What We Become (The Walking Dead)

"What We Become"
The Walking Dead episode
Episode no.	Season 10 Episode 13
Directed by	Sharat Raju
Written by	Vivian Tse
Original air date	March 22, 2020
Running time	50 minutes
Guest appearances
Kevin Carroll as Virgil Eve Gordon as Celeste Taylor Nichols as Jeremiah Olivia Stambouliah as Lucy Lindsley Register as Laura Breeda Wool as Aiden Andrew Bachelor as Bailey Matt Mangum as DJ Antony Azor as R.J. Grimes

"What We Become" is the thirteenth episode of the tenth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 22, 2020. The episode was written by Vivian Tse, and directed by Sharat Raju.

After the death of Siddiq (Avi Nash), Michonne (Danai Gurira) embarks on a trip to the island of Virgil (Kevin Carroll), to obtain weapons to defeat Alpha and The Whisperers and help Virgil rejoin his family.

This episode features the return of Avi Nash as Siddiq, whose character was killed in the seventh episode of the tenth season, "Open Your Eyes". It also marks the final appearances of Danai Gurira (Michonne), who first appeared in the third season (2012) in the premiere episode "Seed". The episode features archive footage of Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee), Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams), Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford), Austin Amelio (Dwight), Steven Ogg (Simon), and more.

Plot

Virgil leads Michonne to Bloodsworth Island, an abandoned naval base where he claims his family and a stash of weapons can be found. Michonne quickly grows suspicious, and Virgil admits his family died inside the base and wishes for her help in putting them down. She reluctantly agrees and helps Virgil put down a number of walkers before finding Virgil's reanimated family, who all hung themselves. Sympathetic, Michonne puts them down and Virgil is finally able to bury his family.

In the middle of the night, an impatient Michonne sneaks away to look for the weapons, but soon realizes she has been led into a trap, and Virgil locks her in a cell. She discovers there are others trapped in the next cell, former friends of Virgil. They had gone with Virgil to scavenge for resources before leaving by boat, and Virgil inadvertently locked his family inside one of the cells, leading to their death and driving him insane.

Virgil feeds Michonne some drugged food, giving her hallucinations. In these sequences, she first recalls Siddiq, and then experiences her life if she had ignored Andrea's cries for help, which led her to joining the Saviors. In the hallucinations, Michonne was one of the Saviors present during the satellite assault and kills Glenn Rhee and Heath, and was the one who punished Rick's group with Lucille, subsequently choosing herself. Finally, Michonne is being chased through a forest by the Militia, where she is shot in the chest by Daryl with his crossbow. As she lays dying, Michonne attempts to grab her katana, but is stopped by Rick, who shoots her in the head with his Colt Python.

Michonne wakes from her dreams, vomiting, and Virgil offers her water. She stabs him with a fork and flees. Michonne releases the other trapped survivors and rushes outside to find the boat has been destroyed. They catch Virgil and lock him up. The other three want to kill him, but Michonne holds them back and tries to reason through Virgil's crazed mind to see if there are weapons nearby. Michonne frees him and he leads her to a room with her gear, where she spots a pair of boots that belonged to Rick. She demands Virgil show her where he got them, and he takes her to a washed-up boat. Inside, Michonne finds a cell phone with Rick's name and a drawing of her and Judith etched in its surface. Michonne believes Rick is still alive and finds a possible location for him near New Jersey in the boat's logbook.

Virgil helps fix the boat, but decides to stay on the island. Michonne leaves with the others and contacts Judith via walkie-talkie, telling her that Rick is alive, and plans to talk to her each day as she searches. Michonne begins her search, taking on two walker pets as she did in the past to disguise herself among the walkers.

Later, Michonne encounters two survivors who beg for help, having been left behind, pointing to a large number of organized human formations moving north. Michonne helps the survivors catch up.

Production and development

Danai Gurira (left) makes her final regular appearance on "What We Become" and Avi Nash (right) also makes his final appearance.

The episode marks the departure of Danai Gurira as Michonne. Gurira's departure from the series was announced in February 2019. In July 2019, Gurira confirmed her exit at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, and stated:

I can confirm this is the last season I'll be on this amazing TV show as Michonne. I would just like to say this has been one of the purest joys in my life. I am very very thankful for the experience I've had in ways that I can't even express right now. My heart does not leave... it doesn't ever end, the connection between us never ends. It was a very difficult decision. It was about my calling and other things I feel called to... as a creator of work. All I'm filled with is a lot of pain about leaving and a lot of gratitude and to all of you. I love you guys. TWD family is forever.

During an interview with Dalton Ross writing for Entertainment Weekly, Gurira expressed her appreciation for the series and said:

It was very, very, very emotional. There was a lot of love. I received so much love, I was really blown back by how much love I received from everybody. When you receive all that love at the same time around your leaving, I was overwhelmed, and just beyond full of gratitude. And so you're dreading that last day, that last minute, that last frame, you're dreading it. That's it. And at the same time, there's so much beauty and love around it that you're able to just be in the moment with it. So it was great. It was beautiful. It was like leaving home. There's nothing quite like it.

Kirsten Acuna of Business Insider interviewing showrunner Angela Kang about Gurira's departure and Kang said:

One thing that emerged early on as feeling critically important to all of us on the writing side as well as Danai was the idea of concrete evidence of Rick’s presence and a direction to go in,” said Kang. “The boots are an iconic part of Rick’s costume, would’ve been on his person at the time of the bridge explosion, and would be immediately recognizable to Michonne, so that’s how we came to have this first clue.

Kang tells to The Hollywood Reporter about how the ending for Michonne's story came to life, and said:

The idea of her possibly joining the filmic universe was exciting for everyone. As Danai and Scott were having those conversations, similar to the ones with Andy about how he was going to transition out [of the series], I just needed the end point information, take that, and figure out how to craft a handoff as best as we can.

The episode brought back several main and regular characters but in archive footage of Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee), Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams), Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford), Austin Amelio (Dwight), Steven Ogg (Simon), among other recurring actors, in turn brought back and for the last time Avi Nash (Siddiq) in Michonne's hallucinations, among the most outstanding is images of episodes such as "Pretty Much Dead Already", "Beside the Dying Fire", "Hounded", "Not Tomorrow Yet", "Last Day on Earth" and The Day Will Come When You Won't Be also tells of a fate of Michonne at the hands of Negan and The Saviors and a hallucinated death of herself at the hands of Rick and Daryl.

Reception

Critical reception

"What We Become" received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has an approval rating of 82% with an average score of 7.6 out of 10, based on 17 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Michonne is given an admirable, mostly successful departure from The Walking Dead as 'What We Become' delivers a series of fascinatingly trippy 'What If' scenarios from her past."

External links

• "What We Become" at AMC
• "What We Become (The Walking Dead)" at IMDb