Rick and Michonne have been through quite a bit in The Ones Who Live. We saw their hardships after they were separated back in the original series. We watch them reunite. And then we see them work through a lot of emotional traumas, and return to their kickass selves and take down Jadis. Now, there’s just one more thing left to do before they can finally return home to their kids: make sure the CRM can’t enact whatever awful plan they have in The Ones Who Live “The Last Time.”
The episode begins with Rick and Michonne planning their invasion of the CRM and what their objectives are. Michonne is in charge of finding a way into Jadis’s office and locating the letter that she had exposing Alexandria. Rick will enter the CRM and convince everyone that he survived the helicopter crash and was able to make it back. Michonne locates and destroys the letter, Rick catches up with Thorne who tells Rick that General Beale wants to speak to him. Rick quickly realizes that Beale is going to give him the Echelon Briefing which Rick has been very curious about since he first heard Thorne mention it. Beale has Rick sit down and put his weapons on the table. Beale puts his prized sword on the table as well and makes Rick swear on the sword before the briefing.
During this meeting, Michonne makes her way into Jadis’s office and finally finds the letter. She reads enough of it to see that Jadis was telling the truth and was going to expose Alexandria to the CRM, so she rips up the letter angerly. She then walks into a meeting of CRM officials describing a bombing they are planning and the movement of children out of the bombing area. Rick is simultaneously being given the briefing which essentially describes the plot to eliminate the other remaining colonies so that they can horde all the remaining resources and survive the now calculated 14 years that humanity now has left. He hears this plan and immediately confirms his suspicions about the CRM. Rick looks at Beale in the way that Rick looks at all the people he’s about to kill and takes Beale down in a matter of seconds.
After Rick and Michonne fight their way back to each other, their stances on their situation have changed. Rick is now ready to give up his allegiance to the CRM and go be with his family, while Michonne now understands their purpose is to destroy this CRM base and stop this horrific plan from unfolding any further. They agree that they need to destroy the base (and every CRM soldier in it) to save their future. And of course, because this is Rick and Michonne we’re talking about they can’t just destroy the base in a small and exact way. They do it their way which involves rigging what looked like a hundred grenades together with lines attached to other explosive material attached to the bombs that the CRM were going to use on the other communities.
After they get the explosives, all prepared and strap the walker version of Beale to a tension cable that sets off the explosion if he walks too far away, Thorne corners Rick and Michonne, furious. Thorne thinks she’s caught the two before they’re able to enact their plan. But it’s not long before walker Beale sets off the explosion and the entire base erupts. Rick and Michonne come to as every CRM soldier turns and comes after them.
Thorne attempts to stop them but is Michonne takes them down. Rick and Michonne escape the horde of the CRM dead and leave the blown-up base. We hear radio transmissions about what happened at the base and the repercussions that have scattered through the remaining colonies. We witness the moment we’ve all been waiting for when Rick and Michonne land in a helicopter in a field and meet Judith and Rj. Their family is whole for the first time in almost a decade.
The end of the road
This episode not only was an excellent wrapping up of this story, but of the character arcs of Rick and Michonne. One of my favorite parts of this episode was the interlacing of prominent moments from the original series as Rick and Michonne are completing their tasks when they first infiltrate the CRM base. Seeing all the brutal moments, the happy moments, the death, and the friendship in those flashbacks really amplified the power behind why they chose to risk their lives to take down this base.
Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira brought their most powerful and meaningful performances to this series and reminded us all why we loved them so much in the original series. While we don’t know for sure if this is the last time we’ll see them (as there’s not been a second season announced as of the time of this review) this was by far the best possible outcome for a series that the fans could’ve ever asked for.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is available now on AMC
Images courtesy of AMC
REVIEW RATING
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- 9/10
9/10
From a young age, Tyler has been amazed by filmmaking and writing. When he’s not watching movies in theaters, he also enjoys playing video games and binging one of the numerous shows he’s watching at any given moment. Working with The Young Folks was a highlight of his writing career and he is looking forward to this new adventure with In Between Drafts!
