Inside Rick and Michonne’s Reunion

[This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode four.]

No one recognizes Rick and Michonne much better than Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, and to back that up, the powers that be intelligently set up the renowned zombie-fighting stars as executive manufacturers on The Strolling Dead: The Ones That Live. For the 4th installation of the six-part collection, Gurira took her tasks one action additionally, by creating and properly showrunning the episode.

The episode, called “What We,” guided by collection professional Michael Slovis and written/overseen by Gurira, sees a critical fight in between Rick and Michonne, whose reunion has actually not gone precisely as either among them anticipated. Rick is completely installed with the militant CRM, wishing to take control from the inside and develop a more secure globe for his enjoyed ones. Michonne, at the same time, is completely devoted to bringing Rick home from every one of the scary, and is stunned that he does not intend to come. As the hour makes use of, it comes to be clear Rick’s still shocked by the fatality of his kid Carl, whose face he can hardly keep in mind any longer, and he’s concerned regarding the exact same point taking place to the various other ones he enjoys..

The episode occurs practically totally inside the boundaries of a deserted apartment, which stood up for several years in the armageddon, however has actually given that dropped thus several various other areas in the AMC scary franchise business’s extensive cosmos. Much of the problem interposes Rick and Michonne discussing their particular problems in the boundaries of a solitary house.

“She doesn’t know what’s going on with him,” states Gurira.“This is not him. Something is blocking him, and she doesn’t know what. Is he really stonewalling her? If so, why? She can’t understand it, so there’s a journey to that point. When she finally gives up on him, they have that moment of togetherness.”

A “moment of togetherness” is one method to explain a captivating activity scene in which Rick and Michonne pursue a number of various passages loaded with pedestrians, sharing their continual link with each other with the Strolling Dead franchise business’s love language: severe physical violence versus zombies. Beyond of making it through the trenches with each other once more, Rick and Michonne rest with each other, opening the psychological midsts Rick hasn’t wanted to share up till that factor.

“She gains more mercy toward him because she sees this isn’t something he can articulate,” states Gurira.“He needs me to help take it out of him. So she has to get to the point where she’s equipped with understanding Rick and has her own expectations of him out of the way. Her expectations were, ‘We’re going to connect back, and it’s going to be ‘bing-bang-boom, we’re home.’ But that’s not what happened. She had no idea he was going to be this way.”

As the author of the episode, Gurira felt she plainly comprehended Michonne’s arc, however she wished to make certain her co-star and fellow exec manufacturer Lincoln had sufficient meat to sink his teeth right into, also. “You want to give an actor like him everything you can,” she states.“Andy’s such a fantastic actor who throws everything into it. I was keen to give him that workout.”

Lincoln included in THR,“It was thrilling to do all of this with friends, but Danai had one heck of a role as well showrunning the fourth episode as an added responsibility. I thought the work she did on that was an astonishing testament to her skills, especially because apparently she only needs two hours a day to sleep.”

2 hours is an overestimation, naturally, though not by a lot. “There were times where it was pretty tight,” confesses Gurira.“There were tone meetings late at night, I had an early call the next day… things like that. On top of that, I was shooting the other episodes. But it was all very gratifying. I was very thankful to [executive producer Scott] Gimple who handed the reins over to me.”

By the end of the episode, Rick and Michonne are together, repeling along with a clear location in mind: home. It’s as pleased a finishing as one can potentially wish for, for these 2 insane youngsters … otherwise for one significant trouble: There are still 2 entire episodes left.

“It does feel complete at that point, doesn’t it?” muses Lincoln.“Of course, as always is the case with The Walking Dead, something happens to mess everything up.”

The six-episode period of The Strolling Dead: The Ones That Live launches brand-new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC and AMC+. Head right here for a refresher course on Rick and Michonne’s tale.