The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Season 1 Episode 1 “Years” Recap & Review

Years

Episode 1 of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live titled “Years” begins with a flashforward to Rick trying to kill himself but failing.

There is a lot of back and forth in time, so bear with us. It is 5 years after the incident at the bridge. Rick has been taken in by the CRM and is a consignee. CRM is an independent military that runs a secret city (Philadelphia). Rescues are used as labourers aka consignees and made to work for 6 years before they can get citizenship.

Along with Rick, there is a Pearl Thorne, a South African navy commander who is not happy about toeing the line either and tries to kill Okafor. They are never allowed to leave but Rick makes 4 escape attempts to get to Michonne, the last one being him cutting off his hand.

Lt. Okafor has a special interest in keeping Rick around and keeps trying to convince him to join the army with the spill that he will get a purpose in life. Rick’s only friend is Esteban and as they joke about Okafor’s persistence, he unknowingly gives our sheriff an idea – join the army to get Okafor off his back and then escape.

Along with Thorne, Rick joins the army and gets a blade hand. They get all the usual military training while Rick keeps dreaming about the alternate normal world with Michonne.

Okafor spends his time growing millet and he has a plan. He confides with Rick and Thorne that he wants them to change things from the inside. People like them are not allowed to live in CRM but he believes the duo will make the military more humane. 

Rick believes that Thorne is playing along just like he is and she calls him out for it. Just like him, she has a loved one but they will never be able to reunite. She gives him a reality check but is willing to help him if he just asks.

CRM allies with Portland and Omaha. Rick notices missiles going out and never returning while Okafor returns in blood. The top brass, Major General Beale pays Rick a visit and tries to sus out if Okafor is scheming or if Rick plans to escape again. Rick doesn’t snitch but Beale knows something is off.

Okafor continues the secret briefings and Rick takes advantage of the blueprints to map out escape routes. Esteban begrudgingly helps him as well. Rick tries his next attempt on a resource run by planting a fake body of himself. But it goes awry when he spots a human girl among a horde and tries to save her. A spying Thorne helps him and lets it slip that Okafor knows about Michonne.

That night, Rick threatens Okafor who reveals that he has gone through all of Rick’s escape letters and phones. He even knows about Judith and can hazard a guess on their location from the bridge. Rick calls him a CRM cog which angers Okafor as he fights back and shares that he killed his wife along with the federal army who bombed LA and Atlanta before they could do the same to Philadelphia.

Rick surrenders but Okafor doesn’t kill him and tells him to use his power at CRM to change things. Later, Thorne and Rick find out that Omaha has fallen and the former thinks CRM has something to do with it. She again tries to tell him to accept his fate and hints that she could have killed him during the resource run but she didn’t.

Rick tries to kill himself, the scene we see in the beginning of the episode. He fails and decides to accept his fate. He has been writing letters to Michonne but finally stops as he gets busy working with CRM to save the world. But he doesn’t stop dreaming about her.

It has been a while and Rick has been giving Okafor the silent treatment. They are on a mission when he finally gives a huge monologue on how his father did a bad thing to make sure their farm could survive. He had felt betrayed but he believes that is what he has to do with CRM too. Okafor accepts the truce and promises (and also confirms Thorne’s theory) that they won’t have an Omaha situation again. 

Unfortunately, they are suddenly attacked, Okafor is killed and their helicopter goes down. A woman kills the rest of the soldiers but when she gets to Rick she stops. At the end of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Episode 1, the woman is revealed to be Michonne.

The Episode Review

The new TWD spin-off is off to a great start with The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Episode 1. It keeps us hooked on all that Rick has been doing since his imprisonment at CRM. While we don’t get much of Michonne, we can hazard a guess from the next episode teaser that it is going to be from her viewpoint as she searches for Rick.

By the way, why did Rick think it would be a good idea to try and run with a stump for a hand? Now you are one hand less, great going, Rick. As for Esteban, he really planted the seeds of the whole show with that joke, didn’t he? If Sheriff Grimes was dangerous, what is going to happen with all that military training, man is going to become unstoppable. 

And about time Rick got a blade hand, though we wonder who would win with their blade hand, Rick or Merle, the man who got his limb accoutrements partly cause of Rick. Karma really goes in circles, huh…

Oh, and does anyone else see the chemistry between Rick and Thorne? Oh boy, Michonne better come get your man before we start shipping him with someone else.