Billy Oduory on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live…
Richonne is the love-beats-everything story that redefined The Walking Dead Universe which is why so many fans were looking forward to the reunion of the power couple in The Ones Who Live. With the Grimes clan back together in the happily-ever-after ending of the spinoff, many fans would breathe a sigh of relief. However, there is a major sticking point that the miniseries never addressed as far as Rick and Michone’s home of Alexandria is concerned.
Throughout the six episodes of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, fans never got a glimpse of Alexandria and, although the final scene implies that the family is back together, all we see are choppers dropping Rick and Michonne off in a field, and fans can’t help but wonder where Rick and Michonne are at the end of the show.
Fortunately, since Judith and RJ are safe and sound, it is wise to assume that no further predicaments hit the colony after Michonne leaves to find Rick. However, it is also possible that Alexandria is in a whole new location, just like Hilltop which had to be moved for safety as explained in Dead City. So, what happened in Alexandria while Rick and Michonne were away, and where exactly did Rick and Michonne meet Judith and RJ at the end of The Ones Who Live?
Are Rick and Michonne in Alexandria at the end of The Ones Who Live?
While the first season finale of The Ones Who Live shows Rick and Michonne being airlifted to a safe place to reunite with their children, the name of the location is not given. However, in the fourth episode of the miniseries, the couple agreed to go back to Alexandria to take care of Judith and RJ together. So, while the location of the meeting place isn’t mentioned, we believe it is in or close to Alexandria or the Commonwealth.
Conspicuously, no known member of the Alexandria colony from the flagship series appears during Rick and Michonne’s reunion with Judith and RJ, which means the children probably didn’t stay there. When Michonne left the colony, the children were left in Daryl’s care. Since Daryl spent most of his time on the road and ended up in France, it is only possible that he left the children in Carol’s care.
If the children were in Alexandria throughout Rick and Michonne’s absence, fans would expect to see Carol, Aaron, or even Rosita at the reunion, but none of them featured in the final scene of The Ones Who Live which is why we believe the children were somewhere else. Carol was the new head of operations of The Commonwealth at the end of TWD, which means she likely took Judith and RJ with her.
In the finale of Daryl Dixon season 1, Carol tells Daryl on the radio that “he’s back,” probably referring to Rick, considering the events at the end of The Ones Who Live since both spinoffs are within the same timeline. The second season of Daryl Dixon will, therefore, shed more light on how the children survived while Rick and Michonne were away and what Alexandria and Commonwealth currently look like.
Why is Alexandria not seen in The Ones Who Live?
Despite Rick and Michonne sacrificing everything to protect Alexandria throughout the miniseries, viewers don’t get to see it, which is concerning. Considering how long it has been since Michonne was in the colony, it is also obvious that neither she nor Rick knows what has happened there over the years. The lack of explanation for the current state of the place so vital to the events in the miniseries was, therefore, an atrocious mistake by the creators of The Ones Who Live.
We also believe the creators just didn’t have the budget to go back to Georgia to the location of the original Alexandria seen in the main series. Most of the filming for The Ones Who Live was done in New Jersey. Initially planned as a film trilogy, the miniseries clearly had a limited budget, which meant they couldn’t accommodate more stars from the flagship series.
The compound housing the houses that were used to film the Alexandria safe zone was also put up for sale in 2022 after the 11th season of TWD wrapped filming. By the time the show was filming, the location was exclusively used as a film set and no one else lived there. However, with the homes having new owners now probably living in these homes, the compound was likely unavailable for filming, and recreating the set could have proved too expensive for the miniseries. Fortunately, there are still sufficient clues from the other spinoffs and the final season of TWD that could explain what Alexandria currently looks like.
In Season 11 of The Walking Dead, Alexandria is portrayed as a thriving Colony under the joint leadership of Aaron and Gabriel, unlike Hilltop which has taken a beating from the war with The Commonwealth. Under Gabriel’s leadership, Alexandria seemed to have grown strong enough to compete with other larger colonies in the TWD Universe. However, it doesn’t have the large numbers of people as is the case in Omaha and Portland which are targeted by the CRM in The World Beyond and, later, The Ones Who Live.
While taking Negan to the new location of Hilltop in Dead City, Maggie said that the colony had to be moved after it was attacked by The Croat. Since Alexandria was close to Hilltop, it is possible that it also came under similar threat, which means the inhabitants of Alexandria could be in a whole new location now. However, the events in Dead City happen a couple of years ahead of both The Ones Who Live and Daryl Dixon, so it is best to rely on the state of the colonies at the end of the flagship series.
Why did the CRM not attack Alexandria?
Apart from Jadis’ dossier, there was never really a significant threat posed to Alexandria by the CRM throughout the six episodes of The Ones Who Live. Major General Beale never directly threatened the colony throughout his conversations with Rick, meaning he didn’t even know about it. There is actually no evidence in The Ones Who Live to suggest that the CRM even knew the location of Alexandria.
The only time the topic came up was when Okafor warned Rick that the CRM would search for Michonne and Judith in the region around where Rick was picked up if Rick gave them a reason to look into him. Okafor only knew about the two after looking at the writings on Rick’s phone. Fortunately, Okafor never told anyone else in the CRM about Rick’s family.
Jadis’ dossier would still have put Alexandria in danger because it would have revealed Rick and Michonne’s plan to the evil military organization. However, away from Jadis’ betrayal, Alexandria doesn’t seem to have raised any eyebrows with the CRM. Rick and Michonne were still right to do everything to protect it because Judith and RJ were there as far as they knew.
As for Beale and the CRM, they seemed to take pride in destroying larger colonies rather than small settlements as seen in their grand plan to destroy Portland. Beale confessed that destroying Omaha was the trial phase of their devious plan for humanity. As far as they were concerned, small communities like Alexandria and Hilltop were not big enough of a threat to warrant their attention, but they would still destroy them as they did to the Campus colony of they were given a reason to.
Will there be season 2 of The Ones Who Live?
The Ones Who Live was originally meant to be a movie trilogy to wrap up Rick and Michonne’s love story. However, after its huge success for the network after being converted into a six-episode miniseries, it is only likely that the network could explore the possibility of extending the storyline. However, the ending of the first season was pretty conclusive, and many fans would argue that The Ones Who Live doesn’t need a second season.
When asked about the future of The Ones Who Live during an interview with EW, Scott Gimple, the TWD franchise executive director, said that everything is possible. “…You never know, but right now there’s nothing on the table, except my little fan fictions I write in the evening for myself,” Gimple said.
The ending of The Ones Who Live doesn’t in any way conclude Rick and Michonne’s stories though. The ending actually opens endless doors for both characters to feature in future stories. We actually believe that Rick and Michonne could make cameos in TWD: Daryl Dixon season 2 after Carol’s conversation with Daryl on the radio.
Billy Oduory
