The Walking Dead has frequently indulged in painful cliffhangers and tragic concluding gut punches, but Scott Gimple markedly decides to take a very different approach to the ending of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) post-apocalyptic romance has a sweet and simple happy ever after that places their relationship and journey at the forefront. While the narrative itself was fairly disappointing, there is no question that the finale of The Ones Who Live serves as a tribute to The Walking Dead franchise. Featuring multiple callbacks and flashbacks to the flagship show, this finale makes us feel cozy and resolved, which in turn possibly diminishes the anticipation for a potential Season 2.

Jadis Leaves an Easter Egg for Michonne in ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’

We are left with Rick and Michonne finally facing off against Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) in a furious car chase and a final showdown. Episode 5 of The Ones Who Live sees the death of Jadis and her partial redemption as she reveals the location of her fail-safe dossier that would lead to the destruction of Alexandria. Rick and Michonne decide to pause their journey home to help the people of the Civic Republic and open their eyes to the nefarious deeds conducted by their Military (CRM). Always striving to be good role models and create a better world for the children, it was inevitable that the unstoppable couple would return to enact their justice.

Rick and Michonne are each to execute a different part of the plan: Michonne will destroy the Alexandria dossier and Rick will gain the information to destroy the CRM. As Michonne sneaks her way into Jadis’ room, we see that Anne was far more alive in her private life than she had let on during her conversations with Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam). Her room is littered with artist paraphernalia and her walls plastered with both thoughtful sketches and fully colored renderings of familiar faces. One that particularly stands out is the multiple paintings of Gabriel, further emphasizing that Anne was never really gone.

There is also a nod to Jadis’ tumultuous relationship with Michonne and Rick, as the dossier was hidden in a metal wire cat sculpture. Back in Season 3 of The Walking Dead, one of the light-hearted moments shared between Michonne and Carl (Chandler Riggs) involved raiding a walker-invested bar to reclaim a family photo and retrieve a rainbow cat statue. This moment is also recalled by Rick’s statement of falling in love with his “son’s best friend” during the latter of The Ones Who Live‘s finale (it is only creepy if taken out of context). Symbolizing the world before, but also hopeful frivolity in the decimated world, the cat statue also made a reappearance in Season 7 when Rick stole a cat statue after defeating the Scavengers. This particular cat was created by Jadis herself and while this new wired one isn’t the same, it signifies the characters coming into their own and finally feeling like themselves again.

‘The Ones Who Live’s Finale Pays Tribute to ‘The Walking Dead’

While Michonne is busy destroying the dossier and attacking a stray soldier that decides to enter Jadis’ room, Rick returns to the front gates of the CRM, demonstrating his fidelity and earning him the “Echelon briefing.” Throughout his meeting with General Beale (Terry O’Quinn), he is prompted to decide what the worst thing he ever did was. From stabbing his best friend Shane (Jon Bernthal), to ramming a machete into a former prisoner after promising mercy, to ripping apart the cannibals of Terminus, Rick settled on his gnarliest kill of the franchise: ripping a guy’s throat out with his teeth.

Alongside the highlight reel of Rick and Michonne’s most brutal kills is the confronting words of General Beale and the horrendous slideshow Michonne sits through explaining the CRM’s plans. The intensity of the atmosphere increases as General Beale relays that, despite their military and scientific efforts, everyone was likely to die anyway. This is coupled with Michonne learning that they are going to destroy Portland and save a small fraction of their children, just so the CRM can declare martial law on the Republic, cementing their power in the US. Additionally, their lab experiments echo those seen in France in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, indicating that the CRM may just become the most powerful force in the world. There is also one particular flashback that returns to the pilot episode of The Walking Dead and suggests that the CRM had been in control of the helicopter that Rick had first followed into the city, deftly explaining away one of the earliest mysteries of the franchise.

As this information is dumped on Rick and Michonne, the soundtrack and flashbacks intensify until it culminates into Rick recalling Okafor’s (Craig Tate) words to “swear on the sword… don’t let it take” and a montage of bloodier kills. Each of these fleeting flashbacks encapsulates each point when Rick and Michonne become more merciless and savage, which is fitting since he spontaneously decides to ram a dagger through General Beale’s hand and into his heart. And considering Michonne’s eyebrow-raising reaction, it was definitely not a part of their intelligence-gathering plan.

Rick and Michonne’s Romantic Journey Comes to an End

After discovering the horrifying secrets of the CRM, the power naturally decides to take them down. As the Frontliners are being briefed on their Portland mission, Michonne is inspired by her former companion Nat’s (Matthew Jeffers) destructive abilities and rigs a bomb that will detonate the CRM’s missiles to destroy the compound. Meanwhile, Thorne (Lesley Ann-Brandt) finally makes the fairly obvious connection between Rick and Michonne (or Bethune as she knows her) and attempts to stop them. In a flurry of action scenes, the two blow up the compound, Michonne kills Thorne, and Rick survives a grenade explosion.

While the credibility of the finale’s narrative is just outright ludicrous, especially as the arbitrary voiceover explains that the Civic Republic condemns the high officials of the CRM, will reform the rest of them and will grant their citizens’ freedom, the achievements of the finale lies in its thematic concerns. Throughout the episode, the notion of family and love is consistently reinforced, even as bleak ideology via Beale and Thorne arises. As Rick kills Beale, he resolutely proclaims that his son and wife brought him back, while Michonne declares that “love doesn’t die” as she runs her sword through Thorne. Even the flashbacks filled with prime examples of brutality are countered with more emotional ones filled with humanity and familiar faces.

As each ally and villain is kicked off the screen, Rick and Michonne’s love story prevails and their individual and combined efforts are rewarded with a nuclear family in the end. Despite the bland ending, after all the years of The Walking Dead, it is really the ultimate fan service to give these two their dream come true. It also reiterates the coziness and comfort of this series. Being the most stable presence on the flagship show, Rick became a personified shelter in the apocalyptic debris and thus his exit essentially spelled out the end of the show. As such, completing his journey back home extends the invitation to us and emphasizes that The Walking Dead is back.

Does ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ Need a Season 2?