Anyone who watches the post-apocalyptic hit The 100 will understand my impatience in waiting for season 5. The cliffhanger at the end of the season 4 finale gave us questions instead of answers, primarily the fact that *SPOILERS* Skaikru was split up in every way possible. The majority of the clan is trapped in an underground bunker with the grounder clans, waiting out the death wave of radiation that will last at least 5 years. Our delinquent Scooby Gang is back in outer space, returning to the stars where they were born. And the only one left alone on earth, presumed dead by everyone, is Clarke.

Yeah. You can see how that would make me anxious, right?

At any rate, today’s panel gave us small glimpses at what lies in store for Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Octavia, Monty, Murphy, Harper, Echo, Emori, and what remains of the world. They started things off with this awesome sizzle reel that recapped where the show has taken us this far.

Yeah, that little girl’s voice? That’s Clarke’s adopted daughter Madi, whom she found in the aftermath of Praimfaya. And that’s our first clue about what’s happened over the last six years. The panel and subsequent fan questions focused on the time jump between seasons 4 and 5, with a few teasers thrown in here and there. For starters, we learned from Jason Rothenberg that the transport ship full of prisoners that lands suddenly on Earth (when Clarke has been praying for the return of her friends) is full of people from before the massive apocalypse that changed the world forever. “They’re from our time, so they’re from before the first apocalypse. That means it’s probably cryo. They were in hypersleep,” Rothenberg revealed. “[The prisoners have] come back to this planet that they don’t recognize and has been destroyed, and all that’s left is this garden of Eden that Clarke’s been living in, and there’s not enough room for everyone.”

Sound familiar? Except now the tables are turned. Our Arkadians are no longer strangers to earth. In the words of Bellamy, they are grounders now—and the newcomers from the sky are bound to be the new big bad. We know from the sizzle reel that Clarke will kill anyone who threatens Madi. Clarke is no longer a delinquent, a chancellor, or Wanheda. She’s a mother who will do anything to protect the only person currently in her life, the child who probably kept her from going mad in her years alone. She will have a different protectiveness about her, the kind that comes from raising another human. Will her friends recognize her after all this time? What’s more, will she recognize them?

Octavia has taken on a mantle she never wanted; that of leader. Abby, Kane, and Jaha (if they are still alive) have undoubtedly found themselves adapting and changing as they live alongside grounders. And our kids up in space? The actors all agreed that their characters have undergone massive changes. Not only have they returned to a place they’d wanted to leave behind their entire lives, but they are in very close quarters with very few people. Isolated for six years, they have a lot of time to kill with not much to do to keep themselves entertained. They believe that Clarke sacrificed herself for them, and that surely weighs heavy on them all, Bellamy in particular (who totally loves Clarke—FIGHT ME). They don’t know what returning to the ground will be like. Will everyone who was in the ground be dead? Is there a chance that the Earth can recover from such intense radiation a second time? Is there a life for them anywhere?

I’ll just be here, hoping that all the questions get answered sooner rather than later. Season 5 of The 100 comes to the CW in 2018.

May we meet again,

The Collected Mutineer