The Walking Dead Season 7 episode 4 points to a lot of tension between Rick and Michonne. It’s the first time we’ve seen the pair at odds.
Even before they began a romance, Michonne and Rick’s views always aligned. Seeing Michonne act distant and cold is not something we’ve witnessed since her arrival at the prison in Season 3. Michonne is ready to fight, but Rick believes they don’t stand a chance. Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, recently spoke to ComicBook.com about the tension between the two characters and where they go from here.
"All those things are a friction point," Gurira said. "When he says, 'I need the gun,’ and she says, 'What?' It's the first moment we've ever seen between the two of them where there's a touch of deceit. That is a friction moment. It's so sad. What's so sad to me is we're shooting that because you could see, she was like, ‘I'm a lie,’ and he could tell, and you just notice that hurt him to see that.”
Gurira continued, "The next moment where they discuss about the gun. The next scene where he's like, ‘Did you hide any more?’ There's that moment where she's seeing him not be sure. He knows who she has been, who she was when they first met. This is all these things that come up when there's tons of frustration, and yet, he needs her to be on his side. She tries to, by the end of that scene, you're right, she tries to, but the point of the matter is, at the end of the episode, we see her at a place where we don't know what way she is going to go next because that moment is really about that trying that she was trying to do."
The problem is Michonne and Rick both believe they are doing the right thing. She’s the one who checks Rick when he’s going down the wrong path, but Rick does the same for her. Rick tells Michonne the story about Judith, and how he knows he’s raising another man’s child but doesn’t care. To Rick, accepting Judith as his daughter is the right thing to do. He wants Michonne to see the parallels in accepting Negan’s way of life.
Michonne is willing to try, but seeing the burned mattresses on the side of the road devastated her. She does not want to live under Negan’s control, and she won’t let that happen. Rick is broken, but Michonne is not. This will cause more friction between the characters than ever. We doubt we’ll see Michonne and Rick be affectionate towards each other again. In fact, Michonne might even leave Rick to fight Negan on her own.
What do you think will happen with Michonne? Let us know in the comments below. Catch up on The Walking Dead Season 7 on AMC’s official website here.
