The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Years review S1 E1
The Walking Dead has endured after the main show’s conclusion back in 2022 after 11 seasons thanks to various spin-offs. Years kicked off the third spin-off The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live aka Rick and Michonne. While The Walking Dead Universe now requires several Wikipedia updates to figure out the timeline, Years suggests this spin-off has some serious potential.
The bridge is over, the bridge is over…er, five years ago. This provides some context from the main show, which took a six-year jump after Rick’s presumed death. It was always unfortunate that Andrew Lincoln took his break from the show just as new showrunner Angela Kang was getting busy breathing some badly needed new life into the series.
Rick was gathered as part of a massive city colony. He’s still a worker bee who hasn’t gained access to the hidden city just yet. That’s largely on account of him trying to escape three times. Make that four times. Rick’s gotten desperate enough now that on this latest attempt, he chops his left hand off just to be accurate to the comic book. Or to lose the leash connecting him to his armored handler.
This rescue attempt isn’t any more successful than the previous outings and kinda felt like a weird, overdue means to reconcile comic book and TV versions of Rick.
Rick’s got a guardian looking out for him in the form of Okafor (Craig Tate), a high-ranking member of the Civic Republic Military, or CRM, the city’s elite army. Okafor sees something in Rick and fellow consignee Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt). While Rick stubbornly thinks he can eventually find a way back to Michonne, Judith, Daryl, Maggie, etc., Thorne accepts the reality. Their loved ones aren’t gone, they’re the ones who are gone.
In his letters to Michonne, Rick explains the inner workings of this city and how he decides to play along and join Okafor’s CRM squad. Not because he suddenly finds Okafor’s pitch appealing. Rather it’s the best shot of escaping. And he at least gets a nifty prosthetic club hand with a retractable blade. But until he gets a spiked mace, Aaron still has the best hand attachment game in the TWD universe.
Rick does have at least one friend, Esteban Garcia (Frankie Quinones), who completed his consignee tour and is now a full-fledged city resident. Shockingly, he didn’t get killed upon announcing out loud that he’s only got a few days before he joins the other side.
Okafar envisions Thorne and Rick as the agents of change needed to improve the CRM for the better. He’s not done with all of the secrecy and mindset of the leadership. A new generation of leaders is needed and Rick and Thorne are primed to be among them. Okafor’s actions haven’t gone completely unnoticed as CRM commander, Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn), asks Rick if Okafor is plotting something.
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More years pass and Rick is ready to pull off his escape — thanks to Esteban providing him with some intel on the sewer tunnel layout. Rick’s escape plan is solid. He’s all set to escape when some walkers close in. Rick is shocked to find a young girl, coated in walker blood and guts, wandering with the walkers. Saving the girl proves enough of a distraction to make Rick abandon his escape. And Thorne saw it all anyway. She’s no snitch since she’s come to respect Rick over the years.
Thorne also offers Rick the heads up that Okafor knows about Rick’s backstory. Michonne is a pretty unique name and the letters might as well have “spoilers” written all over them. Rick confronts Okafor, who refuses to kill Rick. He needs as many good men as possible. For now, Okafor’s plan to continue Rick and Thorne’s ascension up the ranks is to have them lead the Cascades project to transform a college into a CRM base.
As Rick ponders his next option, Thorne barges in with news that Omaha collapsed. That just leaves Portland as the city’s other ally. And that means a new crop of 90,000 walkers have just arrived to expand the population. That’s a vicious cycle.
Throughout the episode, Rick has been dreaming of Michonne. They’re at a park bench with Michonne in her full business casual look. They have some breezy, flirty conversations — possibly how Rick envisioned how they would have met in the pre-walker world. That’s long years ago now.
With no hope left, Rick commits to the CRM and the idea that working with Okafor and Thorne will actually end up helping others, including possibly Michonne and the others.
Rick relates a tale about his father making a sacrifice for the greater good to Okafor. They’re heading on to a new mission when the helicopter gets attacked. Okafor shockingly gets killed in the attack while Rick manages to safely land the copter without further casualties. Some missile strikes disorient his men while a figure clad in a robe of sorts starts killing the survivors…with a sword.
Scrambling to evade this killer, Rick can’t get the upper hand… let’s ignore the easy joke.., but it doesn’t matter as the assailant kicks his helmet off and is stunned to see his face. Stepping back, the katana-wielder removes her bulky armor to reveal Michonne. Well, time to order that pizza because it’s time for story time with Rick and Michonne.
Years condensed a lot of storytelling in one very enjoyable episode. Who knew a Rick Grimes spotlight would be one of the most engaging Walking Dead installments in years? It’s probably safe to assume next week will be a full-on catch up with what happened with Michonne that led her to wearing full samurai gear and working with a rebellion opposing the CRM. That’s good enough to make for some solid Sunday appointment TV.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: AMC