The Walking Dead season 5 made an ambitious Rick Grimes promise that went unfulfilled right up until the final episode of The Ones Who Live. When Andrew Lincoln departed The Walking Dead in season 9, his exit left Rick’s story on an ambiguous note. Resolution took six years to arrive, with The Ones Who Live eventually revealing Rick’s fate as a soldier in the Civic Republic Military. After some intense back and forth with Michonne, Rick’s story finally reached its destination when he reunited with Judith and met RJ in The Ones Who Live‘s ending.

From one perspective, it could be said that Rick Grimes ended right back where he started – a family man in a relatively small community. From another angle, the trials Rick overcame as a CRM prisoner are unlike anything his fellow survivors in The Walking Dead have experienced. With that in mind, it becomes clear that the long-awaited promise made almost a decade ago in season 5 has finally been honored.

The Ones Who Live Paid Off The Walking Dead Season 5’s “The New World’s Gonna Need Rick Grimes” Line

Rick Has Finally Proven Abraham Right (After 9 Years)

Back in The Walking Dead season 5, Abraham boldly proclaimed “the new world’s gonna need Rick Grimes“ and he was not alone in that assessment, with Morgan Jones and many others also buying into the concept of Rick as a pillar of future civilization. Oddly, Rick never actually justified that faith during The Walking Dead‘s main show.

He led the attack on Terminus, fended off the Wolves, and waged war against the Sanctuary, but in the grand scheme of The Walking Dead‘s zombie outbreak, these were minor, local scuffles. Killing off a few cannibals and knocking Negan down a peg were positive contributions to society, certainly, but before being whisked away in season 9, Rick Grimes never directly changed the “new world” in any meaningful way. Only when Rick took down the CRM alongside Michonne in The Ones Who Live did that actually change. This is the only time Rick’s actions directly shape the “new world” of The Walking Dead.

As confirmed by Major General Beale and Jadis, the CRM was plotting to control the United States by wiping out other communities from coast to coast, but the villainous organization had also planted agents in foreign countries and drawn up a 500-year plan for The Walking Dead‘s world, strongly suggesting world domination was the ultimate goal. When Rick killed Beale and joined Michonne in decimating the CRM’s forces, he prevented the “new world” being led by a tyrannical regime. For the very first time, Rick proved exactly why the new world needed him.

Rick’s Influence On The Walking Dead’s “New World” May Not Be Finished

If Rick Returns, He Can Build A Better World Than Major General Beale Would Have

In defeating the CRM, Rick Grimes and Michonne stood firm on what the new world of The Walking Dead should not look like, but the heroes can still have a say in what the new world will look like instead. The Walking Dead : The Ones Who Live season 2 is not currently in production, but Andrew Lincoln, Michonne actor Danai Gurira, and showrunner Scott M. Gimple have all left the door ajar (via EW). If Rick does eventually return in the Walking Dead franchise, he and his allies can begin shaping the new world’s infrastructure, filling the vacuum left after the CRM’s downfall with something altogether more democratic and wholesome.

The seeds for Rick becoming an architect of the future were sown in The Ones Who Live season 1, as Beale revealed that humanity could only survive another 14 years in The Walking Dead‘s apocalyptic landscape. Now that Rick is aware of that alarming time limit, he must surely act upon it by pulling together resources from the Civic Republic and Commonwealth and leading the population through adversity, proving Beale’s prediction wrong and effectively rebuilding civilization in the United States – perhaps even beyond. If Rick achieved this, he really would be honoring Abraham’s belief that the new world needed him.

Rick’s Importance To The World’s Future is The Real Reason He Survived For So Long

If Okafor didn’t believe in Rick, his “A” status would have denied him entry into the Civic Republic

Interestingly, this notion that the world will “need” Rick Grimes was crucial to The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live in more ways than one. in fact, it was only because Okafor shared this sentiment that Rick Grimes survived for as long as he did. As Okafor explained in the series premiere, he saw great potential in both Rick and Thorne, who were both “A’s under the CRM’s rules. In Okafor’s mind, their “A” status meant that they could change the CRM for the better. And as Okafor explained, the whole purpose of changing the CRM was to eventually save the world.

Okafor pulling strings and essentially playing the long game to keep Rick on the board says a lot about the way people in The Walking Dead’s universe perceive him. Clearly, Okafor had great expectations of Rick’s capabilities, and The Walking Dead season 5 is proof that he wasn’t the first to think so highly of him. Both Morgan and Abraham were acutely aware of the impact Rick could have on the world.

How Rick Grimes Can Ensure A Long Future For The Walking Dead’s “New World”

It won’t be easy, but there are ways Rick can save the world

As impressive as the victory over the CRM was in The Ones Who Live, that doesn’t make the task of saving the world seem any easier for Rick and Michonne if they return. What Beale outlined in the finale was the end of humanity as a whole, setting up a challenge bigger than any one person or settlement. It’s hard to imagine a single character – or even the pair of Rick and Michonne – pulling off such a miracle, but given that the briefing with Beale clued Rick in on what’s ahead, that makes it all the more likely that preventing extinction is exactly what Rick will try to do, but it’ll naturally involve bringing more people to his cause.

The framework for that to happen started with the change in leadership at the Civic Republic. Their willingness to arrange transport home for Rick and Michonne speaks to the organization’s willingness to cooperate, and perhaps even a sense of gratitude towards the two. Exactly how much goodwill they’ve earned by killing Major General Beale is unclear, but it’s possible that Rick and Michonne’s actions have given them a direct line to the Civic Republic, one that they can use to their advantage in the trials to come. If they work with an organization as massive as the Civic Republic, they may have the resources to make a large-scale impact on the “new world.”

How this can be achieved may have been hinted at during an exchange with Donald Okafor. While tending a garden, Okafor mentioned millet, which is a form of grain. According to Okafor, finding the “right” type of millet could “change things.” This scene seems particularly important after the season finale, now that it’s known that an impending food shortage will devastate The Walking Dead’s world. By solving this problem teased by Okafor, Rick may find a permanent answer to the starvation issue. By sharing it with other countries via the Civic Republic, he would have an opportunity to chart a hopeful path for civilizations everywhere.

Sources: EW