The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Become

After choosing to make the journey home, Rick is forced to make an even more deadlier choice–To trust or to kill. Trusting a group of strangers he and Michonne run into on the road proves to be a deadly mistake for one character that could have repercussions for the survivors in Alexandria. Also in this penultimate episode, we meet up with a familiar face who we find out has been sharing a three-year-long secret with Jadis. This episode asks whether or not it is worth trading in your humanity for the promise of a future that excels beyond the past. For Jadis–formerly known as Anne, the benefits far outweigh the risks.

The Return of Father Gabe and Anne

We open with a familiar face from the original series The Walking Dead, with the surviving holy man and ex-lover of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam). In flashbacks throughout the hour, we see Gabe meeting up with his old flame– whom he always called Anne, her name before she became Jadis the Queen of the Heapsters. To recap the relationship between these two;  After kidnapping him and trying to kill him, Jadis and Gabe became lovers. Eventually, she moved to Alexandria, and life in the community agreed with her. She felt comfortable enough to let her hair down– literally and go by her given name of Anne. The entire time Alexandrians gave her food and a place to lay her head, Anne was working undercover for the CRM looking for the perfect A to fulfill her end of the deal.  It wasn’t long before Gabriel got suspicious of her loyalties, prompting Anne to ask him to run away with her. Any chance he could uncover the truth would end in his death and Anne cared too much for him to allow that to happen. After declining her offer and choosing his loyalty to Rick over their possible future, Anne added Gabe to her shortlist of CRM sacrifices. When it was time to choose, her feelings for the man wouldn’t allow her to go through with it, and instead,, she left Gabriel a break-up note and took Rick in his place. In keeping her promise, Anne–now going by Jaids Stokes, was able to work her way up in the CRM ranks, but considering the last name she took, her time with Gabe in Alexandria must’ve meant something to her.

Secrets

On the first surprise encounter between the two ex-lovers, Jadis conveniently leaves out that Rick didn’t die on that bridge, but that enormous secret is slowly hacking away at her soul. She confides in Gabe about being haunted by the things this new life has asked her to do, and while she never goes into details, Gabe listens and offers advice. Everything she has done since she left that trash pile of a home has been to build a better life for not just herself, but the entire surviving world. Her cause sounds like a noble one but admittedly the people of Alexandria were right not to trust her. Gabriel, who is always able to see the light in people’s darkness, says “My mistake wasn’t in trusting you. It was losing my faith in you.” The two friends and sort of lovers agree to meet at the same spot on the same day the following year and just having that to look forward to keeps them both going.

The following year Gabe was worse for the wear. Alexandria’s walls are down and the people are starving. He pleads with Anne to ask her secret community to help them but she refuses, and to his disappointment points out that these are those cruel decisions she is forced to make that have her questioning her humanity. Questions or not, she cannot help him but does hope he survives another year so they can meet again. During this second meeting, we also learn about Rick’s intentions for the bridge and why he was rushing to finish it before it all went up in flames. Gabriel shows Anne a wedding ring he found for Rick–who had asked the Reverend to marry him and Michonne on the bridge. Having no use for the ring now but thinking it might give Anne some hope, he hands the ring to her and the two say their goodbyes until the next yearly meet-up.

Three years of rendezvous in the woods where Jadis continues to keep her secrets about Rick and those onion rings she’s eating inside the walls of the CRM. She and Gabe share kisses and words of encouragement but Jadis isn’t the only liar here. Gabe keeps quiet about his love affair with Rosita (Christian Serratos) and is all but cheating on her during these yearly dates. They both work to leave their worlds out of these moments, as this is a way to escape their realities. It becomes something of a holiday for the two–something they can’t help but look forward to. At their last and final meeting, Gabriel can see the Anne he cares about slipping further away and asks her to come back to Alexandria with him, Like Michonne’s love did for Rick, Gabe thinks his feelings for Anne can save her from whatever cruelty she is apart of to stay alive. Unfortunately, that CRM Kool-Aid is addicting and she can’t quit now. Anne slips and Jadis reemerges and almost kills Gabriel, as she refers to him as, “a loose end,” for pushing her to choose a better way. When it comes to toxic exes, Jadis is entirely comprised of red flags and Gabe is lucky enough to survive them flapping in his face while she decides to either shoot him or let him go. In the end, Anne wins over Jadis’ cruelty and she lets Father Gabriel live but next year’s meeting is probably canceled.

No Noods For You!

Meanwhile, we catch up with the two lovebirds, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), who just left that apartment complex in a pile of rubble and dust. The couple is on the road to Virginia, as long as they can keep their eyes on it instead of each other. These two are all heart eyes and hand kisses as they struggle to keep their hands off each other and onto the wheel. Not only are they happy and back on track with their relationship, but they also have the good fortune of stumbling upon weeks’ worth of ramen noodles and an abandoned cabin they could sleep in for the night. Unfortunately, that luck turns when they spot some walkers attacking a trio in the woods– Red (Ben Dickey), Tina (Han Van Sciver), and Dalton (Will Brill). They, being the unstoppable warriors that they are, offer the three some assistance, noodles, and ultimately their trust. Bad idea, Rick and Michonne, because as soon as the group realizes these two probably have more soup where that Ramen came from, Red pulls a gun on “Richonne” and attempts to rob them. This man doesn’t know who he is aiming his little pistol at because it is no match for the former Sheriff and his badass girlfriend. They easily disarm Red and then force him and his friends to promise they won’t attack anyone else. It’s Rick’s way of offering these people a little trust while relying on the hope that humans will choose mercy over wrath–something Carl, his son, could get behind. But that’s Rick’s moral journey, not MIchonne’s, which makes it clear her kindness stops here. She yanks those noodles from Red’s hungry hands because letting them live is good enough, these people don’t get soup too!

Speaking of Carl, he is never far from Rick’s mind as they make their way to Virginia. As Michonne drives their yellow truck–not exactly a hidden vehicle in the apocalypse, she catches Rick glancing at one of those cell phone drawings of Carl. Carl is Rick’s hope. Michonne is Rick’s strength, and Judth and “Junior” are his purpose now. Michonne is quick to point out that R.J. has never gone by Junior but that doesn’t stop his proud Papa from snagging a personalized nameplate for the kid from a convenience store. This first meeting between father and son has Rick deep in his feelings, and perhaps it’s why he falls to one knee professing his forever love to Michonne. Marriage ceremonies were a thing of the past and they have no purpose in this world, but it doesn’t stop these two from declaring their love and loyalty to each other, ‘till death do they part.

It’s the End of the Road for this Artist

After a good night of rest in the cabin, Michonne and Rick wake up to a terrible surprise—Jadis standing over them with a gun and a promise: their deaths will ensure their children get to live in a better world thanks to the CRM. Of course, these two are not going down without a fight. They manage to disarm Jadis–who takes a bullet to her side, and then they hop in their brightly colored and easily tracked truck. A car chase ensues and they lose Jadis, only for her to find Red and manipulate his group into helping her. One of the women matches Jadis’ height so she straps into her CRM gear and lures Rick and Michonne into a ranger station. The building must’ve been a makeshift hideout as every inch of it is divided by curtained-off living spaces, It makes creeping around and searching for Jadis feel tense and dangerous, unpredictable, When Richonne finaky spits Jadis they find out almost too late that it was the decoy and a bleeding Jadis has her gun trained on them. It almost feels like this is the end for the supercouple until justice in the form of hungry walkers takes Red and Friends out! Now it’s a stand-off of three, and quick on her feet, Michonne has a plan. She convinces Jadis that she finally understands what the CRM is trying to do–build a better world for all of humankind. Taking Rick back home now would be pure selfishness, not to mention dooming everyone–including her children, to a lifetime of desperation. So, she agrees to go back to Alexandria alone and promises to stay quiet about what she knows. Rick can go back to the CRM with her and work to make their future safer. Knowing these two are a couple of loose cannons who could nuke her entire career and life behind those walls, Jadis agrees to their deal. Cue Michonne, who takes off running while Rick comes face to face with Jadis and their reunion isn’t without a few jokes and threatening glares. The moment only lasts seconds before Michonne comes out of hiding armed with one of Red’s guns. “You double-crossed me before I double-crossed you,” Jadis says with amusement. With everyone focusing on the stand-off, Jadis doesn’t hear the walkers creeping up behind her. Michonne spots them just in time and steps back as one of them sinks their teeth into Jadis’ neck. In her last moments, Anne resurfaces and she reminisces about what her life could’ve been like and wishes she had died an artist. We see flashes of her paintings adorning the walls of homes in Alexandria, and that was the Anne, Gabe had hoped for. Choosing to die with decency, she tells Rick the trail of evidence linking them both to Alexandria is in her room at Cascadia. Destroy it and they’re free, but she begs them not to go after the CRM. Michonne laughs at that because not only will they go after the CRM and destroy it, but Rick will go back undercover and get that Echelon Briefing from Belale (Terry O’Quinn) and finally let the civilians know what the military is up to and why their soldiers come home covered in blood. Before Rick puts a bullet in Anne’s head she hands him the ring Gabriel gave her for their bridge wedding. Rick and Michonne’s love has come full circle, but it is the end of the line for Jadis–who proved to be one of the more interesting characters in this universe. R.I.P Anne, and so long to Rick’s haircut jokes.