Summary
“Bye” is an improvement over the previous episode, but The Ones Who Live is still blighted with logical issues and sometimes dopey character work.
Episode 3 of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live still has some problems, particularly with logic and characterization, but “Bye” is a better outing than the aggressively wonky Episode 2. There’s a lot of interesting stuff about how the CRM operates internally and operationally which will be enjoyable for dorks like me, and for the Richonne types, there’s a lot of Rick and Michonne inappropriately smooching, trying to heroically save one another, and just generally doing power couple stuff to their long-term detriment. We’re halfway through Season 1 at this point, so let’s take account of where we’re at.
The cold open of “Bye” is divided into three time periods. “Years Ago”, we see how Rick ran into Jadis for the first time after she “rescued” him and handed him over to the CRM, which she mentions here was a longstanding arrangement she had with them as far back as being the leader of the Scavengers. Delivering Rick to them was a way for her to skip consignment and get a cushty city life, so despite her constantly reiterating her belief in the noble purpose of the CRM — which she’s been doing as far back as World Beyond — it mostly just comes across as her being power-mad, a theme we’ll see elsewhere later.
“Hours Ago” shows that Rick enlisted Thorne’s help in making sure Michonne made it into consignment despite being a suspected A, and “Now”, which follows on directly from the previous episode, reveals she was successful. Jadis, though, knows Rick and Michonne will attempt an escape and worries that together they might pull it off. If they do, the blowback will land on her, so she threatens Rick to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Cascadia Forward Operating Base
“Bye” makes mention of several things that one assumes will be important later and one in particular that is important now — Cascadia Forward Operating Base.
Following Okafor’s memorial service, Thorne is promoted by Beale to Command Sergeant Major, and she’s assigned to Cascadia. It’s a developing CRM outpost due to have a grand opening ceremony featuring all of the CRM’s top brass, and she wants Rick to take over logistics there. She also reveals she received the coveted Echelon Briefing, though doesn’t give us any more information about what it consists of, and warns Rick that Michonne is on Beale’s radar.
Why doesn’t Rick leave with Michonne?
Upon hearing this, Rick panics and immediately finesses an escape plan for Michonne. He leaves her notes — and her sword, somehow in a locker — directing her to a canoe down by the river, where he has prepared a ruined corpse in CRM gear that should be sufficiently convincing. With her death faked, the final note instructs Michonne to leave without Rick, who won’t be coming, since the only conceivable way to escape the CRM is with someone helping you from the inside.
Needless to say, this is all very silly, and we know how it’s going to go long before Michonne turns back up on consignment, having decided not to leave alone. It’s also preposterous how quickly Rick managed to put this plan together — we see him making one note about the timing of the dispersion charges the CRM uses to move hordes of Walkers around — and how Michonne subsequently managed to sneak back in with a sword. These dopey logical gaps continue to be a thorn in the side of The Ones Who Live. The determination to relentlessly steer Rick and Michonne to their next big couple moment is leaving a lot of sense by the wayside.
Thorne makes a heel turn
The next development is Thorne makes a big show of interrogating Michonne, who remains in character as Dana, and determines she’ll accompany her and Rick to Cascadia. Again, this is all needlessly silly amateur dramatics, beginning what is clearly intended to be a kind of heel turn for Thorne, who is ostensibly doing this as a favor to Rick.
I’m not implying that Thorne was depicted as a warm character before, and I’m not suggesting she and Rick should be BFFs — although she refers to him as her only remaining family in this episode — but consistency is key. Thorne helped Michonne not be classified as an A at Rick’s request. She then decided to take Michonne to Cascadia, knowing Rick has some kind of relationship with her, or else he wouldn’t have asked for these favors in the first place. But she’s perfectly willing — as is implied in this scene and reiterated shortly after — to kill Michonne for almost no reason at all, which makes going to these lengths for Rick’s sake in the first place ridiculous.
I just don’t know where we’re supposed to stand with this character, is all I’m saying.
The Briefing
At Cascadia, the CRM have a big operation on their hands. Thorne lays it out like she has been waiting all her life to do it, referencing a bunch of weird CRM terms that we’re supposed to figure out. There’s a sink breach (a hole, I guess) with 200+ delts (zombies) heading toward it, and the dispersion charges aren’t working. The plan is to take the R-DIM (a bomb with a siren on it) through the breach. Michonne’s job is to keep the no-kills (zombies that make it past the perimeter, I think) near the frontline, and if anyone gets in any distress they’re to use their PRB (it’s a distress beacon, so I’m assuming the acronym stands for Personal Rescue Beacon or some such hoo-hah) and wait for a CRM chopper. This doesn’t come up again in this episode but I bet it will down the line.
How does The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Season 1 Episode 3 end?
Naturally, Thorne tries to remain in complete control of the operation even while it’s going badly wrong, so Michonne just takes matters into her own hands and pulls it off almost singlehandedly, with a late assist from Rick. Her not following the chain of command annoys Thorne so much that she tries to shoot Michonne, but Rick gets in the way. Thorne insists she leaves Cascadia, and Rick agrees, forcing her to get on the chopper with him.
While they’re in transit, though, a storm breaks out, sending the chopper rocking this way and that, and Michonne takes the opportunity to grab Rick — who remains absolutely adamant about not leaving with her — and drag them both out of the chopper to their obvious deaths. Sorry — to their freedom, since these are the main characters in a Walking Dead show, so they’ll be quite alright.
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