‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ 1×02 review: “Gone”

On the premiere episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live we finally got to see what Rick Grimes has been up to since we saw him “die” on the bridge. This week’s episode, titled “Gone,” shows us where Michonne ended up after taking off to search for Rick after finding clues that he may be alive back in Season 10 of the original series. Just as Rick’s story quickly got complicated, Michonne’s journey turned ugly, too.

“Gone” begins with Michonne being interviewed by a leader of the caravan of nomads that she joined after saving two of its members. Michonne explains that she just needs a horse so she can continue her quest to find Rick, but the leader isn’t budging. With the help of the two people she saved and a feisty inventor named Nat, Michonne is able to not only get a horse, but also get some friends to help her on her dangerous mission. Michonne tries to go out on her own, but the giant mass of walkers she encounters almost immediately is too much for her to handle alone, so she agrees to travel with her new friends.

As the group makes their way through a city area, they are suddenly attacked by the CRM via a helicopter dropping chlorine canisters on them. The gas has truly brutal effects on the living and the dead and sadly kills everyone except Michonne and Nat. The two survivors are left in a severely injured state and forced to shelter where they are for a while to recover their lungs and bodies from the gas. After they are healthy enough to continue, the story jumps forward a bit to the last scene from the premiere episode.

We see Michonne and Nat taking down the CRM helicopter that Rick is flying and the slaughter of Rick’s soldiers that followed. We then get to see the full long-awaited reunion of Rick and Michonne, but it doesn’t go as we might’ve expected. Rick is attempting to get Michonne and Nat to basically surrender so that he can arrest them and take them into the CRM. But one of Rick’s soldiers survived long enough to shoot Nat in the heart.

Rick then pleads with Michonne to trust him and instructs her what to do when the rest of the CRM arrives. He takes her into custody and Michonne is brought back to Rick’s new home and quickly becomes a member of their working class like how Rick started. Rick sneaks off with her and they kiss and reassure each other that they will escape. But, when Rick returns to his apartment he is greeted by the only person who both knows Michonne and has the ability to ruin their entire plan: Jadis. She gently reminds Rick that he owes his survival to her and that if he tries to escape with Michonne, she will end him.

Very much like with the first episode, “Gone” sets up the massive scale of this series. We have two characters that fans care so much about and have missed dearly since they both exited the original series. We also have a noticeable increase in production quality and some great casting choices in “Gone.” But, what really sets this series apart from the other two spinoff’s is its story. You can feel how personally this story was assembled and how meaningful the writers and producers knew it would be. As we get more information, we see how this is going to be a very complicated and messy reunion for Rick and Michonne and their escape will not be as easy as Rick expected it to be. 

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs new episodes every Sunday.

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Images courtesy of Gene Page/AMC