Ever since Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) left The Walking Dead in 2018, there was a promise that his story would get the ending it deserves.
What was initially supposed to be a movie trilogy turned into The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live — a six-episode limited series.
Although there have been questions about whether any storylines would be left open at the end of the finale, the episode gave Rick and his soon-to-be wife, Michonne (Danai Gurira), a relatively happy ending.
When we picked up on the final episode, Rick arrived at the CRM to reveal that he had survived his fall from the helicopter and was back because he was ready for the next phase of CRM’s plans.
As Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and Beale (Terry O’Quinn) reacted positively to the man who tried to escape countless times returning, Michonne spent her time trying to find Jadis’ dossier. Alexandria was at stake if the CRM found it.
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One of the biggest questions posed throughout the series is The Echelon Briefing, and the episode successfully expanded the lore as O’Quinn gave one of the best performances of his career.
The Echelon Briefing explained
Beale was stunned that Rick returned and believed he was ready to learn everything there is to know, so he clued Rick in that his group of scientists believed humans only had 14 years maximum to save the planet from the undead.
Beale explained what he’s done to help preserve what’s left of the world and keep the CRM hidden. He delved into the blowing up of the campus on The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
His ultimate goal, though, was to round up whatever resources he had left, hit the road, and destroy any emerging communities that could threaten the CRM’s plans.
Realizing that Rick was shocked, he said he would happily bring in any friends and family of Rick’s because he was willing to take that risk.
In one of the series’ most shocking moments, Beale requests Rick to swear on his sword that he is with them and is left stunned when Rick prepares to kill him.
Thankfully, Rick got the upper hand and killed this man who was going to do some wicked things to the world. But something tells us another villain will be around to take his place.
We know that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead City are set after this show and the world is in tatters due to villains, so although Rick and Michonne are done fighting the bad guys, they are still out there.
If you thought the Echelon Briefing was terrible, then what Michonne heard was even worse. She learned about how the CRM has some children in neighboring communities that it believes will be the key to helping the world when they grow up.
She heard spies would remove these children from the community before the CRM moved into gas everyone else in the town.
We cut back to Rick, who was trying to move Beale’s body without being detected, but another officer noticed blood coming out of a container, pushing Rick to do some hand-to-hand combat like the good old days.
Michonne arrived, and the lovers compared notes. They realized they had to neutralize the CRM’s threat to protect everyone they love and the people in the neighboring community.
The pair made their way to the big event where Beale was supposed to give a speech. They attached his reanimated corpse to a copper wire, which was also connected to grenades that would detonate if pulled hard enough next to the explosives to be used in the terror attack.
Pearl Thorne returns to ruin things
Their plan was to kill all the CRM soldiers during the speech and prevent the attack, but Thorne realized Rick was up to something, so she tracked his movements and found him and Michonne trying to escape the area.
She told them to fix whatever they did, but they had to run because things were about to go kaboom.
When the explosion struck, it decimated the entire CRM army — sans Thorne — who desperately tried to find Rick and Michonne in an undead army.
Rick got caught up with walkers and almost died but used a grenade to blow them up. We’re not sure how he survived, but the dude’s had plot armor for years, so it’s not too surprising.
Then, Thorne had a breakdown over the undead world being loveless, but Michonne stabbed her before she got to say much. Ultimately, Thorne handed over her gas mask to Rick, leaving herself to die.
Rick and Michonne are finally reunited with their children
Ultimately, the Civic Republic allowed free movement and said it would help emerging communities, so Rick and Michonne headed home, and Judith and RJ awaited their arrival.
The family got a reunion years in the making and seemingly closed this chapter for good, but you never know with this universe.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is available to stream on AMC+.