The Walking Dead – What We Become

By: Kelly Kearney

When we last saw Michonne she was on a boat with newcomer Virgil headed towards an island filled with weapons that could help the communities fight The Whisperers and their horde. When we pick back up Michonne lands on the island but what she finds there isn’t what she was promised. What was a hunt for weapons, turns into a dangerous situation that ends in a shocking reveal that will change Michonne and her family forever.

It’s a Trap!

The episode begins with a flashback from Season Two when Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) first met. Only this reality is a little different than the one we’re used to. Instead of saving Andrea from a group of hungry walkers and eventually ending up at Rick’s prison, Michonne and her pet walkers spot Andrea in trouble and keep on walking. As Andrea is ripped to pieces, we start to realize that this is a familiar TV trope of, “What if Michonne took another path in life?”

Back to the present (and not an alternate universe one), Michonne and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) dock their boat in an abandoned beach. Within minutes of disembarking Virgil starts setting off all of Michonne’s alarms, indicating he might have tricked her. He’s taking his sweet time picking flowers for his wife (he promised her fresh ones every day) and offering up vague warnings about the island’s walkers and dangerous labs that use to be where he worked. Virgil is in no rush to show Michonne the weapons and since her family is back home waiting for her she gets the ball rolling by holding her sword on him and demanding he hand over what she was promised. That’s when the true reason for dragging her to the island comes out. He duped her into following him because after ten years of living in this zombie run world Virgil doesn’t have the skills to kill walkers, especially ones that are his family! He brought Michonne there because he knows she’s a proficient swordswoman and he needs her to finally put his wife and kids to rest. Infuriated, but with the weapons on the line, she strikes a deal with Virgil to do the dirty work in exchange for what he promised her. Armed with her katana, she slices and dices her way through the island’s dead nearly getting herself walker-fied in the process. Unfortunately, successfully clearing the area of any threats as well as putting his family down wasn’t enough for Virgil to hand over the weapons. Instead, and with the night approaching, he tells Michonne she is stuck there, weapons or not, until morning.

Tired and desperate to get back home, Michonne tries to sleep but the stress of her situation is making it impossible to relax. Instead, she heads over to the laboratory to see if she could sneak a peek at these munitions cache, she keeps hearing about. Once inside it’s not the weapons she finds but some distant voices saying, “Everyone be quiet.” Michonne doesn’t even have a minute to locate where the voices are coming from before Virgil swoops in and locks her in one of the rooms! He complains, “I trusted you,” and if that isn’t the proverbial pot calling the kettle black then I don’t know what is. Trust goes both ways and Virgil continuously proves why Michonne was wrong to offer him any.

She’s Trippin’

The following morning Michonne wakes to find a plate of food but no katana. Angry doesn’t begin to describe how she’s feeling. That’s when one of the voices she heard earlier whisperers, “Calm down.” We soon find out Virgil has other prisoners locked in neighboring rooms, three to be exact, and all of them worked alongside him at the lab. Their story is familiar one. Before Virgil lost his mind, he and his fellow lab coats took in anyone who needed help. The more they took in, the less food and supplies they had. Eventually, a fight broke out and someone was killed. After that Virgil flew into a panic and locked everyone, his family included, in the lab with the dead! He had no idea his family was in there and by the time he realized it…it was too late.

It’s not long before her captive shows up outside Michonne’s cell and mutters something about the gifts the island can offer her. That’s when things go from sketchy to down right out of this world. The food Michonne ate was drugged and she fall into a full-on hallucination that leaves her starring at an alternate universe version of herself. The warrior is floating through her own psychedelic hellscape with an angry Siddiq (Avi Nash) screaming about why she let him, Rick and Carl die. This drug must tap into people’s guilt while also forcing them to look at their past choices and wonder if they shouldn’t have chosen differently. Next, we see AU Michonne drag present Michonne back to woods to witness the aftermath of Andrea’s death, but it doesn’t end there. The decision she made to ignore her changes everything about her past. First, we see her ignored by Daryl (Norman Reedus) on the side of the road begging for help (cue orange backpacker). The Archer, ignoring her, leads Michonne right into the path of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). He is impressed with her fighting skills and offers her a high-ranking position in his Savior camp. She’s even given Lucille and that’s when we see her at the fateful line up. “Eenie, meanie, miney, moe…” We see Glenn (Steven Yeun), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Carl (Chandler Riggs) Sasha, (Sonequa Martin-Green), Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and finally herself! AU Michonne is up to bat and in one fatal blow she kills her true self. Later she runs into Daryl who shoots her with an arrow, just in time for Rick to show up and shoot her in the head! Needless to say, just say no to any gifts from this island because this trip is not worth the heartache.

The Search Begins

After that terrifying sprint down memory lane, Michonne wakes up and vomits in her cell. She manages to gather her strength and attack Virgil when he comes to check on her. In the midst of her fury, she wrestles the laboratory’s keys from him and makes her escape. Before she bolts, she releases his other captives and the entire group heads to the escape boat only to find it in flames! Virgil destroyed the only way (that they know of) off this drug infested walker trap! The group eventually finds the battered and beaten Virgil. Instead of Michonne striking him down with her sword, she starts to realize how broken and sad he is. Is her mercy stronger than her vengeance? What would killing him offer her? Instant gratification, sure, but a weight on her conscience she’s not willing to risk. Besides, she still needs those weapons he promised and she certainly hasn’t found them on her own. What she did manage to find was something far more earth shattering than any grenade. While looking through Virgil’s supplies Michonne spots a pair of familiar cowboy boots and her whole world comes to a grinding halt. Are those Rick’s boots? They must be because she also finds a cell phone labeled “Rick” with a drawing of her and Judith on the front, as well as some Japanese characters that (thanks to Google translate) spells out something along the lines of “Don’t give up.” At this point Michonne full on loses it and pins Virgil to the wall screaming for him to reveal where he found those items. Virgil has no idea who Rick is and said the items were found on one of the boats washed up on shore. If that’s true, then Rick didn’t die in that bridge explosion! He made it out and could be alive somewhere!

With that Michonne gathers the group of captives and leaves the island on another boat. She offers to take Virgil with them, but he promised his wife daily flowers and couldn’t live with himself if he left. For him, that island is his own prison (an emotional and physical one) and no amount of coaxing could convince him to leave.

Later that night from the boat Michonne radios back to Alexandria and talks to Judith (Cailey Fleming). Little Asskicker does her best to protect her mother from the truth about Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) horde. Instead, she tells Michonne that, “Alpha isn’t a problem anymore,” and conveniently forgets to mention the fact Hilltop burned and the horde is still an issue. While surprised, this news seems to calm Michonne enough to tell Judith about what she found. The “Brave Man” might be alive! Judith tells her mother to go find him as he could be trapped and trying to get to them. The prodding from her daughter is enough for Michonne to set her sights north in hopes of finding her husband.

We next see Michonne on dry land, holding two leashed pet walkers just as a group of injured people come barreling out of the woods nearby. One of the people begs for her help because “they” will leave without them. Who’s they? Michonne turns around and looks off into the distance and sees an enormous community of carriages, horses and supplies all packing up to leave the area. That’s when she remembers how she came upon the prison and met Rick. He took a chance on her when he didn’t have to, when he had everything to lose, and yet he still took the risk. His mercy was greater than his vengeance and now so is Michonne’s. She turns and kills her pet walkers and turns to help these strangers make their way towards the massive group of unknown people. Could this be where Eugene’s (Josh McDermitt) new on-mic sweetie is from? Is this a new community we’ve never heard of? Is this where Jadis took Rick all those years ago? Well, it looks like we will have to wait for the Rick Grimes movies because as Michonne walks off towards this new life fans wave goodbye to the warrior, wife, mother and leader who kept Rick and Carl Grimes’ memories alive. Until we meet again, Michonne…