Eden

Eden is the first episode of the fifth season of The 100. It is the fifty-ninth episode of the series overall.

HOPE — In the fifth season premiere, Clarke struggles to survive on a desolate, scorched earth while her friends in space come across a long-awaited beacon of hope.

Plot
42 days after Praimfaya, Clarke emerges from the Lab on Becca's Island to find a desolate world. There is no water, no vegetation, no nothing. As a nightblood she has adapted to the radiation. She has a map of the area that shows her where to locate Rover 1. She sets off across the dried up seabed to find it, with the parting words: "at least I don't have to swim".

Rover 1's location is marked by inukshuks, Clarke digs it out. She drives off to Polis to join her mother and 1200 members of "wonkru". Polis is buried in rubble and after futile attempts to dig down to the bunker door she has to give up. She tries to contact the Ark by radio (it is now two months since priamfaya) but does not receive any response.

Next, she heads to the ruins of Arkadia to see if she can find food or water. She finds, as she says, "ghosts" instead.

Continuing cross-country in an unknown direction, she is overtaken by a sandstorm that destroys the solar panels on Rover 1, rendering it inoperable. Using her map, she sets off on foot to the solar fields. Things get pretty bad and and she collapses in the desert. A vulture chewing on her leg after she passed out wakes her up. She follows the bird to more desert and gives up. Just as she about to commit suicide, she sees the bird again and this time it leads her to a green valley which survived praimfaya.

After a swim in a watering hole, Clarke discovers a grounder village within the safe zone. Unfortunately, she finds all the villagers have died from radiation exposure. She burns all the corpses on a pyre. She settles in at the village and finds berries to eat. She continues to try to contact the Ark without success.

58 days after Praimfaya, while eating berries, Clarke has her first sighting of Madi - in the form of a wild child. Madi leads Clarke into a trap and tries to kill Clarke until she realizes that Clarke is a Nightblood. At first, Madi continues to stay away, but softens up after Clarke draws a picture of Madi. Six years later, Madi is a preteen and the two Nightbloods living an idyllic life. The two have developed a mother-daughter bond.

Meanwhile, a group of seven survivors have been staying on the Ark. Some things have changed while others have stayed the same. Monty and Harper are still together while Murphy and Emori split up. Bellamy got together with Echo. Raven and Echo are training together until its meal time. They join Monty, Harper, Emori, and Bellamy for a meal. Murphy has claimed his own area of the Ark and is antagonistic to the rest of the group.

The group tries to contact those on Earth, but Raven points out that the atmospheric radiation prevents radio contact. Murphy spots another spaceship in orbit. A couple hours later, they see a dropship heading to the ground (the prisoner transport that Clarke first saw at the end of season 4). It is heading to the green spot on the planet that the Ark survivors have named "Eden". The group decides they need to get to the mothership and start preparing to leave the Ark, some more happily than others.

On the ground, heavily armed prisoners emerge from the dropship. They have spied the green spot from space and fan out to check the location. Spying on them, Clarke gets a read on their numbers and weaponry. When a couple of the prisoners find Madi, Clarke runs back to Madi. Clarke and Madi end up killing the two men, but the gunshots till the rest of the prisoners that they are not alone.

In the bunker, gladiator style fight is going on, watched over by Octavia sitting on a throne. Also in the viewing crowd, Nathan, Indra, and Gaia can be glimpsed.

Starring

 * Eliza Taylor as Clarke Griffin
 * Paige Turco as Abigail Griffin (credit only
 * Bob Morley as Bellamy Blake
 * Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake
 * Lindsey Morgan as Raven Reyes


 * Christopher Larkin as Monty Green
 * Richard Harmon as John Murphy
 * Tasya Teles as Echo
 * Isaiah Washington as Thelonious Jaha (credit only)
 * Henry Ian Cusick as Marcus Kane (credit only)

Guest Starring

 * Adina Porter as Indra
 * Jarod Joseph as Nathan Miller
 * Luisa d'Oliveira as Emori
 * Chelsey Reist as Harper McIntyre
 * Sachin Sahel as Eric Jackson
 * Tati Gabrielle as Gaia


 * Ivana Milicevic as Charmaine Diyoza
 * William Miller as Paxton McCreary
 * Jordan Bolger as Zeke Shaw
 * Jessica Harmon as Niylah
 * Lola Flanery as Madi

Co-Starring

 * Lina Renna as young Madi
 * Paul Lazenby as Sidekick


 * Phillip Mitchell as Large Prisoner
 * Levi Zachary Dunford as Young Boy

Quotes

 * Clarke: "I used to think that life was about more than just surviving, but I'm not sure anymore."


 * Clarke: "What becomes of the Commander of Death when there's no one left to kill?"


 * Madi: "Wait. He tried to help me. I think he might be a good guy."
 * Clarke: "There are no good guys."

Notes and Trivia

 * In the Bible, Eden is the garden where life was first created.
 * Bellamy Blake and Echo share their first on-screen kiss.
 * When Clarke visits Arkadia, she finds Jasper's goggles and his suicide note.
 * Several former characters are mentioned or referenced, those being: Jake Griffin, Jasper Jordan, Maya Vie, Lexa, A.L.I.E. and Hannah Green.
 * This is the first season premiere in which Abigail Griffin does not make an appearance.

Body Count

 * One Eligius prisoner – killed by Madi
 * One Eligius prisoner – killed by Clarke Griffin
 * Fighters in the Second Dawn Bunker

Production Notes

 * The filming for this episode began on August 15.
 * At Unity Day 2018, Eliza Taylor revealed that the cast has had the opportunity to watch this episode (over three months before it airs), and in her opinion, it is one of the best season premieres yet.