Previously, on AMC’s The Ones Who Live, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) had to find a way out of a mysterious building after Michonne had pulled them out of a helicopter. Now, they find themselves having to devise a plan of escape as they find a truck and drive off, presumably home.
The fifth episode of the season, “Become,” begins with The Walking Dead’s own Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), an old friend of Michonne and Rick. He is in the woods, and he kills a walker while hearing helicopters above him. He starts to pray, which is significant because, before the apocalypse, he was a priest. If viewers are familiar with him, they know he is still rooted in his faith. It’s a ritual of Gabriel’s to pray when he kills because he’s not someone who would do that, as he believes it is a sin to kill.
After the opening credits, the scene transitions to Rick and Michonne. This scene starts sometime after the previous episode “What We,” ended. They park in a parking lot and find a van filled with boxes of packaged food. They take their time, enjoying no dangers and being with each other. After spending a day there, they drive off to their next destination.
They pull up to a big building, a convenience store by the looks of it. Rick grabs a necklace with the letter ‘m’ on it and puts it in his pocket without Michonne noticing. Later on, they walk around in the woods with their backpacks. They hear yelling, so they run toward it, finding a small group of people struggling to fight off a weird and not-so-normal-looking walker. The couple gives the group some of the food that they found since Rick had stuffed them in his bag. Before the two of them can leave, one of the men in the group pulls his gun on them, demanding that they give them all of their food.
Michonne and Rick take their guns and the food back, leaving them. They find a cabin to stay at for the night. Rick hands her the necklace and as they’re having their moment, the scene goes to outside, showing someone walking near the cabin.
The scene transitions to Gabriel. He’s outside and Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) finds him in the woods. Gabriel hugs her before she tells him that he can’t tell anyone that they saw each other.
After the scene, Rick and Michonne are asleep and quickly wake up as they hear Jadis tell them good morning, making them hogtie their wrists. Jadis tells them that she found the pickup truck they took and had a feeling that it was them. She says that they left breadcrumbs for her. Jadis shoots at them, but the couple dodges the bullets, using the bed as their shield.
The next scene goes back to Gabriel and Jadis in the woods. This time, it’s another meeting between the two of them, which was two years ago, before the present time. Jadis asks him about Michonne. He tells her that she left Alexandria to help people. This raises concern that she could have an idea that Michonne was looking for Rick. They schedule another meeting for next year.
Bringing it back to the present, Jadis drives off with Michonne and Rick trailing behind her. While Michonne wants to kill her, Rick is hesitant about it. Once Jadis’ car crashes, she escapes the vehicle. She finds the group that the couple found and asks them for help. While she talks to them, Rick and Michonne look for her.
Jadis makes the group agree to trap the couple in a building. She has them agree by telling them that they can come back home with her, but Rick tells them that she’s lying. The group tries to kill the couple as Jadis works on her own, leaving all of them stranded as they get attacked by walkers. Michonne and Rick escape the building.
The scene then transitions to Gabriel and Jadis’ next meeting, one year ago. As the two of them talk, Jadis gets upset with him. She throws him to the ground, pointing her gun at him. Before the audience can know if she kills him or not, the scene cuts back to Rick and Michonne.
Rick gets shot by Jadis. Michonne then shoots her as she shoots a walker. Jadis gives them an ultimatum; either she dies and their community gets attacked or Michonne and Rick die, keeping their family back in Alexandria safe. Michonne quietly signals Rick to agree with Jadis.
As Rick and Michonne come out of hiding, Rick stands before Jadis and she points his gun at him. The scene then merges back to her and Gabriel, as she has him on the ground. She doesn’t end up killing him, making him leave before she changes her mind.
Going back to real-time, Michonne shoots Jadis as she gets attacked by walkers. There’s a montage as she says her last words before dying. The montage shows scenes of her in The Walking Dead.
Jadis gives Rick an engagement ring, which Gabriel gave to her when they last met with each other. It was supposed to be from Rick to Michonne before the explosion on the bridge in Alexandria happened.
After killing Jadis, Michonne and Rick work on making a plan to return home. He proposes to her with the ring. Once he proposes, the next scene comes. Gabriel is sitting waiting for Jadis to come, but she isn’t going to come.
Overall, this was a great episode, with Gabriel coming back and Jadis’ plan coming to an end. Rick and Michonne agreed on everything together in this episode, which is what the fans were hoping with how things played out in the previous episode. It will be intriguing to see what will happen in the finale. Will Michonne and Rick finally be able to go back home? Will the CRM catch on to what they’re doing?
Rating: 8.5/10