The Search for Rick…

SPOILERS

We pick up Michonne’s journey from the last time we saw her, helping Aiden (Breeda Wool) and Bailey (Andrew Bachelor) back to their settlement. That settlement is the first of a parade of surprises this episode, as we discover it’s a convoy of horses, carts and cars that constantly moves around the area. The reason they do this is the next surprise: a millions-strong horde of Walkers that migrates across the country. Aiden, Bailey and the wonderfully snarky Nat (Matthew August Jeffers) instantly connect with her. Michonne, being Michonne, points out that the convoy’s callous law (essentially the same as the Harfoots in Rings of Power) is callous. She pushes on, driven by her desire to find Rick. Others, inspired by her, join her.  Almost all of them die.

This is the next, and biggest surprise of the episode and it’s as difficult as it is vital. The helicopters and blood-stained soldiers we saw last time are given horrific context here as we learn the CRM is butchering anyone who gets too close that they don’t deem worthy of letting in. Worse, they’re dropping chlorine gas to do it. Almost all of Michonne’s colony are lost, and she and Nat are horrifically injured too. They spend months recuperating, and directors Bert & Bertie play some very Last of Us-like notes as we see the seasons pass via the window Michonne stares out of. Sam Ewing’s score is the sort of thing Joel would approve of too, gentle and melancholy and determined.

Nana Nkweti and Channing Powell’s script uses this moment to give Michonne and Nat a season in Hell. Nat is a tornado of invention and performative grumpiness, a person of short stature whose wonderfully snippy dialogue is matched only by his compassion. Nat, Aiden and Bailey are good people and here that doesn’t matter, and awful as it is, that’s the point. They aren’t the ones who live, and Jeffers’ final scenes are heartbreaking because of the same offhand cruelty that kills Bailey and Aiden. All three are great performances, all three feel like new series leads and none of them live past the end credits.

The reason for that, and the reward we get for seeing this tragedy unfold, is the reunion with Rick. At the exact point Michonne gives up, she finds him and finds out why he hasn’t kept trying to escape. Andrew Lincoln’s series lead was justifiably criticised in early seasons for being pig headed to the point of being as bad as the people they fought but here we see just how far Rick’s come. They fought cults and gangs. This is an army. Rick knows that. The image of him frantically staging Michonne’s ‘arrest’ and yelling ‘I LOVE YOU!’ as he holds her at gunpoint is quite something. It’s one of a series of closing scenes that establish the war has begun and the only thing Rick and Michonne have in their favour is that the CRM hasn’t noticed. Yet. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart