Spoilers below for the latest episode of The Walking Dead, so be warned.
After nearly eight seasons, The Walking Dead has now said goodbye to Danai Gurira's sword-wielding badass Michonne, and it did so with one of its wildest episodes to date, which built upon the overall quality of the previous week's "Walk With Us." (Which featured its own WTF moments.) Rather than bouncing between narratives, "What We Become" put Michonne front and center to pay tribute to the character's entire TV run, while also setting up a mysterious future.
Below, we've rounded up all the craziest and most unpredictable moments from the episode, with most of them definitely striking a chord with The Walking Dead's fanbase. So let's put on our bloodiest bandanas and dive into the muck and the mire, shall we?
Michonne Leaving Andrea To Die
Even though this opening sequence was first released after the previous episode aired, that didn't take away from its placement in the episode itself. Hearkening back to Michonne's official Walking Dead TV introduction, the Season 2 finale moment was turned on its head by having an indifferent Michonne watch as Laurie Holden's Andrea was killed by walkers. Considering the backlash that Andrea received in Season 3 for siding with the Governor, this winking twist was the perfect way to set up Michonne's villainous head trip.
Virgil Lying About Everything
I couldn't quite understand why Michonne initially agreed to leave everything behind in order to help a rando stranger. Sure, he promised weapons, but it's not like Michonne isn't aware that people are liars. In any case, it was all for naught on that front, since Virgil was all lies. It turned out he'd previously been indirectly responsible for his wife and kids' deaths, among others, and he didn't actually have instant access to an arsenal of anti-Whisperer weaponry. He did drug Michonne and kept her captive, joining others from his former group, though he wasn't necessarily as monstrous as he was mentally fractured.
Seeing Rick, Glenn And All The Other Former Characters
As Michonne was started to succumb to her drug-induce fantasies, she was visited by an in-the-flesh Avi Nash as Siddiq, who loudly blamed Michonne for his death and Carl's. After she's left behind by Daryl and Rick (going back to the Season 3 scene where Rick's car gets stuck in the mud), the desperate Michonne is given a helping hand by Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan and some Saviors, including the now-deceased Laura (Lindsley Register) and D.J. (Matt Mangum). Cut to flashbacks from Season 6, where Steven Yeun's Glenn and Corey Hawkins' Heath are seen in the Savior compounds, only for Michonne to shockingly kill them and escape. I do believe that moment made me gasp the hardest of anything that happened this season.
Michonne Becoming Negan
Possibly the most mind-boggling moment in the entire episode was one that got teased in early Season 10 trailers: Michonne taking Negan's place in putting Team Family in the lineup that led to the show's most polarizing cliffhanger. Indeed, she was the one in this situation that brought Lucille to the party, after calling everyone out for carelessly murdering Saviors without knowing who they were. It was super-chilling to watch Savior Michonne call out Protagonist Michonne in that moment, thought not quite as unsettling as the wide shot that no longer featured Glenn as a victim, since he'd already become one of Michonne's victims.
Rick Killing Michonne
It's a no-brainer why this moment was such a weird and shocking moment for The Walking Dead, considering Rick and Michonne's relationship is arguably the strongest one the show has delivered so far. But considering everything this Savior Michonne had done, it was no big surprise that she was eventually taken down, first by Daryl's crossbow, and then by Rick himself. It was a great way to set up Michonne's imminent discovery while also wringing out a lot of her emotional angst.
Michonne Finding Rick's Stuff
Just when it seemed like her trip with Virgil was completely useless, Michonne made a life-changing discovery by finding some of Rick's belongings. It started with his boots inside a storage closet, but there was more waiting inside the bigass boat that had previously washed ashore, having apparently come from Bridgers(?) Shipyard in New Jersey. Michonne then found an old iPhone that had Rick's name carved into it, along with an image of her and presumably Judith. Though she initially blamed Virgil for having something to do with it, he (probably) didn't, and instead inspired her to take the boat and go looking for him. Meaning we'll almost definitely see her again once the Rick Grimes movies actually start coming together.
That Final Shot Of All Those Survivors
While Michonne didn't find Rick by the end of the episode, she experienced a completely different kind of "aha" moment. Having indeed gone back to her old tricks of keeping walker "pets" on leashes, Michonne soon came across two survivors that clued her in on a huge and organized group traveling en masse. And what a sight it was to see, with hundreds of people separated into multiple squared-off, military-style formations, with horse-drawn carriages at the center of each sub-group. It was seemingly larger than most of the walker herds that The Walking Dead has showcased, and these were all (seemingly) living and breathing humans.
I supposed it would also count as a crazy moment for Michonne to hit Judith up on the walkie to drop all that info on her, rather than letting an adult know first. That was kind of a lot for Judith to take in all at once, but considering she's already the most mature preteen on the post-apocalyptic planet, she can probably handle it in a way that also allows her to dispense meaningful advice to adults in the area.
What did you guys think of Michonne's final episode? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to keep watching the rest of The Walking Dead Season 10, airing on AMC on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET.
