The premiere picked up mere moments after the jaw-dropping events of The 100 Season 3 Finale. This made for an action packed (and super plot-heavy) installment.
The return to Bellamy and Clarke as leaders, and a paring down of the overall number of story arcs will likely be a good thing, since Season 3 suffered from mischaracterization and separating too many of the major players.
Plenty of characters still don't know the truth, but there's strong potential this season to explore just how varied people's reactions will be to being told the end is nigh.
For longtime fans of The 100, the new season finds viewers rewarded with a deeper look at the characters, including what drives them and what it takes to have them make unexpected and sometimes questionable decisions.
Octavia has gone through an amazing metamorphosis from an unsure girl who led a very solitary, even lonely, life into a rock-solid, kick-ass woman who can handle any situation laid in her path.
No matter how season 4 unfolds, it's clear The 100 has chosen the hardest path yet again -- by pitting its characters against their most formidable problem yet, one with no solution in sight.
I can't emphasize enough how much I love this show, and how much I feel like it so perfectly combines the moral quandaries of society with the complexities of human emotion on screen, through a balanced cast of adult and teen characters no less.