[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for all of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon through Episode 5, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live through Episode 6.]
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’s finale is titled “The Last Time,” but it makes me wonder if this is really the end of Rick and Michonne’s story.
The episode’s plot is a very basic, but also very fulfilling and suspenseful, end to Rick and Michonne’s attempts to escape the CRM. However, it begins with the pair on their way back to the CRM, with two missions in mind. For Rick, this is to get the Echelon Briefing from Major General Beale, learning what the group’s true intentions are at the highest level. For Michonne’s part, she is seeking out the documents left behind by Jadis that reveal the location of Alexandria—and, subsequently, the other Virginia communities. With an intro quickly showcasing how their plan is set up, the episode marks one of the most fast-paced stories in the show for quite some time. With less than 50 minutes to spare, the series not only wraps up Rick and Michonne’s story, but also their fight with the CRM.
What’s interesting about the episode is that Michonne’s initial mission isn’t as major a part of the episode as what happens to her after. While the initial search for Jadis’ secret documents is frantic and unprepared at first, she manages to find them rather easily hiding in a cat art piece that she made. Tearing them up and shoving them in her boot, the only real trouble she has is one CRM agent coming to the door, only for her to take the intruder out quite easily. While this felt slightly anti-climactic in the moment, it wound up being a rouse for what Michonne’s true purpose was in the episode: Learning the details of what the CRM planned to do to Portland. Anyone who’s seen The Walking Dead: World Beyond knows this for sure, and The Ones Who Live previously implied this. But the militarized organization destroys the communities they infiltrate to preserve themselves as the dominant post-apocalyptic force. And Michonne ends up coming face-to-face with some of their plans.
The way the planned attack on Portland was laid out was incredible. With Michonne walking in on the part talking about saving some—but not all—children in the community, it slowly dawns on her the horrors that group of possibly hundreds of thousands of people is about to endure at the hands of the CRM. What makes this moment even more powerful is that Rick is receiving the Echelon Briefing at the same time. While Michonne is watching in terror as the group’s true plans become known to her, Major General Beale is outlining these very same plans to Rick. Informing him that, by their calculations, humanity only has 14 years left if a domineering force doesn’t take charge. Beale believes the CRM needs to be that force, even at the expense of civilizations around the world. The way he speaks about the group makes them seem unstoppable. As if the Major General is just one head on a massive Hydra. While much of the Briefing is information any viewer could ascertain about the CRM—especially someone who’s already watched World Beyond—it’s still imposing enough to have an impact.
So too is Rick’s response. While Beale informs Rick that any community they find will be destroyed somehow, that the CRM is experimenting to cure the zombie virus, and he can bring his people into the fold if he wants…Rick isn’t willing to listen to someone justify the murder of tens of thousands. In a fantastic parallel to a scene from episode 1, where Rick asks Beale to look into his eyes to test his loyalty, Beale asks Rick to swear on his sword loyalty to the CRM. And yet, Rick just stares at him. It’s enough for Beale to realize what’s happening, but it’s too late. It doesn’t take long for Rick to dispatch of him, marking the end of his reign on top of the CRM. While I’m a little disappointed by just how swiftly Beale was killed off, I do understand why it had to happen. In a scenario like that, Rick was never going to let him live. If anything, it made it slightly more realistic, to see him get taken down with his own sword, and by trusting that Rick Grimes of all people could stay broken forever.
After a few more suspenseful scenes, Rick and Michonne meet up. While Rick is a little hesitant about trying to stop the CRM from destroying Portland, it comes from a place of just wanting to be done and go home. But Michonne points out how important doing this could be, not just for them, but for their kids. It’s what makes Rick go along with the plan, which is to set up an elaborate Walker trap using Beale and another CRM soldier Rick killed to set off multiple grenades in a tent filled with chlorine gas bombs. Now, why the CRM—an organized military group tens of thousands strong—would put a megaton of deadly gas right behind all their elite soldiers during a pre-murder meet-up is a question one may have. However, it’s not really one the show addresses, as it’s at this point in the finale where it becomes clear what is going on:
Rick and Michonne’s story is going to end as fast as possible.
A number of major events happen in quick succession once the duo’s plan to destroy the CRM’s elite military members is set in motion. Pearl confronts the pair, only to do so too late: The sky becomes nothing but yellow clouds as it fills with chlorine gas. Somehow, water from a conveniently-placed tank protects Rick and Michonne (both their lungs and their eyes) as they fight their way through a crowd of zombies. Michonne also dispatches of Pearl in a scene that, to be honest, felt kind of cheesy. Pearl says that love doesn’t exist in a dead world, but Michonne confidently and bravely responds that “love doesn’t die” before finally killing her. It also seems like Rick may have been killed by an explosive at one point, but luckily, his plot armor has been built up so much that he’s entirely fine. The pair escape, and a voiceover basically summarizes what could have been an entire aftermath episode of its own: The CRC (apparently the government of the Civic Republic) has deemed there to be closer oversight of the CRM going forward so a stunt like Beale’s isn’t pulled again. Also, they’re totally cool with flying Rick and Michonne back home.
And I didn’t really hate it. As much as my summary above has some slight jabs toward the logical inconsistency of the final fight, I understood from an outside-the-art perspective why this was being done. This is probably going to be the last time we see Rick and Michonne in a main character capacity for quite some time because Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are mostly done with their roles. And this episode was their way of finalizing that, making it so the pair don’t have an obstacle that can prevent them from going home anymore. Nor does the CRM stick around as a possible future enemy. They’re subdued thanks to what Rick and Michonne did to their chlorine gas supply, the military now under the scrutiny of the CRC. While it doesn’t mean a rogue band of them couldn’t come back in the future, every major character on their side is now dead. Which pretty much ends their place in The Walking Dead universe. This was a bold move to be sure, and part of me wonders if this was always how it was going to play out, given their major presences in things like Fear the Walking Dead. But, either way, it opened the path for how the series really ends.
In a very “zombie movie for the Hallmark channel” kind of way, Rick and Michonne end up meeting with Judith and RJ in a field. While Rick is hesitant at first, given he hasn’t seen Judith in seven years and has never met his son at all, they all end up hugging it out together at the end. There’s some dialogue that felt especially corny to listen to (“But maybe you can call me dad”; “because I believed”), but it was overall trying to display itself as a feel-good ending. After all the suffering Rick and Michonne have been through, they’ve finally managed to get a happy conclusion to their story. And, as if symbolic of this, the last shot shows the four members of their family hugging as CRM choppers fly away in the sky. A symbol that their part to play in the story is over—both the group, and Rick and Michonne. Despite being an incredibly cheesy way to end the show, I actually didn’t think it was too bad. The final episode is nowhere near the levels of quality as episodes 1, 2, and 4 were, but it was a satisfactory finale that felt like it rounded out the main story of the franchise.
For now, anyway.
Because, despite The Ones Who Live ending on a pretty satisfying note (made all the better by Lincoln and Gurira’s performances, by the way), the elephant in the room is the fact that The Walking Dead franchise isn’t over yet. Daryl Dixon season 2 is coming this summer, with season 3 already confirmed to be in production. Dead City season 2 is filming in Boston this month, and given the filming schedule, could be released as early as the end of this year. The franchise’s Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple has also mentioned another anthology series is on the way, alongside a comedy show and at least one other spinoff featuring familiar characters from the series. While The Ones Who Live was airing, the Los Angeles Times published a piece revealing just how far AMC wants to take the franchise. President of Entertainment at AMC Studios Dan McDermott is quoted as saying, “If we’re smart and sensitive and creative, this is a multigenerational IP.” Meaning there could be decades of Walking Dead content left. Meaning Rick and Michonne’s story ending is only just the beginning.
But it might not be the last time we see them either. Daryl Dixon season 1, episode 5 had Carol telling Daryl someone came back to the Virginia communities—someone we now know was probably two someones, Rick and Michonne. Since that plot thread is likely to continue once Carol and Daryl are reunited, it opens the door for Rick and Michonne to show up one more time in a cameo appearance. Gimple has also expressed interest in bringing everyone in the franchise together for a massive crossover event, something that will likely take some time to create if the 5 planned seasons of Dead City actually come to fruition.
It’s a lot, and the end of Rick and Michonne’s story is just a drop in the bucket. While their ending was satisfying, and honestly makes me hope they’ll allow them to have that happy ending without any interference (save for some emotional reunions down the road to wrap everything up wholesale), the continuation of the franchise makes me apprehensive. I mean, the first footage of Daryl Dixon literally aired the same night The Ones Who Live ended. For me, this finale was the end of an era of The Walking Dead. But that’s not what it’s being advertised as. It is, at the end of the day, just one other thing in the franchise that’s complete. And while I’m really, really excited to see what happens next for all the other characters in this sprawling zombie universe, it makes it feel like whatever comes next from the franchise is going to be happening “after the end.”
I mention these apprehensions here because of just how satisfied I was with the ending of The Ones Who Live. Featuring great performances by its leads and a compelling narrative that gave everything a fitting ending, this truly felt like the an essential epilogue to the original series. While there were plenty of cheesy moments and I kind of wish more was going to be done with the CRM directly in the future, it provided a bookends to the main duo’s story. And in a way that makes it so anyone who wants to stop watching the franchise can jump off at this point—kind of the Endgame of The Walking Dead, if all you cared about was learning what was going to happen to Rick and Michonne. And while their futures are not set in stone given just how much longer the zombie universe might go on for, this was a great way to end things. Even if the continuation of other shows makes me scared this ending is just an end, not the end.
Even so, I’m happy with how this spinoff turned out—and I’m glad to see its main duo get the proper conclusion they deserve.
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