‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ and Healing from Loss

From the beginning, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live makes it clear who will be the focus. The title itself refers to the ones who have to keep going despite the uncertainty and the bleakness that can be all-consuming when one is experiencing grief.

In our society and culture, there is a constant mention of how death is part of life. How sometimes it shouldn’t be a sad moment but rather a cause of celebration.

This mostly stems from older people’s passing because they got to live a full life, but that is simply not the case when it’s about a younger person just starting to figure out their life. It’s a different feeling, burdening almost, because there is this sense of having to keep living your own life while also trying to live theirs in their memory.

Rick and Michonne have experienced countless losses throughout the years, but the most defining one was Carl’s death. It was something that ended both of their worlds because, for them, the reason to keep fighting was for Carl and Judith.

The sudden loss of Carl was the end of the world once more. It caused Rick to almost stop fighting, but he found strength in Michonne and Judith — which became his reason for survival after being taken by the CRM.

When we are reunited with Rick on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Season 1 Episode 1, “Years,” there is deep anger and determination in him. He wants to return to Michonne and Judith.

His grief has turned into anger, and he has been completely blinded by it. It’s no longer just about Carl; it’s about the life he had previously.

On The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Season 1 Episode 4, “What We,” Rick shares how he has forgotten Carl’s face and that he will never be able to remember it because there is no tangible object that will ever be able to bring it back. That scene alone was a realization as to why I was carrying this overbearing weight in my own grief journey: the fear of forgetting.

Realizing that there is a possibility that one day I might not remember my grandfather’s voice, my grandmother’s loving touch, and my best friend’s laugh made me understand Rick and see his character in a different light. His actions throughout The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live so far are that of a man who carries the weight of having forgotten his son’s face and having no physical way of regaining it.

It is devastating to go from seeing him grow up and being with him every day of his life to him just being gone, along with nearly the rest of humanity. Forgetting a loved one’s appearance once they’re gone and having no way of regaining those memories, is a different kind of loss, it feels like losing them all over again.

In a way, Rick was mourning Carl once more, and he was fixated on keeping up the CRM’s work because it was the one thing that was in his control. In my case, I remember attempting to paint a portrait of Milky White from Into The Woods because it was the one thing I had full control over at that moment, unlike the collapsing of the world that surrounded me.

Grief is daunting to process even with a support system in a stable environment, but having to navigate those emotions in a world where there is no time or room to do anything except try to stay alive is even more complicated. Perhaps it might be the right place to go through those emotions, as seen on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Season 1 Episode 1, “Years,” Rick is channeling those emotions as a means of escape.

Or maybe a setting like this ends up being a positive in their grief journey since there are many people grappling with the same emotions, making the experience a shared one. It is helpful, as there are moments not only during The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live but also in the original The Walking Dead series.

Rick was actively making plans for whatever semblance of a future he was going to have with Michonne. When Michonne returned to him, he remembered what it was like to be loved. In the near decade that has passed since the bridge, he has been by himself, writing about his deep love for Michonne and Judith and how that was what kept him alive.

However, it was years that he spent giving that love and only receiving hate and pain that also attributed to his anger. He is no longer a man surrounded by people who love and respect him.

He needed the support, and for a while after Carl’s death, he had that in his community. He was slowly coming back, but that was brutally taken away. Michonne’s return snapped him back from the gruesome cycle he was on, allowing him to properly grieve again and have his heart less heavy.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned throughout my personal journey was that having a support group was essential to help process all the newfound feelings. I found that Rick, at the beginning of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, was similar to who I was back in February 2023.

I was lost and angry, trying to find any reason as to why my best friend had died so young. It was my community who helped me out of that cycle I was stuck in.

That is why the show was jarring to me personally. I saw the anger and heartbreak that was prevalent during those early days, and the conclusion of the season has been cathartic.

When Rick encounters Beale and decides to go against the CRM, he says that “the world isn’t going to end.” And then, before killing him, he talks about how he lost himself but was brought back before finally stating, “We’re not dead.”

Before Michonne found him, Rick would have never been able to say those words. But he got his strength back and is now hopeful about the future despite the circumstances.

That is grief, having a moment of clarity one day that reminds you there is still something to keep going for. To me, it was returning to a film set, where I was reminded that my best friend loved nothing more than making films.

The burden I had been feeling, while not fully gone, has been eased. I believe that is how Rick feels now.

Since having that realization, I have been able to return to the places my best friend and I used to go often, rewatch his favorite films, and breathe easier now. All because, as Rick said, the world didn’t end, and we are still here. I just needed to be brought back.

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The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is now streaming on AMC+.

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Gabriela Burgos Soler

Gabriela Burgos Soler was born and raised in Puerto Rico, she graduated from the University of Puerto Rico where she studied her two loves, literature and film. She currently pursuing her MFA in Screenwriting. In her free time she promotes women in film & rewatches “The X-Files". She is a co-host of the Film Posers Podcast, a podcast run by four boricuas ranting, raving & reviewing cinema.