at all, actually.
Thats just not the way my mind works.
I find that to be difficult to listen to and watch.
I just think the whole phenomenon, its unusual.
Its a new thing for me to be observing.
On a production level, were not racing against an air date.
Can you elaborate on what this means?
All of the above.
I have a good idea of where I think the story should end.
I dont think this is the kind of show that goes forever and stays interesting.
I remember whenLostgot the approval from the powers that be to end their show after season 6.
… Its all about sticking the landing, you know?
We build every season as if its its own movie.
All of our stories are about trying to build toward that finale, toward that ending.
When youre writing and outlining a season, then, do you always start with the ending?
I had never been on a television writing staff, so I was learning on the job.
I dont think I came in to season 1 with an ending.
I didnt know that we were going to bring the Ark down.
At first I was like, Are you crazy, we spent millions of dollars on those Ark sets!
Season 2, I knew the ending.
I was trying to push Clarke [played by Eliza Taylor] over that line.
She was going to be broken and not going to be able to return with her people.
I knew that going in.
You mentionedLostas a series that had a strategy you admired.
What other shows inspired your writing forThe 100?
To me, thats the biggest compliment.
Thats thanks to our crew in Vancouver.
The 100airs Thursdays at 9 p.m.
ET on The CW.
A version of this story originally appeared inEntertainment Weeklyissue #1403-1404, on newsstands now or available digitallyhere.
