The Walking Dead series finale features a huge cameo appearance. This is why the character returns, what happened to them, and what happens next.
Following months of anticipation, AMC’s The Walking Dead season finale featured two massive cameo character returns, with Rick Grimes and Michonne both appearing in the episode’s final minutes. Andrew Lincoln, who had played Rick Grimes since 2010, left The Walking Dead in season 9, believing himself dead after sacrificing himself to blow up an oncoming zombie herd. Danai Gurira exited The Walking Dead season 10 when Michonne uncovered evidence to Rick’s survival and departed to find him. Although both have previously been confirmed for a Walking Dead spinoff series, their presence in The Walking Dead’s last episode has been called into question.
Rick Grimes and Michonne eventually return to The Walking Dead after the Commonwealth fight ended and a year-long time jump reveals the Commonwealth, Alexandria, and Hilltop are prospering. Lincoln and Gurira appear separately, with their characters each composing letters that they can only hope are read one day. Although Rick and Michonne’s cameos in The Walking Dead’s season finale are brief, neither is superfluous, and Rick’s arrival in particular will have an indisputably devastating influence on The Walking Dead’s future.
Why Rick Grimes Returns In The Walking Dead Series Finale
The overriding goal of Rick’s return to The Walking Dead is to build up his upcoming spinoff with Michonne. AMC announced a Rick Grimes film trilogy shortly after Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead. Instead, the proposal evolved into a Rick & Michonne TV program spinoff. Rick’s appearance in The Walking Dead finale effectively sets out Lincoln’s future in the franchise alongside Danai Gurira’s Michonne. The Rick Grimes and Michonne spinoff has been billed as a post-apocalyptic love story, and seeing the lost lovebirds write letters to loved ones despite the fact that they will almost certainly never be received teases their quest to reunite in the Rick Grimes and Michonne spinoff.
One may argue that avoiding the Rick Grimes issue entirely in The Walking Dead’s season finale was nearly impossible. Rick’s next chapter may be set for a spinoff, but the helicopter that took him away in season 9, followed by the clues Michonne discovered in season 10, needed at least some closure through the main series. Without addressing Rick and Michonne, The Walking Dead’s season conclusion would have been sadly incomplete.
What Happened To Rick Grimes In The Walking Dead
In The Walking Dead’s last episode, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes moment is really a flashback. Rick is shown stuffing the engraved iPhone from Season 10 of The Walking Dead into a bag and dumping it onto a boat, which Michonne discovers in her final episode. Rick’s comeback sequence in The Walking Dead must happen before then. Indeed, it could have been years since he tossed that bag into the abandoned boat and hoped it ended up in the right hands.
The Walking Dead gives viewers a good understanding of Rick’s current condition. Rick was escorted to the Civic Republic after his helicopter departure in The Walking Dead season 9, where his life was undoubtedly spared. Similarly, Rick and the CRM, the Civic Republic Military, had an argument, possibly because the villainous regime refused to let him leave. Rick has effectively become the CRM’s prisoner, desperately attempting to flee whenever the opportunity arises. Rick’s ability to wiggle free from the Civic Republic, even if only briefly, is impressive. This shocking revelation explains why Rick never returned to Alexandria.
What Next For Rick Grimes In The Walking Dead?
Viewers may draw numerous important conclusions about The Walking Dead’s future from Rick’s daring escape. Since the CRM is attempting to re-capture Rick rather than just murdering him, The Walking Dead’s bearded hero must be useful to the Civic Republic. Indeed, Jadis hinted to this in Season 2 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Furthermore, the voice coming from the chopper has a nonchalant air of familiarity, implying Rick has attempted to flee before. The remark “it’s like he told you” then hints to the presence of a higher-up CRM evil Rick has fought against – maybe the almighty commander himself, Major General Beale.
Another possible future hint for AMC’s The Walking Dead is Rick Grimes’ whereabouts when the CRM recaptures him. This devastation might have been caused by Operation Cobalt, the US government’s early-warning strategy of bombing infested regions. However, as seen in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, the CRM is no stranger to destroying communities and possesses the means to do so. The city Rick sees across the water may be the CRM’s latest victim, but no conclusions can be drawn without knowing how long Rick’s freedom lasted or how far he traveled since escaping.
What Happened To Michonne In The Walking Dead
As intriguing as Rick Grimes’ return to The Walking Dead is, Michonne’s reappearance leaves much more to the imagination. The hunt for Rick continues, clad in a pair of unusual leather armor with chain mail ornamentation, but the survivors Michonne was traveling with in The Walking Dead season 10 during her goodbye episode are nowhere to be found. Michonne’s next spinoff will most likely explain how she got into this scenario, addressing both her new armor and what happened to the people she met.
Whatever tribulations she has faced, Michonne has clearly become a considerably more fearsome combatant during her The Walking Dead absence, as a headlong charge into a vast zombie herd attests. Michonne adopts the persona of a mystic post-apocalyptic hero on horseback, hoping that her lost lover will be discovered but still longing for Judith and RJ to return home. The Walking Dead’s season finale strongly implies that Michonne has yet to find any further evidence of Rick’s survival, clinging to his etched iPhone and boots.
How Rick’s Walking Dead Return Sets Up His Spinoff Series
The Rick Grimes and Michonne The Walking Dead spinoff narrative emerges following the series conclusion. Rick and Michonne will begin their own show separately, as announced at SDCC 2022. Michonne’s story will most likely begin with the repercussions of her departure from The Walking Dead season 10, before catching up to her scene from “Rest In Peace” and then continuing the quest for Rick. Based on his own The Walking Dead series ending scene, Rick’s spinoff story will either take place behind the Civic Republic walls as a prisoner, or with Andrew Lincoln’s character on the run after another escape attempt.
The issue that will drive The Walking Dead’s Rick and Michonne spinoff is whether the two major characters will reconcile, and if so, how they would defy the CRM to do so. Major General Beale and his villainous CRM are responsible for preventing Rick from returning to his family in Alexandria, therefore the CRM are almost certainly confirmed as adversaries in The Walking Dead’s impending spinoff. However, another issue arises.
If Rick manages to escape, he is unlikely to be foolish enough to lead the CRM back to his house. Even with the Commonwealth now under its banner, Alexandria pales in comparison to the mighty CRM, which could mean Rick and Michonne are forced to address their CRM issue permanently before making homecoming plans, lest they endanger the lives of friends and family. The Walking Dead is quickly preparing for a battle that will make Season 11’s Commonwealth uprising look like a minor scuffle.
