The Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes is the source of many memes. Whether it is yelling “Carl” or “no no no no no,” there are plenty of jokes you can make using Rick. “I’m doing stuff, Lori. Things” comes to mind, but now I have found him incredibly relatable in The Ones Who Live.
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Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) had a lot to talk about, and in a beautiful two-person episode (well … two people and then the walkers), we got to see them working out their marital issues. Fighting with each other in an apartment they don’t understand, with a computer system telling them their own issues (disguised behind temperature checks), the episode was actually perfection and everything I expected from Rick and Michonne.
What I wasn’t expecting was to find comfort in how Rick Grimes reacted to certain things. I never thought former cop turned leader of his found family in an apocalypse situation would feel relatable to me. I’m well aware I’d be dead already if this were to become our reality.
Still, the way that Rick complained, loved, and learned in episode 4 of The Ones Who Live, “What We,” really spoke to me. Maybe it is just his earnestness, something he definitely has gained through the apocalypse. But watching a man just bare himself to his partner, having a panic attack and not being ashamed of it? Man, I fell even more in love with Rick Grimes in that moment, so here are three of the most highly relatable moments from “What We.”
Loving during a panic attack
When Rick and Michonne ended up back together, it felt like all was right in the world. In the middle of their reunion sex, though, Rick seems to have a panic attack trying to navigate everything that he and Michonne had been fighting about. Rick was being pulled in two different directions. He was told by Jadis (PollyAnna McIntosh) that if he tried to escape with Michonne, she’d find them.
Trying to protect his family, Rick just wants Michonne to go and to be left with the CRM alone. Michonne doesn’t want that, and even after she tells him about Rick Jr., he still isn’t convinced that he needs to go home and, if anything, has more resolve to stay behind. Their fighting seems to compound his already worried thoughts, and in the midst of having sex with Michonne, he lets all those emotions come to the forefront of his mind.
Personally, I found this relatable in an unexpected way. No, I have not been in the middle of a situation like this and suddenly suffered from a panic attack, but I have been trying to be happy, trying to enjoy something, and having a panic attack in the middle of it for things that I do not understand.
Rick Grimes vs. a Roomba
It took me until late 2023 to finally succumb to the Roomba club. I’ve named him Larry, and I often yell at him for getting caught under my dishwasher instead of cleaning the hallway. When Rick is about as peaceful as we’ve seen him this entire show (maybe with the exception of the first moment he sees Michonne again), he’s suddenly interrupted by a Roomba.
Now, relatable is the fact that it was 8 years of Roombas by the time the apocalypse happened and Rick Grimes still hadn’t even heard of them. I just refused to get one because I can save money and vacuum myself. So Rick asking what the hell a Roomba was? Hilarious and relatable all at the same time.
“Commando”
The way that Rick and Michonne fight is genuinely hilarious and relatable to watch. They’re both just mocking something the other one has said as a way of making the other feel bad. When Rick says something about a defensible position, Michonne mocks it and calls him “Commando” in the process. It then, in turn, forces Rick to mock her comment back at her.
“Commando? Really?” he says and it truly has never felt more real to me than that moment. You know how the kids say “Real” now when they think something is relatable? Me with this scene. It’s hilarious but also exactly how I’d be fighting with someone when the stakes are impossibly high.
Stick shifts should be obsolete
Now, Rick’s inability to drive a shift was instantly relatable to me. It didn’t even occur to me that he probably could have driven a stick shift before he cut his own hand off in an attempt to escape because I, like many others, can only drive an automatic. Still, I found Rick’s cute little response to Michonne adorable while relatable.
Look, stick shifts are so ridiculous at this point. And sure, they still were popular in 2010, which is probably why they found a truck with a stick shift. But personally? I think we should ban them all so then if a zombie apocalypse happens, I don’t have to pull the “stick shift” line. At least I won’t have to parallel park in an apocalypse situation.
I love Rick Grimes so much, and this episode was absolute perfection.
(featured image: AMC+)
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