The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Recap: The Not-So-Great Escape – AOL

Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live found Rick and Michonne hatching and even executing a plot to leave behind the CRM. But all was not as it seemed. Neither did it go as planned. What happened? Read on?

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YEARS AGO | Starting with a flashback to days so bygone that Jadis still had her run-of-the-mill Anne haircut, “Bye” reintroduced the frenemies and quickly removed the “friend” portion of the descriptor. Though she’d saved his life, he was anything but grateful. “You brought me somewhere I can’t leave,” he argued. In her eyes, that “somewhere” wasn’t so bad. Impressed by the CRM’s 500-year plan, she was enlisting. And Rick? Not a chance. Fine by Jadis. “Follow your bliss,” she cracked.

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From there, we jumped to mere hours ago, at which point Rick enlisted Pearl to ensure that Michonne — er, Dana — stuck around. Trouble was, Jadis intended for them to stay permanently. If she allowed them to go home to Alexandria — or if they somehow escaped — “I would have to go and kill all of you,” she explained. Oh, and if Rick got any bright ideas about killing the CRM officer, her colleagues would find among her possessions a note that told all about the couple and their people. D’oh!

MOVING ON UP | Following Okafor’s funeral, Beale admitted to Rick and Pearl that he saw the two of them as both the poison and the cure. In particular, he wasn’t sure about Rick. On the other hand, Pearl… her, he promoted to Command Sergeant Major, gave the top-secret Echelon Briefing and put in charge of readying Cascadia Forward Operating Base for opening day. Not that she didn’t still have a soft spot for Rick, whom she considered family. She warned him that “Dana,” whose skills were impossible to miss, had landed on Beale’s radar.

Off that exchange, Rick hustled into motion a byzantine plot to escape with Michonne. Only he had no intention of going with her, a fact that she didn’t learn until she found his note in the getaway canoe. The next day, Rick was chagrinned to discover that Michonne hadn’t gone at all. “To get away, you need someone on the inside,” he huffed at her. “I’m that for you.” She was gutted, thinking that Rick had drunk the Kool-Aid, until she met the artist he’d kept asking to draw her, Judith and Carl.

LEAP OF FAITH | Equally impressed by and suspicious of “Dana,” Pearl offered her a chance to get the whole picture by working at Cascadia. Michonne accepted — and it was a good thing that she did, too. Thorne was ready to kill her — and Rick ready to kill Thorne — if she didn’t. At Cascadia, “Dana” breached protocol, and Rick joined in, to help clear hundreds of walkers. Now well aware that “Dana” was a threat, Pearl might have taken her out, had Rick not blocked her shot.

Afterwards, Pearl told Rick that she was sorry that she stuck her neck out for him and “Dana.” But his stunt had wowed Beale, who wanted to brief him. As the hour drew to a close, Jadis showed up, having been transferred to Cascadia. When Michonne spotted her talking to Rick, she was upset. He had bigger fish to fry, however. He insisted that, despite all their longing looks and stolen kisses, “everything we had is broken… It’s over.”

Sure, Jan. In the final seconds of “Bye,” Michonne grabbed Rick as they were choppered through a thunderstorm and leaped out of the helicopter. So, your thoughts on “Bye”? Rick’s foolish attempts to end things with Michonne? Jadis’ continued lust for Rick? Comment away.

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