Dangerous people make Rick and Michonne's journey difficult.Dangerous people make Rick and Michonne's journey difficult.Dangerous people make Rick and Michonne's journey difficult.
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsWhen Michone starts shooting at the three walkers behind Anne, their three heads explode before the third bullet is fired.
Featured review
The cat-and-mouse game between the antagonist and the protagonists works. We have a good car chase, great choreography, some interesting zombies in a good pace
In flashbacks, Jadis - going by her real name of Anne - visits Gabriel once a year, privately admitting that while she's dedicated to the CRM's mission, she is conflicted about the lengths that the CRM goes to. Gabriel insists that Anne is still a good person, proven by her inability to kill Gabriel. In the present, making a stop to rest on their way to Alexandria, Rick and Michonne encounters and fight off a family of bandits and spend the night in Yellowstone National Park where Jadis, having deduced their survival, finds them. Jadis unsuccessfully tries to kill them and is badly wounded. She runs away and the couple goes after her in a car chase. Jadis then pulls the bandits into it, with Rick and Michonne being unable to kill Jadis due to her dossier that threatens Alexandria's safety.
Jadis reveals that Rick was slated to receive the Echelon Briefing and move up in the CRM and reaches a deal where Rick will return to the CRM while Michonne can go home, but they double-cross each other and Jadis is fatally bitten by a walker in the melee. Jadis explains that after losing her people, she dedicated herself to a cause that seemed like it would last. Deciding to die as Anne rather than as Jadis, she tells them where to find the dossier at Cascadia Base and gives Rick a wedding ring that Gabriel had found for him. At her request, Rick shoots Anne. Rick gives Michonne the wedding ring and they formally exchange vows. He and Michonne then decide to take Jadis' helicopter and return to the CRM to find the dossier and stop them once and for all. Realizing that Anne is dead after she fails to show up for their yearly meeting, a heartbroken Gabriel crafts a makeshift grave marker for her.
Before we delve into the narrative and technical aspects of the episode, I want to praise the great romantic moments between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), which directly remind me of the early seasons of The Walking Dead. These light and dynamic moments between the protagonists serve to make us more attached to the characters so that we fear for their lives when things start to get intense. The beginning of the episode, with the couple's road trip reconnecting after being apart for so long, is definitely a treat for the franchise's fans, and I'm enjoying how every episode includes these moments.
The script here manages to recapture what made the original series work, bringing back the dilemma of whether or not to help strangers and the danger this thin line can represent for the protagonists' lives. Although the scene of Rick helping strangers only to be betrayed has a cool concept that harkens back to Rick's essence, it also has mediocre execution, with poorly choreographed hand-to-hand combat scenes that are nothing like the action sequences we had in previous episodes. One possibility is that they saved the budget for the grand action scenes likely to occur in the final episode, but even so, it doesn't justify the horror of these hand-to-hand combat scenes with these strangers. To avoid sounding too critical of the action sequences, I really liked the car chase. The way the scene was filmed with excellent camera work resulted in a breathtaking scene.
The real highlight of the episode is Jadis, portrayed by the excellent Pollyanna McIntosh. Since her introduction to this universe, we've always enjoyed the character and her ironic way of dealing with situations, especially in The Walking Dead. In World Beyond, the character underwent a shift and became a bit more serious and imposing. Now in The Ones Who Live, Jadis is at her peak, bringing a much greater sense of danger than Major General Beale, who was marketed as the series' main antagonist. The danger she brings here is not just for Rick and Michonne but also for practically all the characters we know in Alexandria, which further increases the fear of what she is capable of.
Since the series began airing, the showrunner, Scott M. Gimple, has been building a lot of anticipation by saying a familiar figure would return. I don't think anyone expected that this familiar figure would be Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). The character's return here is used to enhance Jadis through flashbacks, showing that the two kept in constant contact even after the bridge explosion and her joining the CRM (Civic Republic Military). Although the use and editing of these flashbacks aren't stellar, they still function in attempting to humanize the character. However, bringing Gabriel back here didn't seem like the best decision because his relationship arc with Jadis felt entirely out of place.
Perhaps the best way to use these flashbacks to enhance the character would have been to show a bit more of her journey within the CRM and her dynamic with Rick. What we saw in World Beyond and in the third episode of The Ones Who Live was very little compared to the grandeur the character presents. But even so, I liked the character's conclusion and how the entire tension of the sequence was handled. I previously thought that the files she left at her house about Alexandria were a lie just to threaten Rick and keep him within the CRM system, but in reality, the community is indeed in great danger. Her death puts Rick and Michonne on an almost suicidal mission to return and destroy the evidence left by Jadis.
Moreover, the cat-and-mouse game between the antagonist and the protagonists works. We have a good car chase, great choreography, some interesting zombies, and a minimum of creativity with settings to make the escape relatively fun and fast-paced, if not exactly tense or horrifying as Michael E. Satrazemis seems to attempt. The audience can be bothered with some of Jadis's endless speeches, but the character's antagonism works within this episode, in another chapter of survival for Rick and Michonne. Beyond the sweet and sappy ending with the marriage proposal, we're left concerned about the mission presented to bring down the CRM in, apparently, just one episode, which seems too little. There are three possible outcomes: the miniseries gets renewed (no surprise); the story continues in another spin-off; or the conclusion will be extremely rushed, by far the worst possibility and also the most unlikely. In any case, we are curious to see the unfolding of the CRM invasion and the plan to overthrow a military army with the "truth." Will the exposure of secrets really cause an implosion?
Jadis reveals that Rick was slated to receive the Echelon Briefing and move up in the CRM and reaches a deal where Rick will return to the CRM while Michonne can go home, but they double-cross each other and Jadis is fatally bitten by a walker in the melee. Jadis explains that after losing her people, she dedicated herself to a cause that seemed like it would last. Deciding to die as Anne rather than as Jadis, she tells them where to find the dossier at Cascadia Base and gives Rick a wedding ring that Gabriel had found for him. At her request, Rick shoots Anne. Rick gives Michonne the wedding ring and they formally exchange vows. He and Michonne then decide to take Jadis' helicopter and return to the CRM to find the dossier and stop them once and for all. Realizing that Anne is dead after she fails to show up for their yearly meeting, a heartbroken Gabriel crafts a makeshift grave marker for her.
Before we delve into the narrative and technical aspects of the episode, I want to praise the great romantic moments between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), which directly remind me of the early seasons of The Walking Dead. These light and dynamic moments between the protagonists serve to make us more attached to the characters so that we fear for their lives when things start to get intense. The beginning of the episode, with the couple's road trip reconnecting after being apart for so long, is definitely a treat for the franchise's fans, and I'm enjoying how every episode includes these moments.
The script here manages to recapture what made the original series work, bringing back the dilemma of whether or not to help strangers and the danger this thin line can represent for the protagonists' lives. Although the scene of Rick helping strangers only to be betrayed has a cool concept that harkens back to Rick's essence, it also has mediocre execution, with poorly choreographed hand-to-hand combat scenes that are nothing like the action sequences we had in previous episodes. One possibility is that they saved the budget for the grand action scenes likely to occur in the final episode, but even so, it doesn't justify the horror of these hand-to-hand combat scenes with these strangers. To avoid sounding too critical of the action sequences, I really liked the car chase. The way the scene was filmed with excellent camera work resulted in a breathtaking scene.
The real highlight of the episode is Jadis, portrayed by the excellent Pollyanna McIntosh. Since her introduction to this universe, we've always enjoyed the character and her ironic way of dealing with situations, especially in The Walking Dead. In World Beyond, the character underwent a shift and became a bit more serious and imposing. Now in The Ones Who Live, Jadis is at her peak, bringing a much greater sense of danger than Major General Beale, who was marketed as the series' main antagonist. The danger she brings here is not just for Rick and Michonne but also for practically all the characters we know in Alexandria, which further increases the fear of what she is capable of.
Since the series began airing, the showrunner, Scott M. Gimple, has been building a lot of anticipation by saying a familiar figure would return. I don't think anyone expected that this familiar figure would be Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). The character's return here is used to enhance Jadis through flashbacks, showing that the two kept in constant contact even after the bridge explosion and her joining the CRM (Civic Republic Military). Although the use and editing of these flashbacks aren't stellar, they still function in attempting to humanize the character. However, bringing Gabriel back here didn't seem like the best decision because his relationship arc with Jadis felt entirely out of place.
Perhaps the best way to use these flashbacks to enhance the character would have been to show a bit more of her journey within the CRM and her dynamic with Rick. What we saw in World Beyond and in the third episode of The Ones Who Live was very little compared to the grandeur the character presents. But even so, I liked the character's conclusion and how the entire tension of the sequence was handled. I previously thought that the files she left at her house about Alexandria were a lie just to threaten Rick and keep him within the CRM system, but in reality, the community is indeed in great danger. Her death puts Rick and Michonne on an almost suicidal mission to return and destroy the evidence left by Jadis.
Moreover, the cat-and-mouse game between the antagonist and the protagonists works. We have a good car chase, great choreography, some interesting zombies, and a minimum of creativity with settings to make the escape relatively fun and fast-paced, if not exactly tense or horrifying as Michael E. Satrazemis seems to attempt. The audience can be bothered with some of Jadis's endless speeches, but the character's antagonism works within this episode, in another chapter of survival for Rick and Michonne. Beyond the sweet and sappy ending with the marriage proposal, we're left concerned about the mission presented to bring down the CRM in, apparently, just one episode, which seems too little. There are three possible outcomes: the miniseries gets renewed (no surprise); the story continues in another spin-off; or the conclusion will be extremely rushed, by far the worst possibility and also the most unlikely. In any case, we are curious to see the unfolding of the CRM invasion and the plan to overthrow a military army with the "truth." Will the exposure of secrets really cause an implosion?
helpful•00
- fernandoschiavi
- May 17, 2024
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Meadowlands Arena - East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA(In-studio filming)
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime49 minutes
- Color
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