Yesterday delivered Danai Gurira’s final appearance on The Walking Dead, marking the end of yet another long-running character’s tenure on the post-apocalyptic drama. Thankfully, the episode – titled “What We Become” – didn’t feature one of the show’s patented tragic demises and actually set up Michonne to reunite with her lost love Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).
Last time we saw Michonne, she had made a deal with Virgil to accompany him to his home on Bloodworth Island in exchange for weapons that could help defeat the Whisperers. As teased in a preview clip for the episode, the situation wasn’t quite as it seemed, though. The truth is he needed Michonne to cut through a horde of walkers so that he could get into the island’s navy research facility and lay his dead wife and kids to rest.
Once this is done, however, he tricks Michonne into staying the night and locks her up in a cell. The other prisoners reveal that Virgil has snapped after he was inadvertently responsible for his family’s deaths: a fight broke out over rations, with one survivor stabbed and killed. Virgil then ordered the doors locked, unfortunately locking his loved ones in with the reanimated corpse.
Michonne eventually frees herself and the other prisoners and, extolling the mercy she learned from fallen friends like Carl and Siddiq, she lets Virgil live. In return, he leads her to a supply room for her weapons where she finds something more important – a pair of boots once owned by Rick. The came from a boat washed ashore by the storm. A boat that contains a log book listing many different locations – Florida, Virginia, New Jersey – a drawing of Michonne and Judith and an etching of the name “rick.”
It’s clear that the father of her kids is alive, causing Michonne to start off on a quest north to find him. She calls Judith to explain everything, with the brave girl encouraging her mom to go track “the Brave Man” down while she stays with her Uncle Daryl. We last see Michonne joining up with a mass migration of people moving up the country.
So, there you have it. The mystery of what happened next to Rick Grimes is growing. But now we know that Michonne will be around when we find out the truth in those upcoming Walking Dead movies.