The Walking Dead 1013 recap: What We Become

The Walking Dead 1013 reveals what happens when Michonne arrives at Virgil’s secret location. Here’s your recap of “What We Become.”

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead begins with Michonne walking through the woods with her two walkers in tow. She finds some bullets and pockets them, then she fights off a walker. She turns to see a woman, Andrea, running through the woods. She’s being chased by a group of walkers and Michonne watches as she falls and is overcome by the walkers, who eat her alive as she screams.

Cue the credits, here we go!

Michonne takes Virgil’s handcuffs off. He asks why she couldn’t have done that before, but seeing as they just arrived, she’s not taking any chances. He tells her that his family is “inland” and so is the ammunition.

Virgil stops to pick herbs for his wife, who would not be happy for him to return empty handed. Michonne wonders where the storage lockers are and he says they’re nearby. The surrounding buildings, he says, are full of wild animals and it would be best for her to stay away.

She notices the signs indicating that this was a military base. Soon they come into a courtyard where there are books and supplies all over. He’s talking about his family but she realizes something is wrong. She takes her knife and holds it to his throat, demanding that he reveals the truth.

Virgil takes Michonne to a graveyard where three graves sit. He says he doesn’t like bringing people there, and she starts to wonder if there really are any weapons or not. He says he promised that he would show her where they might be, and soon Michonne realizes that Virgil might not be the standup guy she was hoping he was. He says that the “rippers” came and killed his family. He was never good at killing them, and now he needs Michonne to go in and kill the walkers who trapped and killed his family. That’s why he needed her to come and help him.

Michonne stakes out the building. There is a single walker at the door but there are more down the hall. Michonne goes inside and Virgil slowly follows, looking incredibly out of place while she looks completely at ease. When they try to sneak into a hallway blocked by debris, he knocks a bunch of stuff over and that gets the walkers’ attention. Michonne grabs a cot and uses it as a shield, telling Virgil to follow her. They end up in a large room full of walkers, and while Virgil is quickly cornered, Michonne clears the whole place by herself.

“Thank you,” he says.

Virgil leads her to a room and when they go inside they find a group of hanging walkers. There are big walkers and tiny walkers hanging from the ceiling. It’s Virgil’s family and the people who were trapped with them.

It’s an incredibly somber scene to see Virgil reunite with his family. He finds a shoe on the ground and gently places it back on the foot at the walkers reach for him. Michonne looks around the room.

Later, once they are properly buried, Virgil lays the flowers on his wife’s grave and says that he was trying to bring them things he knew they liked, and that the book was for his little girl. Michonne knows this is hard for him, but she doesn’t have time for it. Virgil says he hasn’t thanked anyone in a long time, but she doesn’t want to hear it. He says the tide won’t allow her to get out, and she realizes that he’s delaying her departure. She agrees to stay, but she will be gone first thing.

That night, she plays with his ring and tries calling Judith on the radio. She can’t sleep so she ventures outside, scouting the area and the surrounding buildings. She finds some boxes inside one of the buildings but there’s nothing useful inside. There are cages with dead animals inside, so this space was clearly a lab of some kind.

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Soon she hears voices so she goes into a room. Virgil appears in the doorway, looking frustrated. He closes the door and asks why she couldn’t wait until the next day. He trusted her and she couldn’t wait for him. He walks away. She tries to get out but it’s no use.

The next day she’s in the cell and she wakes up to find that her sword is gone. She’s unsteady on her feet. She pounds on the door when suddenly people start talking to her. In the room next door there are three people who tell her that Virgil often gets upset, which is why they didn’t respond. There’s no point in trying to escape because the whole place is booby trapped. The man says that they were fellow researchers who worked with Virgil and they used to take people in, but then the rations ran out. When Virgil got there he locked the doors when one of the newcomers died, and his wife and kids were stuck inside with the walker. He didn’t know they were there. Michonne realizes that he snapped. They tell her to eat and save her strength. She grabs an apple and they ask for her name. “It’s Michonne,” she says.

When she wakes up again Virgil opens the window and says he can’t open the door because he knows she’ll kill him. He tells her he wants her to understand. The floor starts to melt away as he explains that the island has a gift and that the island can help her the way it helped him. She’s having some kind of visions. “What the hell did you do?” she asks.

The room spins around and Michonne can’t see. Virgil explains that he gave her a tea made of hallucinogens. He says she’s in pain and she needs peace, like he does. She starts to talk, and he knows her words because she has said them before. She mentions his family, and he asks about his family. He tells her she’s no angel.

He tells her to let the medicine work.

Suddenly Siddiq appears and he tells her that she was supposed to protect them all, but she let them all die. What happens to his family, he demands. She pleads with him to understand that she tried to help him. He says this is what it is to be part of her family, and when she looks down her hands are covered in blood and she thinks she’s seeing a walker. Siddiq is gone.

Soon a vision of herself appears, holding the chains. She is transported to that moment when she watches Andrea being eaten alive. Later, she returns to the body and takes Andrea’s knife. She goes out on the road and a minivan rushes past. When it gets stuck in the mud, she watches as Daryl gets out to fix it. He tells the driver to keep going despite her cries for help.

Later, she’s in the woods when Negan and Laura show up with DJ and the other Saviors. She tries to hit him, and he’s impressed. Negan is back in his finest form. He likes her lady nuts. Laura tosses her an apple as he tosses her an apple.

Next we see Glen in the outpost with Heath as they try to kill the Saviors. Glenn kills Laura but Michonne manages to get away.

Then we see the clearing. Rick is there. Negan is trying to decide who to kill. He decides to give the honor of killing them to his “right hand gal Michonne” who is on a wicked tear these days. He takes Michonne’s sword and offers her the choice between the sword and Lucille. (THIS IS WHERE THE SCENE IN THE TRAILER COMES FROM) Michonne lectures the group on slaughtering the people from the outpost in their sleep. She gets into Rick’s face and calls him a coward as Carl looks on. “Remember, you did this. What happens next, it’s your fault. Welcome to the new world,” she says as she kills someone.

Next we see Michonne running in the woods. She is shot in the chest by an arrow. Daryl kicks her to the ground. As she reaches for her sword, Rick steps on her hand and aims his gun at her. He fires, and Michonne wakes up from the dream, puking into a bucket.

Virgil is there with her and he has a glass of water for her. He asks if she feels better, telling her that she will. She grabs a spoon and stabs him in the leg, which gives her enough time to grab his keys and free the other prisoners. “Group 2” is painted on the wall as they leave.

Outside they discover that the boat has been set on fire.

Virgil hobbles through the woods when she tackles him. He says he wanted Michonne’s help to free them because he knew they would kill him, and then he knew she would kill him, too, but Michonne takes a moment to reflect and she realizes that even though she has reason to kill Virgil, she can’t. She tells the others that killing him won’t solve anything and they will only lose more of themselves. Their mercy is worth more. It’s worth peace. They knock him out, which allows them to lock him back up.

Later, Michonne visits him and tells him that there is nothing there in any of the buildings. He says he never lied and that there were spots with weapons there, and they have found stray shells from time to time. He invites her to take whatever she needs to help Oceanside. She asks what he sees when he’s “tripping” and he says he sees his wife and kids. He’s looking up at the stars, at Heaven, and he was hoping Michonne would see that, too. She tells him that she saw hell because he took his family from her. She tells him to find her stuff.

They go to a storage locker and she grabs her things. While she’s there, she spots something: Boots. Not just any boots, but Rick’s boots. She stares at them in wonder, stopping to smell them and hold them close. She breaks into tears realizing that he was there. She slams Virgil into the wall and demands to know where they came from.

The next day they go to a boat. Michonne has Virgil in handcuffs and he says the boat washed up. She ties him up and searches through the ship’s paperwork when she spots a cell phone. On it is a picture of herself and Judith, with “Rick” carved at the top. She stares in stunned amazement as Virgil realizes that it’s her. She starts to think Virgil knows who she was, but he swears he has never seen it before. She wants to know if he set up a trap for them, but he has no idea what she’s talking about. He tells her that maybe it wasn’t an accident that she came there, and if she helps him maybe he can fix the boat and she can find the person she’s looking for.

Michonne packs Rick’s boots into her pack as Virgil approaches with supplies. The others are there and Michonne says they are willing to let him come with them. She says they’re good people and they’re giving him a way to leave the island. He says he promised his family flowers every day.

Michonne watches from the boat as they sail past Virgil, who remained behind.

Later, Michonne stares at the phone and cries, then she wipes her tears and calls Judith, using her Japanese call sign. Soon Judith answers and says they have been trying to reach her. Michonne says she is helping three people to get home. RJ comes up and says hi to his mom, but Judith reminds him “call signs for safety” so he calls for “Daito”, saying he’s “Little Brave Man.”

RJ says that “Tia Rosita” brought him there, and Michonne asks about Coco and Rosita. Judith reports that they got them, or most of them, anyway. Alpha is gone and can’t hurt them anymore. Judith knows her mom is worried. Michonne reveals that she found something that could be important. It belonged to “the brave man” and it could mean he was there. Judith asks if he’s alive and Michonne doesn’t know. Judith says if it’s possible, then she has to go find him. Judith assures her mom that they’re ok but Rick might need them more.

Michonne tells Judith that if she goes (Judith corrects her and says “when she finds the brave man”), and then she gets interrupted. She says she’s heading North and she will call every morning on the walkie. “Go get him,” Judith says.

Back on land, Michonne makes new “pets” for herself to accompany her on her journey. They walk and walk, and then she comes across two people who are struggling along. One of them is injured. Michonne approaches apprehensively and they ask for help. “They’ll leave without us,” they say. She looks over the ridge to see a group of people moving in formation. (THEY LOOK LIKE VIRGINIA’S GROUP FROM FEAR TWD!!) They won’t wait for them, they say. She has a vision of Rick at the prison when he decides to let her in, and she quickly kills the pets. “Come on,” she says, offering her hand.

And off they go.

Thank you so much, Danai Gurira. You will be missed.