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The third installment of The Ones Who Live shows us Rick Grimes’s (Andrew Lincoln) first few weeks at the Civic Republic. New “consignments” receive orientation tours around the city to show them what it is that they are working towards if they keep up with their assigned jobs. It’s on Rick’s first visit to the city with his cowboy boots still firmly on his feet that he overhears a familiar voice ordering food from a stand, that of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). In a move that can only be described as stalking, she has been ordering from the same stall every day at the time the tours take place, waiting for Rick to have his. She tells him that her people had been approached years before by the Civil Republic Military (CRM) to pass along any information on potential threats or survivors. Angry that he cannot leave, she reminds him that she saved his life. She continues on that she is doing all she can to tell the CRM that he isn’t a threat because she knows she owes him. He asks why she isn’t a consignment herself, but he quickly realises that she used him as her bargaining chip to be accepted into the Civic Republic. She intends to join the army, believing in their mission to rebuild and restore the world. Having heard enough, he resigns himself to escaping.

Knocking on the door to his room, Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) enters beside herself having heard about the helicopter attack. Rick is ok, but tells her to take care of the woman who has been brought through intake (Michonne played by Danai Gurira). He tells her she is an “A” but that he doesn’t want her to be sent away. He doesn’t want the leadership to think he’s making an emotional decision if he fights in Michonne’s corner, so he pleads with Thorne to cover for the woman in Okafor’s honour. He tells her that before the crash, he told Okafor that he is really “with them now” and that if anyone can do the same for the new recruit, it’s Thorne.

Bringing us back to the current timeline, Rick and Jadis pick up the argument where they left off in the last episode. Jadis points out that the three of their fates are bound together. If they escape, she would have to go there and kill everyone in Alexandria before the CRM has a chance to discover that she knew the location all this time. For collateral, she slyly tells him she’s hidden a file about Alexandria among her possessions, so should he kill her, they all die. The CRM values security and secrecy above all else. Breaking down, Rick pleads that Michonne doesn’t belong there, but Jadis isn’t willing to risk it falling back on herself. Rick doesn’t understand why she never made these kinds of threats before, but Jadis knew that he’d never actually be able to escape. The two of them however, as she says, can do anything.

Michonne narrates through her scenes as though writing a letter to Judith back home. As she is clearing walkers in the courtyard she thinks about how these people were able to keep someone as strong as Rick for so long. She knows that he tried his best to leave, but resigns herself to knowing that they can’t stop them now they’re both together.

Clearing the bodies after, Michonne meets another consignment called Cleo Clifton and introduces herself with her pseudonym, Dana Bethune. Cleo immediately recognises Michonne’s abilities and when the pile of walkers is a lot less dead than they thought it was, Michonne proves her right by taking out the live walkers on her own. On her way back, Rick stands still and lets Michonne pass by him, neither speaking, but both happy to have had just a glimpse of each other.

The CRM army stand in formation as Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn) holds a wake for Okafor next to his coffin. He pulls out an antique sword and gives a speech about how it was from the American Revolution. It had belonged to General Hugh Mercer who had been on different sides during different wars but ultimately died fighting the British. He uses it to draw a parallel between Mercer and Okafor, who had killed his own wife for the sake of the CRM.

After the wake, Thorne tells Rick the story of how she met Okafor. Finding her on an abandoned cruise ship he had lowered himself down from a helicopter. He asked Thorne to come with him or she’d have to die and even though minutes later after Thorne had tried to kill him, he didn’t pull the trigger. He knew she was a leader and wanted her to help him save the world.

Rick listens to her talk until they notice Major General Beale is waiting for them. He points out how fond Okafor was of the two of them, but states that he still isn’t sure about them. He quotes a Greek word that means both the poison and the cure and aims this toward Rick specifically. He hands Rick a book by Yagyu Munenori called “Martial Arts: The Book Of Family Traditions,” which he had once lent to Okafor. He then asks to speak to Thorne privately.

After a knock at his door, Rick opens it to a newly promoted Thorne, taking on the role of Command Sergeant Major. Her voice slightly shaking, she tells Rick that Beale gave her the Echelong briefing and now knows all the CRM’s secret information that Okafor had only hinted at. She asks Rick to take over logistics at the Cascadia Forward Operating Base as there is much to do before an opening summit that will hold all the commanders, senior officers and decision makers. She is, however, concerned that out of the seventeen thousand people in the force, Beale has his eye on Bethune (Michonne’s fake surname). Thorne is rising through the ranks now and needs Rick to keep Bethune/Michonne in line. After thanking him for listening, she turns to tell him that he didn’t see or hear the things she had, though he soon will. Her dark expression is a mix of fear and resignation as though aware of something big that has now given her a sense of purpose.

Once out of the room, Rick pulls out notes and maps that had been stashed inside his sofa cushions. As promised, he has an escape plan. Passing Michonne a note, he tells that disruption charges will detonate at exactly nine o’clock, as they have been every night. His note is narrated aloud by Rick’s voice as she follows the instructions. She quietly heads to a locker, which inside holds a map he drew up and something special – her sword. It’s from here, sword in hand that she goes in the dead of night through tunnels eventually making her way out beside a river. She calls out quietly to Rick, expecting him to be there and uncovers a small boat he has hidden in the marshes. With no sign from him, she finds a bag with another note inside telling her to go home back to Judith and saying that if she loves him she will go. She stands confused and unsure what to do, noticing a walker face down in the mud that Rick has dressed and killed to make it look as though she had died.

Thinking that Michonne has fled as he instructed, Rick meets with Jadis to tell her that Michonne has gone. Jadis is quick to dismiss the idea that Michonne would go without him, but he says that Michonne had no idea he wasn’t going with her until it was too late. He will stay so long as Michonne and Alexandria are left alone. Parroting what she told him, he says that their fates are linked so if he goes down, she will too. Before walking away he makes a well-deserved, amusing swipe at her terrible bowl hair cut.

Outside, Rick is called over by Thorne. He approaches her, assuming they have found Michonne’s corpse. Instead she draws his attention to Michonne, very much still there, killing the walkers so fervently that the other consignments cheer beside her. It’s pretty clear that Michonne is not happy about what Rick did. Furthermore, it’s even clearer to Thorne that there’s more to Michonne than meets the eye.

When she has finished for the day, Rick leads Michonne where no one can see them talk. His anger that she stayed is only outdone by her own that he ever expected her to leave without him. He tells her that he was lucky to have had Okafor watch his back but that he’s gone now. Rick is Michonne’s man on the inside and will help her escape, but Michonne tilts her head in silent sarcasm and walks away.

Narrating again to Judith, Michonne goes for her own orientation day in the city. She thinks that maybe she should have escaped, questioning whether Rick had been seduced by all that the Civic Republic has to offer. That is until she recognises artwork in a stall. The artist, though they have never met, recognises Michonne. He tells her that Rick would come every few months for another drawing until he could get back home, never giving up hope. Eventually Rick had stopped talking like that, which is why he wrote special words for him, but before he can say them aloud, an emotional Michonne says she knows them. She thanks him, saying how much the words helped her. The artist is happy that Rick found her, but Michonne smiles and replies that now she needs to find him too. “Believe a little bit longer,” he says to her, repeating the familiar words he had scratched into the phone for Rick.

Back at the wall, Thorne calls Bethune/Michonne over to her and Rick to introduce herself. She asks if she enjoyed the orientation and if that life seems right for her. When Michonne asks if she has a choice, Thorne asks her to go with them.

Now in the darkness, Thorne has taken Michonne to the same place that Okafor had taken herself and Rick years before. Explaining that the surrounding rubble is what their whole city nearly became. She thanks Michonne for saving Rick, stating that he has become her only family. Rick isn’t sure why Thorne has taken them there and quietly stands behind her as she begins to fire questions at Michonne. She asks why she ran out of the woods to help Rick, having never met him before (part of the story she had offered during her interview with the Civic Republic). Michonne tells Thorne that he seemed helpless – causing Thorne to instantly snort in disbelief. Rick Grimes isn’t ever helpless, so she can’t understand why someone who had described herself as merely a survivor would take such a decisive risk. Michonne tells her that he was on his back about to die and she doesn’t like to see people get killed. Especially if they seem helpless. Rick notices Thorne reaching for a knife behind her back and begins to worry, watching her fingers around it. He quietly takes out his gun, unsure of Thorne’s next move. Defining Michonne as an A, Thorne calls her a leader, someone who would try to find answers about the rubble, why the city was destroyed and would seek justice. Asking Michonne if she could have all the answers now, would she want them, Michonne answers yes and Thorne lets go of the knife behind her back. She asks Bethune/Michonne to return to the vehicle so that she and Rick can talk and tells him they will be taking Bethune/Michonne with them to the clearing operation at Cascadia Base. Rick plays up to Thorne, claiming she handled Bethune/Michonne well, but Thorne still isn’t sure whether to trust her and assumed Rick drew his gun because he didn’t either. He tells her it was to back her up if needed but doesn’t think the new consignee is a threat. Before they leave, she states again that she is nervous as she now “sees it all” – whatever that means, it’s clearly ominous.

Thorne talks to a nonchalant Michonne about Cascadia Forward Operating Base and how rare it is for a simple consignee, such as herself, to be able to see it (insert eye roll). Apparently one of the best reasons to go is the fresh salmon and Michonne’s blank expression shows how entirely unexcited she is to experience it.

Down on the ground Thorne briefs them on the mission. She orders Bethune/Michonne to stay on the sidelines clearing the dead, leaving it to the soldiers to do that. In case the walkers make it past them, Thorne tells her to run and that a tracker will be able to find her. (I couldn’t help but to snicker at the mere suggestion of Michonne being lost, or having even been instructed not to kill walkers.) Thorne will push something they call an RDIM into position, 100 paces past the horde where a sound will emit to distract the walkers. Rick questions why she wants to be the one to push it and it’s during the mission that the reason for his concern becomes apparent – it’s extremely heavy and she isn’t strong enough. When Thorne is unable to move it, Michonne takes over and begins charging it forward – much to Thorne’s annoyance. She smashes through the horde one walker at a time and after a few minutes, feeling the weight become easier to bear, she realises Rick is pushing beside her. Once in place, the device is activated and begins screeching to draw the horde toward it. Michonne and Rick hide behind a tree and taking advantage of the situation, they share a kiss as the charge from the RDIM explodes behind them.

Both now back fighting side by side with the soldiers, an angry, perhaps even jealous Thorne, lifts her rifle to fire at Michonne. Rick notices and puts a walker in between the two women, killing it instead.

Later, at the camp, Thorne and Rick cross words. Bitterly, she says that Michonne broke protocol, forcing Rick to do the same. Rick claimed he wanted a win for them but says perhaps Bethune/Michonne wasn’t ready. Thorne never wants to see her with them again. Though angry with Rick, she gives him a pass and says that Major Beale wants to brief him as he is moving Rick up.

As they pack up, Rick finds himself in another unpleasant conversation with Jadis who has been posted there for the summit. Michonne looks up and notices Jadis for the first time but before she can speak, Rick hastily takes her aside to prevent a potentially explosive interaction. He tells Michonne that what they have is over and cannot be unbroken. He tells her she will leave on a boat out of the CRM no matter how he has to do it, as she doesn’t belong there.

On the flight back, a storm knocks the helicopter back and forth. The two of them make awkward, silent eye contact before Michonne’s voice narrates to Judith that she doesn’t know if they will ever return. The episode dramatically ends after Michonne unclips her belt, lunges forward to take hold of Rick and throws them both out from the helicopter.

With a looming summit and Jadis watching their every move, how far can they actually get?

Things to note: After the episode ended the first thing that came to my mind was this; Did Michonne remember to take off her tracker? Then I thought, for fear of repercussion’s, will Rick use it himself to signal back?

The scene where Thorne mentions the summit set off alarm bells for me, could it give them the chance to escape or to attack the leadership while they are distracted? Either way it seems too much of a coincidence that this would happen and not be an important plot point.

One thing I will predict, is that Thorne has a major thing for Rick and it’s beginning to cloud her judgement.

The Killsticks are weapons that were first introduced on our screens during The World Beyond. They look like a reacher grabber – one of those gag gifts you might use to find a remote on a lazy day. Except it’s actually a useful and quite ingenious, metal weapon. The end is a straight metal point with two prongs twisting round it. Once stabbed into a walker’s face, it’s just one easy twist and you tear apart its entire head.

Photo Credit: AMC