Warning: the following recap contains major spoilers from The 100 season four premiere, “Echoes.” It is a recap, after all! Don’t say we didn’t warn you …

The end is officially coming on The 100. This isn’t a new development—we knew this by the time the season three finale ended last spring, but going into the long hiatus, there was still a question regarding if ALIE was telling Clarke the truth about the (second) impending nuclear apocalypse or if she was just trying to save the City of Light in a last ditch attempt. But after a long year of waiting, season four finally premiered and brought with it some much-needed answers: ALIE was telling the truth. The world is about to endure yet another nuclear apocalypse. But that’s hardly the only issue Skaikru will face in the coming months.

The season four premiere, “Echoes,” was an hour that mainly dealt with the fallout from everyone getting de-chipped, and served to set up what this season will be focusing on. Not much action, a lot of exposition. On a show known for its fast pace and brutal, ruthless storytelling, that’s a bit disappointing, but ultimately that’s to be expected from a premiere episode after all the chaos that happened last season. The show needed to take a breather for a moment to help organize the story.

Moving forward, there seems to be two major arcs that season four will be following: Clarke, Bellamy, and the rest of the adventure squad figuring out a way for everyone, not just Skaikru, to either stop or survive the radiation wave coming for them; and Kane, Abby, and Indra trying to keep King Roan on the throne in Polis, as he was Skaikru’s only ally and hope to keep the Grounders from going to war with them. The stakes have never been higher, y’all. Let’s get to recapping!

Because all the Grounders were brought to Polis under ALIE’s control last season, when they all woke up from their chipped mind control, it was complete anarchy. “Echoes” opened with confusion that quickly turned into anger and violence. With 1,000 Ice Nation warriors already inside the city, Azgeda immediately took command of Polis by force with Echo as their leader while King Roan was unconscious, slowly bleeding out from his bullet wound. Echo blamed Skaikru for all the death and destruction caused by the City of Light, and refused to let Clarke and Abby help save Roan, instead putting her faith in the Grounder healers. Because Clarke and Abby knew that Roan would be a much different leader than Echo and would actually be an ally for Skaikru, they had to figure out a way to get around Echo to save Roan’s life.

Kane, Abby, Bellamy, and Clarke helped get all the Skaikru out of Polis via the secret tunnels and stayed behind to pow-wow with Octavia and Indra, who was healing up from her wounds quite quickly. Indra told them all that with Ice Nation’s numbers, the only way to take back the city was by force, inciting a war between the clans. But Clarke knew they didn’t have time for a war because of the impending nuclear apocalypse, and told the group the truth about their six-month timeline after Raven confirmed it over the radio back at Arkadia. They still had to deal with the Ice Nation army today, however, so Clarke came up with a plan to distract Ice Nation by “surrendering” while secretly getting into Roan’s room and operating on him, saving his life. She knew that Roan would listen to reason about the end of the world, so they needed him alive and alert.

Side note: can I get a hell yeah for Octavia once again being a total badass? When their plan included sneaking Octavia inside the tower in a body bag and allowing her to use her boss assassin skills to take out the guards, she did not hold back. We all knew that Octavia wouldn’t stop killing after getting revenge on Pike (revenge will never be a healthy way of coping with loss), but it’s interesting to see that her peers in Skaikru are now not only letting her continue to kill, they’re also condoning it by using her as part of their plan. Although I’m going to need Clarke and Abby to rein in their judgement of Octavia killing people if they were the ones who told her to do it in the first place. Come on now, ladies.

Kane, Indra, and Bellamy tried to buy Clarke and Abby time by distracting Echo, giving Ice Nation their guns in exchange for them honoring Lexa bringing Skaikru into the coalition as the 13th clan, but it didn’t work. However, Abby and Clarke’s medical care did work, and Roan woke just in time to save their lives as Echo recognized his leadership.

Clarke then tried to convince Roan that they needed to work together to figure out a way to survive the “fire” coming their way, making sure everyone, Grounder and Skaikru alike, would be saved. Because Roan had to follow the will of his people, he knew he wouldn’t last six days if he spared the life of Wanheda and honored Skaikru as the 13th clan in the coalition, so Clarke offered him up a bargaining chip to end all bargaining chips: the Flame she had been carrying around, helping her to grieve the loss of Lexa. It broke her heart to give it up, and a tear slid down her cheek, but she wiped it away and did what she had to do to save her people. Roan took it, knowing that he now had the power to control who ascends as the next Commander. He publicly announced he was keeper of the Flame and he was honoring the coalition, giving Skaikru his protection and their freedom. Mission accomplished … for now.

The hour ended with one last pow-wow between the Skaikru power players as they checked in one last time for a long time. While Bellamy and Clarke left Polis to try and find a way to beat or survive the radiation, Abby and Kane stayed behind to help keep Roan on the throne. But they might have even less time to achieve their separate goals than they thought, as the final scene showed a Grounder by the pyramids in Egypt dying horrifically from a huge wave of radiation. Could six months be too optimistic of a timeline?

Other notable moments:

• The only person proud of Octavia for killing Pike was Indra–these two really are the perfect pair.
• Bellamy convinced Clarke to keep the radiation death wave heading their way a secret for now, until they can figure out a way to survive it. I get his way of thinking: he doesn’t want to cause a mass panic. But when has keeping secrets from their friends and loved ones ever done them any good? Maybe if they told everyone, they’d be able to put more minds to the task and possibly come up with a solution faster.
• Whoever died in the City of Light, i.e. when Lexa helped save Clarke from the angry mobs, they also died out in the real world. Yikes. At least Wanheda’s title is safe? I guess that’s really the only silver lining here.
• Murphy convinced Emori to go with him and live at Arkadia, knowing his people would protect them both, but when he saw the danger all of Skaikru was in with Ice Nation, he ditched his people (again) and ran from Polis with Emori. The human cockroach lives to betray another day! Although I really am loving Murphy and Emori’s relationship, as we’re getting to see a human side of Murphy I didn’t even know existed.
• File this one under potentially problematic: Raven’s brain apparently got an upgrade from ALIE, because she can now code with the best of them despite having never learned how to code. That can’t be a good sign, right? What else did ALIE do to Raven? And now that she’s been de-chipped, the pain from her leg began to get excruciating once more. She hid it from everyone, though, so her friends have no idea.

• In one of the most disturbing moments from the episode, Jasper wrote a note to Monty, stared at his favorite painting, put on some music, held a gun to his face and almost killed himself. No! Jasper, no! At least Monty had impeccable timing, knocking on his door, unknowingly interrupting his best friend’s attempted suicide to let Jasper know about the six month timeline. In a totally shocking turn of events, that grim diagnosis actually gave Jasper a new lease on life. Knowing that everyone was going to die anyway, he became almost giddy and happy, and for the first time in a long time, we saw Jasper smile. Let’s just hide all the guns from him moving forward, yeah?
• Clarke saw her mom and Kane share a sweet moment, realized that something romantic was going on between the two of them and smiled. She’s a Kabby shipper! Hell yes, Clarke knows what’s up.
• In other shipper news, Monty and Harper are still going strong, and things escalated from physical to emotional as they decided they weren’t just “having fun” together. Cute!
• Having Echo whisper into Roan’s ear thoughts of war and conquering over every clan by killing Wanheda is not good. Hopefully he continues to not listen to her. Also, hopefully Roan continues to live, because as of now he is the only thing standing in between the vengeful Grounders and Skaikru.
• Raise your hand if watching Clarke seek out a shoulder to cry on from her mother while remembering Lexa made you cry too? Hearing Clarke tell Abby that she loved Lexa while holding on to the Flame was almost cathartic enough for us to forgive The 100 for killing Lexa. Almost. *Sob!*

What did you think of The 100 season four premiere? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: The CW