‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ 1×05 review: “Become”

We’ve reached the penultimate episode of The Ones Who Live. In true The Walking Dead fashion, it really ramped up the excitement. After the raw and emotional episode last week that saw Rick and Michonne dealing with their emotional trauma, this week’s episode returns to the Rick and Michonne that fans were used to seeing in the original series. In fact, this episode feels like a lost episode from the original series in more ways than one.

The episode begins with a quick and unexpected cold open. We see a man in the woods and a helicopter above him. He removes his hood to reveal…Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam)? We then pick up where last week ended with Rick and Michonne in the truck heading towards Virginia. They discover a treasure trove of instant ramen and even stop at a roadside wilderness store and look at souvenirs. They then see signs for a lodge nearby and decide to head there for a good night’s rest. On the way, they come across three unfortunate survivors having a hard time fending off some walkers. Rick and Michonne dispatch the dead with their iconic precision.

They offer the survivors some of the ramen but are immediately threatened by the hungry survivors when they turn their backs. What we then get is a scene that will make the OG fans smile. After giving the survivors a chance to walk back, Rick and Michonne quickly and easily make them regret their choices. We get good old cocky Rick Grimes pointing a gun at the person who failed to threaten him. Matched by the fierce and unmovable Michonne who takes back the food. She makes the survivors swear to never do this again. They continue to the lodge and settle in for a nice quiet night by the fire. But as they sleep a mysterious figure makes their way into the lodge.

Rick and Michonne wake to none other than Jadis, who has managed to somehow track down the duo. Throughout the rest of the episode are flashbacks of Jadis going back to meet with Father Gabriel in the woods. They talk vaguely about what has gone on in their respective lives since the bridge incident. It becomes clear that Jadis is keeping Gabriel at a distance. Back in the lodge, Jadis holds Rick and Michonne hostage briefly before the duo manages to overpower and wound her. Jadis retreats to her vehicle and a chase ensues. Rick reminds Michonne that they can’t kill Jadis because of the file she has. The file that will alert the CRM to the existence of Alexandria. 

They manage to ram Jadis’s car off the road and send her stumbling into the woods. Encountering the survivors that Rick and Michonne met earlier, she offers them passage into the CRM if they help. Rick and Michonne chase Jadis into a warehouse and are immediately surrounded by the survivors and Jadis commands them to kill them. Unsurprisingly, Rick and Michonne once again overpower the survivors and they all fall to walkers. We then get a standoff between the three stubborn warriors. Jadis continues to stress that if they kill her or let her die from her injuries or by walker that everyone they care about in Alexandria will be taken from them. Rick and Michonne pretend to give into Jadis’s demands and end up being able to double cross Jadis.

In her final moments we see Jadis takes the advice of Father Gabriel. In their final interaction she embraces her other side, the side that isn’t in the CRM and has a heart. She gives Rick a ring that Father Gabriel had found and intended to give to Rick for him and Michonne before the bridge incident. She also tells them where the file is that she was using as blackmail (not sure if I believe it’s where she said it is). Jadis then accepts her fate and asks Rick to shoot her, ending the run of Jadis which started back in season seven of the original series. We then get a very touching moment of Rick officially proposing to Michonne with the ring and declaring that they belong to each other.

This episode had so many elements that reminded me of the prime of the original series. Seeing Rick and Michonne back working as a single unit and trusting each other was a breath of fresh air after all the emotional turmoil in this series. Last week’s therapeutic episode paved the way for this week’s return to form and made it feel earned. And getting to see Rick back with his shit-eating grin and sarcastic tone while asserting his dominance over the person stupid enough to challenge him was an absolute delight. The death of Jadis and the solidifying of Rick and Michonne’s relationship in this episode felt both rewarding and frightening as we go into the finale next week. The duo is taking the fight to the CRM to get Jadis’s file so they can finally be free, but what awaits them there? 

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs every Sunday on AMC

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Images courtesy of AMC