Become – Episode 5 opens with a cloaked man walking through the woods. The sound of a passing helicopter soon reveals the cloaked man to be Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam). Focusing a bit too long on the passing copter nearly costs him his life. After dispatching the walker, he pays his respect with the Lord’s Prayer.

The story picks up with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne Hawthorne (Danai Gurira) casually enjoying their road trip, as they make their way back to Alexandria. Several of their stops prove to be quite eventful and nostalgic, especially the one at what appears to be a visitor’s center near Three Pine Trail in Wyoming. It is at that center that Rick not only scores on a tube of toothpaste and a necklace but also a set of keys to a cabin.

Deciding to spend the night in the cabin leads them to run into a trio of travelers, Red (Ben Dickey), Elle (Erin Anderson), and Dalton (Will Brill) being overrun by walkers. After helping them fight off the walker, Rick and Michonne’s decision to share some of the good fortune with the group turns out to be a bad idea. Although it is Red who pulls his weapon first, Dalton quickly follows. Much to the trio’s surprise, Rick and Michonne offer them a chance to walk away. Choosing not to do so turns out to be a bad decision for them. Rick and Michonne do not kill them but they disarm arm them, take their weapons, and retake their gifted food.

Rick and Michonne continue to the cabin where they spend the rest of the night making love and debating how wise it was to leave the trio alive. Rick does set traps but doesn’t think they’ll risk coming after them. After scoring an unopened bottle of Black Label Johnnie Walker, he breaks out the necklace. The scene ends by giving the impression that some unidentified human entity is spying on them from the woods.

Three years prior, Jadis Stokes (Pollyanna McIntosh) manages to track Gabriel down and starts what becomes an annual meeting. Although she doesn’t reveal her entire origin story, she shares enough to convince him that it would be unwise to discuss their meetings with anyone in Alexandria. She doesn’t correct his assumption that Rick died on the bridge either.

The following morning, Rick and Michonne get a surprise wake-up call from Jadis, who makes them zip-tie one another. Despite Jadis being in the room, Rick and Michonne begin to debate whether or not she is alone, almost as if she isn’t even in the room. Jadis immediately tries to reassume the superior role by explaining how their sloppiness led her right to them. When Michonne mentions that Jadis should have just killed them while they were sleeping, Jadis says she made that mistake once before. She apparently has things she wants them to hear before killing them. Rick accuses her of just playing games. After a bit of back-and-forth bickering, it becomes apparent that Jadis has somehow deluded herself into believing killing them is actually for the betterment of the world.

Rick and Michonne both scatter when Jadis fires her shots. Rick ends up under the bed, which he miraculously flips over to distract Jadis while Michonne grabs the axe she dropped earlier and cleaves her. Much to Michonne’s surprise, Rick stops her from Jadis as she flees out the door.

The story goes back two years with another meeting between Gabriel and Jadis, where the topic of conversation is Michonne. Gabriel tells her that she is on the road, helping others. At one point she nearly slips by referring to Michonne as Rick’s wife, but she chalks it up to making assumptions. This leads to him sharing the story about how he found a wedding ring the day Rick asked him if he would marry them. Despite that, he never got the chance to give Rick the ring or marry them. The conversation continues with Jadis reflecting on how their meetings help her make the cruel and difficult decisions he is oftentimes forced to make in her other life. He gives her the ring in hopes of bringing more relief.

Rick and Michonne’s pursuit of Jadis has now led to a car chase. Although Rick tells Michonne about the file Jadis planted to be released when her death is confirmed, it doesn’t take her long to convince him to agree to kill her and worry about the repercussions at that time. The chase ends with Jadis crashing into a tree but several walkers provide her with the time to make a clean escape. In doing so, she finds herself at the campsite of Red, Elle, and Dalton, who are still fuming about their run-in with Rick and Michonne.

Jadis basically promises the trio of travelers the moon to help her while Rick and Michonne track her through the woods. Rick and Michonne eventually track Jadis to what appears to be a museum converted into a refugee camp. Much to their surprise, they soon discover they’ve been led into a trap. Hysteria quickly ensues after failed negotiations.

A year prior, Jadis arrives first at her yearly meeting with Gabriel. When he finally shows, she says she was beginning to doubt he would show and wouldn’t fault him for it. It doesn’t take Gabriel long to realize she’s struggling more than ever with some decision she’s had to make. After practically begging her to return with him to Alexandria, she reveals that she is actually struggling with her decision to kill him. She throws him to the ground and draws her pistol just as the timeline returns to the present.

With the trio of travelers dispatched by walkers, Michonne, Rick, and Jadis find themselves in another standoff scenario. Jadis is so confident in failsafe and perhaps to prove a point, she nearly allows herself to be consumed by walkers before Michonne intervenes at the final moment. Michonne ends up back behind cover when she realizes saving Jadis costs the last of her ammo.

Jadis switches her tactics to accusing Rick of being selfish for ignoring what he could have accomplished with the CRM. She claims that Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn) saw his potential as well and was going to give him the Echelon Briefing when he returned. Rick tries to reach her a final time by pointing out that deep down she doesn’t want to hurt the people of Alexandria. She never denies his claims but lets him know that she’s already made her decision. This is when Michonne speaks up for the first time, claiming that Jadis is right. She says she didn’t want to see it or possibly ignored it, but Jadis is right and her decisions have been selfish.

After some negotiations, Rick agrees to return to the CRM if she’ll let Michonne leave and never mention Alexandria. Once both sides lay down their arms, Jadis says she was foolish for thinking she could defeat both Rick and Michonne. Despite her claim, she also says that she doesn’t trust Rick and pulls a hidden revolver. Doing so sparks the memory of her and Gabriel in a very similar standoff. Michonne showing up with a rifle snaps Jadis back to the present where just a few seconds later, the trio of travelers, now walkers, attack. Despite their best efforts, Jadis ends up with a bite on the neck.

After discovering the bite, Jadis attempts to justify her decisions to Rick and Michonne, which only leads her to realize how ultimately wrong her decisions were. Another quick memory reveals this is something she had already realized the day she chose not to kill Gabriel.

Jadis not only shares the location of the dossier but she gives Rick the ring that Gabriel found on the bridge. After killing Jadis, Rick uses it to propose and Michonne accepts. Although it isn’t revealed whether it is past, future, or present, the episode ends with Gabriel returning to his and Jadis’s meeting spot. Of course, she never shows.

 

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Review

Let me start with what I liked about the episode because there isn’t much. First, I enjoyed the tie-ins with the ring, the Roman noodles, and toothpaste. With the return of Father Gabriel, the episode was packed with feel-good nostalgic moments. Rick and Michonne’s road trip was incredibly scenic. I also appreciate the creators’ attempts at something new with the calcified walker. Unfortunately, that’s where the pleasure ended.

Gabriel will never be a likable character for me, although I can appreciate his much slimmer physique. I don’t know if this was done to indicate hardships if it was something personal, or an illness, but he was much slimmer than what I remember. I have never minded and even enjoyed the ‘low budget’ persona of the series, but what was going on with the escape scene in the cabin? There are so many things wrong and out of place that I almost don’t even know where to start.

Rick is shown going under the bed on his stomach and then miraculously ends up on his back. Flipping the bed would have likely been more believable if he had done so from that position. The encounter with the trio of travelers could have and should have been much better. Jadis’s death scene was more impactful than I would have imagined. I don’t expect any better from the finale. This episode was complete and utter drivel that doesn’t deserve more than 4.5 out of 10.

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