Preview for The Walking Dead season 9, episode 5: What Comes After

Rick Grimes’ final episode is upon us in what promises to be a sobering affair for all Walking Dead fans across the world.

End of the road, no turning back now, just acceptance on The Walking Dead. There will be no tomorrow for Rick Grimes, no last minute Carol heroic rescue from Terminus, this time it’s just Rick and the dead. Just like the beginning, where it all started for Officer Friendly, maybe it’s fitting it ends this way. Rick never lost to Shane, The Governor, or Negan, in the end it was only Rick who could cause his final demise. Or blame that horse, Daryl for putting him in the situation for the first place, Maggie for making him rush out without thinking, Oceanside for ruining the alliance with The Saviors.

You can point the finger everywhere, life is a series of dominos toppling after all. It’s just one thing after another causing the next event. Sure, some will say ‘everything happens for a reason’ but does it really? Jason Bateman’s character Marty Byrde in Netflix’s Ozark put it best:

"That’s a bunch of crap. Things happen because human beings make decisions, they commit acts, and that makes things happen. It creates a snowball effect for the world around them, causes other people to make decisions. Cycle continues, snowball keeps rolling.And even when that’s not the case, when life’s events are not connected to other people’s decisions and actions, it’s not some ******** test sent down from the universe to check your resolve. What would be the reason for some healthy 5-year old to get a brain tumor? Why would a tsunami wipe out a village? You tell those families everything happens for a reason."

A Bridge to Nowhere

The stubbornness to see Carl’s vision of a better world ended up be being Rick Grimes’ undoing. Daryl’s impromptu tumbling pit intervention to tell Rick to let go of Carl, that Rick knows he would have died for Carl, and he would die for him but this isn’t the way, did not succeed. Whether Rick steering the walker herd while hurt is real or an hallucination he experiences while still on that stone slab will be seen tonight.

Previously announced cameos by Shane Walsh and Hershel Greene are assured, might The Governor make his own cameo? Lori and Carl? It wouldn’t be the first time as fans saw during the excellent Tyreese character end hallucination scene.

Michonne attempts to manipulate Maggie using Glenn

Michonne tries to stop Maggie by telling her “This isn’t what Glenn would have wanted,” but really how would she know? Neither Maggie or Michonne know what Glenn would have wanted but Maggie certainly knows what she wants. Maggie doesn’t fall for the moral high ground bait either, immediately turning the tables and telling Michonne to put herself in that position if it had been Rick and not Glenn. If it was Michonne raising a child on her own in place of Maggie. Checkmate! Let’s be real though, The Walking Dead is probably not about to lose Rick Grimes and Negan in the same episode.

That would be unprecedented. Not that the series hasn’t already surprised back with Glenn’s death following Abraham… But still, more likely Michonne and Maggie’s verbal quarrel turns into a physical fight than Maggie getting her revenge on Negan.

Catch up on last week’s Walking Dead episode “The Obliged” over at AMC and what caused Rick Grimes’ final swan song.