Of course The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live wraps up with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) tearfully and predictably reuniting with their children. It’s a homecoming we get to witness for three whole minutes in the finale, which aired March 31. After all, a spinoff series crafted squarely for the couple’s passionate fandom would’ve been met with fury if “Richonne” didn’t have a happy ending. What would the point be of investing in their relationship since the flagship series’ sixth season, when they first hooked up, or maybe even since they met in TWD’s third batch? TOWL exists solely to appease shippers. It relies on Gurira and Lincoln’s chemistry, not bothering with general narrative sensibilities or unique thrills. And this really explains why everything else around the two shatters to boring bits, even in “The Last Time.”
TOWL is worth the price of admission only if you’re a hardcore Richonne stan. And look, there’s an undeniable appeal to both actors. The screen sizzles each time they’re together, and they can yell, kiss, slash zombies, share passionate looks, or weep into each others’ arms—and you’ll be sucked in. Lincoln and Gurira have played Rick and Michonne since 2010 and 2012, respectively, and were heavily involved in TOWL’s production. Gurira’s writing and direction in episode four, an exceptional anomaly of the series, speaks to how well she and her co-star know their characters. The show peaks when it reminds us Rick and Michonne are sexy, committed badasses. But there’s not nearly enough of it to justify an exasperating, unnecessary expansion of AMC’s franchise.
For most of the show’s run, it spins in dreadful circles outside of Rick and Michonne. (Even the duo’s storyline from episodes one to three is dull, we’re sorry to say.) The supporting characters dawdle and are not fleshed out, making it hard to care when Okafur (Craig Tate) is shot while flying a helicopter, or—spoiler alert—when Major General Jonathan Beale (Terry O’Quinn) becomes a walker in the finale. The show wastes the Lost actor in a thankless role as the leader of a brute military organization. Until this installment, he barely has anything to do. Scratch that. Even in “The Last Time,” he’s stuck with bland writing before meeting his fate.
Lazy scripts, except for “What We,” are one of TOWL’s worst offenses. The tone wavers from melodrama to exposition to one-liners without consistency. And while the lead duo easily switches from serious drama to lighthearted banter, we can’t say the same about the rest of the cast. (Sorry to Lesley-Ann Brandt, who proved in Lucifer how adept she is at that exact switch.) It’s not like The Walking Dead didn’t have its fair share of cheesy lines, especially during intense moments, but here’s how Rick meets his son for the very first time in the TOWL finale:
RJ: I knew you’d come back.
Rick: How?
RJ: Because I believed.
Lincoln, bless him, devotes his entire being to playing Rick Grimes—and the same can be said for Gurira with Michonne. But their long-awaited exchange with the two kids feels so forced that it’s hard to connect with it on a visceral level. For comparison, Rick finding and hugging Carl (Chandler Riggs) in TWD’s third episode remains a gut punch. Still, viewers seem satisfied here because Rick adjusts RJ’s hat like he used to Carl’s. So… is that all it takes? We’ve seen 10 seasons of the original and are fully aware of their arduous journey to find each other. And yet, that three-minute payoff feels a bit clerical because TOWL spent far too much time before that on meandering subplots. Why devote so much time to Jadis’ (Pollyanna McIntosh) nonsense when the Grimes family is in the same show?
Then again, this series wasn’t designed with coherence in mind. It was devised for the fans who go feral when Rick glances at Michonne with hooded eyes, when she smirks at him, when they fight for each other, or when they finally get engaged. And those people are eating up these emotional, sexy endeavors. While their happy ending was the goal, the execution was sadly choppy. It’s in line with other spinoffs like Dead City and Daryl Dixon, which focused on original characters. (We have to ask: Why even end TWD then?) It’s gratifying to see Richonne joyful together, but at what cost? In the end, TOWL is six mostly lackluster outings with nothing new to say about The Walking Dead’s characters or universe except the following: This musty IP cannot be killed.