I have to say a few things I am surprised about, that my login credentials worked, I didn’t get let go for not covering the last episodes of the absolutely horrid Fear the Walking Dead, and that this show, finally is happening. We waited a very long time, from it’s original inception that it was supposed to be three movies, then with Covid it was supposed to be one long movie, and now here in the final adaptation it is a 6 episode series. I also was worried about the writing and story, but one thing I never once was worried about was the acting, you can really see how things are when you have A actors engaged in their roles.
This episode packed a punch, delivering all sorts of content, doing a very good job of filling in some of the blanks of what Rick was subjected too, and why he hasn’t been able to escape to this point, to the surprise of nobody it wasn’t because of a lack of trying, maybe because of that, we see Rick at his absolute lowest as right from the start he thinks about killing himself, but doing it in an awkward way if you were paying attention, the reason shows itself a little later in the episode but he was using something to try to slit the right side of his neck with his right hand.
The credits are new of course, it clearly shows the CRM, Omaha and Portland, the next instant I had to pause it and it has around 33 x’s marked on the map with text that is hard to read. I’m sure if someone gets that map and puts it over a regular US map you can get an idea of what the places are. The early guesses could be other smaller colonies that have popped up that could be a threat, or locations for supplies, or my last guess is extreme hot spots, be it walker based or perhaps hazardous areas.
So what has been Rick’s reality while he has been away? He was designated as a B by Jadis, and B’s end up as consignees for the military, their role is to live on the outskirts of the city and to kill walkers that is used as fuel for the city or any other activities deemed worthy to protect the city, they have to do this for six years before they are granted residency into the city. The other side of the coin, which hasn’t been a problem to anyone until Rick, is that you are never allowed to leave. Nobody has tried to escape before Rick, because the majority of the consignees wouldn’t ever think to leave as they love the possibility of life inside, we later find out that the consignees are typically B’s.
We see Rick and other consignees being thanked for voluntarily going out to fight burning walkers that threaten the city and burning the food crops of the 200,000 plus people in the city. Rick though is the only one who is on a leash, and we soon see why. He darts off to kill walkers, and gets to the end of his “leash” and is pulled to the ground, he used this time to heat up his ax on a burning walkers insides, and tells himself this is how he escapes. He gets himself ready, using his belt as a tourniquet and the metal from his hand leash as a guide he cuts off his left hand so he can try to escape. It didn’t work, like the three times before as he is captured by his squad leader Okafor. The same Okafor who convinced the superiors to keep Rick on his squad as he saw potential in him, as I mentioned he was the first one to ever try to escape so nobody knew what to do with him. Yet Rick has kept trying to escape and Okafor keeps pulling him back in.
This episode sure covers a lot in a short time frame, I have to say of all of the years and all of the shows I have covered this single episode had the most notes, it was just jam packed. Rick makes a friend, a great character named Esteban, who I hope we see again in the future, him and Rick bonded at some point and Rick gets him to help him with some information to attempt another escape. Esteban threw out the idea that Rick should join the military that Okafor keeps asking him too and then just try to escape out on some mission. Rick seems like he didn’t think of it, which is pretty hard to believe, but he does end up joining.
He connects again with a spicy lady named Thorne, she tried to kill Okafor, she was in the South African navy and worked on submarines. She was good at poker and came to Las Vegas for a poker tournament but never got to play. She tried to escape back to South Africa and Okafor brought her back too, so they share those traits. Rick learns all sorts of things, he gets a metal hand with a blade, he learns hand to hand offense, and defense, and he even learns how to fly a Helicopter! Big time knowledge, is this how he makes it back finally? Flying a helicopter back to Alexandria?
How is everyone holding up so far? If you are still with me thank you, like I mentioned they dropped a lot of information on us, I just passed the halfway point on my notes. Next up we get answers to some of the biggest questions of the series, what are A’s and what are B’s, and answers to questions we probably always had but never made a big deal to ask.
Okafor has a secret meeting with Rick and Thorne, secrets are the theme of the last half of this episode for sure. Okafor wants to put Thorne and Rick into the upper echelon of the CRM to try to promote change from the inside, see they both shouldn’t be alive, Okafor has battled on their behalf, Rick for multiple escapes, and Thorne for escape and attempted assassination attempt against Okafor. He continues that they are both A’s and shouldn’t have ever made it into the consignee program. The CRM designates people they meet as an A or a B. A’s have strength, they have drive and charisma, leaders, people who can get others to rally behind them and believe them, the type of people who will do whatever it takes and die for what they believe in. The CRM views those types of people as threats, and sends them off to be executed so they can not pose a threat to their way of life. While on the other side of the coin, B’s are everyday people doing what they can to survive, those are the types of people they bring in sometimes B’s, as they have no problem fighting so they can earn their way into the city. Nobody tries to leave as they view the city as the ultimate prize.
On a side note, this makes the past interactions of Jadis make a bit more sense. Especially at the end of her and Rick’s journey on the flagship show where she changes the definition of what she had to trade. She says she never had and A, she has a B. He is hurt but he is strong, she said she is trying to return a favor, to help save someone who saved her. In the end she did save Rick, she got to make her trade, but by changing the designation of Rick from an A to a B she knew that he wouldn’t be sent off to be killed. I still don’t like Jadis but it was a good thing she did for Rick in this instance.
Ready for more secrets? Rick isn’t but he gets some knowledge thrown his way anyways from General Beal who meets Rick on a bench outside of the city. He asks Rick if Okafor is up to anything he needs to worry about. See this city doesn’t happen without Okafor, as he switched sides in the past, so Beal is afraid he might switch sides again. Okafor was supposed to bomb Philadelphia, but at the last moment he changed his mind and bombed 4000 marines at the local football stadium to stop the destruction of the city and joined forces with the CRM. We later learn from Okafor himself that he was apart of the team that bombed Atlanta, and he bombed Los Angeles. His wife was a marine on the ground, who was in charge of going into the cities after the bombings to eliminate everyone living, and she didn’t want to go through with it anymore in Philadelphia so that is the main reason he turned and bombed the marines, including his wife. Sacrificed 4000 soldiers to save over 200000 citizens.
Rick learns this after confronting Okafor, after another failed escape attempt, this time because a young girl was in a walker horde and screamed when face to face with Rick, causing Thorne to stop him. Rick asked for help and she told him she is helping him, that even if he escaped he wouldn’t be free as Okafor knows about him, and where he is from, he would hunt Rick, and his family, and anyone else at his settlement. Okafor tells him that if Rick escaped it would be up to him to eliminate Rick, and he knows about Rick after escape attempt number three at rat island. He went back and found the message in the bottle to Michonne, and he saw the phone engravings, saying one must be Michonne and the other must be his daughter. That Michonne is a pretty unique name, and if Rick did leave he would have to start at the area they picked him up at and start looking from there, and with a unique name like Michonne it would only be a matter of time before they found him.
With this revelation, Rick finally realizes that he is locked, he isn’t free, and he is the one who is lost not them. He can try to end himself but things just end, or he could try to escape again and risk everyone’s life, or he can try to focus on his tasks to make the world a better place even if they don’t know it. Okafor tells Rick him and Thorne are going to setup a new base at a college and run the logistics team(is this the college from the World Beyond series? I think it must be as it’s around the same time that Omaha fell). Okafor says this is how the two of them get fast tracked up the ladder, and in a years time will be a summit with all the leaders. So we see a small montage of the two of them working on logistics as the base is being built behind them.
This finally brings us to current day, Rick is flying Okafor and some other soldiers up the coast, to my best guess is to this summit at the college. A projectile comes through the helicopter right into Okafor’s chest who dies immediately, the chopper is hit two more times before they have to make a crash landing. On the ground, Rick and three other soldiers escape when a projectile comes and knocks down the furthest soldier. A few steps later another projectile launches the two remaining soldiers and Rick to the ground. Someone with a sword comes up and kills the other two soldiers before taking a swing at Rick who blocks the sword with his metal hand, the person grabs Rick around the neck and takes off his mask. Rick looks up and sees Michonne, and Michonne looks back at Rick as both of them are shocked as this amazing first episode concludes!
