Finn The 100: His Character, His Love Interests, His Fate
The 100 (TV series) is no stranger to killing off likeable characters to deliver some real shock value. While it might provoke sharp responses from viewers such a tendency turns out to be one of the show’s most valuable and memorable storytelling styles. Among the main characters written off the series in a somewhat grossly premature fashion is Finn Collins, whose last appearance is in Season 2 Episode 8 “Spacewalker.” Find out all about Finn from the 100 here!
Finn Collins, portrayed by Thomas McDonnel, is part of the original 100 delinquents arrested for an illegal spacewalk while on The Ark. Finn and the other 99 teenagers are sent to Earth as both punishment and an experiment to see whether the planet has once again become inhabitable after a nuclear apocalypse nearly a century ago.
Series Appearances
McDonnel’s time in the series is short, lasting only a season and a half, or 23 episodes; he appears as a hallucination in a later episode and part of a flashback in another. A simple chronicle of Finn’s short yet memorable journey in The 100 is as follows.
S1 E1 – Pilot
Viewers feel familiar with Finn from The 100 simply because he is there from the very beginning. Once the Dropship lands on Earth, he volunteers to recon the Mount Weather area with Clarke Griffin. Everyone seems positively surprised with how the planet looks, but soon they discover there are enemies lurking around. Jasper takes a spear in his chest. Finn, Clarke and the others quickly take cover.
S1 E2 – Earth Skills
Finn, Clarke, Bellamy, Murphy, and Wells are searching for Jasper, who is tied to a tree. Finn and Murphy set Jasper free. Everyone returns to camp and enjoys a meal together. They have no idea that a primitive aggressive unfriendly group of people known as Grounders are nearby.
S1 E3 – Earth Kills
Jasper is still injured; Finn, Clarke, and Wells are on their way to find medicine to treat his wound. A toxic fog appears out of nowhere, forcing them to hide inside a buried vehicle. Finn finds some whiskey and takes a sip. They stay there overnight and return to camp the next day with the seaweed treatment for Jasper.
S1 E4 – Murphy’s Law
Somebody has just murdered Wells. It looks like everyone believes Murphy is the murderer. Finn bears witness to a group of delinquents physically assaulting Murphy. When a young girl named Charlotte admits to killing Wells, she is taken by Finn and Clarke to safety. The three of them hide in a buried house. Murphy and his followers are hunting down Charlotte and corner her on top of a cliff. The little girl ends up committing suicide. Bellamy banishes Murphy from the camp. Before returning to the Dropship, Finn gives his knife to Murphy to help him survive the wild. Finn and Clarke come back to the buried house and have sex.
S1 E5 – Twilight’s Last Gleaming
Finn and Clarke make their way to camp the next morning. An escape pod from The Ark lands on an area near the Dropship. Inside the escape pod is Finn’s girlfriend, Raven. When Finn and Clarke arrive, Bellamy is nowhere to be found. It turns out he has gone to the escape pod and thrown away Raven’s radio. Finn reunites with Raven and helps the other delinquents build a rocket launcher.
S1 E6 – His Sister’s Keeper
Raven gives Finn a haircut in a tent. Bellamy rallies a group of delinquents to search for his missing sister, Octavia. One of the search party members is Finn, who follows Bellamy into Grounders’ territory. They finally find Octavia in a cave with a Grounder named Lincoln. Finn is stabbed with a poisoned blade and suffers from a high fever. Bellamy carries Finn back to camp.
S1 E7 – Contents Under Pressure
Finn is still injured with the knife still stuck in his chest. Clarke removes the knife and later applies an antidote from Lincoln. Finn is embraced by Clarke and Raven.
S1 E8 – Day Trip
Finn and Raven spend much time together in a tent as the former is still recovering from his injury. Meanwhile, many delinquents in the camp are having hallucinations because of consuming psychedelic nuts.
S1 E9 – Unity Day
Finn sees Octavia stepping out of the camp. He follows her and realizes that she is having a relationship with Lincoln. During the encounter, Finn asks Lincoln whether the Grounders will engage in a peace talk with the delinquents. The negotiation takes place sometime later, but it all goes wrong when the two sides attack each other. Finn, Clarke, and Octavia run away.
S1 E10 – I Am Become Death
To stop the Grounders’ attack, Finn helps Raven and Jasper detonate a bomb. Raven then ends her relationship with Finn because she thinks he loves Clarke more.
S1 E11 – The Calm
Clarke, Myles, and Finn are together on a hunting trip. Some Grounders appear and shoot Myles in the leg and chest with arrows. The Grounders, led by Anya, take Clarke and Finn into their territory. Anya wants Clarke to save a Grounder named Tris, or else Finn will be killed. Clarke tries to save Tris, but she fails. The Grounders are ready to execute Finn.
S1 E12 – We Are Grounders (Part I)
Lincoln comes to the rescue. Finn is saved and reunites with Clarke. They escape through a tunnel and bump into a reaper, a Grounder who has been transformed by the Mountain Men into a savage cannibal. Finn kills the attacker. Finn tells Clarke that he loves her, but she is not ready for a relationship yet. Back at the camp, they rush to help Raven who has been shot by Murphy.
S1 E13 – We Are Grounders (Part II)
The Grounders are attacking the delinquents at the camp. Finn helps Raven recover from her injury. When Clarke arrives, Finn looks for Lincoln to see if he can help the delinquents fight against the Grounders. They plan to lure some reapers into the attacking Grounders as Raven prepares to detonate the rocket fuel from the Dropship. By the end of Season 1, Finn’s fate is unknown.
S2 E1 – The 48
A Grounder General named Tristan captures Finn. A rescue attempt by Bellamy, Monroe, and Sterling fails. However, Kane appears and kills the captor. When all five of them return to camp, Kane puts Bellamy under arrest for attacking Murphy.
S2 E2 – Inclement Weather
Raven undergoes a surgery to save her life. Finn is always at her side during the procedure. Finn frees Bellamy and together they look for the other delinquents. Murphy, Sterling, and Monroe are with them.
S2 E3 – Reapercussions
The search group can only imagine that the other delinquents are captured by the Grounders. On their way to the enemy’s territory, Finn and the others come across a group of Grounders who have been exiled by their clan. Finn shoots one grounder in the head.
S2 E4 – Many Happy Returns
Finn discovers a trail of dead bodies and follows it to find Mel. When Finn and the others try to save Mel, some Grounders attack. Octavia arrives and drives the attackers away. Finn and Murphy continue with the search mission, while the others return to camp.
S2 E5 – Human Trials
Finn and Murphy sneak into a Grounders’ camp and burn a food supply. Now that they have guns, they lead all the grounders into a pen. Murphy guards the prisoners, whereas Finn keeps on searching for the delinquents. He finds some coats of the delinquents and begins questioning the prisoners. When a Grounder tries to escape, Finn shoots and kills him. In fact, Finn ends up killing at least a dozen Grounders.
S2 E6 – Fog of War
Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, and Murphy find it difficult to justify Finn’s action in the Grounders’ camp. During another mission to locate Mount Weather, Finn goes after Octavia and Bellamy. Raven tries to stop him to no avail. Clarke also chases after Finn, who then tries to explain that the massacre was an accident. An acidic fog appears, prompting them to hide in a bunker. Clarke says she no longer knows Finn.
S2 E7 – Long Into an Abyss
Finn arrives at the Dropship and is quickly attacked by Nyko, who calls Finn a murderer. Lexa, the Commander of Grounder Clans Coalition, says that Finn must die to pay for his crime.
S2 E8 – Spacewalker
In a flashback, it is revealed that Finn and Raven had a strong relationship with The Ark; Finn was only arrested because he took the blame for an illegal spacewalk that Raven did. Clarke, Bellamy, and even Kane try to find ways to save Finn from execution by the Grounders, but all plans are fruitless because Finn eventually turns himself in. In desperation, Clarke tries to convince Lexa to give some sort of clemency, but Lexa refuses anyway. Still, Clarke asks for a chance to say goodbye to Finn. She approaches him, gives him a kiss, and stabs him in secret as an act of mercy, saving him from being tortured to death by the Grounders.
More Appearances
After the event in Spacewalker, the series features McDonnel as Finn in two more episodes, including S2 E9 “Remember Me” as a hallucination haunting Clarke and S6 E7 “Nevermind” in a flashback.
We think Finn Collins is naturally contradictory and flawed. Finn goes from a lover to a cheater, and from a peaceful soul to a brutal murderer within a very short period. Everyone has a breaking point, unlike Clarke Griffin who has always been trying to be the hero of the greater good regardless of how dire the situation might be, which makes her the hero. On the other hand, Finn cannot hold his grudges after witnessing many other delinquents being brutally slaughtered by the Grounders and when dealing with the real possibility of losing Clarke. In S2 E5 “Spacewalker,” Finn reaches the point of no return as he kills 18 unarmed Grounders. With all his shortcomings, confusion, and moral ambiguity, Finn Collins possibly is one of the most realistic characters in the series.
Do you think Finn Collins’ massacre is justifiable? Does he deserve a better fate in the series? We’d love to hear from you.
Other things you might want to know:
Is there any off-screen reason behind Finn’s death?
In an interview with Entertainment Online, showrunner Jason Rothenberg says that Finn’s demise has long been part of the plan. The character has to die in the same episode where viewers seem to sympathize with him most. S2 E8 “Spacewalker” appears to be the right time to do it.
Where to watch The 100 Season 1 and 2?
The entire series is still available for streaming on Netflix and DirecTV. You can also watch it on Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Video, and Google Play Movies.
What is Thomas McDonnel up to after The 100?
Thomas McDonnel has not yet appeared in big-screen films following his role as Finn Collins in The 100. He appears in several TV shows such as The Long Road Home as Carl Wild, LA to Vegas as Justin, Good Girls as Brian, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist as Barnaby Steele.
