The 100 Boss Previews Powerful, Clarke-Centric Season 5 Premiere: 'Everything Has Changed for Her' 

Heading into its fifth season tonight (The CW, 9/8c),

is giving fans a “very different” premiere, switching up its storytelling strategy and spending much of the hour focusing on one character’s journey.

The 100 Star Previews Octavia’s ‘Destructive and Dark’ Path in Season 5

“There was a time when it was just going to be [Clarke] for the entire episode, but we chose to weave in other stories,” showrunner Jason Rothenberg tells TVLine. “Still, it was a bold and exciting choice for us to play with that one character for that amount of time. It was a great challenge for [actress] Eliza Taylor, but we knew she could handle it.”

He adds that Tuesday’s premiere “tracks Clarke’s emotional journey over [the six-year time jump] really nicely. We quickly understand why she’s so deeply bonded to [Madi]. I think Eliza is as good as it gets, and I’m excited for people to see her tour de force performance.”

The 100 Preview: Raven and Bellamy Are ‘Forever Bonded’ in Season 5

Speaking of Madi, Rothenberg explains that Clarke’s relationship with the young Nightblood — the only other person Clarke encounters on the ground in those six years — leads to a shifting of priorities for her.

“She’s obviously not a biological mother, but she has such an emotional connection to this child,” he explains. “She now has a clan of one. In that way, everything has changed for her. She’s always recognized that the things she does are done for her people, even though they’re fairly hard choices she has to make to keep her people alive — just like people on the

side have made similarly difficult choices to keep

The 100 Season 5 Trailer: Clarke & Co. Go to War With a New Enemy

But priorities aren’t just shifting on the ground. Rothenberg says that a lot has changed for the gang up in space, most notably within Murphy. Not only has he developed a friendship with Raven — you know, the girl he 

all those seasons ago — but he’s demonstrating great signs of personal growth:

As Rothenberg notes, “Murphy is expanding his priorities, first to include Emori, and now to include this little family in space.”

‘s fifth season in general? Drop ’em in a comment below.

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