Welcome back, Multiversity and Walking Dead fans, as we gear up for episode two of The Ones Who Live. Last week, we got Rick’s perspective into what’s been going on and left on a major cliffhanger with him and Michonne duking it out. Now let’s see whose storyline we follow this week in the episode “Gone”
1. The Other Side
Right away, we’re thrown into Michonne’s side of things since the bridge incident, and Rick is gone. She has been on a one-woman mission since leaving Alexandria and helps save two survivors, Aiden and Bailey, who were separated from their group. (The rescue was from The Walking Dead) Despite the rough recruitment from the leader of this group, Michonne only asks for a horse to help her get from Point A to Point B, and she nearly walks away horseless until a man, Nat, comes out and gives her a horse, given that she rescued his friends. It kinda felt like Michonne might have stayed with this new group of survivors for a minute, but given that the leader was willing to leave her sister, Aiden, behind due to a “we don’t stop” rule didn’t exactly give the friendliest of vibes. Instead, she gets what she needs from Nat, and after a night staying in a safe area, she decides to hit the road.
2. Better In A Pack
After getting a horse and some armor from Nat, Michonne goes through a vast valley only to run into a giant army of walkers. She receives this badass little hand cannon/RPG and blows up a chunk of them. That also causes a distraction, but one walks out on fire covered with gas canisters and blows up right in front of her. It doesn’t cause any damage, but the explosion knocks her off her horse and leaves her scrambling to figure out what to do next. That’s when two massive purple fires erupt on opposite sides to split up the pack, and that’s when it’s revealed Aiden, Bailey, and Nat left the original group from the beginning to branch out on their own. (Along with a bunch of others that are mainly background.) Michonne is happy to see them, and it’s a reminder for her that in that zombie-filled world, being on your own will only get you killed, and with her leadership experience, she could help them all find a safe place to call home.
3. Then There Was Two
Nobody can be too happy in this universe, especially when people are just as evil, if not more, than the zombies. Michonne, Nat, Bailey, and Aiden are walking in a city when a CRM helicopter flies overhead. Everyone is in awe of it, with their minds wandering, when it turns to look at them and drops a chlorine gas bomb. Everyone quickly separates and tries to find a place with clean air before the four of them find a building to hide in and figure out what just happened. Despite the pain, Michonne leaves to get oxygen tanks for everyone, but she sees how far Aiden is and warns the others to tie her up and not fall asleep next to her. It’s confirmed once she returns with the tanks; both have turned. Nat hides behind a firewall, unable to kill his friend Bailey. They stay in their new hideaway to rebuild their strength before hitting the road again. She’ll die trying to see the mission out for Rick, and at this point, he’s got nothing to lose, so he figures why not see this all the way through.
4. Play Your Part
Once Michonne catches up to where the previous episode ended with a sword at Rick’s neck and the two finally reuniting, they embrace and celebrate…very shortly. Rick realized the radio message he’d sent out right before the crash was where more CRM soldiers would surround them, and she needed to play along if she wanted to survive. Michonne doesn’t need too much direction in how to survive given her history, but he does give her one solid piece of advice: to keep her strength hidden. Given the “A & B” conversation he’d had with Okafor, they’ll likely kill her if she shows her leadership qualities to keep from corrupting the city they’ve been building. The moment is also interrupted by Nat getting shot in the back by a CRM soldier’s final action before dying, and he asks Michonne if Rick is still the man she’d remembered; even though she says yes, it feels like a question that will linger in her head once they hit the thick of it. Although they get separated quickly, and he has to point a gun at her to maintain his role, she smiles before the helicopter filled with reinforcements hits the ground because she realizes this journey hasn’t been for nothing.
5. Not That Easy
In the final moments of the episode, you knew it wouldn’t be a new hope for Rick and Michonne and their journey to return home. We’re shown a mystery person watching Michonne’s initial interview with the CRM and the lies she tells to keep herself alive and off their radar. However, this mystery person returns to Rick’s apartment and waits for him to return. It could be Thorne, but it’s an old acquaintance, Jadis. The woman that brought him there all that time ago. She’s fully aware of who Michonne is and is willing to stay quiet, but the two of them better not even dream of escaping, or everyone back home will die. If we’ve learned anything from her time in the original, she’s a woman of her word and will be more than willing to do whatever it takes to save herself and all her work. The scarier part is that it feels like Rick understands it better than anyone and will have to think of a hundred different ways to try and outsmart her.
