This is the episode everyone have been waiting for ever since Danai Gurira announced that she was leaving The Walking Dead over a year ago and we are finally here. Michonne’s adventure comes to an end on this episode and her journey began on the end of season 2. How does Michonne make her exit on the series, that will be explained as I will give you my thoughts and opinions of “What We Become” right now.
Also to note, this episode’s structure is split between reality, and a “What if” scenario. With that out of the way, time to begin.
In the opening, we see the end scene of the season 2 finale when Andrea is being chased by walkers, but this time, it is from Michonne’s point of view. Instead of saving Andrea, Michonne does not save her as the screams of Andrea being devoured is heard by Michonne as she walks away with her pet walkers. In the current time, Michonne and Virgil arrives at the island and Virgil was handcuffed the entire time on the boat. Michonne uncuffs Virgil and he said that he could have done that five hours ago. They walk on the island and Virgil was stalling for a few minutes and Michonne told Virgil that she needed to get back. Virgil took some urbs and leaves for tea as Michonne asked about the brown building behind them. Virgi told her that it is best to stay away since wild animals go inside there. As they are also walking, a banner of the map of the entire island is displayed with markers of “groups” written on the map and Michonne stopped him from talking as she was becoming unpatient with him. She asked Virgil about the whereabouts of his family and Virgil then took her to a gravesite. Virgil told Michonne that his famly is dead and that a sickness killed them. He also said that the real reason that he brought Michonne to the island is to put his family down as they all turned. This did not make Michonne happy.
They both entered one of the buildings and Michonne killed one of the walkers. She then killed another one that was trying to walk through a table. Michonne and Virgil then proceeded to squeeze through the broken table and debris that was blocking the path and there were walkers further away from them. She grabbed one of the chairs to use as a shield to rush through the walkers and then Michonne killed more of the walkers in that room including the ones that were about to get Virgil. They both enter another room to see that there are hung walkers and Virgil picks up one of their shoes, and puts it back on the walker’s foot. Virgil then told the story of his wife and Michonne was not ready to hear it as she apologized for his lost, but lets him know right away that she needs to get back and does not want to be thanked. Virgil told Michonne that the boat might not make it through in the sea during the night because of the high tide so he suggested that they both sleep at night and leave in the morning.
At night, Michonne tried to use the walkie-talkie to alert Judith. She then goes outside and enters the building that she seen earlier. She then investigated one of the rooms and did not find anything. But she did heard other people talking. Virgil then appeared behind her and closed the door and left. Michonne tried to open the door, but it was closed shut. Then suddenly, someone told her to calm down as there are three people locked in another room next to her. It was two women (One of them named Lucy), and one male as they all told Michonne that they used to be friends with Virgil and that things got bad when other people that they found fought them and when food was getting low. Lucy then said that Virgil’s wife and kids are also in another room, but they are dead. Virgil then appears at the door to check on her. As Michonne begins to plead again to let her out, she begins to get dizzy and starts to hallucinate. Virgil told Michonne that she is in pain and he wants her to see that. This is when Michonne noticed that the tea she drinked, was drugged. In her Hallucinations, Siddiq appears and told her that she was supposed to protect all of them including Rick, Carl, and Coco. Also, the past version of Michonne pulls her into the past.
Remember the guy with the orange backpack from many seasons ago? Switch him out for Michonne as Michonne was calling Daryl for help. Daryl looked, and then left. While she was still walking, Negan and The Saviors arrive and Negan held her sword for a second while Laura given her an apple. Negan seen Michonne as an asset and then recruited her. Following this, is the scene where Rick and his group raid the satellite outpost from “Not Tomorrow Yet” (Season 6, Episode 12) and instead of Heath and Glenn killing random saviors in their sleep, it was Laura and Michonne sleeping as Glenn killed Laura in this “What if” scenario. Michonne then proceeded to shoot Glenn and Heath, killing them. Then we see Rick shooting down The Saviors as he did on that episode, but Michonne was behind the other wall as Rick did not notice her. After this, we go to the scene of Negan’s debut and the group on their knees from 6×16/7×01 as Negan started the “eeny-meenie-miny-moe” chatter and instead of Simon, Negan said that Michonne is his right hand woman. Negan then let Michonne decide who she was going to kill. Michonne with Lucille, decided that she will choose Michonne (One with Lucille is Savior Michonne, one on the ground was the current one at the time) to be the victim. We then flash forward to one of the battles with The Saviors during season 8 as Daryl shot Michonne with his crossbow bolt. As she was dying, Rick Grimes killed her by shooting her with his gun. At this point, the hallucinations are over.
Michonne snaps back into reality and Virgil gives her water to drink. She then smashed the fork into his leg and they have a small scuffle until Michonne got the upper hand. Michonne freed Lucy and the other two and they escaped the building (Which is marked Group #2) to only see the boat in flames. They chased after Virgil until he fell and Michonne captured Virgil. Lucy and the others wanted Michonne to kill Virgil, but Michonne told them that taking his life would make them lose themselves as she refused to kill him. Lucy then knocks him out. Virgil then wakes up in the same room where he locked Michonne and it is time for Michonne to get more answers out of him. Michonne said that she checked the entire area and did not find any weapons. Virgil told Michonne that he seen them, but Michonne does not believe him anymore and asked him what does he see when he drinks the tea. Virgil said that he sees his family and hoped that she would see that too.
Michonne then replied by saying to Virgil that she would see that too, but he took her family from her and that she sees hell now. Michonne then asked Virgil to take her to get her belongings. Once Michonne opened the room to get her belongings, she noticed boots on the counter that belonged to Rick Grimes. Michonne pushed Virgil towards the wall and grabbed him and asked him about how he got those boots. Virgil was unaware of who she was talking about and about the boots as he thinks that they washed up on the shore. They then go on a bigger boat and she goes through a book. In the book, there were locations written of Virginia, and New Jersey. She then seen an iPhone 4 with a chalk drawing of Michonne and Judith with Rick’s name on the top of it. Virgil realized that she is the drawing. Michonne thinks I that he knew about this the whole time, but again, Virgil assured her that he does not know who she is talking about. But Virgil also believes that it was not an accident that they meet and that she should look for him as he wants the other three people to help him with the engine of the big boat.
Michonne and Lucy with her two friends meet with Virgil and Virgil decided to stay at the island as he wanted to give flowers to his wife every day even though she is dead. They leave the island on the giant boat. Michonne started to cry when she seen the chalk drawing of her and Judith again. Michonne then used the walkie-talkie to contact Judith and she did exactly that and Judith responded. Michonne asked about Rosita, Coco, and The Whisperers. Judith told her that they are fine and even RJ talked to Michonne too. Judith told Michonne that Alpha will not hurt them anymore, and then Michonne told Judith that she found something from “The Brave Man” and Judith asked if he was alive. Michonne told Judith that she does not know yet, but she is hopeful that he is. Judith told Michonne to go find him, but Michonne was concerned for everyone at Alexandria. Judith then said that Rick might need her help than they do and that she needs to find him. One of Lucy’s friends told Michonne that they are close to the coast. Michonne then not only said her good bye to Judith and RJ, but she told them both that she loves them and that she will radio her every day until she cant.
Once on land, Michonne makes two new pet walkers. She then saved two people and they told Michonne that their people will leave them and not return if him and her did not catch up. Michonne agrees and the final shot of the episode is a wide-panning shot from above as we see an extremely large-traveling group with horses walking in formation.
On Rick Grimes’ final episode, it was about Rick reflecting on his courage, heart, and wisdom in the style of The Wizard of Oz. On Michonne’s final episode, it was Michonne reflecting on decisions and where would they lead you. I liked the idea of the way this episode was written, but it was also sloppy on most of this episode as I felt that her hallucinations were not needed to tell the story of why she would want to look for Rick Grimes. There were a few good moments that I enjoyed however such as her talk with Judith and RJ, those walker kills in that building, her finding Rick’s boots, and that scene where she begins the hallucinations with that out of body experience with her old self. That right there made me feel like I was watching a psychological film.
Danai’s performance on this episode is outstanding as she really made me feel worried for Michonne while she was locked in that room. Also, I found Virgil very annoying the entire time I was watching the episode and I rolled my eyes whenever he was on the screen. I believe after everyone watches this episode, Virgil will be the most hated character in the history of The Walking Dead.
My biggest concern of the way this episode is structured, is the status of the Rick Grimes movies. Rick was taken by the CRM group and the group that was shown at the end of the episode seemed like they had nothing to do with CRM. In fact, it seemed like that large group with the horses might be part of Virginia’s group from Fear The Walking Dead. Also, we do not know what Danai’s schedule will look like within the next few months when the movie begins in full production since nobody is sure what the cast will look like. I am hopeful that she is part of the cast though. The “What if” scenarios that happened on this episode, I could compare that to the Marvel Comics “What If” comic book series, or the TellTale Batman video game. That would have been fine for me if this was not Michonne’s final episode, but because of this, those scenes felt like a huge distraction to the main plot of the episode in a logical sense. But with that out of the way, It was produced very well besides one inconsistency and that was, Daryl’s vest. Why would I bring this up? Because when he killed Michonne in that “What if” scene during the war against The Saviors a few seasons ago, the wings on his vest were like brand new. But during season 8, the wings of his vest were decayed. I have an eye for detail and accuracy so I noticed that. And finally, lets assume that Rick made that chalk drawing. If he did, how would he know what Judith would look like now when he has not seen her in almost 7 years?
I am split with the episode overall as I most likely wanted more, but more questions were raised while I was watching it. I was underwhelmed and it was not like I was expecting a big blowoff to her exit. I would have had it differently, but that is my opinion. Danai Gurira will be missed and Michonne is a legendary character that will never be forgotten. I have been a fan of Danai for years and I am sad to see her go, but happy at the same time of the opportunities that she has gotten during her time on and after The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead family will always have your back Danai Gurira.
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