Rick and Michonne’s time with us comes to an end. Probably.
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live | “The Last Time”
Season 1, Episode 6
Airdate: 3/31/2024
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
“The Last Time” is one of the busiest episodes of the entire “Walking Dead” franchise, quite possibly the final episode of “The Ones Who Live” and may very well have the most satisfying ending in the entire history of the franchise.
Sure, the Civic Republic Military (CRM) wasn’t fully compromised to a permanent end, even if it was neutralized in a swift manner and now will be subject to civilian oversight. Sure, we didn’t get to see Rick reunite with everyone in Alexandria. But we did get to see Rick and Michonne reunite with Judith and RJ, and that may very well be the most important thing.
If this really is the last time that we’ll see Rick and Michonne, they needed closure. Not any one of the many open endings this franchise specializes in. And while I don’t know if this ending is fully closed, it sure seems like it can be if it needs to be. More than anything else, this episode delivers a real sense of closure for our main characters, and that’s enough for me.
The term “endgame” gets thrown around a lot when it comes to stories like this, but this episode manages to capture that feeling in spades.
The truth of the matter is, this show was never about taking down the CRM, even if almost all of the promotional material for this show heavily suggested that. It was all about pure fan service, with the CRM there as the McGuffin to make it happen, and anyone who went into this show expecting otherwise largely set themselves up for disappointment. That’s not to say the show shouldn’t be subject to criticism, especially because one of the biggest marks against it is that everything feels incredibly rushed. But the show did its job, hit all the right notes and finished strong. I’m not going to be upset at everyone involved in “The Ones Who Live” too much for rushing the timeline. There are worse sins that this franchise has committed as far I’m concerned.
All in all, the conclusion to this chapter of the story was about as thrilling of a rushed ending as one could hope for, and features all of the notable Walking Dead hallmarks. There’s literally blood everywhere. There’s gratuitous violence. There’s a healthy amount of face and flashback montages. The pacing is all over the place. And it’s a beautiful, wonderful, nonsensical mess. As Carol once said when she was introduced to The Kingdom in Season 7 of the flagship, I had no idea what the hell was going on in the most wonderful way. And almost none of it would have mattered had the series not stuck the landing as well as it did.
Although I find it hard to imagine what a second season of “The Ones Who Live” would look like, since Rick and Michonne have met their ultimate goal, I wouldn’t mind another round of episodes. It was nice seeing them again for an extended period and the show’s writing and directing did their returns justice. But if this is truly the end for them (outside of a cameo or two down the line) I am pretty satisfied with this ending.
SCATTERED OBSERVATIONS:
– The only thing that would have made the reunion scene even better was if Judith gave Rick his Colt Python back. She even had the gun in her possession when she saw him!
– The CRM’s plan and the contents of the Echelon Briefing aren’t much of a surprise to the hardcore viewers, as it was laid out and even partly seen in World Beyond Season 2. The only real revelation is when Michonne sits in on the operation briefing and gets the dirty details of exactly how it would be carried out going forward, and yeah… there’s definitely no doubt that these people were evil now.
– Rick wins numerous fights against zombies and human beings, and some of those fights he only had one literal hand in. He’s come a long way from the guy who couldn’t win a fight to save his life most of the time.
– I am very surprised that we never saw any of the World Beyond kids, but I also doubt that they would have added anything to this at all. Clearly Iris and her group didn’t do much of anything to help Portland like they literally traveled there to do!
– Apparently, the iPhone’s still work and broadcast radio news alerts? Ok? I guess it’s possible that I misread the visuals in that scene, but I swear that phone had a red light coming out of it.
– While it would have been cool to see everyone at Alexandria’s reaction to Rick’s return after all this time, I get why they didn’t go that route. It would have undercut the moment with his children a bit, and they absolutely should have been the first people they encountered.
– Also, the Alexandria set is mostly dismantled and was in another state than where they filmed in anyway, so that would have been difficult and costly to pull off.
– Still wondering why Negan was in the face montage of people Rick supposedly cared about. Sure, Negan’s mostly redeemed now, and is a straight up babyface on “Dead City” as far as I’m concerned, but Rick doesn’t know about any of that redemption to our knowledge, and probably would be pretty shocked to learn he’s out of his cell permanently. Perhaps Michonne would be too. Judith should get around to telling them that on the way back home.
– I do appreciate how the series showed clips from almost every show in the franchise, like the genocide of Omaha, and how the timing of showing those clips made sense. It feels helpful, and somewhat rewarding as a dedicated viewer to have them there connecting the dots.
– Also, yeah, I did pause the episode and try to read Jadis’ dossier:
– For such a hyped up villain, Major General Beale was pretty easy to kill. He basically walked right into the trap. No wonder his son in World Beyond was such a wimp. Thorne was much more of a threat.
– Speaking of Thorne, it was a weird choice to not show her die, when it was fairly obvious that she should have had no way out of that field of walkers. I guess they’re setting her up for a return in the franchise later on, but if not, they should have just shown her straight up dying on camera.
– I can’t decide if this is bad GCI or good GCI. Either way, I chuckled pretty hard at Rick and Michonne dispatching 99.99% of the “most powerful military on the planet” in about 3.4 seconds of airtime:
– Cailey Fleming, who plays Judith, was probably the most pivotal “Walking Dead” hire of the last few years. I don’t say that lightly, and more than anyone else other than maybe Danai Gurira, she often was called upon to be the series’ emotional anchor. She plays the emotions in the reunion scene to the absolute hilt. She did more in two minutes to sell the emotional weight of the scene than anyone else could have probably.
– The actor who portrays RJ didn’t have the most emotional delivery of his lines, but his first interaction with Rick was still really touching, especially when he saw his old sheriff’s hat on the kid’s head.
– I’m thrilled that Michonne apparently got her sword back from Philadelphia, although I also hope she kept the historic one that Beale had taken for himself. I also hope she told everyone what Jadis did. Sorry, Father Gabriel, your old flame doesn’t get to be a hero.
– Rick Grimes finally returning to Alexandria on Easter Sunday is crazy timing. I guess he truly is Apocalypse Jesus (not the dead one), although I sincerely hope he takes the next couple years to enjoy life in the apocalypse as chillaxed as he can.
– He’s probably going to be very confused when everyone recounts the Whisperers arc to him though.
… and that’s it for this last round of Walking Dead reviews. Going forward, I imagine I’ll still review the seasons that air of all the spinoffs, but likely only once they are finished. It was really enjoyable coming back to do these, even if I was a bit hesitant to truly criticize the show as harshly as some have. I don’t know what the future of the franchise looks like, but I hope it’s as fun and satisfying as “The Ones Who Live.”
