What Comes After (TV Series)

"What Comes After" is the fifth episode of the ninth season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the one-hundred and twentieth episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 4, 2018. It was written by Matt Negrete & Scott Gimple and directed by Greg Nicotero.

Plot
Rick is forced to face the past as he struggles to maintain the safety of the communities and protect the future he and Carl envisioned.

Synopsis
In a dream state, Rick talks to his past self in the hospital room from when he was in a coma, telling him to “wake up, it’s time to go.” Suddenly, Rick sees a flock of birds outside transform into helicopters, and then looks down to find his abdomen covered in blood. His past jokingly tells him to wake up.

Back to reality, Rick wakes up, still pinned to the rebar. With walkers closing in, Rick uses his belt to painfully lift himself off of it. He miraculously crawls himself back on his horse and barely escapes the herd.

Elsewhere, Anne’s van breaks down on the road and her helicopter contact radios to see if she has the “A.” She lies and confirms she does, saying they’re ready for transport.

On the horse, Rick tells himself he needs to keep the horde close to lead them away. He goes in and out of consciousness and briefly dreams up an image of Hershel’s farm. He rides to an old shack and finds a tablecloth he uses as a tourniquet before passing out.

Back in Alexandria, Michonne spends time with Judith when Scott arrives to inform her that Maggie has arrived.

In another dream, Rick rides on horseback to Atlanta and finds Shane in their old police car. Suddenly he’s inside and they’re back at the field on the day he was shot, eating burgers. Rick tells Shane he’s looking for his family, and Shane jokes that it’s technically his family and asks if he is taking care of her daughter. Rick jokingly calls him an asshole. Shane compliments him for killing him in that field, biting Joe’s throat out, but then asks why he let Negan live. He encourages him to find his rage and “get it done.”

Rick looks down at the burgers, which are now dust, and apologizes to Shane for what he did to him. Shane forgives him and furiously tells him to wake up, waking Rick back into reality long enough to avoid several walkers on the shack. He barely escapes out the back and gets back on the horse.

Back in Alexandria, Maggie arrives outside Negan’s cell with a crowbar before getting stopped by Michonne. She tells Michonne that Negan should have died under that tree and Michonne asks if this is what Glenn would have wanted. “I don’t know what he would want, because I never got to say goodbye,” Maggie says. Michonne eventually gives her the keys to his cell and Maggie walks in. Negan chuckles at her as Maggie demands he get on his knees.

Negan taunts Maggie about killing Glenn and begs her to kill him. She opens the cell and slams him against the wall as he begs for death. He sobs and admits he wants to be reunited with his wife Lucille. She tells him to get back to his cell because he’s already worse than dead. Maggie walks outside and Michonne seems pleased she didn’t kill Negan. Suddenly, they get word about the shooting at the camp.

On the road, Rick clings to life as the herd continue to follow him. He hallucinates again and this time he’s back at the farm. Hershel greets him and boasts he has his leg back. Rick embraces him and apologizes for what happened to him and his family, but Hershel reminds him Maggie’s strong. Rick tells him he has to find his family but Hershel tells him he doesn’t and just has to wake up.

Rick wakes up before hallucinating again. He’s back in the hospital and sees a similar door, this time reading, “Don’t Open, Dead Outside.” He walks through it and finds a pile of dead bodies of all his friends, dead and alive. Rick walks among them until he sees Sasha. She tells him none of this is real and it’s time for him to wake up. ''“When you put all of us together, your family, you’re not going to find them because they’re not lost. And you’re not lost,”'' she tells him. Rick wakes up again and is thrown off the horse near the, now abandoned, camp as it runs off.

Rick finds a gun and shoots at a reanimated Norris and Kathy. The noise attracts the herd, so he summons the strength to limp away before collapsing near the bridge. Suddenly, Maggie, Carol, Ezekiel, and the others rush past him to kill the walkers. Michonne stops and sees Rick’s wound. She reminds him she fell in love with him because he’s a fighter. After killing the walkers, everyone stops to watch them. Michonne tells Rick how much she loves him and he tells her, “This isn’t real.” Michonne tells him to wake up and he does, now alone on the bridge.

The walkers approach as Rick hobbles away. He makes it across the bridge and turns around hoping to see the walkers fall through, to no avail. A walker makes its way inches away from Rick before getting shot in the head by a crossbow bolt. Rick watches as Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, and the rest arrive nearby.

Maggie and Michonne hatch a plan to divert the walkers but Rick won’t allow it. He notices the dynamite on the bridge, takes aim, and says to himself “I found them,” before shooting and igniting the dynamite. The bridge ignites and explodes as Michonne and the rest can only watch in horror. Assuming Rick is dead, Michonne screams out while Maggie and Carol comfort her. Daryl weeps and then walks away.

Nearby, the helicopter arrives to pick up Anne and her supposed “A.” She pulls out her gun but suddenly spots a wounded Rick on the riverbank, still alive. She quickly radios that she has a B but he’s strong and needs help immediately. She promises it’s not a trick and explains she’s just trying to save a friend who once saved her. They agree to her deal and lower the helicopter. Rick wakes up in the chopper hooked up to medical equipment and Anne assures him he’ll be fine and that “they” will save him. The helicopter flies away as the area below time lapses into decrepitude.

Sometime in the future, Magna’s group take on a herd of walkers. They quickly get overwhelmed but they get saved when the walkers around them get shot from the trees. Magna and her group escape into the woods to find a 9 year-old girl who asks for their names. They introduce themselves and ask what her name is. The girl picks up Carl’s hat and introduces herself as Judith Grimes.

Special Guest Stars

 * Jon Bernthal as Shane Walsh (Hallucination)
 * Sonequa Martin-Green as Sasha Williams (Hallucination)
 * Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene (Hallucination)

Co-Stars

 * Angel Theory as Kelly
 * Briana Venskus as Beatrice
 * Aaron Farb as Norris
 * Chloe Garcia-Frizzi as Younger Judith Grimes

Uncredited

 * Lennie James as Morgan Jones (voice only)
 * Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes (voice only)
 * Michael Cudlitz as Abraham Ford (voice only)
 * Emily Kinney as Beth Greene (Hallucination)
 * Jason Douglas as Tobin (Hallucination)
 * Laura Kelley as Hilltop Resident
 * Kinney M. Lee as Hilltop Resident
 * Nick Bruno as Hilltop Resident
 * Carol Bruckner as Kingdom Resident
 * Michelle Hartwig-Rich as Kingdom Resident
 * Adam Pickren as Kingdom Resident
 * Esther Pittman as Oceanside Resident
 * Jennifer Russell as Walker
 * Jack Kidd as Walker

Deaths

 * Cardille (Confirmed Fate)
 * Norris (Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
 * Kathy (Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
 * 1 unnamed Kingdom resident
 * Many unnamed Hilltop residents
 * Many unnamed Saviors
 * One unnamed person (Confirmed Fate)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Magna.
 * First appearance of Yumiko.
 * First appearance of Connie.
 * First appearance of Kelly.
 * First appearance of Luke.
 * Last appearance of Rick Grimes. (Unknown)
 * Last appearance of Anne. (Unknown)
 * Last appearance of Morgan Jones. (Voice Only)
 * Last appearance of Shane Walsh. (Hallucination)
 * Last appearance of Lori Grimes. (Voice Only)
 * Last appearance of Hershel Greene. (Hallucination)
 * This episode will also mark the final acting role of Scott Wilson, due to his death on October 6, 2018.
 * Last appearance of Abraham Ford. (Voice Only)
 * Last appearance of Sasha Williams. (Hallucination)
 * Last appearance of Beth Greene. (Hallucination)
 * Last appearance of Tobin. (Hallucination)
 * This also marks the character's 25th appearance in the show.
 * Last appearance of Norris. (Zombified)
 * Last appearance of Kathy. (Zombified)
 * Last appearance of the Greene Family Farm. (Hallucination)
 * Last appearance of Harrison Memorial Hospital. (Hallucination)
 * This episode marks Jeffrey Dean Morgan's 25th appearance on the show.
 * This is the seventh episode to share its name with a comic volume, after "Days Gone Bye", "Made to Suffer", "This Sorrowful Life", "Too Far Gone", "No Way Out" and "A New Beginning".
 * This will be the second episode of the TV Series to feature non-canon deaths, the first being "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be".
 * In the Comic Series, Issue 75 is the only issue that features non-canon deaths.
 * The song playing as Rick leaves on the helicopter is Space Junk by Wang Chung. This is the same song that plays at the end of Days Gone Bye when Rick is trapped in the tank.
 * At the end of the episode, there is a time jump of 6 years.
 * After the time jump, Judith is seen wearing Carl's old hat, Michonne's katana and wielding Rick's Colt Python.

Comic Parallels

 * Rick walking through a field of corpses of his friends and family is adapted from an alternative cover of Issue 100.
 * Negan begging Maggie to kill him and she decided to spare him is adapted from Issue 174.