In Episode 3 of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick was really pushing his luck. Our once-fearless leader was consumed by, well, fear, as he quickly realized that bringing Michonne (Danai Gurira) into the CRM’s fold was a big mistake. Not only was this frustrating for Michonne, who after years of searching for Rick, finally found him (alive!) and was ready to bring him home, but it was frustrating for the viewers watching Rick make very controversial decisions. By the end of the episode, it was pretty dang hard to feel for Rick, and it was getting increasingly easier to not blame Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) for making him shake in his boots. This week, the series puts a spotlight on its two leads and places their relationship under a microscope.
Rick and Michonne Need to Talk in ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live reinvents itself and its characters yet again, this time by relying mostly on the passionate dialogue between Michonne and Rick as they air their dirty laundry. It’s funny how it literally took Michonne yanking Rick from a helicopter for him to finally open up, which he does to varying levels of satisfaction. These two bare it all… in more ways than one.
“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” appropriately opens the episode and announces our main topic in a very overt way: coming home. We don’t find out what this facility really is all about until later in the episode, but what we do know right away is that this place is quite fancy. When was the last time you saw a chandelier in the apocalypse? It’s fitting that the episode takes place in what looks like a domestic setting because Rick and Michonne argue like a married couple in desperate need of counseling.
The passive aggression (and blatant aggression) is palpable as Michonne sarcastically unleashes her anger on Rick. She can’t believe he’s really going to make her go back home and tell her children that she reunited with The Brave Man, but he didn’t want to come home to them. Hold up… children? That’s right, Rick didn’t know that he and Michonne had a son. She was pregnant when the bridge explosion happened, and now their son is eight.
Is Rick Hiding Something in ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live?’
What’s maddening (and eventually heartbreaking) about Rick is how fixated he is on getting back to the CRM. He doesn’t even entertain the thought of trying to return home with Michonne, and for the life of her, she can’t understand why. Both Lincoln and Gurira give powerhouse performances from start to finish as they put their heart and soul into every line delivery. Rick’s facade slowly begins to crack as he tearfully says, “Look at me. They won a long time ago. They won the day Jadis brought me here.”
The episode impressively manages to get Rick and Michonne on the same page with stuff the audience already knows about without feeling like a repetitive, exposition-heavy slog. That’s because it’s Rick and Michonne’s reactions that matter most. Michonne’s disgust and confusion with Rick’s relentlessness about returning to the CRM and Rick’s trembling “Always” when Michonne asks if he even loves her are the types of moments that make this part of the series so devastating.
Michonne realizes that their escape plan will be even easier now that the helicopter they came in is on fire. If the CRM comes looking for them, they will think they died in the explosion and will stop their search. Despite this, Rick is still terrified that Jadis will track down Alexandria and kill everyone he loves (especially since she left behind that document with everything the CRM needs to know about Rick should something happen to her). Michonne, who’s ready to kill Jadis and destroy the evidence, doesn’t get why Rick is so scared.
After Rick says he’s really not going with her, Michonne says she knows he’s lying about why he won’t go with them and storms out. After a few seconds, Rick runs out the door behind her and ends up saving her from an explosion. The CRM has already sent a helicopter to destroy all evidence of the crash and is also ready to level the building. They make their way through the ticking time bomb and discover the building is a place for innovators to live “off the grid” as they do experiments to save humanity. (That didn’t go too well, apparently.)
Michonne even goes so far as to shove Rick when he says that they should be afraid of the CRM and that she should escape while she can. “You don’t know a goddamn thing anymore, do you? Not a goddamn thing.” Rick and Michonne barely make it out of the crumbling building alive, but they manage to get back to the lavish apartment. After a deep breath, they can’t help but embrace the moment — and each other.
Rick and Michonne Have Their Most Romantic Moment in ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’
This episode really doesn’t hold back on the romance, something you might not expect to hear given everything Rick and Michonne have been through up until this point. But Richonne shippers can rejoice because these two get it on, making for an expected reprieve from the chaos. Rick does kill the mood a little bit, though, when he (surprise, surprise) brings up the CRM. If he keeps going, maybe he can make a difference for future generations to have a normal life. Michonne still knows he’s lying, and even goes so far as to tell him he’s lying to both her and himself. He also asks about the X scar on her back, which she explains she got when she was held captive after she and Daryl (Norman Reedus) went looking for Rick.
Even though their side of the building starts to crumble, Michonne won’t leave until Rick decides if he’s going to go back to Alexandria with her or choose the CRM. When she asks what the CRM did to him, he responds with something no one saw coming: Carl. As he explains, he would stay sane by dreaming of Carl and meeting up with him in his dreams. One day, Carl stopped showing up in his dreams, but Michonne would (as evidenced by those scenes in the first episode) — That is, until she, too, disappeared. Rick breaks down, explaining this all to Michonne. Without Michonne, he dies, and he’s learned to “be dead and still live” now. Essentially, her showing up, presenting a false sense of security and optimism, has wrecked him. He can’t risk losing her again.
Thankfully, Michonne gets through to Rick that leaving with her is the safer, more definite route as opposed to staying and potentially changing the CRM for the better. Rick then snaps into the character we’re way more used to as he confidently slashes walkers and makes his way through the building with no hesitation or regret. The couple is reinvigorated with a new edge, something they will need to hold onto for what is an inevitable crash back to reality. They drive off like two teenagers in love, barely able to keep their hands off each other, massive smiles plastered on their faces as the building crumbles to pieces behind them. The Ones Who Live continues to surprise us, though the question remains: what the hell is Jadis going to do about all this?
