This week’s episode of The Walking Dead’s The One Who Live was meant to be a character study of the relationship between Rick and Michonne, exploring the it’s-more-complicated-than-you-think idea of Rick being rescued by Michonne and trotting home to his family. Which as of yet, is not happening.
One of the biggest obstacles to overcome has been Rick’s own mind, where after years of captivity and failed escape events, he essentially gave up on ever seeing his family again. But now that Michonne actually arrived, his brain is straining with the concept of losing them all over again, and he has a stated desire to protect them by staying and “changing” the CRM so they don’t someday come for them.
While I still really enjoy The Ones Who Live and the concept of a twist on the “rescue” formula, given Rick’s state of mind, I think this episode took it too far, and did not really do the “switch flip” moment that made sense. While Rick does indeed eventually go after Michonne after rejecting her a dozen times, it’s a warbly way tp end the episode as the plan is still nebulous and Rick’s justifications are still more or less nonsense.
Michonne is right to call him out for being a stubborn, and really almost a coward for his justifications to not leave. And as good as it is to see Rick back for this whole series, this episode went well past what we needed to see from a broken Rick, and the things that should have turned that light on for him simply didn’t.
Rick and Michonne
First, when they realized their helicopter crashed and they could have gotten away by faking both their deaths, that should have been enough to convince Rick to go. When he said “no” that time I was practically yelling at him through the TV, as it simply didn’t make sense. I guess that’s what Michonne thought too.
Then, it really should have been the case that learning about the existence of RJ was enough to get him back on track. Instead it throws him into a stupor for apparently hours and is still not enough to convince him to go.
Again, I’m ultimately not sure what did it, nor am I sure he’s even fully on board by the end of this episode. It seems likely they will have to execute Michonne’s idea of destroying Jadis’ evidence then destroying Jadis to make them “safe,” but in just two episodes, it’s unclear how this all wraps up. Truly getting away would require them to fake their deaths for what, the third time in six episodes? I guess one good thing about the series is that I truly don’t know how they’re going to get out of this, and the viewer often feels as trapped as Rick.
This was just…a very strange episode to see Rick broken on a level we have never seen him. I understand the justification the show is giving for this, but it’s uncomfortable and awkward to see onscreen, and it felt like this could have been arced better to turn him back to “old Rick.” And I don’t think “old Rick is gone” is the right answer here for the return of the character. Perhaps it’s darkest before the dawn and all that, but this was a bleak look at Rick’s psyche that was almost so dark it genuinely didn’t even make sense.
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