**SPOILERS AHEAD** Since it is a new show, I do not have the full story of The Walking Dead (TWD) The Ones Who Live and so you can catch new episodes every Sunday (6pm and 7pm Western time if watching on cable AMC 254 and AMC+ with a subscription) until the end of the spin-off.
Rick and Michonne are back in this new spin-off of the beloved show, “The Walking Dead”! This show takes place six years after Rick blew up the bridge in season nine of the original series. This new spin-off is not only a fan service of the beloved characters we all know and love, but it brings a whole new interesting plot with emphasis on Rick Grimes’ escape from the CRM, which are the new antagonists in the show who have held Rick captive for a number of years. Another plot point with emphasis is Michonne’s hunt to find Rick and her escape with him that starts towards the end of episode three and in the newest episode at the time of writing. This new spin-off really shows the lengths people will go for loved ones and how much someone is willing to sacrifice to get back to the people they love.
The sacrifice I am referring to occurs in the pilot episode of the new series, when Rick is forced to stay by the CRM. He ends up going to extreme measures to escape, amputating his own hand in order to try and leave. Even though he went to those measures, it wasn’t enough and he ended up getting captured again. Later in the episode, we see Rick slowly realize that he truly might not be able to leave. He eventually joins the CRM program, becoming a soldier for them, and works for their army. He gets a prosthetic for his stump and with help from his commanding officer Okafor, he comes decently ranked with the program. At the end of the episode Rick, Okafor, and other CRM soldiers take a ride in a helicopter. It ends up being shot down with some sort of explosive device, killing Okafor and the other soldiers. Rick, the lone survivor of the crash, finds out the ones who shot down the helicopter were Michonne and her friend, Nat. We finally get their reunion and it is just as good as we hoped it would be.
In episode two, we see Michonne’s side of her story to find Rick. She goes through the toughest environments and loads of walkers to get what she wants. She ends up meeting a group of travelers including Nat, who is a very interesting character and was fun to watch. I also suppose an important part of his character is that he’s a little person. We watch Michonne and this group travel towards the direction of the supposed CRM base until they reach a city where unfortunate events take place. We see as a CRM helicopter drops gas over the group and they are forced to take shelter in the buildings, this immobilizes Michonne and Nat for a while and the rest of the group ends up dying. We then get a time jump of when Michonne shoots down the helicopter and we see their reunion in full. After their reunion, Michonne ends up inside the CRM base where now she is not allowed to leave either and unfortunately, Nat loses his life before they were captured. The episode ends with Jadis, who fans remember from the original series as the one who saved and initially took Rick to the CRM, being introduced into the show as another antagonist. To put it simply, she basically explains to Rick that if he leaves, everyone he knows back home will be killed, including him.
Episode three begins with Michonne getting used to her new life, for now. Rick continues to be a handful for the CRM as he again plots to escape with Michonne. However, there is a plot twist we find out about that Rick can’t go with Michonne. He decides that he can’t leave in fear that everyone will die if he goes, so he tells Michonne to leave without him and that he loves her, but Michonne doesn’t leave. Rick finds that out later and Michonne is, to say least, pissed at Rick for this and she decides to join Rick as a tryout for the CRM soldier program. After a long mission, Rick’s new commander sends him and Michonne back to base after they break her orders many times. During this flight, however, Michonne decides to take things into her own hands. While they return on a rainy flight, she ends up opening the helicopter door and takes herself and Rick out into the rainy night. And that is when the episode ends, in a cut to black.
Episode four starts with a little recap on the previous episode of Michonne grabbing Rick and jumping out of the helicopter. They end up stuck in this large apartment complex and begin arguing over Rick not wanting to return to Alexandria. They begin to realize that their helicopter had crashed in the complex next to them, and they could return without being hunted down by the CRM. Rick, for whatever reason, continues to deny being able to return. They eventually get into another argument which leads to Michonne leaving and Rick feeling sorry and going after her. This is when a CRM helicopter goes to clean up the evidence of a crash and brings down the building, not before Rick and Michonne escape. Rick then realizes he is wrong and follows Michonne on a mission to leave. The episode ends with them driving off in a car, heading home with plenty of fuel.
This spin-off was well worth the wait and it brought a huge and enjoyable fan service while also making it a very interesting and unique feeling that is very different in comparison to the original series.
