Where has Rick been since ‘The Walking Dead’?

Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live to follow. 

Since season 9 of The Walking Dead, there has been one question haunting fans. Where exactly is Rick Grimes? Andrew Lincoln played the grizzled former sheriff’s deputy since the first season, endearing fans with his portrayal of the uncompromising leader. Throughout the series, Rick has experienced love, loss, and decisions that no one should ever have to make. And in his last act on The Walking Dead, he had to make one more.

To stop a horde of walkers from overwhelming his home, he blows up a bridge that they are one. Everyone who sees the explosion believes Rick to be dead. If that was his final moment, he could do a lot worse as far as heroics are concerned. But Rick doesn’t die. The last we see of him, he was inside a helicopter with Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), who has been working with a secret military. The Civic Republic Military has floated in and out of The Walking Dead canon, but after The Ones Who Live premiere, we finally know why Rick never made it back to his family.

Where has Rick Grimes been?

Fans got a hint of Rick’s whereabouts in the coda of The Walking Dead series finale. Dressed in a uniform with a circular insignia, he writes messages in a bottle to his wife, Michonne (Danai Gurira). But not before long, a helicopter finds him, returning him to wherever he escaped. Rick has clearly been trying to get back to his family even though something won’t let him.

That something is the Civic Republic Military. In the first episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, we see the specifics of Rick’s dire circumstances. After Jadis brings him to the CRM, he essentially becomes a prisoner. The CRM is control of one of the last cities so secret, that no one can ever leave. But not many want to.

Members of the society want the stability and safety within the walls. Rules are rules, however, and no matter how many times Rick tries to escape, they always find him and bring him back. His attempts become so desperate he even cuts off his hand to escape, an homage to the iconic moment from the comic.

The reason that the CRM wants to control Rick so much is a main plot point explored in the series. As we all know, Rick has leadership material, and the CRM needs its society to remain intact. Even if their society is based on fascism. Rick has little choice but to be indoctrinated into this world, no matter how much he yearns to be with his wife and children. Even when Rick and Michonne reunite, there is no guarantee for smooth sailing. Though they are the ones that live, this is still The Walking Dead, after all.