01x01 - Years

[bunniefuu]

RICK: We tell ourselves that
we are the walking dead.

♪

Rick... We're in here together.

RICK: We're gonna lose people.

Maybe even each other.

You can lose me.

- No.
- If it's me who doesn't make it,

you're gonna have to
lead the others forward

because you're the one who can.

Rick!

♪

Making a future for Judith...
it'll be worth it.

We can make it. I'm not giving up.

♪

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

I have a B.

JADIS: Major General,
I'm taking great satisfaction

in investigating corruption
and betrayal.

I will fix it.

MICHONNE: I found something
that belonged to the Brave Man.

JUDITH: What do you mean?

Mom...

is he alive?

I-I don't know...

But if you think he's alive,
then you have to go find him.

Okay, baby girl. I'm gonna try.

Go get him.

♪

RICK: I tried.

Please know I tried.

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: ... the city's
outer walls falling to incursion,

to countermeasures,

to six-hour periods of
neighborhoods falling,

to the whole of the city.

There were two incursion points,

two collapses or possible detonations,

which effectively trapped
the city's population.

It appears that one building,

where hundreds of people gathered,

was last to fall.

And CRM intelligence states
that, though its doors held,

something occurred inside
the building itself,

leading to some initial deaths,
reanimations, and the whole...

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

♪

♪

♪

[SIGHS]

♪

[SCOFFS]

♪

[SIGHS]

♪

[THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

- _
- [DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

♪

MAN: Consignee Grimes is tethered.

Inbound.

WOMAN: Congsignees, the Civic
Republic m*llitary thanks you

for signing up for this
voluntary assignment.

This is a level-three hazardous event.

Eliminating the advance
of ignited delts,

you are protecting crops and food stores

for over 200,000 people.

You are now speeding up
your path to citizenship.

MAN #2: Base, this is Alpha.

All consignees are in place
and ready to execute.

MAN #3: Copy. Execute clearing protocol.

MAN #4: Go, consignees!

[CHUCKLES]

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

[GRUNTS]

MAN: [SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY] Over here!

♪

[GROWLING CONTINUES]

♪

MAN: Another one over here!

♪

MAN: Grimes. Grimes! [GRUNTS]

[GRUNTING]

MAN: Consignee Grimes!

Sorry. Trying to find my a*.

[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]

♪

[MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY IN DISTANCE]

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

[GRUNTING]

♪

MAN: Consignee Grimes.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

♪

This is how.

♪

This is how.

[GRUNTS]

[BREATHING SHAKILY]

♪

MAN: Consignee Grimes
is breaking protocol.

MAN #2: I've got eyes on him!

[WALKERS GROWLING]

Consignee Grimes, stop where you are!

♪

Consignee Grimes!

[GRUNTS]

[PANTING]

[BREATHING SHAKILY]

[MAN GRUNTING, WALKER
GROWLING IN DISTANCE]

[GROWLS]

[GRUNTING]

[BREATHING RAPIDLY]

♪

♪

♪

RICK: Aah!

[GASPING]

MAN: Where the hell are you?

[MEN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY IN DISTANCE]

♪

MAN: Grimes, freeze!

[ELECTRICITY ZAPPING]

MAN: Down to one, down to one.

Close circle. No k*ll.

[WALKERS GROWLING IN DISTANCE]

♪

[GROWLS WEAKLY]

♪

♪

- RICK: Michonne!
- MICHONNE: Rick!

Oh, sh*t.

Excuse me?

I mean...

You mean something else.

Uh, I'm not from around here.

I'm lost, and I'm late for work.

Do you know, uh...

cartography?

[CHUCKLES]

I don't.

I just know where things are.

Um, that's where I need to be,
but I don't know where I am.

That way.

Pass the big blue building.

You'll get there.

I believe in you.

Do you mind if I just...

I don't mind.

I don't mean to interrupt your lunch.

You work around here?

I do.

You like it?

It's not where I want to be.

Are you where you wanna be?

Yeah.

[CHUCKLES]

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING IN DISTANCE]

[SIGHS]

RICK: I always thought I would
wait to tell you everything

when we were finally back together,

that it'd just be a story on the porch

after the sun went down,

when we could barely see each other,

but I have to tell you now.

Not everything.

I can't face everything.

This is most of it, but all of it,

it was always about getting back to you.

What happened on the bridge,
I didn't think I'd survive.

♪

And I woke up in a m*llitary hospital.

An army found me, a force of thousands,

protecting a working, hidden
city of hundreds of thousands.

Security and secrecy above all.

That's the army's code.

So no one can leave ever.

The city governs itself,

completely separate from the m*llitary.

But it follows that one rule,

that law from outside the walls.

The people they rescue,
they work in the outskirts,

k*lling walkers for
energy or growing food

or managing the water, the waste.

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

After six years of it,
they get into the city,

away from the army, from the outskirts.

They're called consignees.

And I was one of them,
but I was never gonna go in.

I was gonna get away.

I was gonna get back to you.
God damn it, I was.

- RICK: [GRUNTS]
- [WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

[GRUNTS]

♪

MAN: Uh, copy that...

♪

[GROWLING]

♪

God damn it.

♪

OKAFOR: Could've used
the other hand, huh?

[GROWLING STOPS]

♪

[WALKERS GROWLING IN DISTANCE]

I came down here because I
spoke with Major General Beale.

- About me?
- Yeah.

You are lucky you got a
friend in high places.

You're my friend, huh?

Rick, I lobby the head of what is
likely the most powerful m*llitary

on the planet, on your behalf.

I am possibly the best
friend you ever had.

What happened to your forehead?

Someone like you happened.

Someone who may be
better for my program.

You think that staying out here

gives you a better chance
at getting away.

It doesn't.

It just gives you another chance to die.

You may have noticed, I don't
want to see that happen.

[GROWLING CONTINUES IN DISTANCE]

I'm going back to work.

[KILLSTICK PLUNGES, WALKER THUDS]

Rick, did you hear what I...

You don't have to do this anymore.

[WALKERS GRUNTING]

First time I tried,

the army didn't know what to do with me.

Because no one tries to escape.

No one wants to.

Would they put me in jail? k*ll me?

A Lieutenant Colonel named Okafor,

he convinced them to
keep me a consignee,

and I kept trying to escape.

But I couldn't.

[GRUNTS] I couldn't get back to you.

I kept trying to get away,

so they put me on a leash when
we went out into the world.

I couldn't get away.

I couldn't get back to you.

I was trapped.

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

♪

♪

[GRUNTING]

♪

[YELLS]

♪

Okafor protected me because
he said he saw something in me.

He wanted me to join his
program, to join their army,

to use my life for them.

He put it this way.

I keep on telling you.

♪

For people like us...

[PANTING]

... there's no escape for the living.

I left a uniform in your apartment.

It's time to accept things
for what they are.

It cost your hand last time.

Next time, it's your life.

Do something with it.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

♪

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

[SOUTH AFRICAN ACCENT]
I should thank you

instead of throwing glasses at you.

[CHUCKLES]

Why?

You showed me I can't get away.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

♪

[SIGHS]

♪

[SIGHS]

[SIGHS]

[CHUCKLES]

[SIGHS]

[GRUNTS]

♪

ESTEBAN: sh*t, man.

I heard about it, but damn.

You really did that sh*t for real, huh?

Hey, Esteban.

Yeah.

Can I touch it?

Nah, just playing. Jokes, man.

Okay, so for like two years,

you didn't even talk to me.

Or anybody.

But I kept talking to you.

Took a while, but we got something now.

We got something, man, so...

That hidden city?

The only thing you probably
see is, like, Alcatraz.

For us consignees, though,
we see that good life, man.

You know, they got
air conditioning, man.

Air conditioning.

I mean, no more swamp ass.

You feel me?

[SIGHS]

I mean, look, Rick, it's a big day, man.

I'm telling you this sh*t
because this is my last day

out here working utilities.

As of tomorrow, I'm gonna be in there.

Deputy Manager of Water
and Power of Ward 3.

After six long years, man,
my consignment is over.

I'm about to be inside the
walls, bitch, a citizen.

I shoulda got you a gift.

Come on, Rick. What the
hell you gonna get me?

A scowl?

[LAUGHS]

- [SIGHS]
- Thank you,

for whatever the hell this is.

Yeah, well, it's life, man.

Hey, at least this Okafor
dude's gonna stop trying

to make you into a soldier and sh*t.

For real?

Still?

I mean, even after you...

sh*t, man, you might as well sign
up just to get him off your back,

you know, and then make your next move

when you're out there scavenging
for twine for some sh*t.

♪

Hey, one thing I haven't
told you, though.

I got a girl, man, on the inside.

She's a journalist.

Yeah, she was doing a story
on, like, water management...

♪

Never seen you here before.

♪

♪

You joined.

[GRUNTS]

I did.

♪

This...

♪

... is millet.

♪

Isn't exactly millet country,

but if I could find the right one...

- MAN: Again.
- ... it could change things.

♪

ALL: Hah!

♪

Sir, yes, sir!

♪

Is that your choice?

♪

Is this the end of it

and the start of something else?

It's the end...

♪

... and the start.

♪

[BLADE CLINKS]

Welcome to the CRM.

MICHONNE: Ah, I thought you were late.

[BOTH CHUCKLE]

Yep. I am.

Uh, well, I can't be.

But...

... I do eat here every day.

Around this time?

You're pretty eager, aren't you?

Maybe you are, too.

Oh.

I'm not.

Can I at least...

[POUNDING ON DOOR]

Comin'.

[POUNDING ON DOOR]

- Coming.
- OKAFOR: Come on, Rick.

Class is in session.

[WALKER GROWLING]

[GROWLING STOPS]

It was a soldier?

Yeah. He was.

I was gonna hold this
in the briefing room,

but for what we're going to talk about,

that would be neither
safe nor appropriate.

♪

What the hell is this?

OKAFOR: You both have
been training for a year.

You're both soldiers now,

but you don't actually think all of this

was about you two just
becoming soldiers?

♪

It's about you two becoming leaders.

I am gonna help you become
part of force command

within the CRM.

♪

- I tried to escape four times.
- Mm-hmm.

I did this.

I tried to k*ll you.

♪

Yes, but the two of you can help
me change things from the inside.

Sit.

♪

You both possess something
I believe the CRM needs

to become what it needs to be.

♪

Why does it need to be anything else?

The city lives, it runs itself,

the CRM runs the world outside.

Everything is working
when nothing else is.

People can't leave.

They're not free.

No one's free.

Not in this world, but we're alive.

You are, and you're not supposed to be.

The CRM designates people
they find as A's and B's.

A's have a strength.

A's will die for what they believe in.

People follow A's.

The people we cross in the world,

the few we bring in,
they're classified as B's.

Everyday people who are
just trying to survive.

B's get in.

A's are sent away and
k*lled, except you two.

- Why?
- Me.

The CRM needs to change.

The CRM needs strong
leaders to change them.

Being the monster to...

fight the monsters... that can't last.

And this is why I need the two of you.

All the other secrets, you'll receive

when you move up the ranks,

and you'll receive the Echelon Briefing.

- Move up the ranks.
- The Echelon Briefing?

That's when you get
all the info, the whys,

the things 90% of our force
doesn't know about

and 100% of our city doesn't.

Do they want us to be leaders?

Do they even know about this?

Here? Tonight?

Telling us about A's and
B's and secret briefings?

No. This is just me.

I believe that A's who become soldiers,

become leaders are the only thing

that could possibly change the CRM.

Huh.

So, if we share with the higher-ups

- that you're saying these things...
- Mnh-mnh.

Don't say "we," Grimes.

[SIGHS]

If I'm an "A,"

if I think for myself,

why do you even think I'm gonna
go along with all of this?

Because I believe if either
one of you had a chance

to save the world, you would.

You'd have to.

That book... open it.

Let's talk about the Cold w*r.

He wanted to change
things, change the army

without them even knowing it.

And he wanted my help to do it.

I'd play along, but it wasn't my fight.

Look here.

You're obviously looking at
this different than I am.

I hear you throw this
"we" sh*t around again,

I'll end you.

Were you the one?

The one who cut him up here?

I sh*t at him, just missed.

Guess I didn't.

You gonna sh**t me, too, Thorne?

Hey.

I was in the South African Navy.

Served on submarines.

Used to play poker on the subs.

I was good.

No. I was great.

I wanted to see how great.

They have the best tournaments
in the world in Las Vegas.

So I went there to try my luck.

I didn't play a single hand
before the lights went out,

which tells me my luck
is apparently sh*t.

He found me in the Atlantic Ocean.

I was half dead.

I tried to k*ll him
so I could stay there.

It was my fourth time trying
to get back since the start.

Or the end.

I know why you've done what you've done.

Trying to escape.

Taking your hand off.

Same reason I had.

[RADIO CHATTER, VEHICLES PASSING]

There's someone you love out there.

Yeah. I've accepted that I'm not
gonna see my someone again,

because I know that person
doesn't want me to die,

and that is probably why I
just grazed Okafor's face.

Somewhere deep inside,

I knew I wasn't making it
back to Capetown alive.

If I sh**t at you, Grimes,

I won't miss.

I won't graze you, either.

Now, I don't give a sh*t about
what game you're playing.

You heard what he said
should have happened to us.

This is all I have left.

The rest? The life before?

It's all gone.

This is all you have left, too.

The person you are
trying to get back to...

Hey, she's not gone.

They're not gone.

She isn't. They aren't.

We are.

♪

If you want my help, just ask.

♪

Come on.

♪

Let's go have a drink
before we k*ll each other.

♪

♪

Early on, the army had
found two other cities,

Portland and Omaha.

Not as big, not as sophisticated,

and not keeping themselves secret.

All three cities became an alliance,

even though two don't
know where the third is.

The world is so much bigger
than we knew, Michonne,

so much better, and so much worse.

BEALE: Life surrounded by
death, all in one view.

♪

Isn't that right?

Major General Beale.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

Yes, sir. It is.

Have a seat, Grimes.

Another thing we have
over Portland and Omaha

in our alliance of three

is, unlike them, we're fairly well
hidden without much effort.

I saw what federal
forces did to Atlanta.

They used napalm, sir.

Monsters.

Worse than the delts.

But this force...

as the Pennsylvania National
Guard at the time...

we stopped them.

How, sir?

Sacrifice.

Luck.

Calm.

And Okafor.

Okafor, sir?

He was with their Air Force.

He was supposed to b*mb the city,

but instead, he bombed 4,000 Marines

staging at Lincoln Financial Field.

He switched sides.

Well, I did, too.

In a way.

BEALE: You and Thorne never would
have been allowed into the CRM.

You wouldn't have even
been let into consignment,

but Okafor made a compelling argument.

Let me ask you a question, Grimes.

I don't expect you to answer,
and you don't have to.

I'm just gonna ask it
and look in your eyes.

Yes, sir.

Is Okafor up to anything
I should know about?

- No.
- No.

♪

No.

♪

[CHUCKLES]

Good, Rick.

[SIGHS]

You asked me how we
won, how we survived.

How did you survive?

Sacrifice.

You tried to escape four times.

Why are you here?

Do you want to k*ll?

To die?

Or is all this just another
attempt to escape?

♪

Look in my eyes, sir.

You tell me.

♪

I'm just gonna share the view
with you for a while, Grimes.

♪

Everything was about secrets.

The army kept the city
a secret at all costs.

Everything the army did
was secret to the city.

And then there were the soldiers

with those blood-red stripes

keeping what they did a
secret to the whole force.

Secrets on secrets.

And the only thing I cared
about was holding on to mine.

Our latest modeling
shows a tipping point.

♪

There's a reckoning coming...

[PANTING]

[SIGHS]

... and it's coming soon.

[GRUNTS]

OKAFOR: Maybe you're asking,

"Why can't you just turn away?"

♪

Sometimes one person, sometimes two...

[GROWLS]

... they have the power,

they have a responsibility
to change everything.

You'll see it...

face it... and I know...

you'll make the right choice.

In that defining moment,

you'll make the right choice.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

♪

ESTEBAN: Oh, sh*t.

- Rick Grimes.
- RICK: [CHUCKLING] sh*t.

Esteban Garcia.

Wait, is it Ward 3 Deputy Water
Manager Esteban Garcia?

Hey, hey, it's Ward 3 Water
Manager now, right?

Hey, where's your consignment jacket?

And how the hell are you even
here if it's not a furlough day?

Oh, sh*t.

You joined the CRM.

What the f*ck?

The tunnel under this manhole...

I need you to tell me where it goes.

[SIGHS] Dude, I am senior level
water and power now, okay?

- I can't just...
- I have to keep trying.

I won't stop. I'm getting there.

I'm getting home.

Or I'm dying. That's it.

Look, Rick, you know you're my guy, man,

but I can't tell you sh*t, alright?

Even if I did tell you sh*t...

... you know, the sh*t I would tell you

would definitely not be that...

this tunnel would take you due east

to a junction about a mile out,

and if there happened to be
a padlocked grate there,

I 100% wouldn't tell you

that the code to open it's 4-3-9-9.

♪

And another thing I'd
tell your ass is that...

♪

... is that I get it, alright?

But you don't have to die, man.

[SIGHS]

So don't f*cking die, okay?

♪

♪

♪

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

MAN: Base, this is Black Hawk 3.

We have tally on Gen-Klor.

Wheels down in five.

MAN #2: Copy, Black Hawk 3.

After all the years of training

and the talks with Okafor,

playing the good soldier,

- I found a way back to you.
- Go, go, go.

- It was a faraway mission...
- MAN: Breaching facility.

... a resource run to an
abandoned chemical plant.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

I got a walker body,

cut off its hand...

[WALKER GROWLING IN DISTANCE]

... left it with my dog tags.

The corpse would burn.

"There's no escape for the living,"

so I had to make sure
they thought I was dead.

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

♪

[GRUNTS]

[GROWLING CONTINUES]

♪

♪

[GROWLS]

[GROWLING]

[BLADE STABS WALKER]

[GROWLING STOPS]

- [SCREAMS]
- No, no, no, no, no, no!

God damn it.

♪

[GROWLING]

Wait. Get back.

[WALKERS GROWLING]

♪

[WALKER SNARLING]

[ELECTRICITY CRACKLING]

♪

[g*nf*re]

♪

I saw the whole thing.

C'mon. It's okay.

MAN: Copy. Resource extraction complete.

Tablets are loaded.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

[BREATHING HEAVILY] Call it in.

♪

Evacuee located.

♪

A child.

Escorting her to extraction point.

- Copy.
- He k*lled my mommy.

He's a good man, and
we're from a good place.

And we are all gonna go back there.

All of us.

We can't be out here.

You said to ask for help.

I'm asking.

I am helping you.

He would have found you

and whoever you're running to.

He knows about you, Grimes.

♪

Now, c'mon.

♪

[SIGHS]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

[FLUORESCENT LIGHT BUZZING]

Wake up.

♪

You forgot to salute, soldier.

What the hell do you know about me?

♪

"I think of the dead all the time."

♪

Her name, back of the note,

your message in a bottle
from escape number three.

I went to Rat Island
and found the bottle.

That was her on the phones, right?

Yeah, I looked through those, too.

The child, though, was
your daughter, right?

[GRUNTS]

♪

Who f*cking knows?

Michonne is an unusual name.

Not many people out there,

but if you start the search

around where we picked you up...

♪

... that's potent information.

[GRUNTS]

So I suppose k*lling me
helps your chances.

You know, maybe I
shouldn't have told Thorne

I know things about you,
but she tells me things.

[GRUNTS]

They would have sent me to find you,

clean up my mess,

and finally erase you.

You are my charge.

I'm the one who'd have
to k*ll you and Michonne

and anyone else you ran to out there.

- Just knowing about this...
- [GRUNTS]

[GROANS]

I don't care why you're
covered in blood,

why the bombs go out, and
why they don't come back.

Yes, you do.

This isn't my city.

Those aren't my people.

Everyone are your people.
Everyone alive.

This isn't everything!

You don't get to choose for the world!

You don't get to choose for me.

I don't. You did.

You made the choice.

♪

My wife is my choice.

♪

My daughter,

my life is my choice.

You think I went what I went through,

did what I did

to let anyone choose anything for me?

You made the choice.

You live for those people in that city

because you got nothing
else but your duty.

Percentages and yields,
A's and f*cking B's.

Some g*dd*mn good soldier with nothing!

[GRUNTS]

♪

I lost everything!

I bombed Atlanta and
I bombed Los Angeles,

and I was en route to do
the same to Philadelphia!

Estelle... a Marine named Estelle...

that was my wife, and
she didn't want to go in

to "liquidate" all the people
I didn't manage to liquidate.

We didn't want to see, Rick,
another city die for nothing!

And I had power and I had a choice.

♪

And I k*lled my wife...

♪

... and 4,000 other people.

♪

And we saved hundreds of thousands,

maybe the whole world with her choice.

I tried with you, Rick.

I tried.

I'm sorry.

What are you apologizing for?

♪

[g*n COCKS]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

♪

Just let me go.

No.

♪

Do it.

♪

Please.

I won't.

♪

♪

They're still with you.

♪

But you fight here now.

♪

You fight for them.

♪

You already made the choice.

♪

I'm moving you to Logistics with Thorne.

You're gonna help convert
a college in the Cascades

to a forward operating base
over the next 12 months,

battle-ready for the Frontliners.

All top CRM commanders
will convene a summit there

in one year to open the base.

You and Thorne will be project leads

on the conversion team.

This is you getting in.

This is the start of your path

to the higher echelons of power.

I don't want power.

That's the thing.

♪

You already have it.

♪

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

You have to see this.

Look.

MALE NEWS ANCHOR:
... missing a scheduled rendezvous

between alliance partners Portland

and the Civic Republic,

Major General Beale initiated
a CRM reconnaissance mission

to ascertain the status of Omaha,

and they have learned that we
are now an alliance of two.

The city of Omaha,

one of the three surviving
cities on the continent,

has fallen, and with it,
nearly 90,000 souls.

Initial survey shows a collapsed section

of the city's perimeter barrier.

In the coming weeks, the CRM
will investigate the collapse

to determine if this was
pressure from a dead mass...

They should have seen it coming.

[SIGHS]

Omaha let people know where
they were, and they d*ed.

What, you think people did this?

I don't know who did this.

I know the Civic Republic
is alive and Omaha is dead.

I know that secrets work.

I know this is the answer.

This is the place that
will create the future,

and Portland needs to follow our lead.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

That girl that you saved...

those delts you k*lled at the manhole,

that was her mother and father.

They had lived in a museum.

Her group, they hunted
and grew mushrooms,

built fences.

And then the girl said that,
one say, the dead was inside,

and then everyone was dead.

Except her.

She hid in this giant sculpture.

Said it was a grasshopper
with these sharp spines.

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING IN DISTANCE]

[VOICE BREAKING]
She crawled under there,

and the delts...

♪

... the people she knew,

they tore themselves up
trying to get to her.

She wound up covered in their
blood and their organs...

♪

... and after two days, when
she couldn't take it anymore,

she finally stepped out to die.

They didn't att*ck her,

[SNIFFLES] but she had nothing left

and nowhere to go.

So she just walked...

and tried not to make a
noise so she could hide.

You and me and that girl...

♪

... we all want to be somewhere else,

with someone else,

but we got stuck in the right place.

We did.

And you are gonna see that someday.

I'm not sorry I stopped you.

I'm not sorry I saved your life,

even when you didn't
want it to be saved.

♪

You didn't save my life.

Yes, I did.

♪

I wouldn't have missed, Grimes.

♪

[SIGHS]

[GLASS SHATTERS]

At least there's one more
good man in this world, hmm?

One more good man to try
and save the world...

♪

... whether he wants to or not.

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING IN DISTANCE]

♪

[DOOR CLOSES]

♪

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: ... the city's
outer walls falling to incursion,

to countermeasures,

to six-hour periods of
neighborhoods falling,

to the whole of the city.

There were two incursion points,

two collapses or possible detonations

which effectively trapped
the city's population.

It appears that one building,

where hundreds of people gathered,

was last to fall.

And CRM intelligence states
that, though its doors held,

something occurred inside
the building itself,

leading to some initial deaths,

reanimations, and the whole...

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

♪

♪

♪

[SCOFFS]

♪

[SIGHS]

RICK: I thought about ending it,

just stopping it all.

But then...

then it would just be
nothing, wouldn't it?

All of it, for nothing.

I couldn't do it,

but I still decided to die.

♪

I've been writing you
letters the whole time,

reaching out, to feel something,

writing just to imagine
you could read them.

♪

This is my last one,

the last letter I write to
you that you'll never see.

I love you.

♪

I don't see the dead anymore

or the ones I lost

or the sun, the sky, or the water.

I don't see you anymore.

I just see what's ahead.

Metal rotors and g*n oil and blood.

What I have to do, what I can
do to help save the world,

even if you don't know I ever did that.

I love you so much.

I love you so, so much.

I tried.

Please just know I tried.

♪

I tried...

but I failed.

[TRAFFIC PASSING]

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

This is a pretty bold move,

but you said you believed in me.

So, if you want this bench to yourself,

I can take this large pizza
past the big, blue building,

and eat it alone at my miserable desk

at my miserable job.

I do believe in you...

... and I do like pizza.

But shut up about your misery.

You're not stuck anywhere.

Well, you said you're not
where you wanna be.

I'm not. But I'm not stuck, either.

We can make this whole damn
world ours if we want to.

[CHUCKLES]

What if I came here one day...

Mm-hmm.

... with five pizzas?

[CHUCKLES]

And a wedding ring?

I think you should do that.

[WIND BLOWING GENTLY]

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

I think...

I believe in you.

I think, um...

♪

[WALKERS GROWLING]

Rick!

[MUSIC FADES]

[SIGHS]

_

OKAFOR: Thanks for
taking us up the coast.

I like the way you fly.

Hard to tell if there's
anything on your mind.

You rarely say sh*t these days, Rick.

I've been thinking about
this night when I was a kid.



[SOFT, DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

I was thirsty,

couldn't sleep,

so I went to get some water.

Old house, squeaky floorboards,

trying not to wake my family.

♪

I was on the stairs...

and I saw a light in the kitchen.

It was orange.

The crops were burning.

I was so scared, I couldn't move.

Then, my dad was there.

♪

He looked like a monster.

♪

Half his body was burnt,

but he was there to get me out.

He said I didn't need to be scared,

that it was just the burning,

that the flames were protecting
the plants for the next harvest.

He said, "It may look like
the end of the world,

but it's only just the beginning."

He was so certain,

so steady, and he...

♪

It made me calm.

I believed him.

Did he survive?

Yeah, he was okay.

And it was okay. We got a new barn,

new house.

Next year, the harvest
was the best it ever was.

Years later, after my dad d*ed,

my mother told me...

that it wasn't lightning.

♪

That he lit the fire.

That the farm was gonna fail...

♪

... and what he did saved it.

He saved us.

And...

And it just rocked me.

♪

I thought he was the most
honest man I knew.

My mother said what he did wasn't right.

She said that the scars and the pain,

it just reminded him...

♪

... that he saved us.

♪

I'm in.

[SOFT, DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

It's been a good year.

I know you're the right
thing for this force, Rick.

I know you're the right
thing for this plan.

No more [SIGHS] A's and B's.

No more Omahas.

♪

You know, I'm gonna be perfectly honest.

I still don't know how it's
all gonna work out, so...

I'll tell you one more secret.

When you get to that point...

... swear on the sword.

Don't let it take.

You'll know.

- Trust me. You'll know.
- [PROJECTILE WHOOSHING]

[GURGLING]

[MUTTERING]

We're hit! Protocol three!

Protocol three!

[ALARM BLARING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

[SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]

MAN: Report!

Okafor KIA!

Right seat down! Defending west!

[expl*si*n]

♪

Oh, God. Taking fire!

We're taking fire!

[GRUNTING]

♪


south of C-126, C-126.

We're going down.

Brace, brace, brace!

[BLARING CONTINUES]

♪

♪

[GRUNTING]

[DEVICE BEEPING]

Prepare to engage.

- Let's go!
- MAN: Force 6, 3 points.

Start at left exit. Hit your PRBs.

Copy.

[m*ssile WHIRRING]

[expl*si*n]

Free fire to the line, now!

Move!

♪

[m*ssile WHIRRING]

[ALL GRUNT]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪

- MAN: Move!
- MAN #2: [GRUNTS]

♪

MAN #3: [GAGS]

[GRUNTING]

♪

[SOFT MUSIC PLAYS]

[BOTH BREATHING HEAVILY]

♪

[GASPS]

[GASPS]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

- [YELLS, HORSE WHINNIES]
- _

My name is Michonne.
I lost someone years ago,

but I just found out that he's alive.

I need to ask for some help myself.

We'll take you as far as you need.

♪

Scatter!

That's it.

No other reason, no agenda.

♪

_

- _
- RICK: Michonne.

Michonne!

MICHONNE: Rick!

Hello. I am Scott M. Gimple.

I'm the executive producer

and showrunner of "The Ones Who Live,"

and this is your episode insider.

RICK: An army found me,

a force of thousands protecting
a working hidden city

of hundreds of thousands.

Throughout the shows in
The Walking Dead universe,

we've seen aspects of the CRM,

in small ways and in big ways.

Our ambition is to tell,
hopefully, a bigger story

and have some answers that
I'd been sort of asking Scott

and, you know, Robert Kirkman

and all the rest of them for years.

♪

There was definitely a
paper trail to the CRM

from, you know, the
genesis of this show.

We've had stories on
"Fear the Walking Dead"

that have shown the
lengths they'll go to

just to erase evidence about them,

and the CRM doesn't let anyone leave.

Most people don't want to go,
so it's not really an issue.

NAT: The only thing you
probably see is like Alcatraz.

For us consignees, though,
we see that good life, man.

When we first see Rick,
he's outside the city.

He's not yet a citizen.

He's been in the consignment program

with the CRM for years.

There hasn't been a community
that's been fortified enough

to survive a system of governance

that works and is amazing.

Everybody but Rick is
thrilled to be there.

But Rick doesn't need that.
Rick needs his family.

Rick needs Michonne.

What happened to your forehead?

Someone like you happened.

The CRM found his strength
very quickly after he landed,

and it was Okafor who intervened.

It's a kind of odd relationship.

He saves Rick's life countless times.

Because Rick is trying to escape,

Okafor pulls him back in.

And, usually, it's one
time you try to escape,

they just got rid of them.

They don't bring in people like Rick.
They avoid that vulnerability

of bringing in somebody
strong and charismatic.

You join.

[GRUNTS]

- I did.
- Pearl Thorne is another survivor

that was found out in the world.

If Okafor hadn't been
the one to find her,

she would've never been brought back.

We wanted somebody that could
stand toe-to-toe with Rick.

They have this kind of
extraordinary respect

that, over the years,
bleeds into family.

I think she sees herself
reflected back in him.

You know, she's a little bit more ahead,

in terms of, like, "Okay,
I've understood that

I can still miss the love of my life,

but that was then, this is now.

This is what we have to do
in order to move forward."

And Rick never forgets that.

I know you're the right
thing for this force, Rick.

I know you're the right
thing for this plan.

To have Michonne and Rick
breathing the same air again

is one of the most exciting things.

You have an expectation of a scene,

and then you have the
scene that actually occurs.

And the great news is that,
with certain actors,

you can just tune in to them.

And I just have to sort of look into
her eyes, and then off we go.

And something, fortunately,
happened that was real

and felt true.

Andy and I, you know,
we love to get in that sandbox

and bring them to life.

So that was really fun to ignite
the epic love-story journey

that we were about to take.

♪

♪

♪

♪