For a show that tries so hard to be unpredictable, it’s sometimes incredibly easy to predict where The Walking Dead is going, sometimes. Take the heart-stopping ending of the first episode of The Ones Who Live, for example: anyone who even has a rudimentary knowledge of the show and how it goes about things could easily tell that the whole the second episode would be about Michonne and what she’s been up to in the intervening years – and they’d be right.
However, while all of The Walking Dead’s tricks have become rather obvious over eleven long years, shows like The Ones Who Live prove that as long as there’s good story telling and genuine emotion involved, all of those old plot devices can still work wonders.
Now, without further ado, it’s over to Michonne.
Rewinding back the clock to six years after Rick’s supposed death, we find Michonne taking time out of her quest to determine his whereabouts in order to help a stranded couple, Aiden and Bailey, to rejoin their people after getting left behind from their giant, constantly moving caravan that make it its business to never stop for anything. What makes this especially harsh is that not only is Bailey hurt, but Aiden is pregnant and the sister of the woman who leads the thing, but after helping them catch up, Michonne spreads doubts about whether such a cold-blooded attitude is needed during such more enlightened times. Her words not only galvanise Aiden and Bailey into thinking that maybe it’s time to find a more stationary settlement, but their friend, inventive fire-bug Nat, volunteers to come too and before you know it, this quartet has broken free and is is heading off for pastures new.
However, despite Michonne’s pleas for them to simply find Alexandria and be save, the group insists on sticking with which proves to be both an advantageous blessing (Nat is a very skilled tinkerer) and a horrible curse – especially when a passing CRM attack chopper assaults them with choking, yellow clouds of chlorine gas that bring tragic losses.
Laid up for a year as they try and heal from the searing attack on their very lungs, the survivors bond even further, exchanging mottos, live stories and their spiritual musings on life in general and after a while, Michonne is convinced to give up her quest for Rick.
However, on their way back to Alexandria, the spot a CRM chopper cutting through the sky and after unleashing on of Nat’s homemade missiles at it, manages to bring it down. Of course, from here we know what happens next as Michonne is shockingly reunited with Rick, who not only has joined the CRM, but was in the chopper they just shot down – but as Rick races to give her an adequate cover story in order to ensure her safety, we’re given disturbing hints that Grimes has some sort of disturbing alliance with the scheming Jadis.
Back in the days when (let’s be honest) we were all getting sick of The Walking Dead’s repetitive plots and an unengaging twists, an overused trick like zipping back in time to focus on a characters back story would no doubt pissed us right off. However, in this new era of the undying franchise, it proves to not only be a stroke of story telling genius, but it’s also an incredibly moving episode at that. You see back then, when we had dozens of characters to keep track of over at least four different settlements, dropping one of these flashback episodes into the mix not only made things harder to follow, but slowed the pace of the series down to a directionless shuffle. However, thanks to the franchise’s new, miniseries style approach pulling sharper focus on a smaller cast, its not only advantageous, it’s downright vital – especially since we get to spend an hour with one of The Walking Dead’s best characters by far.
Since the day she arrived in the orginal comic, to the moment that Danai Gurira showed up with a glare on her face, two mutilated walkers on a leash and a samurai sword in her hand, Michonne has always been incredibly fun to be around – be it watching her effortlessly slice zombies into kielbasa, or seeing her stern facade lift every now and then to show exactly how much of a ray of sunshine Gurira really is. Thankfully, the makers of “Gone” obviously realise this too and given us a showcase of the actress’ range just like the previous episode did for Andrew Lincoln.
It does this by playing some more of those usual Walking Dead beats, but in a way that continues to feel fresh and engrossing and triggers Michonne’s protective streak by shoving a wide-eyed Aiden (Mr Mercedes’ Breeda Wool) and Bailey (The Babysitter’s Adrew Bachelor) in front of her and letting nature take its course. It’s a Walking Dead story that’s as old as time, and yet it its handled in a far more engrossing way than the main season ever achieved in its last couple of seasons thanks to Michonne’s benevolence feeling genuinely sweet.
However, the episode scores an utter blinder with the introduction of Nat, a diminutive, motor mouthed, anti-social inventor who attacks his dialogue with and aggressive, rat-a-tat of overfamilarity. No only goes the guy kit out our hero with some nifty new armour and a caring ear, but he supplies Michonne with those screeching missiles we saw last episode.
However – with the Spoiler klaxon sounding loudly – while the quieter moments of the episode give it hefty emotional resonance, it’s the returning of The Walking Dead’s more crueler aspects really make things hit home. Is the sudden extermination of Aiden and Bailey horribly cruel after building them up as almost literal babes in the woods? Absolutely. And is their drawn out and tragic demise thanks to a several lungfulls of chlorine gas relentlessly heartless? Obviously – but it importantly doesn’t feel like a cheap gimmick and instead will undoubtedly galvanise Michonne into some selfless act of vengence later on. But it’s the later and sudden demise of Matthew Jefferies’ Nat that really hurts, and while it’s good to feel so strongly about a textbook, Walking Dead shock death once again, you’ll wish the show would have kept him around longer.
But once we get to Michonne and Rick’s reunion, their shock of seeing one another kind of callously wipes all the previous drama right off the board. While it’s understandable from a narrative point of view (the new shows seem to usually be at their best when they’re moving forward), it’s a legitamate shame that Michonne’s little group were a one and done kind of deal. Still, there are a bunch of cool Walker moments (the five mile wide horde and the gas can zombie prove that the show still recognizes the need for those little undead details) and Gurira performance is on fire from beginning to end – but now the flashbacks are done, it’s truly time for The Ones Who Live to fly solo.
It says a lot for how far The Walking Dead has come over the last year when you confidently feel like it’s in good hands.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 