A new episode of The 100 airs tonight at 9PM (ET) on The CW, and if you thought the first four episodes were a treat, this current block is just as exciting. For those of you who haven’t seen the show yet, tonight might be a decent place to hop on, as you’ll meet a whole host of interesting characters, including Octavia, one of the 100 young people exiled to Earth, who is played by Marie Avgeropoulos.
We recently spoke with Marie about her character and got some hints as to what might be coming up in upcoming weeks.
“Octavia’s crime was being born,” Marie says, in case a new viewer is wondering why her character ended up being shipped off of the Ark in space. “In The 100, the show in general, you’re only allowed to have one child on the Ark because you’re dealing with population control. There’s very limited resources. So, since I was the second child born of two – and I’m the only one with a sibling, which is kind of cool – as soon as I was born, my mother had to keep me hidden under the floorboards in our very tiny cell-like living quarters. As soon as I was discovered, they floated and executed her, and put me into jail. So, literally her entire life, Octavia has been locked up until she got to take that very first step on the Earth.”
Octavia’s backstory sounds like it would make for interesting flashbacks, but Avgeropoulos is keeping quiet as to whether or not we will see those flashbacks playing out on screen. “If I knew, I probably wouldn’t tell you, but the thing is I don’t know yet, because the writers are very good at keeping us intrigued and our toes,” Marie says. “We don’t really know much until we receive the scripts a few days before we shoot an episode. So, I’m not sure yet, but I would love to find out more about her history.” Marie does mention that we will be seeing what Bellamy did to get himself onto the ship with the 100 juvenile delinquents. “You’ll have to tune in to find out what he did. It’s pretty shocking,” she teases.
“Bellamy is very protective of Octavia, because he literally delivered me when he was a very, very young boy. Imagine how shocking and extreme that would be, for a kid to do that. But as soon as my mother handed me to him, she told him ‘this is your responsibility.’ So he has a very protective nature over me, but naturally, since Octavia’s been locked up under the floor, concealed like a caged animal, and then thrown into a prison, now that she’s on Earth she’s like ‘Hey. I’m free. I can do whatever I want now, so can you lighten up?’ And there’s a lot of back and forth and push and pull that goes with that,” Marie continues.
As we have seen in the four episodes of The 100 that have aired so far, Octavia’s first new connection with the opposite sex – with a young man named Atom – was met with tragedy. “Octavia was just so happy to be free and not a caged animal anyone, and that was her first real kiss, which was a really special moment,” Avgeropoulos recalls. But, as we saw, the romance with Atom was not long-lived, as he suffered an awful fate in the third episode. “To have your first real connection with somebody of the opposite sex for your first time, and then have to see their life ended so short that way… the 100 is very used to tragedy, with their extreme circumstances, but that was really hard for my character to see that happen. I think she just feels like she’s just fed disappointment her whole life, and she finally got her hopes up, I think, and just for that to come slamming back in her gave, it just makes the walls she builds up in front of her even higher,” she says.
Fans of the series might also notice a connection building between Octavia and Jasper (Devon Bostick). “Jasper is a very likable character, and I think all my cast mates’ characters take him under their wing, especially with the fact that he’s got some PTSD after the spearing that happened as well. So, everyone just really wants to take care of Jasper and try to make him feel comfortable with his surroundings again,” Marie says, possibly deflecting from any hints of a romance. However, we still attempted to try to find out if anyone tries to get in the way of her interactions with Jasper. Marie simply teases. “You’ll have to tune in to find out!”
A new episode of The 100 airs at 9PM (ET) tonight (April 16) on The CW.
