The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live


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🎞️ Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

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🧠 Now before we dive into anything… let’s talk about how dumb this show is.

So we waited over half a decade for Rick Grimes to return. AMC dangled him like a prize turkey, hyped up his comeback with spinoff promises, cryptic teasers, and emotional trailers. And then… this is what we got?

Rick spends most of the season as a mopey prisoner chained up like a sad cryptid, cuts off his own hand with a rusty blade like it’s Tuesday, and now has what I’m calling a prophetic zombie stump. He barely feels like Rick anymore. He’s like a weird fever dream version of Rick with half the personality and all the trauma.

Meanwhile, Jadis is back, now sporting the worst haircut in the apocalypse. I’m talking straight-up “DIY bowl cut with a steak knife” energy. She’s rocking this gig as a CRM officer, being cryptic, smug, and annoying with zero actual threat level.

And to top it all off—the CRM? Still doesn’t make any damn sense. Six shows in and they still can’t explain what this military empire actually is.


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📖 Plot Rundown (No Spoilers):

Rick Grimes has been stuck with the CRM for years now. He’s tried to escape more times than we can count, but every time, they drag him back. This time, in a moment of desperation, he cuts off his hand with a jagged blade in the woods to try and break free from his restraints. It doesn’t work. He gets recaptured and becomes more broken than ever.

Enter Michonne, who’s been on her own journey to find him. When she finally tracks him down, their reunion is awkward and sad instead of emotional and triumphant. Rick has resigned himself to life in the CRM. Michonne’s like, “Absolutely not.”

The rest of the season is them planning an escape, dealing with CRM leadership, surviving betrayals, and trying to expose the organization from within. There’s one goal: get out alive and get back home to their kids. But of course, that means dealing with Jadis and a CRM chain of command that’s built like a cult and run like a dictatorship.


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👥 Character Rundown:

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) – He’s back… kind of. Emotionally wrecked, physically broken, and spiritually drained. Has some good moments, but mostly just exists to mope, monologue, or get hurt. Cuts off his own hand in Episode 1. That’s the tone we’re setting here.

Michonne (Danai Gurira) – Honestly the most competent and likable person in the entire show. She brings heart, urgency, and logic. Tries to remind Rick of who he was and ends up doing most of the heavy lifting emotionally and tactically.

Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) – Still insufferable. Still speaking in that weird pretentious tone like she’s narrating a sad poetry slam. Her new role as a CRM officer makes her more annoying, not more interesting. Her death later on is long overdue.

Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn) – The actual villain of the show. He’s the leader of the CRM and represents everything wrong with the system. Cold, manipulative, sees people as assets. Tries to manipulate Rick into becoming a loyal soldier. Ends up with a bullet in his head. Good riddance.

The CRM (Civic Republic Military) – Still overhyped. They’ve got helicopters, soldiers, secrets, and apparently limitless power—but the writing does nothing to make them feel believable. They act like a cross between Hydra, the Empire, and your worst HOA board.



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✅ Pros:

…
Nope. Still nothing.


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❌ Cons:

Rick’s return is hollow, boring, and kind of depressing

That “cutting off his hand” scene is just absurd

Jadis’s bowl cut should be outlawed

The reunion between Rick and Michonne lacks emotion and buildup

CRM still makes no logical sense

The villain is undercooked and cartoonishly evil

The pacing is uneven

Zero payoff after years of hype



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💭 Final Thoughts:

This should’ve been epic. This should’ve been the return of The Rick Grimes. Instead, we got a sluggish, overly serious miniseries with mopey monologues, cringe military jargon, and exactly one solid moment: the finale.

Michonne and Rick are still one of the most iconic duos in the franchise—but you wouldn’t know it watching this. Their chemistry feels off, their arcs feel rushed, and the entire show acts like it’s way smarter than it is.

The writing tries so hard to be profound and poetic but ends up just feeling cold, awkward, and weirdly empty. This isn’t the reward longtime fans deserved. This was the studio scrambling to fulfill a promise and hoping we’d clap anyway.


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⭐ Rating: 2/10


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning – Everything below this point is full of spoilers:


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Rick cuts off his hand in Episode 1 to escape a CRM chain in the woods. It doesn’t work. He gets recaptured. Later, Michonne finds him, and they reconnect awkwardly. He’s been broken down by the CRM for so long that he barely believes he’s still himself.

Eventually, they both plot to escape. Jadis, trying to stop them, threatens to expose everything to CRM leadership. Michonne straight up kills her in a brutal moment. Jadis dies a traitor, and no one mourns her.

Then comes Major General Beale, the main villain. He tries to manipulate Rick into becoming a permanent CRM asset. Rick plays along briefly, then shoots Beale in the head in a move that honestly should’ve come way earlier.

Let’s talk about the CRM for a second… because what even was that payoff?

This group has been built up since Season 9 of The Walking Dead. You’ve got the helicopters, the mystery soldiers, the whole “A or B” thing, Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) acting like a full-on traitor gremlin, and then they expand it into Fear The Walking Dead, and then they make them the main villains in World Beyond. This wasn’t just a side threat — this was the long game villain across multiple shows.

And then we finally meet the big guy in charge — Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn).

The dude who’s supposedly running this entire operation. The mastermind. The guy behind the Civic Republic Military.

And what do we get?

A glorified exposition dump.

He sits Rick (Andrew Lincoln) down and basically goes, “Oh by the way, yeah… we’ve been around longer than you think. We were the ones nuking cities.”
Which is clearly tying back to Fear The Walking Dead when those nukes went off.

And it’s like… okay… sure… I guess the CRM existed before or right as the apocalypse kicked off? That’s… a massive revelation… that should probably matter a lot?

And then the show immediately does nothing with it.

Rick just goes, “Yeah, nah,” hits him with the “We’re not the walking dead… you are,” and kills him.

That’s it.

That’s the payoff to YEARS of buildup.

Meanwhile, Jadis — who has been bouncing between shows acting like a full-blown carrot-eating backstabber this whole time — spends her entire existence switching sides, playing both ends, selling people out, all for this organization that… collapses in about five minutes once Rick decides he’s done talking.

And let’s not forget, Fear The Walking Dead already made the CRM look like a joke when Morgan (Lennie James) and the group basically dealt with them way easier than they ever should’ve.

So by the time we get to The Ones Who Live, this “massive, world-controlling threat” has already been chipped away, and then the finale just walks in and deletes them like they’re a side quest.

All that buildup. Multiple shows. Years of teasing.

For a villain that gets taken out in one conversation and a quick stab.

Cool.

Glad we spent all that time on them.

I will absolutely forget this entire organization existed by next week.

That’s when the dominoes fall.

With Beale and Jadis both dead, CRM descends into chaos. Internal power struggles erupt. Resistance fighters sabotage critical operations. The CRM finally starts to collapse.

In the end, Rick and Michonne escape for real this time.

The final scene? The one good moment in the whole show: they return home and reunite with their two kids—Judith and RJ. It’s meant to be emotional, but by that point, you’re just relieved it’s over.