The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live scales back as Michonne and Rick Grimes take shelter in a high-rise and debate their future with the CRM.
At the end of Episode 3, “Bye,” of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Michonne (Danai Gurira) decided that if she’s not going to live with her husband in peace, she’ll die with her husband in rebellion. Luckily for Michonne and Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), the CRM helicopter was flying under a body of water that softens their fall like a cushion. In Episode 4, “What We,” (penned by Gurira herself), Rick and Michonne end up in a snazzy high-rise apartment complex that still has power 10-15 years into the apocalypse.
There’s music playing over a stereo and a Roomba vacuum is still doing its job of sweeping the floors. But the place is deserted, except for the automatic voice-over welcoming Rick and Michonne “home,” so the couple take shelter to figure out their next steps and participate in some well-needed marriage counseling to un-brainwash Rick from the CRM’s psychological conditioning. Rick is not exactly happy and expects the CRM will put him in a time-out once they go back because that’s where he insists they’re going. Michonne wants to leave for Alexandria, Rick wants to stay at the CRM.
Michonne makes herself comfortable, removing her CRM uniform while Rick keeps his on. Rick spots Michonne’s “X” scar she received from her friend Jocelyn back in The Walking Dead Season 9, all while he’s trying not to give into the one thing he wants most in the world. She knows this, and is playing a clever game. He hasn’t called the CRM to their location yet, so she has that going for her. Michonne reminisces over one of the books on the shelf, Ramona the Pest, as it was her favorite growing up and reminds her of their daughter Judith.
As Rick stands quietly, pondering over what side to choose, Michonne lets him in on her past ambitions: she wanted to be a writer, computer scientist, art historian, and then writer again until she dropped out of college. She asks Rick to write his children a note explaining why he’s not coming home. His face drops at the word “children.” Rick had no idea he has another child he never got to meet. Michonne tells Rick about RJ, who is almost eight years old. Weirdly enough, Rick doesn’t ask any questions about his son.
Rick wants to radio the CRM to Michonne’s annoyance. His belief is that to protect Judith and RJ, he needs to keep himself at the CRM to prevent them from finding Alexandria and the Commonwealth. In his mind, it’s a father’s sacrifice for his children to live in a better world. He’s pushing Michonne away for her own good, but she’s not falling for that. She doesn’t just want answers, she wants her husband to accept that he doesn’t deserve this life. Michonne’s pretty upfront with him. She doesn’t like who Rick is with the CRM and doesn’t know who he is anymore.
Every solution Michonne offers — getting to Alexandria first, killing Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), fighting the CRM, finding Jadis’ evidence — Rick counters. Nothing they can do can stop the CRM from finding them and destroying their home. Michonne gives in until they see their helicopter crashed. It’s the perfect solution to their problem: Jadis and the others will think they were in the helicopter, so everyone will assume they’re dead. Still, Rick doesn’t want to leave. He’s done with the life of “crawling in the dirt” and losing people, and feels like Okafor’s mission at the CRM gives him true purpose.
Okafor died in the premiere and Thorne switched sides. As such, Rick thinks it’s his responsibility to “maybe one day” change the CRM. Michonne labels him a liar and decides to leave, granting Rick his wish. But the love between them is too strong for Rick to walk away from her. He tries to catch up with her as another CRM helicopter arrives to clean up the evidence. As the helicopter bombs the building, walkers pile in, thankfully in time for Rick to save Michonne. They hit multiple dead ends when trying to escape the buckling building until they reach a safe room.
Michonne reads a note left behind by a woman who took her own life, reminding Rick of the mission he left behind at home. Michonne compares the woman to Rick: sacrificing himself to a life-long duty to the enemy out of fear. The so-called “Brave Man” won’t be a father to his son because he’s scared. The couple go through the same argument again, ending with the same result: Rick staying behind and Michonne in shock at how much Rick has changed. Despite their differences, the two work together to defeat the walkers and escape before the building crumbles. A chandelier falls on both of them, trapping Michonne’s leg as walkers corner them.
As much as he claims he should embark on this journey alone, Rick is certainly determined to save Michonne, even with death knocking on his door. That’s his wife and he won’t let anything happen to her for as long as he breathes. He frees Michonne and makes it back to the squeaky clean apartment thanks to Roomba. Rick and Michonne finally rekindle their relationship after all this incessant bickering and get busy in the bedroom. Afterward, he finally starts asking questions about his son, but he’s still not over changing the CRM for the better.
The nice moment between the two is interrupted by the building collapsing. Rick is eager to leave, but Michonne won’t until they make a plan. They once again have the same argument about Rick staying at the CRM, but ends differently. When she asks what the CRM did to him, he says they took Carl away from him.Carl has been dead a long time, but the CRM didn’t take him away; Scott M. Gimple did. Despite this seeming lapse in memory on Rick’s part, according to him, the only way he survived the CRM was to dream about Carl in his sleep.
Those dreams of his son kept him motivated to leave, until the CRM’s pressure weighed on him too much. Eventually, the dreams disappeared. From then on, he would dream of falling in love with Michonne in different ways. But those dreams left him as well. He claims he can’t live without Michonne. As long as he knows she’s safe, he can live, even if he’s not happy. She shows him a drawing of Carl on an old smartphone, asking him to do what Carl would want for his dad. Rick finally makes his choice to go home with Michonne to Alexandria. They escape the building just as it collapses to the ground and find a car with enough ethanol to get home.