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‘The 100’: King Roan is alive — but is he still an ally?
When “The 100” returns for its fourth season, we’ll be picking up right where we left off: Grounders, Ice Nation and Sky People alike are all newly freed from A.L.I.E.’s control… But anyone who knows how life on the ground works knows that doesn’t mean instant peace and harmony.
There’s still a lot of conflict and blame getting tossed around in the wake of Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) decision to destroy the City of Light, and with a new nuclear apocalypse on the way, she’ll have to determine friend from foe pretty quickly.
One friend — who is also kind of a foe — is King Roan (Zach McGowan).
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Luckily for him, the Season 4 premiere opens up with his miraculous survival from the point-blank bullet to the chest we thought had killed him last year. We’re totally relieved he’s alive — and not just because he might be the only Grounder left who doesn’t want to murder our favorite characters. He may not exactly be snuggly, but Roan quickly stole a special place in our hearts in Season 3, typically reserved for gruff, good-looking men who happen to happen to have a soft side for Clarke.
And we’re not the only ones! Eliza Taylor is also totally on board with Roan’s return for Season 4.
“Last year I was like, ‘this has created an interesting dynamic that wasn’t on paper,’ which I love. I think they’ve really kind of seen that, and taken it into the next season, which is great.”
But can she really trust Roan to help her and her people in the coming days?
“They have some sort of respect for each other, even though they’ve always been pointing weapons at each other,” Zach McGowan says of Clarke and Roan’s tentative alliance. “With the impending second apocalypse on its way, I think you find a lot of the struggle of ‘do we work together to face this challenge?’ Or is it everyone for themselves, and scatter and whatnot. That really becomes so much, such a huge thing in the show this season — just, do we work together or do we not work together?”
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One of the challenges in Clarke and Roan’s partnership is definitely going to be the still-tense relationship between the Ice Nation and literally everyone else. Seeing as Roan’s really the only leader left, he’s going to be juggling quite a few tasks, keeping the various clans in check under his very new rule.
“After the fall of A.L.I.E., and Lexa’s gone, and there’s no Commander, and Ontari’s gone and all of that, there’s a power vacuum,” McGowan says. “So it’s big question as to what’s the right thing for everyone and who is going to take power over. And I think that’s a big question for Roan… Both who takes power, and whether or not he’ll want it — and whether or not he can control the Ice Nation, which is an unruly group. And he hasn’t, obviously, spent much time with them anyway, since he’s been banished for so long.”
Heavy lies the head that wears the crown during a nuclear apocalypse, apparently.
“The 100” returns Wednesday (Feb. 1) at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.