WARNING: The following article includes spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 13 "What We Become," which aired Sunday on AMC.
Michonne was last seen on The Walking Dead’s midseason finale in November sailing off with new character, Virgil, after he promised to give her the weapons on the island naval base where he lived in exchange for a ride back home. Needless to say, despite Virgil’s protestations that he was simply trying to get back to his family, things weren’t nearly as straightforward as they seemed. The show’s latest episode, “What We Become,” finally gives us the story of exactly what happened to Michonne on the island.
The episode starts with a flashback to the end of Season 2 when Michonne came across Andrea. Only this time, instead of saving her from the walkers who are chasing her, Michonne lets Andrea die. What's up with this bit of revisionist history? We’ll soon find out...
After the credits, we’re back in the present as Michonne and Virgil arrive on the island. The moment they get there, Virgil becomes dodgy about everything. Michonne wants to get the weapons and leave but Virgil insists on picking flowers to bring to his wife. They finally arrive at the living quarters, but its dead silent. As Virgil babbles on about his wife and kids, Michonne quickly realizes something is very wrong. Finally Virgil tells the truth: His wife and kids are dead. Michonne is livid. She wants to know if there are any weapons on the island at all. Virgil said he’ll help her check but he doesn’t know for sure.
Michonne starts to go off to check on her own, but Virgil stops her. He informs her the island isn’t clear. Others came and brought the zombies with them, that’s how his family died. But they’re still in a nearby building that’s overrun with walkers. He needed Michonne to come and clean them out because he’s not good at killing zombies the way she is. Michonne is annoyed but she still clears out the building.
After the roving walkers are gone, Virgil accesses a nearby room where they find several individuals who hanged themselves and turned -- Virgil’s family. Virgil leaves so Michonne can take care of them too.
Although Michonne’s sympathetic to Virgil, she still wants to get what she came for. But Virgil continues to stall. He talks about how his wife always told him how to get through tough times; without her he doesn’t know what to do. Michonne draws his attention back to his promise to her, but instead of following through, he convinces her to stay the night.
Overnight, Michonne can’t sleep. She tries her radio but all she gets is static, so she goes to search the nearby building. She doesn’t find any weapons, but she starts to hear soft voices. She follows the sound and enters a cell. Suddenly Virgil’s at the door. He slams it, locking Michonne in. He shouts that he told her to wait until morning but now she’s ruined things.
She attempts to figure a way out of the cell but doesn’t have any luck. Finally, the people she heard last night call out to her. They’re trapped in an adjacent cell. The three of them, a man and two women, worked in the military lab with Virgil. They were friends too. When the zombie outbreak happened, the four of them took in anyone who managed to make their way to the island. But then a fight broke out over rations and someone died.
Virgil panicked and locked all the doors to the building, unaware that he’d trapped his wife and kids with the newly awoken zombie. After that, he snapped and imprisoned the trio. They encourage her to keep her strength up, and in response, she eats the food Virgil dropped off for her.
Later, Virgil stops by, but Michonne clearly isn’t feeling well. She instructs him to let her out but he refuses because he knows she’ll kill him. Instead he tells her he wants her to understand just as she goes into a drug-induced hallucination brought on by the herbs he slipped into her tea. First, she sees Saddiq who accuses her of letting him die. Her hands turn wet with blood as Saddiq turns into a walker.
Next she’s confronted by the version of herself we met when Michonne was first introduced, complete with her two walker pets. This pulls her into a full-color fantasy, which returns us to the opening moments of the episode. After Andrea dies because Michonne failed to help her, Michonne continues her journey alone. Desperate for help and companionship, she is placed in the position of the hitchhiker she, Rick and Carl passed on the road during the Season 3 episode, “Clear.” Now instead of Michonne, it’s Daryl in the car instructing them to leave Michonne behind.
Michonne continues alone until she meets Negan and the Saviors. They take her in and she becomes Negan's enforcer. Negan even hands off Lucille to her as the group kneels in front of him in the Season 7 premiere, leaving the decision of who to kill to her. As the war between the Saviors and the Alexandrians continues, Michonne is on the run. She’s brought down by one of Daryl’s arrows and then Rick shoots her.
Michonne wakes up from the nightmare and gets violently ill. When Virgil offers her a glass of water, she grabs the knife from her tray of food and stabs him in the leg. They struggle. She manages to get his keys, but Virgil runs away. Michonne frees herself and the other three people Virgil trapped. They run for the docked boat, but Virgil’s set it on fire.
So they go after Virgil, who begs for his life. Michonne could kill him but decides against it. She even argues for mercy from the other three. So instead of killing Virgil, they lock him in one of the cells they were left in.
Later, Michonne goes to see him to inform him that she’s checked all the buildings for weapons and there’s nothing. He insists that he’d never seen the weapons. He was just going to show Michonne the spots where they might be.
Virgil takes her to one last spot: a military boat off the coast of the island. There she finds something unexpected: Rick’s boots. In another room, she finds a cell phone. It no longer works but on the screen is a drawing of Michonne and Judith -- and just in case there was any doubt, the name "Rick" is also scrawled at the top.
Michonne grows emotional, and then suspicious. She believes this is evidence that Virgil targeted her and Judith when he found them at Oceanside. Virgil argues he’s never seen any of Rick's things before, the boat just washed up. Michonne realizes there’s no conspiracy and lets Virgil go. Virgil tells her that he might be able to get the boat working. Then, maybe she can find Rick.
Virgil follows through on his promise to fix the boat, and Michonne leaves with the three others he imprisoned. Virgil chooses not to go with them.
As they sail away, Michonne uses the radio to call Judith. She asks about the Whisperers and Judith tells her they got most of the hoard and Alpha can’t hurt them anymore. Michonne is relieved. Then she tells Judith about finding Rick’s belongings. Judith tells her that if Michonne thinks Rick’s alive she has to go find him. Michonne protests but Judith insists. Judith observe that she and RJ are fine, but Rick might not be. Michonne agrees to try to find him.
Michonne’s first step is to make two new zombie pets to take on her travels. It’s unclear where she’s going, the only thing we know for sure is she’s headed North. Eventually she comes on a woman attempting to walk with an injured man… somewhere. They ask if she’ll help them. They need to get somewhere urgently. If they’re late, they’ll be left behind. They’re not specific about what they’re talking about, but on a plane below in the distance, Michonne can see what looks to be several battalions lined up. She agrees to help the couple get there.
This is Michonne’s swan song on The Walking Dead, and in her wake she’s left more than a few unanswered questions -- most of which seem like they may be more pertinent to the upcoming Rick-centric Walking Dead movies than to the show. This exit also potentially leaves the door open for Michonne’s return. Or, depending on how long the show continues, it’s possible her storyline will require more closure than this episode provided. For right now, though, this is where we leave Michonne’s story.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. It airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.