The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 5 "What Comes After"

  What's Your Wound?

 

Rick tells himself to wake up. "It's time to go." He is speaking to season 1 Rick lying in the hospital bed. He hears Morgan ask about his wound. He looks down and sees the blood on his side. Now season 1 Rick is telling him to wake up. Rick wakes up and sees the zombies coming towards him. He tries to get up but can't. He is stuck. He takes off his belt and uses it to pull himself free. He gets on his horse as the two herds converge. They follow him.

Anne drives an RV. It stops working. A man on the walkie asks her to confirm her location and status of the "A." She says she has an A and gives them a location. They know her people abandoned the landfill. The man asks if it's a trick. She says it isn't. She is desperate to leave. Rick rides down the road. He is bleeding profusely and struggling to remain conscious. He says to himself, "I need to keep 'em safe. I need to stay awake. Lead 'em away. Some . . ." He looses consciousness. He sees zombies and an empty hospital bed. He wakes up and looks at the herd behind him. He urges the horse on but he is in too much pain to keep up that pace.

Maggie and Diane ride their horses towards Alexandria. A zombie comes towards them and Maggie kills it with a crowbar. She hits it more times than is necessary. Rick rides on. He rides towards a cabin. On the door of the cabin are the words, "Come face me assholes." Rick walks around to the side of the house to an open door. He uses a piece of cloth to bandage his wounds. He finds a couple of skeletons. It looks like one killed the other than himself. Rick falls asleep.

Rick rides his horse towards Atlanta. The herd of zombies follow him. Rick voice over, "I'm looking for my family." Lori asks, "What's your wound?" That's the same thing Morgan asked him. He rides in the city towards a police car. Shane sits inside the car.  Shane says, "God damn, cowboy. You look like shit." They sit in the car eating burgers just like the beginning of the pilot episode. Rick asks Shane what this is. Shane responds, "What is this? Come on, Rick. Look around. You know what this is." Rick notices the overturned car with the two idiots they were chasing before he was shot. They talk about the third man. The third man changed everything (he shot Rick). Rick says he is looking for his family. Shane says, "Well, see that's not entirely true. One could argue it's my family you're looking for. Right? How is my baby girl, by the way? Got my eyes, doesn't she?" Rick responds, "She hasn't got your nose." They both laugh. They talk about how they each think the other one is an asshole. Shane talks about how he turned Rick into an asshole. Out in the field the night Rick killed Shane. Rick took a page out of Shane's book. Shane says, "I'm glad you did it. You stepped up brother." Rick says, "It had to be me. Still has to be me." Shane says Rick is wrong. It has to be Shane. Shane says, "The only way this gets done, Rick. I want you to think about how you bit that piece of shit's throat out. Asshole in the church with the red machete. That's what I'm talkin' about. That's the shit that I need from you that I always knew you had in you. I knew you had it in you, Rick, and it is time. You want answers? You wanna know what this is all about, this right here, you and me? So now I'm gonna tell you and I want you to listen carefully. It's time, Kneel down. Dig deep. Find it, Rick, the rage, the hatred. Find it. The loyalty that's in there, find it. It's in there, Rick. It's the only way that this gets done and this has to get done. You understand me? You can do it, brother." Rick says, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did to you." Shane tells him he needs to forget about that. He yells at Rick to wake up. Rick wakes up to find a zombie going for his face. The zombies followed him to the cabin. He breaks through a wall and crawls outside. They follow him. He gets back on his horse and rides away.

Michonne makes notes while Judith makes a bracelet out of shells. Scott knocks on the door and tells her Maggie has arrived. Judith smiles and says, "Aunt Maggie." Michonne is surprised. Maggie goes to the cell and finds Michonne blocking her way. Maggie tells her to get out of her way. Michonne says, "You're willing to turn this into something else? For him? " Maggie replies, "Not for him, for me. For others. For Glenn." Maggie says that Negan should have died. Michonne tells her it's done. Maggie doesn't care that Rick decided it was done. She walks towards the door. Michonne tells her to step back. Maggie says that Michonne saw what Negan did. Michonne asks, "Do you think Glenn would want this? For you to go through me to him?" Maggie replies, "I don't know what he'd want. I dunno, because I never got to say goodbye." Michonne says, "He wouldn't want it, Maggie. You father wouldn't want this. You know this." Maggie says, "The only thing I had, the one thing I had was knowing I was gonna see Glenn's murderer die and you took it from me." Michonne asks, "So takin' it back what the hell is that gonna do?" Maggie says, "It's gonna start things over." Michonne says, "No. It's gonna start something else." Maggie says if it had been Rick instead of Glenn, Michonne would have killed Negan a long time ago. Maggie can't turn it off. She asks Michonne how. She can't keep living like that. Michonne can't help her. They both cry. Maggie says, "'Cause there's nothing you can say. There's only what you do." Michonne asks if she can live with what comes after and Maggie says she has to. "Can't live with it now." Maggie puts out her hand and Michonne hands her the keys.

Maggie walks into the cell and Negan chuckles. "She got the blade but you got the fire. My money was on you." She asks if he remembers her and he does. She tells him to get on his knees. "I remember how much I broke you breakin' open your husband's head like that." She says, "Glenn. His name was Glenn." He asks if she's come for revenge. She is there for justice. He tells her he enjoyed killing. He kneels and says, "Kill me. It was worth it." She wants to see him in the light. He tells her to kill him. He won't move into the light. He cries for her to kill him. She opens the door and throws him out towards the light. He keeps asking for her to kill him. He wants to be with his wife. "I should be dead. I have to be dead. It's supposed to be you. It has to be you because I can't do it. I can't do it. I've tried. I can't. I can't be like this. Please, please, don't make me stay like this. Settle me. Kill me. Please." He sobs. She orders him to get back into his cell. He says no and asks why. She says, "I came to kill Negan, and you're already worse than dead. That settles it." He gets back in his cell and says, "It wasn't supposed to be like this." She locks the door and leaves.

The zombies follow Rick. He says, "I need to lead 'em. Gotta find my family." He flashes back to when he woke up in the hospital. He falls forward onto his horse. We see the barn on Hershel's farm. A woman asks, "What's your wound?" We see Hershel standing on the second floor of the barn where Rick and Carl used to talk. Hershel tells him to look at the view. He says it is beautiful. They hug. He apologizes for what happened to Hershel, Beth, and Glenn. For everything Maggie has lost. Hershel says, "My girl, she's strong, and my grandson, he'll only make her stronger. You ain't gotta worry about her." Rick says, "I need to find my family. I need to keep 'em together." Hershel say, "No, you don't. You only think you do. I know it's been hard." Rick says, "It has. What she wanted for me, for Carl. It hasn't been easy. We've been tryin'." Hershel finishes, "But we'll get there. All of us." Rick says, "I'm tired, Hershel. My family. Maybe I can find 'em here." Hershel responds, "No, Rick. You have to wake up." Rick wakes up. He collapses on his horse again. The zombies keep coming.

He wakes up in the hospital from the pilot. Abraham asks, "What's your wound?" He goes to the door that says "Don't Open Dead Inside." He opens the door and he light pours in. He is standing outside among a field full of dead bodies (not zombies). He sees Daryl, Maggie, Rosita, Jesus, Shane, etc. Sasha stands up and smiles at him. Rick looks at her and says, "They, they're all dead." She knows. It's okay. He asks how can it be okay. She says, "'Cause you did your part, like I did mine, like the others did before us." He asks how. "They gave us the strength that we needed to do what we had to do for the others, and the others draw strength from us. We change each other. We help each other. We make each other better. And it never ends." He says it feels like it's ending. She says, "Little things do end, but it's never the end of everything, because we don't die. It's not about you or me or any one of us. It's about all of us. And I don't think it just evens out. I think it always crosses over toward the good, toward the brave, toward love. Your family, you're not gonna find them because they're not lost. And you are not lost. What you need to do is wake up." He falls to the ground. He has fallen off the horse and now the horse has run away. He wakes up at the bridge campsite. Dead bodies lie everywhere. Zombies walk towards him. They are people from the camp that have reanimated.

The zombie herd is beginning to arrive. Rick stands up and walks towards the bridge. The falls to the ground at the foot of the bridge. He is starting to lose consciousness again. He hears Daryl call his name. Daryl and several others show up and begin killing the zombies. Michonne goes to him and says he is going to be okay. He says, "No, you take care of them. I can't. I can't."  She says, "You will. It's not over. We don't die." He nods. She holds his head in her hands. She say, "You wanna know why I fell in love with you? Because you're a fighter and you never give up. So fight, Rick. Fight for me. Fight for all of us." They look at the others. Rick says, "You're my family. I found you. But this, this isn't real." She says it is, kisses him, and tells him to wake up. He wakes up and is alone on the bridge.

He walks onto the bridge with the zombies following. Blood drips from his wound to the floor. He crosses the bridge. When he gets to the other side he turns to look as the herd comes towards him. He says, "No, No. It's gonna hold. I can't. I can't." A zombie comes up from behind to bite him and an arrow kills it. He turns to see Daryl with his crossbow. Michonne and others join him. Rick just stands there as another zombie approaches. Maggie, Carol, and some others come from the other side. She doesn't understand what Rick is doing. Michonne calls out that he is hurt. Daryl says, "That herd that went right through Hilltop. He's trying to bring down the bridge." Michonne says no and pulls out her katana. Maggie says they will turn the herd around. Carol orders the other to fire their guns. Rick says, "No, don't do it, not for me. It's too many. No." Their plan isn't working. Daryl reloads and kills zombie after zombie. Zombies knock over a box of dynamite. The others run to help Rick. Rick nods to Daryl who has stayed where he is and shoots arrows at zombies. Rick raises his gun and fires at the dynamite. He says, "I found 'em." The bridge blows up. They look on in shock. Daryl cries. The herd falls into the water and is swept away. Michonne is held back by Maggie and Carol. Daryl stands alone crying. He walks into the woods alone.

Anne makes her way to the river. A helicopter is heard overhead. She sees Rick lying by the river. She calls over to the walkie that he has a B not an A. The helicopter approaches. She calls over the walkie, "He's hurt but he's strong. Can you help him?" The man on the walkie says, "I warned you there'd be consequences if you tried something." She's says it's not a trick. She drops her gun and says she's trying to save a friend that saved her. She asks if they have a deal. No response. The helicopter lands. She tells Rick she's going to save him. He is on the helicopter with her. They fly away. A girl fights zombies. She calls bask to others to run. Several people fight their way through a herd of zombies. They stand back to back to fight the herd. Gunshots ring out and a girl calls out to them that the way is clear. A little girl stands in the woods. She has a gun in one hand and a katana on her back. She asks them their name. When they ask for hers she picks up Rick's sheriff's hat and says her name is Judith. Judith Grimes.

Final Thoughts
- I really liked this episode. It will probably be my favorite episode of this season. I loved being able to see old characters (and actors) show up to help Rick on his way. I'm surprised Carl wasn't there. Maybe Chandler was unavailable?
- So Rick's last episode isn't the end of his story. There will be three movies which he will star in. For more detail I have provided a link to an article discussing the future of The Walking Dead franchise: https://tinyurl.com/yca996gt
- I'm not sure how I feel about TWD being made into a franchise. Only time will tell. I'm concerned the story line will suffer. I found last season very boring and frustrating. With the exception of this episode I have found this season to be very boring.  
- Can we be done with Negan already? I am done with that character. Let's move on. 
- I'm interested in seeing what happens with the time jump. I am intrigued by older Judith.