Top 10 Biggest Walking Dead Breakups: Lasting Heartbreaks
By Nir Regev
2) Jessie and Pete Anderson
The relationship that made Rick finally able to get over Lori. A practically impossible feat shaped through one haircut and a shave. The one that unfortunately (for Rick and the show) got away but made Rick feel again. Rick needed Jessie to be there for him in a way that Michonne or Lori will never provide. Jessie looked up to Rick and his methods of survival. She saw him as a beacon of strength and a symbol of a return to normalcy.
Jessie was not ruined by the decay of society, she was a gem from a time thought gone. In return, Rick could take a natural role as protector of the family. In the way? A man who had already married her but was mistreating her. Though to be fair, even if he hadn’t Rick would likely not have felt that differently. The connection to Jessie would not disintegrate just because she was married. Life doesn’t work like that, people want what they want. No marriage ceremony can change pure will.
However, the knowledge of what Pete was doing rapidly brought the issue to light. In a way that Rick could feel comfortable to act, free from guilt. Shades of Shane lost in the knowledge she was a battered woman without his help. The end of Jessie and Pete’s union would eventually end Alexandria as we knew it. As collateral damage for Jessie’s heart would include the very man who built its walls. Alexandria’s laws of banishment over physical means of removal changed in an instant.
Jessie was truly the first lady of The Walking Dead, one soft smile and some hairstyling was all it took to forget about a decade’s worth of Lori.
Next: 1) Shane and Lori