[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for all of The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live through Episode 4.]
Mere words cannot express the pain and beauty of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Episode 4.
After the harrowing ending of Episode 3, the next episode doesn’t let up at all. Now in a high-end high-rise, Michonne confronts Rick about his fear of running away from the CRM. All the while, Rick keeps trying to convince her that it isn’t possible. Even now, when they’ve both jumped out of a helicopter together seemingly to their deaths, Rick doesn’t want to go home with her. This is despite Michonne revealing that he has a son, RJ, who she promised would be able to see his father again. Rick barely reacts to the news, almost as if he doesn’t want to let himself react. It’s something that defines his character this episode, which explores Rick and Michonne’s brokenness in a variety of ways—but also how they can share those feelings and still come out of the other end in love with one another.
Now, before truly digging into everything I adored about this episode, it should be said that Danai Gurira, who portrays Michonne, wrote this episode of the series. While this is significant because of both her starring role and executive producer status on the series, it’s also because of how well-recognized she’s been for her writing in the past. Gurira is an award-winning playwright, having penned the 2009 play Eclipsed, which went on to win multiple awards after its Off-Broadway premiere in 2015. She’s also written the plays In the Continuum, The Convert, and Familiar. Because of her presence both onscreen and offscreen this episode, it makes this particular entry in the series all the more potent. This is how she sees the relationship between Rick and Michonne. This is her episode, through and through. And it’s clear that her understanding of Michonne and Andrew Lincoln’s Rick is as complex and deep as the characters’ love for one another.
The episode is a whirlwind of action mixed with the push and pull of love between the duo. Michonne is constantly trying to break down the walls Rick has built around him, hoping that he can see the same hope she does. And yet, every time she says something that it feels like the old Rick would agree with, he shuts it down. Even when they discover the CRM’s helicopter has crashed into the building, giving them the perfect chance to escape. Even when the CRM comes with a new chopper and blows the crash apart to erase any trace of their community. Even when the building starts to crumble around them, giving them the perfect opportunity to fake their deaths without their “bodies” ever being found…Rick won’t do it. He won’t go through with any of it. It’s not the Rick that Michonne fell in love with, nor the version we as the audience have grown to love too. This is a broken version of a once-great hero, reduced to a terrified rabbit by his captors.
Although the episode continues to circle around the same argument between the pair, the complexity on display here is the most shown in the series so far. One scene in particular that stood out between all of Rick’s fear and hesitation was when Michonne, near tears, tells him how hard it was to leave their children behind to find him. It’s clearly something she feels incredibly guilty about, painting her actions as having a selfish streak to them. She wants Rick to come home, even if it were impossible for him to do so. But it’s because her love for him is so strong that she wants to share a future with him. Even if it meant leaving their children without a mother for a short amount of time to make it happen. It may not have been the wisest decision of hers, but she didn’t want her children to grow up without their father. Nor live the rest of her life wondering what really happened to her husband.
The feelings and regrets Rick and Michonne have culminates in one of the few sex scenes The Walking Dead has had in recent years. After narrowly escaping a group of Walkers, with Rick having to help a pinned Michonne out of their closest brush with death so far, the two end up back in the room they woke up in. They decide to make love on the bed—or start to, before Rick begins to cry. It’s clear he’s still trying to push her away despite how much he cares about her, torn between trying to keep her at bay or physically showing her he still loves her. It’s almost as if he’s panicking and at war with himself. But, in a wordless exchange with Michonne, she manages to calm him. She breaks down his walls, and the two of them have sex. It’s a scene like this that proves sex scenes in media don’t need to be gratuitous or for shock value like many other shows or movies do. The best ones are the ones that use the physicality of two people in love with one another to show something important to the audience. This one was done beautifully, showcasing the depth of Rick and Michonne’s relationship even in the face of Rick’s doubt and fear.
After they’re done and talk about some of what Rick missed back home, though, he continues to insist they need to contact the CRM. That he needs to find a way to change it from the inside. After some fierce prying from Michonne, he finally gives in…and says Carl’s name. In Lincoln’s most powerfully emotional performance in the entire franchise, Rick has a complete breakdown. He says that not only has he forgotten Carl’s face, but also Michonne’s. In his own words, he learned to let himself die while still living. But, with Michonne back in his arms, he’s afraid of losing her again. He says that, if anything were to happen to her from this point forward, he wouldn’t know how to go on. Which is why, if she escapes alone, at least he can pretend like she’s okay. The fear of both the CRM and what will happen to him if his wife dies weighs on him. It’s a culmination of his character that feels like one of the most important moments of the series: Rick finally lets Michonne in, just like she always wanted.
But that’s not where it ends. Michonne pulls out an iPhone carving of Carl that she got from the Civic Republic. After some more tears and the realization that he had given up hope for no reason, Rick and Michonne finally escape. Getting into a yellow hybrid (and a funny moment of Rick no longer being able to drive a stick shift), the two drive away. It’s a very hopeful ending, one that is filled with emotional resonance for everything that came before it.
To see Rick and Michonne at their most broken and apart, only for their love and honesty to bring them back together, was the perfect way to bridge the gap between their doubts and their willingness to escape together. As someone who believes Rick and Michonne’s love story to be one of the best written on TV (maybe even the best, tied with Ava and Beatrice from Warrior Nun), this was the perfect episode to demonstrate their relationship coming back to where it once was. And the perfect emotional rollercoaster to send the show’s viewers on. Lincoln and Gurira honestly deserve awards for their performances this episode, and Gurira for writing an episode with just two characters while making it the most compelling in the show so far.
However, I am worried about how the show will end now that they’ve seemingly escaped from the CRM with two episodes to spare. The Walking Dead under Scott Gimple had a penchant for pulling happy endings away from its characters. And while that worked because many of those were following the darkest arcs of Robert Kirkman’s original comic series, the original Rick and Michonne adventure here would suffer if something bad were to happen to them. Especially since audiences just got them back after so many years away. At the same time, with Lincoln and Gurira serving as executive producers and Gimple making indirect comments about the possibility of Rick and Michonne appearing again later down the road, their story might just have the happy ending it deserves.
Barring these fears, though, Episode 4 was my favorite of the series so far. While it was a much more intimate episode with Rick and Michonne at the forefront, it was exactly what I needed to be convinced of just how powerful their love story really is. With the two of them now free in the world, I truly hope their ability to do anything is showcased in what comes next. Because if any characters in this franchise deserve a happy ending, it’s these two.
Here’s to seeing how the third act of the show pans out.
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