Bye

This episode turns out to be quite steadily consistent, in terms of quality. Every single scene does not go out wasted, and have all sorts of plot points that eventually ties up to whole plot in general, which makes the ending of the episode - or rather the concept of it at least - quite more narratively natural and impactful.

Aside from Andy and Danai, who strives as fierce as before, I gotta say, I love Pollyana McIntosh. Her acting shines along with her character, which went from ehh in season 7 to eyy here. I mean, who would expect a non-comic character that came off as weird initially would turn out to be the biggest potential threat to everyone in the TWDU, without the character progression turning out to be jarring and unrealistic?

Lesley-Ann Brandt is great too playing as Thorne. She sure is a much more intriguing character we've ever had for a while. Gotta appreciate the effort the writing crew put in their characters.

So, thus far, out of all the first three episodes, this is the weakest certainly, but oh my how good it stiil is. Now I really can't wait for the last three episodes!

In a flashback, Jadis approaches Rick in Millenium Park, and explains her people's deal with the CRM and her intention to sign up. However, Rick is only interested in escaping. After returning to base, Rick enlists Thorne's help in successfully getting Michonne into the consignment program, but Jadis warns that if Rick and Michonne escape, she will have to kill everyone that he loves for security. Rick attempts to help Michonne escape on her own, but she refuses to go without him. While touring Millenium Park, Michonne meets the artist who created Rick's engraved iPhones and finds new hope.

After receiving the Echelon Briefing - the revelation of all of the CRM's secrets - and a promotion, Thorne becomes unsure of whether to follow in Okafor's footsteps, reluctantly enlisting Michonne's help for the mission. When Michonne goes rogue during a walker fight, Thorne nearly kills her, and Rick ends their relationship in an attempt to protect her. Having earned Major General Beale's trust, Rick is slated to receive a promotion in advance of a summit of the CRM's entire leadership. However, Michonne throws herself and Rick out of a helicopter in a daring mid-air escape on the return trip in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.

After being admitted by the CRM auditors, Michonne becomes a consigner, highlighting the complexity of maintaining such a position. What happened to her is exactly what happened to Rick; both try to hide their true identities but fail. Rick's advantage was having Okafor (Craig Tate) to cover for and protect him, slightly reducing the risks. Michonne doesn't have that support. The episode's tension revolves around Thorne's (Lesley Ann-Brandt) growing distrust of her. Both she and Jadis have similar trajectories within the CRM - the higher they are promoted, the more they know about the community's secrets, and consequently, they protect and increasingly believe in Beale's ideals.

From my perspective, the highlight is entirely on Lesley Ann-Brandt. Thorne has risen in the CRM military hierarchy, replacing Okafor, but she emphasizes that she is not him. Although she doesn't explicitly say it, Thorne sees Michonne as a potential threat to her position, as Michonne is her responsibility. This becomes even more evident when she considers killing Michonne for disobeying orders on the walker-clearing mission. In these first three episodes, it is constantly emphasized that secrecy, security, and order are the CRM's pillars and must be placed above everything and everyone. It seems that after her promotion in this episode, Thorne has been brainwashed, now acting more for the CRM than for herself. She appears to want to rise to gain more power within the established system rather than change it, as Okafor wanted.

Another aspect that we got a taste of in the previous episode but is explored much more deeply here is the new dynamic between Rick and Michonne pretending to be strangers to protect themselves. This is certainly beneficial for them in the short term, but with Jadis in their way, everything becomes even more complicated. Initially, we believe the plan is for them to go together until we discover that Rick arranged everything for Michonne to escape, arguing that someone needs to stay inside to cover for her (Okafor left disciples). It's a brilliant move by the script to put both Rick and Michonne on the same level. While Rick sacrifices his safety and well-being to protect those he loves, Michonne does the same. When she learns that Rick won't be going with her, she sacrifices returning home to save him. She is clearly very angry about this, having gone through everything only to return home empty-handed. Despite her short time inside, she has already realized how ruthless the CRM is and makes it clear to Rick that they won't get out of there alone. As Jadis herself says, Rick alone is not a threat, but Rick and Michonne together can accomplish anything.

In a highly political episode with power plays, the moment that breaks all the tension is the scene with Michonne and the vendor. Here, the episode finally reveals who drew Michonne and Judith on the phone. Rick had repeatedly asked the man to draw the two and Carl (Chandler Riggs), but he never got it right. Seeing Michonne talk about Carl after so long without any mention of him is certainly heartwarming for every fan. The episode ends with Rick "breaking up" with Michonne, hoping it would motivate her to leave without him. She realizes that Rick has been completely changed and broken by his time with the CRM, bringing a sense of urgency for her to act on Rick's behalf, which she does. Despite the drastic move of jumping from the helicopter, we finally see the first joint escape attempt by the two, and from now on, we will see what the CRM is like compared to Rick and Michonne.

In terms of pacing, this episode is slower than the first two, focusing on establishing the plot's main obstacle: escaping the CRM. In Gone, the audience questioned the story's direction - whether we would have a plot about the characters' escape or their fight from within against the CRM, something made clear when the characters "fall" from the helicopter. Nevertheless, Bye takes advantage of the CRM's setting, with secrets, lies, conspiracies, and the main characters' tension about being caught, providing great scenes of stress and anxiety, especially when Pearl is suspicious of Michonne or Beale's distrust, who deserves more screen time. Even Jadis, not a standout character, fulfills her basic role of driving the plot by complicating Rick's life.

In a way, I am slightly disappointed with the narrative direction, as I truly believe there is much potential in exploring a story about Rick and Michonne rising through the ranks of this new society, altering the system from within, always in a state of alert and apprehension - something that would be innovative within a franchise that has already exhausted plots about conflicts between survivor groups. However, I understand the production's choice. This episode made it clear that this is a story about a resilient and surviving romance, focusing on the characters' determination to fight or sacrifice for this love, all within a story that progressively expands the franchise's universe with high doses of curiosity. This is the first chapter of the series that is not limited to contextualizations, allowing the story to finally flow and establish itself for the rest of the year. In this sense, it ends up being a more prolonged episode, but never boring, thanks to Michael Slovis's competent direction, which leverages the tense and stressful atmosphere of the CRM setting, as well as the central couple's drama. Additionally, we get some pleasant set-pieces, though I still believe we are facing another production that denies the franchise's horror characteristics. The cliffhanger is an excellent conclusion to the central plot conflict: Michonne forcefully bringing Rick back into the fight. It will be difficult, but can they escape?

Jadis is the hero with not the best haircut, Rick is a bit right XD. This scene was the best in the whole series so far and no one will change my opinion. Every scene with Jadis and Rick is brilliant. Nice that we are getting more answers. The slowest episode of all three that came out, but it's typical of TWD that the beginning and end shine and the middle has to do the dirty work of laying everything out and the pace of the action suffers a bit. Worst of the first three episodes, but better than any episode from all the other spinoffs, not counting the one about Daryl. That is, in short, the weakest so far, but the series is so good that even its weakest moments are still very good.

This episode is best so far, and I've seen people saying this show is about the zombies but they need to understand that it's been over 13 years and CRM is most equipped base itw, so there isn't much zombies there, and the show is mainly based on Rick escaping and getting back to Alexandria, but with Jadis being such a b, i don't think it will be possible unless they change her mind or somehow, i really hope next episode will be like this, we deserve it after season10,11 in main series, this is masterpiece, Andrew Lincoln deserves an oscar in my opinion, nobody could ever do this role so good,

I am truly unsure what to make of this episode. I wish they would give us some clarity on who knows what. Its hard to read the characters.

I've seen at least three reviews where people said this was the best episode yet. This is BY FAR the worst of the 3, or the least awesome i should say.

This episode has a lingering annoyance that has stuck with me. Otherwise it was pretty entertaining.

The thing that has me wondering is, this is only a 6 episode limited series. Given the number of episodes left, i imagine there will be clarity given very soon.

What I hope to God they don't do is another one of these final episodes where everything comes to light. Its been done several times over and everytime i see it now it only gets worse and worse. (I'm referring to tv/film and D-bag hollywood in general). The filmmaking becomes lazy and derivative and TWD has been pretty stellar to date.

(although i was not able to watch the DD series or the M&N series, so I can't speak to their quality, but I hear they are worth the watch)

Having said that, I felt FTWD was utterly horrendous, so this series could have a big drop off ahead of us. Its impossible to know where these stories are going so I assume this was the precursor to the token bridge episode. (That is not a euphamism of a euphamism, i mean it

All in all it was done quite well. Everything was shot well, all the parts played. It was just the writing of this episode that really irked me.

Entertainment value 6/10 Overall rating 8/10.