Rick Grimes has a lot of making up to do.
In the span of one soul-baring episode, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick snaps out of his strange delusions and comfortably jumps back into the skin of his old smirking self. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live turned Rick into a pitiful shell of his former self that could only be reborn by Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) patience, love and, obviously, violence. While it is fiercely gratifying to witness the end of Rick’s questionable behavior, it is also frustrating to see how quickly Michonne forgives him.
Episode 4 of The Ones Who Live brings about a refreshing change of pace that emphasizes Michonne’s painstaking efforts to get Rick onboard with fleeing and returning home. From patiently waiting for him to build his confidence to impatiently shoving him off a helicopter, Michonne leaves no stone unturned, yet is met with nonsensical arguments about Rick being convinced he can protect his family from the Civic Republic Military (CRM) by himself. With his pessimistic mindset, irritating treatment of her and her isolated efforts to connect with him, Rick most certainly did not earn her quick forgiveness.
Rick Has a Poor Excuse To Stay in the CRM
From the beginning of the spinoff, Rick is wrought with grief and loss, and in Episode 4 he sheds light on his diminishing memory of Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne’s faces. As such, it is expected that his unexpected reunion with Michonne would ignite an overwhelming fear of losing his love all over again. While this initially made for good relationship development and narrative fodder, it becomes unbelievably infuriating when he passes up a golden opportunity to escape.
After yanking Rick and herself off a helicopter and into the water, Michonne ends up in a strangely modern room with him with absolutely zero patience. Her frustration with his reluctance to flee or fight directly mirrors ours, and this only increases tenfold when we see the helicopter they were in crashed into the building. At this point, it was child’s play to fake their deaths and run off into the sunset without Jadis’ (Pollyanna McIntosh) threat hovering over them. Instead, Rick presents Michonne with a completely underwhelming and pointless argument that makes us balk.
Rick claims the only way to protect his family is to stay with the CRM and distract them from ever looking towards Alexandria and the other communities. He also argues that he can continue Okafor’s (Craig Tate) plan to change the CRM, despite his only ally switching sides. How are you planning on changing the CRM on your own, Rick? These inane arguments certainly deserved more than the shove that Michonne gave him. Prioritizing a community he has barely interacted with and stubbornly sticking to an illogical solution may seem like one of Rick’s typical, well-intended yet controversial decisions on paper, but choosing to be distant from his family pushes him well away from Michonne’s good graces or her forgiveness.
Rick Keeps Michonne in the Dark
Rick’s flawed reasoning is compounded by his bizarre and secretive behavior towards Michonne in Episode 3 of The Ones Who Live. From his deviously planned escape route and withholding information from Michonne, Rick is making it very difficult to empathize with him. Whilst it is touching for him to go to those lengths to keep Michonne protected, it is an outright insult to believe that she would leave without him. Deceiving her about his intentions to either fight or escape with her after his placating promises borders unforgivable, especially since he chose to initiate her into her precarious position in the CRM. Instead of insisting she flee when they heard the choppers when they first reunite, he insists that she stay and pretend to be a B, entrapping her into his situation while not warning her about the extent of the danger.
Forget about the heartlessness of the CRM, Rick didn’t even tell Michonne about how he is connected to Jadis, despite the multiple opportunities to do so. Informing her about Jadis’ threat to expose the location of Alexandria if they leave definitely trumps the fleeting make-out sessions they have and takes about just as much time. It is also noteworthy that Jadis’ threat seemed to be borne out of self-preservation rather than malice, since their fates were inextricably linked. So, if Rick had taken the golden opportunity to escape without arousing suspicion, Jadis would have most likely had a “good riddance” sort of reaction. But his fear-laden mind apparently couldn’t make these deductions, leading him to intentionally keep Michonne in the dark while placing her in an impossible situation.
Michonne Is Putting in All the Effort
Michonne has more than earned the right to be furious with Rick, but it is frustrating to see how quickly she forgives him. All it takes is a couple of tears and an overdue decision to finally escape for Michonne to let bygones be bygones. Watching the usually fearless and brutal Rick cry has always pulled our heart strings, but after all he put her through, Michonne definitely should not have forgiven him that easily. This is especially frustrating considering all the effort she had gone through to reach him physically and psychologically, not only in this episode, but before, too.
From surviving the mustard gas to blindly following Rick into the CRM, Michonne physically endangered herself finding Rick, while he had stopped trying to escape well over a year ago. But that is incomparable to the fact she left her children behind, so they could one day have their father back. Once she finds him, it’s concerning enough that she has to convince him to reunite with his family, but with her gentle and patient approach not sinking in, it is adding insult to injury that she has to take the drastic measures of shoving him out of a helicopter. Michonne goes through every emotion and tactic in Episode 4. It’s truly a wonder that she doesn’t just knock him out, abduct him, and drag him back home at this point. Michonne is far too quick to forgive after everything Rick has put her through. We can only hope that Rick’s evolved attitude is not just temporary, otherwise he may just venture too far into the land of the unforgivable.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs Sundays on AMC at 9 PM EST and is available on AMC+.
