Cate Cameron/The CW From a mysterious warrior to a strong ally to a romantic heartthrob to a...vicious cannibal?!
Yeah, that's been Lincoln's (Ricky Whittle) crazy roller coaster of a story arc on the CW's hit post-apocalyptic series The 100, and in just a season and a half, the unexpected hero has been turned against his will into the show's scariest villain: the monstrous, genetically modified, mindless drug addicts that guard Mount Weather, known as Reapers.
Whittle revealed that he found out what was going to happen to his character over the summer.
"[Executive producer] Jason [Rothenberg] told me where the storyline was going back during Comic-Con in San Diego," Whittle told E! Online. "They wanted to give me enough time to research how to portray the drug's effects on Lincoln and lots of different things like that. I was researching some pretty traumatic stuff, they gave me films and TV episodes and documentaries, really brutal and very sad stuff to help me and I learned a lot."
According to Whittle, both he and the show's writers wanted to portray a realistic situation (drug addiction) through a futuristic lens.
"In TV, we have a duty to show certain situations in a true light and although this is sci-fi and we do take a creative spin on it, drugs are a real problem," Whittle said. "Lincoln is a character who is true of heart and full of courage and good morals, and this drug the Mountain Men forced him to take has overtaken even him and completely changed him to the point where he's unrecognizable. He's already changed so much and we'll see that even more in this episode."
Whittle knows that he lucked out when it comes to story arcs.
"I really have gotten lucky, to be honest," Whittle said. "I've been very fortunate to carry on where we left off last season, building up that relationship with Octavia [Marie Avgeropoulos]. [Executive producer] Jason [Rothenberg] often refers to that relationship as the show's heart, the one true romance of the show. Obviously, the world they've created makes it very hard for them to have a normal relationship and to play that dynamic has been a lot of fun."
If "Linctavia" is the show's "one true romance," does that mean things are going to get better for them soon?! Whittle just laughed at our optimism.
"The writers and Jason like to give the fans what they need, not what they want," Whittle said. "What do you do when everyone wants a couple to get together? You split them up! So that's why what we've seen this season so far, they're constantly split up! [Laughs] But Octavia has grown strong and she's desperate to get her man back. She knows she found a good one."
Getting her man back is easier said than done now that Lincoln is a full-blown Reaper, but that won't stop Octavia and her older brother Bellamy (Bob Morley) from trying their best now that they've captured him.
"Bellamy and Octavia are going to take him home and we'll really see the effects of this drug then," Whittle said. "The 100 has done a great job in showing how even the purest of people can be taken over by drugs. A lot of Lincoln's journey has been offscreen, but he's the main vehicle to show what Mount Weather is doing and how this all works."
But don't expect Lincoln to get better immediately now that he's out of the hands of the Mountain Men and away from the drug that turned him into a Reaper.
"Drugs don't just disappear," Whittle said. "It's not something that he can snap out of and he'll be fine. The show is very good at showing consequences, and even if Lincoln were to survive to season six or eight, this would still be a part of his story. Drug addiction is a very serious problem and that's what Lincoln has been forced into by Cage [Johnny Whitworth] and the Mountain Men."
Whittle is excited for fans to see the dynamic of Bellamy, Octavia and Lincoln together again, although it will be quite different from the last time they were all together in the season one finale.
"By the end of the last season, we saw how far Bellamy came in his trust of Lincoln—when he allowed Lincoln to take Octavia away with him—and that trust continues in this episode," Whittle said. "Combined with Octavia's love for Lincoln, they're both going to try and bring him back. They're not sure how they're going to do it and it's going to be quite dark. Will Lincoln ever be the same again or is he so far gone he can't be brought back? We know this show doesn't quite do happy endings, so it's definitely going to get darker before it gets lighter."
Plus, expect to see Lincoln in some scenes with new faces as well.
"I get to work with some new characters in this episode which I was very excited about," Whittle teased. "Watch out for those new dynamics, too."
For fans who have been lamenting a lack of Lincoln in the past few episodes despite how important his arc is, Whittle promises that this is the episode to watch.
"This next episode is pretty dramatic," Whittle said. "I've got incredible fans and I know they've been upset that Lincoln has not had much screen time but this is a huge episode for Lincoln. It's going to be very rough and treacherous and it's an absolute emotional roller coaster. It's sad, it's scary, and I'm really excited for everyone to see the incredible ending. This episode has everything from action to heart."
In fact, he even compared this episode to arguably what is the best episode of season one.
"Last season's episode 7 was my favorite, when Lincoln was being tortured," Whittle said, "and this is kind of like a mirror image but on a higher level since he's a Reaper now. It's my favorite episode of the season so far. It's incredible."
The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9 pm on the CW.