The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Ep. 3: “Bye”
Directed by Michael Slovis
Written by Gabriel Llanas & Matthew Negrete

* For a recap & review of Ep. 2, click here.
* For a recap & review of Ep. 4, click here.
This episode starts years ago.
Rick was still a consignee when he ran into Jadis in the city square. Not a reunion Rick was exactly hoping for, but there they were. Jadis revealed a deal she and her people made with the CRM in exchange for supplies. She’d been keeping an eye on Rick, hoping for a time to chat. He wasn’t totally thrilled to see her again, not after what happened between them. Jadis said the CRM “has a 500–year plan” to restore society and the world. Rick only wanted to get home, however, Jadis brought up the fact she saved his life; that isn’t quite how Rick saw it.

Skip to current day, only a few hours ago. Rick goes to Pearl and tells her about Michonne, albeit not everything. He says he wants to make sure Michonne gets through, avoiding any A v. B designation that may happen. He wants Pearl to help Michonne along. This insulates Rick and Michonne, so that the CRM doesn’t sniff them out too easily. But then we’re back to the current moment in time where we left things at the end of Ep. 2 with Jadis and Rick talking together. Rick wants to get out of there and that doesn’t work for Jadis, who’s threatened to kill everyone he loves if he tries to leave with Michonne. Jadis claims that if she dies, she’s left a file explaining everything about Rick and the people to whom he’s connected. She doesn’t want Rick and Michonne leaving with knowledge of the city and so on: “Security and secrecy above all.” She, too, wants to insulate herself from anything possibly blowing back on her. We do get some good news: even though the CRM suspect Michonne’s an A, they’ve let her in with the aide of Pearl. Jadis suggests that Michonne and Rick make their life together there in the city and with the CRM. That’s not living, though. Jadis further sees Michonne and Rick together there as a useful tool that can help the CRM.
Michonne takes on her role as a consignee. She’s determined to play along, just as she’s determined not to let the CRM break her and Rick as a pair; even if the CRM can control one of them by themselves, like they did with him, they can’t control the two of them together. Jadis already understands that fact, which is why she’s preemptively gone to Rick and explained the reality of things. Michonne shows off her skills by taking out of a few “non–kills” that weren’t put down fully the first time. She’s equally good at pretending she doesn’t know Rick.

Major General Beale gives a public goodbye to Okafor. He talks about a sword belonging to Hugh Mercer, “drawing a straight line between his sacrifice” and that of Okafor. Afterwards, Pearl and Rick talk about Okafor. They had a similar kind of understanding with Okafor. Pearl finds it strange that Okafor is gone now. Major General Beale shows up. He isn’t entirely sure about Pearl or Rick and how they’ll turn out; he mentions the Greek word pharmakon, which can mean the poison and the remedy. Then the Major General takes Pearl off privately. He gives her the “echelon briefing” and a promotion. Pearl’s now trying to be sure that Michonne doesn’t compromise her move up in the CRM. This might be a new headache for Rick going forward, though. Pearl seems to be pulled deeper into the CRM now, explaining how she saw and heard things in the briefing that clearly affected her.

Rick drops Michonne a note to say they’ve got to make a move fast due to disruption charges bringing out the dead. His note explains how Michonne will get out and under the building to freedom. He also left Michonne her sword to get the job done better. Plus, Rick’s already done a bit of rigging to keep the dead back wherever possible along the route. A few extra zombies get out into the subway tunnels when they manage to open up a path through a turnstile. Otherwise, it’s pretty smooth sailing for Michonne, and she soon reaches a nearby river. Not nice to be greeted with a drowned, zombified body in a consignee jacket. Michonne finds a bag left by Rick with a note that says he isn’t coming. Rick wants Michonne to go alone, if not she and Judith will possibly die. They’d have to run from the CRM forever. A shocking revelation for Michonne, all the way out there and free.
The following day, Rick tells Jadis that Michonne’s gone. He tells her: “Our fates are bound.” He explains that he put the consignee jacket on the corpse and made it unrecognisable. He tells Jadis that this has to be made to explain Michonne’s disappearance. Not quite a stable relationship, these two. Then when Rick goes back to his daily work he sees that Michonne’s also back doing her consignee work, impressing everybody in the exact same way as Rick did, killing zombie after zombie like she’s in a trance. Oh, my!
Michonne comes across Benjiro (Julian Cihi), an artist, and realises this guy’s the one who drew her picture. The two of them talk about Rick’s hope of seeing Michonne again. They also briefly speak of Carl and Judith, too. Michonne thanks Benjiro for helping them. She tells him how it’s now a switch: once, Rick was looking for her, now she’s looking for Rick. Benjiro simply says: “Believe a little bit longer.”
Later on, Michonne’s back to consignee work. She acts unimpressed by the city, as Pearl questions her. Then she goes with Pearl and Rick to see “what the city would‘ve become” if it weren’t for Okafor’s sacrifice. Pearl talks about how the military and the city are her only family. She wants to know the truth about Michonne a.k.a Dana. She grills Michonne about being found and supposedly saving Rick. She doesn’t buy the story Michonne’s telling. Pearl goes on digging and digging, on the verge of doing something nasty. But she decides against it. She says Michonne will be joining them to work.

The CRM have a base of power in a location where there used to exist a university. Pearl is charged with commanding a troop of soldiers, which includes Rick and newly recruited consignee Michonne. They’ve got objectives to take care of a large zombie herd. Pearl gives everybody their orders, including Michonne, who’s charged with being one of the “front liners.” They’re headed into a pretty tangly stretch of foggy forest full of the dead. Michonne’s ordered to stay behind, but she disobeys Pearl’s command by putting herself to work, even when Pearl tells her to stop. She’d rather kick a little zombie ass alongside Rick and setup a trap to lure the zombies, something Pearl wasn’t able to get done on her own before. Rick and Michonne even get a chance to have a little kiss. She tries to convince him to run, but he says: “Not like this.” While they go back to their work, Pearl quietly contemplates putting a bullet in Michonne’s head when Rick notices, stepping into the line of fire.

Afterwards, Pearl’s pissed off about chain of command. She thinks it’ll cause other soldiers to step out of line. Rick pleads with Pearl to let it go. She tells him to send Michonne back and charges him with a bunch of garbage work. She also explains that Rick’s gotten the nod to move up the hierarchy of the CRM, too. On top of it all, Jadis is stationed there for the foreseeable future. She and Michonne finally lock eyes for the first time in a very long time, as well. Big surprise for Michonne. Then Rick says he’s bringing Michonne back. He believes that he belongs there and Michonne does not. He essentially says there’s no hope anymore: “Everything we had is broken.” And this visibly hurts Michonne. That night, they’re in a helicopter making it through choppy weather when Michonne opens the door and pulls Rick with her into the open air. Maybe there’s no other way. But will they survive?