For years, there’s been a Rick Grimes-shaped hole in The Walking Dead ever since the character enigmatically vanished after being headhunted by the mysterious Jadis following a supposedly fatal explosion – but now it’s time to fill it.
There’s a prevailing argument that the main reason for the drop off in quality of The Walking Dead can be directly tied into Andrew Lincoln’s exit from the show and if that isn’t entirely accurate, it was definately the act that got the ball rolling. However, now truly seems to be the best time to bring Rick Grimes back into play, because thanks to the previous Walking Dead mini series, Daryl Dixon, the franchise is probably in the best shape it’s been for years.
Finding out where Rick has been and what exactly happened to him is obviously one if the biggest, dangling threads of modern television, but can The Ones Who Live do justice to such a long awaited revelation?
After that fateful day on the bridge, when Rick Grimes seemingly sacrificed himself as a horrified Michonne looked on, he managed to once again shrug off death like an unwanted arm across the shoulders and found himself delivered into the arms of the Civic Republic Military (CRM) in Philadelphia and has been there ever since. In the five years he’s been stuck there, he’s been resistant to the stringent rules that goven the city and has even tried to escape back to his wife, Michonne, and his daughter, Judith, no less than four times, with every attempt getting all the more desperate. In fact, Rick is so devoted to leaving Philadelphia, he even cut off his own hand to escape a tether, but his hope is starting to wane.
The twist is, that Philadelphia isn’t even that bad a place to stay epsecially considering that those strict rules have only put in place to keep the hidden city safe from any outside forces, both alive or dead; but despite his constant defiance, he has a guardian angel in the form of CRM Lieutenant Colonel Donald Okafor.
Okafor is determined to get Rick to do his time slaughtering Walkers without trying to flee in order to get him to enlist with CRM for reasons far beyond the fact that Rick is a dedicated fighter; he’s actually trying to change CRM high command from within whose unbending stance is usually doesn’t rescue such independent thinkers.
However, as time goes by, Rick is finally worn down by Okafor and fellow trooper, Thorne, who is also being groomed for leadership, and he finally settles into his new role after saying goodbye to the prospect of ever seeing Michonne or Judith ever again.
Fate, as always has other ideas.
The Ones Who Live has something of a more complex job when compared to the two previous Walking Dead miniseries; Dead City and Daryl Dixon. For a start, while the solo adventures of Dixon, Maggie and Negan were adventures that merely picked up a short while after the main series ended, the first episode has to get us up to speed with a character that’s been off our screens for the best part of six years. Unsurprisingly, this means that the lion’s share of “Years” is focused solely on what the hell Rick has been up to since, and while it’s often a needlessly complex tale, it’s more than worthy to serve as the long awaited return of the show’s most endearing character.
The episode rewards (or punishes – depending whatever way you want to look at it) Andrew Lincoln’s return by having him undergo a vigorous emotionally rollercoaster that sees him shift from driven, to desperate, to beaten, to hopeful, to suicidal and back to driven again, all in the space of an incredibly emotional hour. Obviously, Lincoln is up for it and brings back that steadfast yearning that he brought to the show from day one. Frankly, he’s magnificent, and it’s fantastic to have the man who pronounced his son’s name as “coral” for around eight years, back on screen where he belongs.
Also, following in the continuity severing spirit of the all the miniseries so far, cutting back the cast list helps the episode fly just as much as Daryl Dixon did, with matters nice and focused at the task in hand and not frustratingly going back over old material. Admittedly, this brave new world that Rick’s trying to escape takes a little getting used to as you have to spend your first years toughing it out outside the city walls, working to clear a near endless stream of Walkers until you’ve paid your dues and only then will you get full citizenship. On top of that, Philadelphia is also in a three city union along Portland and Omaha, but due to some jarring flash forwards and flash backs, the fall of one of those cities loses some of the required impact.
However, while the politics and complexities of the CRM’s protection blur a bit in the exposition, matters are incredibly strengthened by the supporting cast. While Lesley-Ann Brandt’s hard nosed Thorne gives capable support, the real surprise here is Craig Tate’s Okafor, who not only acts as a level headed substitute while Rick’s attentions are elsewhere, but his gut wrenching story concern an impossible choice he made to either fire bomb Philadelphia or save the city and bomb his own troops (which include old his own wife), is one of the more powerful moments in recent Walking Dead history.
Of course, all this drama is imperative, but it wouldn’t be a true welcome back to Rick is there wasnt some creative gore at play and the show runners thankfully remember that spraying liberal amounts of red stuff is also a major factor of the show. In fact, the sight of Rick cauterizing the stump of his freshly severed hand in the flaming torso of a burning zombie is such a uniquely Walking Dead image, you can’t help but applaud – something that Rick can ironically no longer do.
For those wondering where the other half of this Walking Dead love story is, Danai Gurira’s Michonne shows up almost exclusively in dream sequences that keep the romance alive as Rick yearns for her in his sleep. However, while the twist ending isn’t that shocking (aside from Okafor’s genuinely startling early exit after getting pulped by a sudden rocket attack on their helicopter), the fact that Rick and Michonne have been reunited in the dying moments of the episode will no doubt keep the drama flowing like zombie brain matter.
While I’m going to predict that episode 2 will focus entirely on Michonne’s journey, The Ones Who Live kicks off its run by picking up the baton of quality from Daryl Dixon and running with it in similarly stimulating ways.
Welcome back, Rick. It’s been far too long.
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