"The Last Time" is the sixth and final episode of the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. It is the last episode of the series overall. It premiered on March 31, 2024. It was written by Scott Gimple & Channing Powell and directed by Michael Satrazemis.

Plot[]

Rick and Michonne have to perform a near-impossible miracle.

Synopsis[]

Rick and Michonne make love while a nearby table is full of lit candles, ramen wrappers, empty soda cans, liquor bottles food dishes and a hand drawn map of Cascadia Forward Operating Base. Near the couple lies Rick and Jadis' uniforms on a table with a sewing kit and a small pile of sand, suggesting that they had buried Jadis. On the floor lies Rick's bag, Jadis' rifle, the couple's machete, spear and hatchet, as well as Danger's lighter, the iPhone engraved with Carl's portrait and their wedding ring.

In a series of voiceovers, Rick says that he remembers it all, who they were, who they are now and Michonne tells her story to Elle. Okafor explains that Rick and Thorne both possess something that he believes the CRM needs to become what it needs to be. Jadis quotes Negan that "people are a resource" while Nat explains that he's good at building and burning things, but it takes more than that at the end of the world. Beale notes that Rick had tried to escape four times and wonders why he's here. Thorne recognizes that there's someone that Rick loves out there while Michonne tearfully asks Rick if he still loves her which Rick promises that he always does.

Picking up the ring, Rick puts it on Michonne's finger. Michonne tells Rick that "it sounds simple, right? We go in, you get the briefing, I get the dossier she left behind. We bring what we know to the city, then go home. Together". However, Michonne states that it's never that simple.

Near Cascadia Base, Rick and Michonne, wearing the two uniforms, walk away from Jadis' parked helicopter and kiss. Rick and Michonne split up and Rick approaches the front gate with his hands raised. Rick introduces himself as Sergeant Major Rick Grimes to the Frontliners at the gate, acknowledging that they probably think that he's dead. As he's let into the base, Rick recalls his father telling Rick that he didn't need to be scared, that it was just the burning.

Inside, Rick approaches Thorne who is amazed to see him still alive and asks him what happened. Rick explains that there was turbulence, so the helicopter went low to get out of it and they were struck by lightning. Since they were going down over water, Michonne shoved him out of the helicopter, saving his life, but she died in the crash. Rick thanks Thorne for bringing Michonne in, but she credits Rick who suggests that they credit Okafor instead, and say that they were keeping his plan going. Thorne tells Rick that she had used to think that giving up meant a lack of character and a weak will, but they both gave up so much to be here. Thorne now realizes that giving up can be a sign of strength and a commitment to something bigger than oneself. Giving up made Thorne understand what the CRM is really doing here, and she hopes that Rick will understand too, and Rick assures Thorne that he wants to. Thorne tells Rick that she's glad that he's here and he is needed. It is up to them, but not in the way that Okafor said. Okafor was never really here, not in the way that he should've been and that's why he died. However, both Rick and Thorne lived, and they are meant to be a part of this. "It's time to let go of his bullshit". Rick asks Thorne to show him the other way much to her pleasure.

Outside, the disguised Michonne creeps along the perimeter fence as a bloated walker follows her and a Frontliner approaches from the other direction. When the Frontliner arrives, only the walker can be seen which he quickly puts down with his rifle's bayonet. As the Frontliner reports that the threat has been neutralized and he's going to take a sweep of the perimeter, Michonne drops out of the tree that she had climbed onto the edge of the campus. Finding Jadis' quarters, Michonne picks the lock and looks around the room which is filled with Jadis' artwork.

Thorne leads Rick into the woods to a section of the perimeter fence where Beale is personally dispatching a small herd gathering on the other side with a Kill Stick. Thorne tells Rick that Beale wants to talk to him, and this is it. Beale tells Rick that he never had to do the consignees job of clearing walkers for citizenship as Beale never really became a citizen of the Civic Republic. "The end of the world and the beginning of the world. And we're the dead ones, Rick. We're kinda like them. But they only kill for food or out of compulsion". Rick acknowledges that Beale's right and Beale tells Rick that the CRM's scientists haven't figured out the Wildfire Virus yet and maybe they never will. But humanity - the other kind of dead ones - has weapons and "the sword that kills is the sword that gives life". And that's us. We're the sword". Beale has his aides and lieutenants leave him in solitude the day before an operation as he doesn't like distractions. Beale alone decided the path ahead and he alone wants to feel the weight of it. Beale never interrupts that time, but Rick's here after everything and he's humbled by that so Beale will share some time with Rick and maybe even ask Rick to carry some of that weight.

Michonne frantically searches through Jadis' room for the dossier without success. Finally, on the windowsill near a portrait of Gabriel, Michonne finds the dossier hidden inside of the cat sculpture that Jadis had been working on when Rick had approached the Scavengers for help against the Saviors. In the cover letter, Jadis outlines the truth about lying to Elsick, about Rick being a "B" when she had traded him, the well-organized network of communities that Rick had created, his strategic abilities, the Savior conflict, Michonne's abilities and loyalty to Rick and her role in the death of Okafor. Jadis also tells whoever finds the letter about Alexandria and urges its destruction to ensure the survival and safety of the Civic Republic. Michonne angrily tears the dossier up into little pieces that she then collects and keeps so that no one can find them. As Michonne goes to leave, a Frontliner pushes an envelope under the door, only to have it be stopped by Michonne's foot. As the woman enters, believing that Jadis is home, Michonne grabs a coil of wire off of the table, overpowers the Frontliner and strangles her to death before stomping on her head to ensure that the woman doesn't reanimate.

In his office, Beale orders Rick to put his gun and prosthetic hand with its blade on the table in front of Beale and away from himself. After Rick disarms himself, Beale instructs Rick to reflect on all of the lives that he's lived before and after the world ended, everything that he did before this moment, "because, after this next moment, everything will change". Beale asks Rick what the worst thing he did to make sure someone else survived was. Rick flashes back on killing Shane, Tomas, the Terminus butchers, and tearing out Joe's jugular with his teeth. Rick admits that it was him killing someone with his teeth like the dead does. Beale is sorry that Rick had to do that, but Rick isn't. Preparing some tea, Beale acknowledges that Rick has made some extraordinary choices and while Beale has given the Echelon Briefing 2,533 times, just himself and the elite soldier in question, the soldier in question has never been someone like Rick Grimes. "This is the first. It's the start of what's next. And that couldn't be more appropriate for today. A day completely about... tomorrow". Beale lays his sword on the table next to Rick's weapons, joining Rick in disarming himself for the briefing.

In a flashback, as they lay together, Rick tells his wife that he had missed her so much that words can't even say it right. Michonne reassures Rick that he doesn't have to, and she knows. Rick wonders if they're crazy, and Michonne calls them certifiable.

In flashbacks, Rick kills Pete Anderson, Michonne stabs out the Governor's eye, Rick jumps off of the RV onto the hanging Library Survivor, and Michonne fights walkers on Oceanside's beach.

Laying a Frontliner uniform on the desk and pouring them both some tea, Beale explains to Rick that he grew up in Pittsburgh, leaving home at 15 and landing a job as a barback at a VFW hall after his alcoholic father broke his jaw. The men and women at the VFW became Beale's real parents, the people who formed him. As a result, Beale signed up to fight when he was 18, went to Vietnam twice, but there was a whole journey beyond that, including Fort Benning, and officer training. Eventually, Beale's journey led him back to Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania National Guard and through its command. Beale went away, he had to, and while he could've let the world take him away, Beale came back, just like Rick.

By the entrance to the base, Frontliners move crates of supplies, including stuffed rabbits. On her way out, Michonne picks up a stuffed rabbit that had fallen and gives it to a passing Frontliner. Growing concerned by the implications, Michonne remembers leaving the King County Café with Carl, defending Rick from walkers as he carries an injured Carl during the Alexandria Walker Invasion, facing off against Jocelyn's Group, fighting walkers with Judith, hugging her children, and burying Carl with Rick after the Bombing of Alexandria.

Beale recalls Rick telling him that he saw what the U.S. Military did at the beginning and Rick confirms it, having seen that the federal forces had bombed the cities which Okafor had said the federal forces called "clearing disease vectors". Beale reveals that he made the decision to have the National Guard take on the federal forces, "Second Civil War fought on good Pennsylvania ground". The National Guard fought the U.S. Military on two fronts, Pittsburg and Philadelphia, but they were losing as the National Guard couldn't sustain two fronts. In Pittsburg, the National Guard had an opportunity of terrain, tactics and a massive incoming herd that the federal forces were unaware of, so Beale evacuated their forces under the cover of night and let the dead overwhelm the enemy troops as well as the entire city. Beale saved Philadelphia by sacrificing Pittsburg, letting his enemies, his friends and his home fall. While it's not tearing into someone with your teeth, Beale asks Rick for acknowledgment that it's not nothing which he acknowledges. "My dad taught me, for better or worse... sometimes things have to burn to bring things back". Beale acknowledges that it was that, repeating once again his belief that the sword that kills is the sword that gives life. Beale killed his past and a whole city so that another city could live. Beale reveals the first secret that he's shared with every Frontliner that he's briefed: the most likely outcome after all of the fighting, killing, plans and sacrifices is that humanity loses. The most likely outcome is that everyone is going to die.

Suspicious, Michonne makes her way to an auditorium as a briefing for the Frontliners starts. The presenter tells his audience that one of the most sensitive aspects of Operation N1W is the Child Evacuation Protocol. The projector switches from a map of Portland with drop zones marked to pictures of various children.

In a flashback, Michonne asks if they were born this way. The two remember Rick shooting at the Saviors in the Satellite Outpost, and killing Gareth, a bound Michonne kicking Merle Dixon in the face and decapitating Crowley, and Rick getting flung through a window. Rick tells Michonne that he guesses so.

Beale shows Rick aerial photographs of massive herds, revealing that the CRM has discovered million-strong herds out there. The CRM's modeling shows that living people now only have 14 or so years left on the planet, but it could be quicker. "And it isn't just the delts. It's starvation -- the tenuous balance between population and yield. Disease, with a billion petri dishes out there stumbling and cooking in the sun, waiting to transmit God knows what to us while it transforms into God knows what. And in the end, the most likely outcome is that this rock will be cluttered with corpses to eventually rot into food for the trees. And it all becomes a strange temporary museum to an even stranger species that conquered it and marked it for a blink of its existence. This is why we do what we do". Rick asks what they do, and Beale tells him that the CRM is trying to beat the odds.

In flashbacks, Rick aims his gun, Michonne holds her sword and fights walkers, and Rick falls off of his horse and is impaled on rebar.

In the auditorium, the presenter tells his audience that, through CRM Frontliner embeds living in Portland under false identities, the organization has, over the years, had operatives enmeshed in the Portland school system to facilitate an evacuation of selected children. Sitting in the audience, Michonne watches the presentation with growing shock and horror at what the CRM is planning.

Beale tells Rick that the CRM destroys communities for resources, strategic superiority, and to ensure the city's secrecy and security above all else. Rick remembers seeing a CRM helicopter flying away from the Heaps and watching armed helicopters flying away from the Civic Republic Military Base, finally understanding what he was seeing.

In the auditorium, the presenter explains that once the operation on Portland begins, children will be airlifted away from three school sites that will result in an evacuation of possibly 10 percent of the children in the city before Portland is gassed and its population is liquidated.

Beale tells Rick that the CRM has spies in selected communities throughout the continent and the world to monitor them, potentially sabotage them and influence their politics and approaches. Up until recently, the CRM supplied test subjects for scientific research in CRM run labs. "Omaha didn't just die. We destroyed it, along with its Campus Colony. And in 18 hours, we will take our final action to leave us as the supreme force on this continent, maybe the world. We will destroy Portland".

In a flashback, Rick tells Michonne that they will tell the Civic Republic what the CRM does, like the Massacre of Nat's Group and whatever else they do. Rick and Michonne know that if they don't expose the CRM's actions, no one else will. Rick states that you don't leave people behind while Michonne agrees that this is the shit they do.

Beale continues that in response to the loss of Portland, the Civic Republic's last Alliance partner - which will be reported as another tragic, mysterious, shocking incident - the CRM will declare martial law on the city, doing away with the Council as the stakes are too high for freedom. "With the city under CRM control and our Alliance partners dead, we will march across this country and further eliminate any growing competition. We will take their resources and ensure supremacy. And maybe... maybe we get to survive". Horrified by Beale's genocidal and despotic plans, Rick silently draws a hidden knife to kill him with.

In a series of flashbacks, two CRM Reclamation Team members confront Al, CRM forces swarm the Perimeter, and Beale leads Okafor's funeral, crops grow in Alexandria, oil shoots into the sky from a well and the Commonwealth train passes through the depot. After waking up from his coma in Harrison Memorial Hospital, Rick touches some dead flowers, Michonne arrives at the prison, Ezekiel stabs a walker, and Daryl, Negan, Morgan, Eugene, Carol, and Maggie appear at various moments of their journey, ending with Rick making his way through the hospital after awakening from his coma.

In the auditorium, the presenter explains that the bubble windows will be in blackout and the children will not see or hear what's happening to the city. The man gives advice on handling the children and the trauma that both the children and the participating forces will experience. Michonne keys her radio several times.

In a flashback, Rick tells Michonne that they'll get back to the Civic Republic in Jadis' helicopter. Rick will fly them to jump points for the refuels that the CRM won't expect. If anything happens at the base, Michonne is to key her radio and Rick will get back to her as soon as he can and Michonne states that he will if she can be gotten back to.

In Beale's office, Rick's radio experiences several bursts of static from Michonne signaling him. Rick turns down the volume and brushes it off as it being Thorne who had gone through this and thought that it would be good to talk it out.

The presenter directs the Frontliners to keep the children's focus on the comfort items that they'll furnish the kids with and to tell the kids that they will be okay rather than it will be okay. Any one of the children could prove to be the difference in their civilization's survival. The presentation stops on a child who looks very similar to R.J. and Michonne flashes back on spending time with Carl, Judith and R.J. Unable to take it anymore, an utterly horrified Michonne leaves.

Beale tells Rick that after everything, from all of his escape attempts to this moment right here and now, Beale thinks that the next leader of the CRM in the next decade could be Rick himself. Rick remembers being recaptured by a CRM helicopter on Rat Island during his third escape attempt, trying to escape while fighting burning delts, running through the base and standing in formation with other CRM soldiers. Beale notes that after trying to get away so many times, after so many years, Rick found himself dead to the CRM and finally free to escape and go wherever it was he wanted to go, but he came back instead. Rick has become a powerful story, a powerful symbol, and one the CRM may need to tell to win the hearts of the people who will see some of their freedoms delayed yet again.

Both Beale and Okafor sacrificed, and Beale would expect the same for Rick, but Rick already has sacrificed. Beale holds up Rick's prosthetic hand in demonstration of the sacrifices that Rick has already made and asks who the person closest to Rick who died in all of this is. Rick reveals that it's his son, the person who Rick saved by tearing a man's throat out. Remembering standing near Carl's grave with Michonne, Rick admits that he couldn't save his son in the end. Beale offers Rick the chance to never have to suffer that kind of loss again, to keep everyone that he was running to safe by bringing them to the Civic Republic. Family, friends, a loved one, Beale doesn't care. They will be spared from the CRM's march whenever the CRM would've found them. Beale is willing to take that chance on Rick and Rick adjusts his grip on his knife as he considers Beale's words.

Emerging outside, Michonne prepares to make her escape the same way that she snuck in.

"Portland will die, and this force will take over the Civic Republic. We will begin our march on the countryside. The Next World will begin, and through that, somehow, some way, we will survive. We will burn things to bring things back. The sword that kills is the sword that brings life". Beale declares. Pushing his sword in front of Rick, Beale instructs him to swear on the sword. Rick remembers Beale asking him a question while looking into his eyes and Okafor, with his last words, instructing Rick to "swear on the sword. Don't let it take". In flashbacks, Rick kills Dave, chops off Hershel's foot in order to save him from a walker bite, Michonne cuts up walkers with her sword and holds the Governor at sword-point and Rick slashes Negan's throat at the end of the Savior war. Michonne stabs the Governor from behind, saving Rick's life, Rick kills Ethan, and Rick and Michonne fight various walkers.

Filled with new determination, Rick looks at Beale who realizes what's about to happen and grabs Rick's gun, but Rick throws his knife into Beale's shoulder and jumps over the desk at the insane Major General, tackling him to the ground. Rick puts his prosthetic hand back on and uses it to block a blow from Beale's sword as Beale demands to know why he came back when Rick was dead and gone to the CRM. Rick could've saved whoever he wanted to and then saved the world. Rick states that the world isn't going to end, but Beale insists that it is, he's just trying to make sure that humanity doesn't. The two men exchange blows with Rick finally disarming Beale, grabbing the sword and attempting to kill the man with it, stabbing Beale through the palm as he blocks the blow. "I never lost my son. I lost myself. He brought me back. My wife brought me back. We're the sword that kills. We're the sword that gives life. One life. One unstoppable life. We're not dead. You are", Rick declares. Rick drives the sword into Beale's heart, killing him, and tosses the sword away. Overwhelmed by everything that's just happened and what he had learned, Rick takes a seat and contacts Thorne over the radio, telling her that he got the briefing, and they'll talk later. Rick claims that Beale went to the woods to be on his own before the all-hands and refuses Thorne's offer to meet up now, claiming that Beale had already given him something to do. Rick notices a large supply case out in the hallway and gets an idea.

Dressed in the Frontliner uniform that Beale had for him, Rick rushes through the hallways with the case and boards the elevator, selecting the 6th floor. A Frontliner joins a nervous Rick, choosing the same floor. As the elevator makes its ascent, Rick notices blood seeping onto the floor from the case.

Michonne reaches the point that she had sneaked into the base, but can't bring herself to leave with everything that she's learned. Michonne turns back, grabbing a large case of M67 Grenades.

The elevator reaches its destination, but the Frontliner notices the pool of blood as he begins to disembark. Rick quickly attacks the man and they brutally fight in the hallway as the elevator departs again with Rick desperately trying to reach the call button. Finally, Rick gets the upper hand and repeatedly punches the Frontliner in the face with his metal hand, shattering the man's mask and beating him to death. The elevator returns, but the occupant proves to be Michonne who tells Rick that they can't go home yet. Having gotten the Echelon Briefing and seen the Frontliner briefing respectively, Rick and Michonne both know that the CRM are about to launch another genocide. Michonne warns Rick that there's an entire tent of bombs outside, the CRM are going to evacuate the kids and then kill a whole city of people. With the CRM about to enact their plan and no time to warn anyone, Rick and Michonne are the only ones who can stop them. "We have to stop them, because we can stop them", Michonne concludes and Rick agrees that they can still go home, but the CRM must be stopped first. As Rick joins her on the elevator, Michonne asks her husband what's in the case Rick brought with him.

In the woods, Thorne sees that Beale isn't near the perimeter fence as Rick had claimed and wonders what Rick's up to.

In Beale's office, Michonne threads wire through the grenades in the supply case that she took, crafting a makeshift bomb. An impressed Rick asks how she came up with this and Michonne reveals that she took some inspiration from Nat. Packing up, Rick reveals that Beale had told him that Rick could lead the CRM one day, causing Michonne to laugh, guessing that Rick was right after all: he could do this all by himself. Rick suggests that they could just go, but Michonne tells her husband that this is what they have to do, asking what sort of world they're making for their children if they walk away from something like this. Emotional, Rick tells Michonne that he's mad at the time that he's missed, at not seeing their kids growing up, and Rick thinks about that time, and he just wants to go back. The couple kisses and reassures each other that they are back, and this is the shit they do.

On the tarmac outside, the entire Frontliner corps sits waiting before a stage for the CRM Force Command to brief them on their mission.

Thorne enters Beale's office looking for Rick and finds it empty aside from Rick's prosthetic hand which he has abandoned on the windowsill. Thorne instantly realizes that something is very wrong.

Rick and Michonne enter a large tent behind the gathering Frontliners where numerous canisters of Chlorine Gas are being stored and begin unloading their makeshift bomb. As the briefing commences, Rick and Michonne wire grenades connected to each other to the cannisters lining both sides of the tent. Once they're finished, Rick promises his wife that this is the last time that they'll be apart and while Michonne knows that she should be scared, she's not because of Rick. Rick gives Beale's sword to Michonne, and they open the large supply crate where Rick and Michonne have hidden the zombified Beale and the Frontliner that Rick had killed.

Thorne recalls Rick enlisting her help to get Michonne into the consignment program, telling Thorne that the CRM would think Rick emotional and indebted to Michonne if he did it and Thorne telling Rick that she put her neck out for the two and they need to take care of this. Thorne remembers playing poker with Rick and Rick's insistence that his wife isn't gone. Thorne finally puts the pieces together and realizes that "Dana Bethune" is actually Rick's wife.

Rick and Michonne each attach the end of the wire from one of the rows of the grenades to one of the walkers. Cutting the two free of their bonds, Rick and Michonne start Beale and the Frontliner following them in opposite directions, turning the two walkers into makeshift fuses for their bomb. Outside, Rick and Michonne make a run for it through the shipping containers behind the tents, but Thorne stops them at gunpoint. Aware that Rick had lied to her, Thorne demands answers. Shooting at their feet, Thorne forces the two to remove their helmets and bag and orders them to turn around, go back inside and undo whatever they did and when she finds Beale they're going to regret this.

Holding hands, Rick and Michonne head back to the tent while Thorne somewhat frantically assures herself that they're going to fix this. "It never died. It won't stop. It can't stop", Michonne declares. The two walkers reach the ends of the tent and the ends of the wire that they're attached to. Taking advantage of Thorne's shock at seeing a zombified Beale, Rick and Michonne dash to the side as the pins are pulled on all of the grenades attached to the chlorine gas cannisters. Michonne has Rick pull a CRM flag down over them and cuts open a water tank, spilling water over the couple as an additional form of protection from the deadly gas that's about to be released. The grenades detonate, creating a massive explosion and shockwave that consumes Major General Beale, the CRM Force Command and all of the Frontliners as well as releasing all of the deadly chlorine gas, killing the entire gathering of more than 2,000 people.

In the aftermath of the explosion, zombified Frontliners begin wandering around. Under the flag, Michonne tells Rick that they have to wait just a little bit longer as the gas breaks up quickly. Wearing a gas mask, a still alive Thorne searches for the couple. Rick decides to rush Thorne for the mask while Michonne gets the other mask, citing the fact that Michonne is the armed one of the two. Pulling wet cloth over their mouths, the couple rushes out and Rick attacks Thorne who accuses Rick of destroying their chance and the whole world. Walkers converge on Rick, giving Thorne the chance to run away and retrieve her gun as Rick tries to fight them off.

As Thorne tries to get a bead on Rick, Michonne -- now wearing a gas mask -- attacks her with Beale's sword. Recognizing Michonne as the woman who Rick was trying to get to, Thorne demands to know how she found Rick, and Michonne tells her that she never gave up and never gave herself up like Thorne did. Michonne demands to know where Rick is, and Thorne tells her to turn around as a zombified Frontliner approaches, and Rick is cornered against a container by the walkers. Thorne shoots at the walker who Michonne uses as a shield before shoving it headfirst into the other woman's bayonet. Thorne insists that Michonne doesn't understand because in a dead world love is dead, but Michonne angrily states that love doesn't die. Kicking Beale's sword off of the ground and into her hand, Michonne gets under Thorne's guard and stabs her in the chest and reiterates that love doesn't die. Rick manages to pull the pin of a grenade that one of the walkers is wearing and takes cover as it detonates, blowing up the walkers.

Much to Michonne's relief, she finds Rick unharmed after the explosion, having been shielded by some of the walkers closest to him. Michonne drops the sword and the two hug. Dying, Thorne hands Rick her gas mask, telling him that "Okafor was right. He was right. You just have to hope Beale was wrong". Attempting to escape, Rick and Michonne find walkers closing in from all directions. Michonne climbs on top of one of the shipping containers as Rick grabs a gun from one of the walkers and shoots several to cover his wife's escape. Michonne helps Rick up in turn and they remove their gas masks as the chlorine gas finally breaks up. Rick and Michonne jump from container to container, making their escape from the walkers and the base through an area free of walkers at the other end of the containers.

A Civic Republic newscaster reports on the wide-ranging ramifications of Operation N1W and Rick and Michonne's exposure of the CRM's atrocities. With the demise of the entire Frontliner force and CRM Force Command, including Major General Johnathan Beale, and the shocking revelations regarding all of their operations and activities, the Civic Republic Council voted unanimously for emergency oversight over the remaining forces of the CRM. The CRM's command hierarchies and layers of operational secrecy indicates that infantry units didn't participate in the atrocities perpetrated by the highest levels of the CRM, providing hope for immediate reform of the organization. In another stunning vote by the CRC overturning CRM guidance, free movement has been established for the Civic Republic. Citizens are now allowed to leave at will and the city will welcome new citizens as they arrive. With oversight of the military in the CRC's hands, the CRM's priority has shifted beyond the Civic Republic's defense to engaging with, assisting and even airlifting any survivors or communities that they may encounter.

Rick and Michonne ride in the back of a CRM helicopter, looking at the iPhone with Michonne and Judith's portrait and Benjiro's message of hope that had helped to bring them back together. Michonne takes Rick's shaking hand in comfort.

As Judith sits on the steps of a house wearing Rick's old Colt Python and her katana, Michonne finally makes contact with her daughter over the radio. In a field nearby, Rick and Michonne emerge from the helicopter and rush to greet their children, having finally returned home, although Rick hesitates briefly after having been away for so long and missed so much of Judith and R.J.'s lives. Sobbing, Judith hugs her father, telling Rick that she knew that he was still out there, "I just never wanted you to feel alone". Rick admits that he thought that he was, before realizing that he wasn't. Judith tells Michonne that she got her back and Michonne reminds her daughter that Judith told her to. Meeting his father for the first time, R.J. asks if he's The Brave Man which Rick and Michonne confirm. Touching R.J.'s hat, which had once been Rick's before he'd passed it down to his children, Rick tells his son to call him Dad. R.J. states that he knew that Rick would come back, that he believed it. Rick and R.J. hug for the first time which turns into a group hug of the reunited Grimes family. CRM helicopters fly overhead, carrying supplies to help other communities in need thanks to the changes that Rick and Michonne had brought to the organization.

Other Cast[]

Uncredited[]

Deaths[]

• CRM Frontliner 1
• Johnathan Beale (Alive and Zombified)
• CRM Frontliner 2 (Alive and Zombified)
• Pearl Thorne (Alive; Zombified, Off-Screen)
• At least 2,000 unnamed Frontliners (Alive; Several Zombified; Most Zombified, Off-Screen)
• All unnamed members of CRM Force Command (Alive; Zombified, Off-Screen)

Trivia[]

• Only appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Judith Grimes.
• Only appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of R.J. Grimes.
• Last appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Rick Grimes.
• Last appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Michonne Grimes.
• Last appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Johnathan Beale.
• Last appearance of Pearl Thorne.
• Last appearance of Donald Okafor. (Flashback)
• Last appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of the Civic Republic Military.
• The title of the episode, "The Last Time", refers to Rick telling Michonne that this is the last time that they will be separated from each other.
  • This is the only episode that is not named after an episode of the TV Series.
• This is the last episode of The Ones Who Live.
  • It is also the fourth series finale in The Walking Dead Television Universe, after "The Last Light", "Rest in Peace" and "The Road Ahead".
• Amongst Jadis' art are several portraits of Major General Beale and Gabriel Stokes. In addition, the cat sculpture that the dossier on Alexandria is hidden inside of is the cat sculpture that Jadis was working on in "The King, the Widow, and Rick" when Rick came to enlist the Scavengers' help against the Saviors.
• On the board in Beale's office is the words "PPP Exception". "PPP" was on the card that Tara had found after Heath was abducted by the Scavengers and traded to the CRM in "Swear".
• Rick appearing to have been killed after having detonated a grenade to kill the group of walkers surrounding him and Michonne dropping her sword in shock upon seeing this references the similar situation they both went through at Chilton High School in "Say Yes".
  • This also makes "The Last Time" the second episode of The Ones Who Live to make a direct reference to "Say Yes", the first being "What We".
• As Rick was able to successfully return home, it is likely that Carol was trying to tell Daryl this via radio before the broadcast dropped in "Deux Amours".
  • This indicates that Rick and Michonne returned shortly before Daryl was kidnapped by the Power of the Living.
• Antony Azor (R.J.) is credited under Also Starring for the first time. All of his previous appearances in The Walking Dead were as a co-star.
• R.J.'s outfit in this episode resembles that of Carl Grimes in the early seasons of The Walking Dead.
• This episode hints that that Civic Republic Military may have been aware of Tank Town and/or The Pioneers.
  • Al suspected a connection between the 2 groups in "Today and Tomorrow", but Virginia denied any knowledge and appeared to be genuinly confused.
• In one of the flashbacks as Beale is speaking, the Commonwealth train can be seen pulling into the depot in "Outpost 22", possibly implying that the Commonwealth was one of the communities that Beale mentioned having connections to and spies in.
  • In "A New Deal", Lance Hornsby mentioned "certain alliances" that he and Pamela Milton wouldn't want to get out while in "Outpost 22", it was revealed that Designation 2's were taken far away and never seen again. This may have been a reference to an alliance with the CRM and the Commonwealth secretly trading people like the Scavengers did.
• This episode has one of the largest number of deaths in The Walking Dead franchise with over 3,000 people. It is only eclipsed by "Brave" and "Konsekans" of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, the episodes where the Campus Colony and Omaha are destroyed by the CRM.
  • Andrew Lincoln gives the number of Frontliners as 3,000 in the Episode Insider.
• This episode holds some similarities to the series finale of The World Beyond.
  • The CRM are the main antagonists and plan to destroy Portland with Chlorine Gas.
  • In order to stop them, the main characters use a bomb with an improvised detonator to blow up the gas.
  • The main antagonist of the season and one of the main characters duel each other, resulting in one killing the other.
  • The protagonists plan to reveal the CRM's atrocities to the Civic Republic Council once the plan to attack Portland has been foiled.

Episode Highlights[]

• Rick returns to the CRM and receives the Echelon Briefing from Beale.
• Michonne infiltrates the CRM and destroys Jadis' dossier about Alexandria.
• Beale and Thorne are killed by Rick and Michonne respectively.
• Rick and Michonne use grenades to blow up the CRM's Chlorine Gas reserve, and with it the entirety of the Frontliner force and the CRM Force Command.
• The CRM's secret operations are exposed to the Civic Republic and its council, which leads to a reform of the CRM spearheaded by the council, who now use their resources to help struggling survivors.
• Rick and Michonne return home and reunite with Judith and R.J.