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Sunday, March 17, 2024

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live |1x03| Bye

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"Is it still him?" We dive a little deeper to answer that question as Michonne beats Rick Grimes' kill-count record, setting alarm bells across the panel. Maybe Jadis/Warrant Officer Anne Stokes was right, though: Maybe Richonne can do anything?
🎬We left a TON on the cutting-room floor, including a juicy pre-show. To stream this episode, the way nature intended (raw), support us by either tipping us on Ko-fi and/or joining a membership tier on either Ko-fi or Patreon.

David Cameo:
Rachael Burt:
Sherrandy Swift:
Bridget Mason-Gray:

  • Celebrating Rachael's 5th SQUAWKiversary!
  • Sherrandy Thinks Rick Grimes and Michonne Lack Chemistry and Prefers The Struggle of Survival over Achieving Progress. She also loved Nat. Bridget's 2nd SQUAWKiversary was last Valentine's Day. Bridget Gasped at the Surprise Ending of the Episode
  • Benjiro's Endearing Art is a Welcome Bright Spot and the mention of Carl Grimes Made Us Emotional. Benjiro is played by Julian Cihi who plays the original murder victim in Only Murders in the Building.

  • Impressive Special Effects with the Walkers (Turnstile & The Faceless Ones at The Civic Republic Military's Harvest Facility).

  • Rick's Character Development: The CRM has Conditioned Him Over The Course of Many Years. It explains the dissonance between he and Michonne and the strange feeling we have seeing this world of surplus, rather than scarcity.
  • Dave Explains Why Some Think Richonne Lacks Chemistry. Even though the episode where they get together is one of Sherrandy's favorite episodes, it has nothing to do with their relationship. It's not too dissimilar to Caryl (those who ship Carol Peletier & Daryl Dixon)

  • Rick's Conditioning Has Similarities to When Negan Psychologically Tortured Daryl. The interactions between Rick and Jadis / Warrant Officer Anne Stokes, with her shit haircut, only further illustrate the point. Speaking of Jadis, it's possible that she and her Heapsters disappeared folks from The Commonwealth for years. Sherrandy also compares Command Sgt Major Pearl Thorne aiming her scope at Michonne to Shane Walsh aiming his at Rick in the First Season of The Walking Dead. Also, stop making out in plain sight? Or not?
    AMC Networks

  • Monitoring Portland's Settlement in Washington's Cascade Mountain Range (Cascadia Forward Monitoring Station)? Dave calculates the gas mileage the helicopter has as it refuels at 5 separate jump points along the way (500 miles per tank). It's important to note that the upper echelon (Command & Frontliners) are having a summit there very soon.
  • Timeline Confusion: Where are we relative to The Walking Dead: World Beyond? Have we caught up? Then we proceed to figure out when we are based on Michonne's trajectory. The closest we can get is 11~12 years (if you somewhat ignore the yearbook the TWD: World Beyond teens find in the high school).
  • Richonne is Experiencing Communication and Trust Issues: Clearly, these issues made us all panic by way of Michonne's display of brazenness. But the benefit of Michonne not being brainwashed by the CRM, which preserves her will to persevere, is a lot like how the Campus Colony teens in TWD: World Beyond were safe behind walls to preserve their safety and humanity.

  • Michonne's Dilemma: Leave or Die Trying to Save Rick. As risky as Michonne is playing it, what she's doing serves a dual purpose. Like Jadis says, it shows Rick that Richonne is capable of accomplishing anything. It might also show us that she's given up on leaving unless Rick is with her - even if it means she goes out in a blaze of g(l)ory.
  • The Etymology of Benjiro and Dana Bethune: Dana = Arbiter & Bethune = The House of God (Hebrew). Benjiro means Enjoy Peace (Japanese).
  • The Meaning of GRIMES 68: It's Rick's original single-session high score kill-count (which Dana Bethune broke). It's also a mirror for the reason why they achieved their original kill-counts: Rick's anger towards The CRM/Himself for not being able to escape and Michonne's anger towards Rick/Herself for being tricked into escaping without Rick.

  • Michonne's Openness and How Our Loved Ones' Faces Disappear Over Time: It only takes Michonne 3 minutes to mention Carl's name to Benjiro - something that took 3 years for Rick. On the note of sons, Rachael is mildly irritated that Michonne keeps the existence of RJ Grimes a secret.
  • Michonne and Rick's Relationship is only twice the span of Michonne and Nat's: offers a little perspective over their relevance. Richonne has been apart longer than they've been together. Still, like Felix Carlucci (in TWD: World Beyond) who sees no other option but to save Leo Bennett, Michonne has invested so much into she and Rick's relationship that there is no alternative but to save him.
  • The Complexity of Good and Evil: Lt. Col. Donald Okafor spares both Rick and Thorne because he saw the value of sparing your enemies. This isn't unlike what Rick does with Negan: because there was value in keeping them all alive. Sherrandy reminded us that Alicia Clark spared Charlie for much the same reason (No One's Gone Until They're Gone). Michonne, herself, spared Virgil for the same exact reasons and it got her to where she is today.
  • Beyond Pharmakon: What Beale doesn't mention, intentionally, is that Pharmakon (Greek) is both the poison, cure, and Scapegoat/Sacrifice. Just like Okafor (and Michonne) sparing who would normally be his enemy, he is swallowing some of the poison to cure The CRM and to prevent the aforementioned tipping point. Bonds Are Formed Through Struggle.
  • Martial Arts: The Book of Family Traditions by Yagyu Munenori: @BellePal left us a comment in our video with a little summary of this book that I'd like to share, here: I read a decent amount of the book. From the samurai tradition: it explores the relationship between people and their government; stresses secrecy; war as justified for the preservation of life; sword-fighting... Loyalty to your leader...

  • The Legacy of Hugh Mercer: Born in Scotland and a part of The Jacobite army - determined to place King James Stuart on the Scottish throne - who fought in Culloden (Outlander, anybody?). This resulted in an overwhelming amount of obliterated Scottish Clans, the remaining few were marked by the throne as enemies of the state. This resulted in Mercer fleeing to America, fighting with the Pennsylvania Militia in the French Indian War, and resulting in severe injury. After recuperating, he joined The Continental Army under his friend, George Washington, and proceeded to fight in the campaigns in New York and New Jersey (Summer, Autumn, and Winter of 1776). He was mortally wounded in The Battle of Princeton (several months after The United States of America declared their independence from Great Britain). It shouldn't go without mentioning: Mercer's descendants became public figures themselves.
  • The Role of Luck in Survival: Like Eugene Porter, as actually charismatic and strategic George Washington was, he was mostly lucky to survive The U.S.'s war of independence, especially The Battle of New York, where (just like in the episode) he evacuated his troops by canoe to safety under the cover of night.
    AMC Networks

  • Comparing Beale to George Washington: Beale displays General Hugh Mercer's sword at Okafor's funeral (which is, in real life, on display at the Museum of the American Revolution), which makes us wonder whether he was actually comparing Okafor to Mercer at all, more than he was comparing himself to General Washington. Had Okafor executed his orders (like he did in Los Angeles and Atlanta), Beale wouldn't have found himself in a position of power.
    AMC Networks

  • The Impossible Situation: Writers will often write impossible situations in order to cleverly write our characters out of them. Like Michonne flinging she and Rick out of a turbulent helicopter, one of the most noteworthy comparisons is when Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced The Borg in their Season 3 finale cliffhanger. Bridget also mentions Star Trek's infamous command exam: The Kobayashi Maru.

  • You Radiate Shit-Knowing: something Cleo Clifton says to Dana Bethune at Harvest Facility, which Sherrandy compares to something Luciana Galvez says about Althea Szewczyk-Przygocki in Fear The Walking Dead's 4th Season, Episode 3, Good Out Here.

  • The Term Reclamation Team is finally brought up (by Jadis, this episode) on a show in TWDU other than FearTWD (an episode on that series was even titled Reclamation). All of this highlights the importance of watching both FearTWD and World Beyond (if you feel like it, but you'll get a lot more out of these episodes if you do).
  • The Weirdness of Portraying a Modern World with Little Scarcity: To springboard off of the static between Rick & Michonne, it's also intentional that we are feeling a little weirded-out by all the technology and modern conveniences - like napkins, french fries, and onion rings. As if that wasn't weird enough, Jadis then proceeds to throw away a whole, ketchup soaked, tray of fries like a (layers-upon-layers) monster. Our minds suddenly drift off to a starving Alexandria Safe-Zone (in the bonus episodes of Season 10 and the first trimester of Season 11).

  • The Tipping Point and the 500-Year Plan: This reminds of Laurent's calculations on the 200 years it would take to repopulate France on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. It also directly reminds us of the reason that was given by Jadis - in the 2nd Season of World Beyond - of why Omaha was bombed in the first place: their projections indicated that humanity wouldn't survive without a culling. The genocide of Campus Colony begs to differ: they would've become a threat.
  • The Need for Fresh Perspectives: The tipping point might also be referring to the emergency among the ranks of The CRM in replenishing their soldiers with some 'A's over 'B's, since we had a good look at Okafor's greenhouse littered with the dog tags of fallen comrades.
  • Thorne's True Belief and Plans: We all like Thorne as a character, even though reasons emerge throughout this episode that inform us on why we shouldn't be rooting for her. Villain or not, her struggle is a very relatable, human one that is tough to watch.

  • Jadis' Motivations: It was hard to understand Jadis on TWD. Tapping into her mindset was a lot easier in World Beyond and, now, even easier on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. If TWDU allows you to become who you were meant to be, she is the chameleon who will manipulate her way atop any hierarchy in order to ensure her survival, regardless of whether she is a true-believer in The Civic Republic's supremacy in TWDU. It's worth mentioning that Rick spared Jadis'/Anne' life after All Out War, which ultimately was the means of his (pseudo-)salvation after being nearly mortally wounded in TWD episode 9x05. It's a lot like Negan, who was also spared by Rick, being our survivors' salvation when he decapitated Alpha in the war with The Whisperers. Maybe Rick will be the means of her salvation, down the road? Or at least cause enough chaos for her to swoop in and rise to further prominence.

  • The Etymology of Jadis: Basically (Old French) Days of yore. Transliterated, Ja = already, a = has, and Di = day. Beale means handsome and Dave does a pretty decent impression of Terry O'Quinn playing the role. Stokes, incidentally (or perhaps intentionally), means to poke or perturb in order to keep a fire lit or to sew disorder.
    Editor's Note: C.S. Lewis named one of his characters Jadis - an evil White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia. The theory is that this name is derived from both Old French and Turkish to create a name that represents a witch who practices the old ways.
  • Pairing-Up Rick and Jadis/Thorne: Did he? Everyone says no, even though they were joking about it not a half hour earlier. It's possible that Thorne isn't even heterosexual (despite Lesley Ann-Brandt's heterosexuality) based on her character, Mazikeen, in the Lucifer series.
  • Thorne's (and Rachael's) Struggle with Good and Bad: Why Thorne is so much fun to watch, even though it's uncomfortable, is that even though she seems to be crossing over into bad guy territory, even the bad guys can be perceived as good in this universe. Still, folks want to know who to root for, as compelling as her humanness is.
  • A Spotlight on Bright Spots: The Carl mention; Shit Haircut; Turnstile walker; The no-kill, faceless walkers (and the sounds they made)

  • Beepers and Homing Beacons: Rick is summoned by Thorne by way of a pager. At least one settlement has learned their lesson (not TWD or FearTWD): walkie-talkies would've exposed their location if used within the walls of The CR. Kafka's Gun: it's no accident that the show explains to us the purpose of the PRB.
  • Like Jadis, we also enjoy how uncomfortable she makes Rick while making a pass at him (or at least Dave does: birds of a feather...). GRIMES 68 should be replaced with BETHUNE 69.

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