Rick Grimes’ final episode of The Walking Dead has come and gone, but it’s not the end for his character!
If it felt like Rick’s final moments weren’t so final, there’s a reason for that. Immediately after we saw Rick fly off into the sunset, seemingly still breathing, AMC announced that Andrew Lincoln will be returning for three spinoff movies that continue Rick’s story.
“The first film will explore the story of where Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse,” said AMC in a statement. The first new movie will start filming in 2019 and will be written by Scott M. Gimple.
Said Lincoln, “It’s not the beginning of the end, it’s the end of the beginning. And I like the idea that we get to tell a bigger story, maybe with a sort of wider vista. And I’ve always been interested in what’s going on out there, you know, whether or not there is contact with the wider world. I want to know the meta of it all. And I suppose to be able to kind of touch upon that in a contained story for me is a very exciting proposition … Maybe it’s the start of a bigger story.”
Earlier this year we had learned that Walking Dead spinoffs were in development, but we never thought they’d be about Rick. This is a pretty big fake out by AMC, and for viewers, lessens the impact of his “final” episode.
“We have a lot on the horizon – starting with a new epic featuring one of the greatest leading actors in television history and one of the best people I’ve ever met,” said Gimple. “These films are going to be big evolutions of what we’ve been doing on the show, with the scope and scale of features. We’re starting with the first part of the continuing story of Rick Grimes, and there is much more on the way, featuring yet-unseen worlds of The Walking Dead and faces from the show’s past, as well as new characters we hope to become favorites, told by TWD veterans and emerging voices. We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that’s captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead.”
For a play-by-play of how Rick was written out over two episodes, read on…
The Walking Dead season 9, episode 4, “The Obliged,” was just the beginning of the end for fan favorite Rick Grimes. After Rick discovers that Maggie is on her way to Alexandria, he tried to get word back to the guard that she’s not allowed in without an escort. Since he’s still at the camp, Daryl offers to give him a ride on the motorcycle so he can get there fast.
Of course, Daryl is on the same mission as Maggie to take Negan out, so he actually ends up leading Rick further away from Alexandria. They get into argument and altercation over their disagreements, which leads to the pair rolling into a large ditch. Eventually they get over their fight and help each other get out.
But a fight breaks out at camp when the Sanctuary group tries to take over, and the gunshots begin to draw the herd closer. The walkers start falling into ditch making the situation even more dangerous. Rick and Daryl are able to get out in time, but the walkers are dangerously close to camp.
Rick decides to get on horseback and try to lead the herd away from the camp. However, his plan goes awry and he ends up surrounded by a massive amount of walkers. His horse freaks out and Ricks gets thrown off, right into some steel rebar nearby which goes straight through his midsection. At this point the situation doesn’t look good for Rick as he looses consciousness just as the episode ends and the herds are right near him.
Yes, fans are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the episode because they just like to mess with us like that.
The Walking Dead season 9, episode 5, “What Comes After” began with Rick in a hallucination that had him looking at himself in the hospital telling himself to wake up. Rick does come back to consciousness to find himself trapped on the steel rebar as the herds of walkers closes in on him.
Somehow he’s able to pull himself off the steel and get back onto his horse, riding just in front of the herd as he struggles to stay awake. He ends up coming across an empty cabin and tears up a blanket to try and stop his bleeding before passing out again.
Back to his hallucinations, Rick rides his horse into the city looking for his family – only to run into Shane. But it’s a good meeting, and it’s like they never had any bad blood. Shane does ask how his daughter is doing, and takes credit for toughing Rick up a little bit. He also tells Rick that he needs to dig down and find his rage again. Rick also apologizes to Shane – but it isn’t one that Shane is looking for.
Rick wakes up from his hallucination, only to find that he’s being attacked by walkers again. He just barely makes it out of the cabin and back on to his horse that amazingly hasn’t run away.
He ends up passing out again while riding his horse and has hallucinates about being back on Hershel’s farm. Again, Rick apologizes for what happened to Hershel’s family but the man tells him not to worry about Maggie because she’s strong. He also tells Rick that he doesn’t need to keep his family together, he only thinks he does.
Rick wakes up momentarily again, and passes out to go back to the hospital, which leads him to a field of dead bodies – including some very familiar faces. Sasha rises out of the crowd and tries to comfort Rick, telling him that he gave everyone strength. She also tells him that he won’t find his family because they’re not lost, and neither is he.
Then Rick wakes up to find that he’s been thrown off the horse, but he’s at the camp now. He also seems to be bleeding out even quicker thanks to the fall. With the herd still closing in, Rick doesn’t have much time to get himself up and out of there. He gimps away, just barely making it to the bridge that was under repair.
Michonne and the others show up to take care of the walkers, and Rick reminds her that she’s his family. Of course this isn’t real though, and Rick wakes back up with a renewed strength to keep going. He makes it to the other side of the bridge and sees that the others have actually shown up this time, but he knows there’s too many walkers, so he blows up the bridge using some explosives that were left behind.
Seeing the bridge explode, the others automatically assume that Rick is a goner too. Maggie and Carol have to hold back Michonne from trying to go up there while Daryl just walks away.
Nearby, Jadis is waiting for her helicopter when she finds Rick washed up on shore and tells the helicopter people that she has a “B” and asks if they have a deal. The next time Rick wakes up, he’s on the helicopter with Jadis telling him that he’s going to be saved. Surprise, viewers! He’s not dead!