The finale of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live didn’t have to prove anything. It just had to understand its characters, and that’s exactly why it worked. This has always been about Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) love for each other, and so was the finale.
From the start of the series, it was about Rick and Michonne finding each other. Michonne was convinced he was alive, Rick was trying to get home, and because the series quickly put them back together, we were gifted with a character study in how these two love. While the first two episodes were Rick’s side of things and then Michonne’s side, it was episode 3 and 4 that really set a tone for them as a couple.
That led to a fight and hashing everything out in the fourth episode. The point I am making is that while yes, the CRM and their plans were always an important part of this series, the real story was in their love for each other, and that was made abundantly clear in the final episode, “The Last Time.”
As Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) is telling Michonne that love does not exist in this dead world, Michonne is telling her that she’s wrong, and that has always been what exists at the heart of The Walking Dead. It would be so easy for these characters to write off life and give up time and time again, but it is the love they share for each other that keeps them going. The Ones Who Live uses that love to its advantage and makes that final fight sequence between Rick, Michonne, and Thorne so powerful to watch.
Rick’s love for Michonne and his kids is so strong he … literally uses a bomb to blow up walkers and just hides himself in their blood and gore. That’s true love.
Those who slay together, stay together
“Love doesn’t die,” Michonne says to Thorne, and it is the entire thesis of the Walking Dead franchise as a whole, but very specifically about The Ones Who Live. This show was never about fighting the CRM or some other big bad of The Walking Dead. It was about surviving and loving and remembering that feeling.
Rick loses what it means to love, so hidden in his own fear that he’s willing to sacrifice his own heart to keep Michonne, Judith, and RJ alive. But it is Michonne who reminds him about love and what it means to truly love someone else, and that’s when the show switches from soldier Rick Grimes to the man we all know and love as a character.
This finale was just reinforcing that message. Love isn’t dead in the dead world, as Thorne thought. It’s what keeps everyone fighting. It is why Rick bit a man’s throat to protect Carl, it is why Michonne fought so hard to get back to him. These two deserve their happiness.
A family reunion that was well earned
From the moment that Rick Grimes was on that bridge, it was all leading to this. Getting to see Rick meet his son for the first time and reunite with his daughter, all of it was what The Ones Who Live was about. Seeing Rick and Michonne happy after it looked like they weren’t going to make it out alive is what we’ve all been waiting for.
Love is what makes this show something we can connect with, something we love to watch, and The Ones Who Live made sure that that love between Rick and Michonne was crucial to their survival—and I loved every second of it.
(featured image: AMC)
