Years

"Years" is the first episode of the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. It is the first episode of the series overall. It premiered on February 25, 2024. The episode's teleplay was written by Scott Gimple, from a story by Gimple, Danai Gurira & Andrew Lincoln and directed by Bert & Bertie.

Plot

Rick tries to find his place in a new world.

Synopsis

Sitting in his apartment looking out at the Civic Republic, Rick listens to a news report on the destruction of Omaha, looks at an iPhone with Michonne and a message in Japanese carved into it and raises a piece of glass to his neck to commit suicide. However, Rick can't bring himself to go through with it.

Five years after the events at the bridge, Rick, Pearl Thorne, and a number of other consignees are taken by the CRM to a burning forest to deal with a Level 3 hazardous event. They are ordered to stop the eliminate the advance of ignited delts with the reassurance that they are protecting the crops and food stores for over 200,000 people and are speeding up their path to citizenship. Rick - tethered to a CRM soldier and armed with a hatchet - joins the others in attacking a herd of approaching variants who are all smoldering and burning from the inside. Rick reaches the end of his tether and is yanked to the ground by the soldier. Claiming that he's trying to find his axe, Rick quickly makes a torniquet out of his belt and, after some hesitation, reassures himself that this is how he escapes and chops off his own hand. Bleeding heavily, Rick tries to flee, shoving a delt into one soldier who manages to dispatch it and ducking behind a tree. A delt attacks Rick who manages to dispatch it and crawls over to another delt, desperately shoving his stump into its body in order to cauterize it. As Rick tries to continue his escape, one of the soldiers tasers him, recapturing Rick.

In a dream, Rick swears as he looks around a park and is greeted by Michonne who is eating lunch on a nearby bench. Rick explains that he's not from the area, and is late for work, asking Michonne for help with reading his map. An amused Michonne gives Rick directions, and he sits next to her, asking about Michonne's work. Michonne admits that it's not where she wants to be and asks if Rick is where he wants to be which Rick confirms.

Rick awakens in bed, his arm bandaged. Rick opens a bag and pulls out several iPhones that he has scratched messages into and some paper.

At the outskirts of the Civic Republic, a truck leads a large herd into a ruined area where the consignees, armed with Kill Sticks and overseen by CRM soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel Donald Okafor, wait on the other side of a wall to take them out, banging their kill sticks to draw the walkers to openings. The consignees eliminate the walkers as they approach, but Rick struggles due to his missing hand and falls. As a walker reaches through the wall for him, Okafor grabs Rick's kill stick and puts it down. Okafor explains that he came down here because he spoke to Major General Beale about Rick who is lucky to have friends in high places like Okafor. Okafor lobbied the head of what is likely the most powerful military on the planet on Rick's behalf, meaning that he is possibly the best friend that Rick has ever had. Rick asks about a scar on Okafor's forehead, and he admits that someone like Rick happened, someone who may be better for his program. Okafor knows that Rick thinks that staying out here gives him a better chance at getting away, but Okafor states that it doesn't, it just gives him another chance to die which Okafor doesn't want to see happen. However, Rick tells Okafor that he doesn't have to do this anymore and returns to work and Okafor walks away, disappointed. Rick resumes putting down walkers, growing more and more angry and letting it out on the herd. Finally, an exhausted Rick sits down, and Okafor reminds him that he keeps on telling Rick that for people like them, there's no escape for the living. Okafor left a uniform in Rick's apartment, and he urges Rick to accept things for what they are. Rick's last escape attempt cost him his hand, and his next escape attempt will cost Rick his life. Okafor wants Rick to do something with his life.

Rick walks through the CRM compound, watching as a heavily armed helicopter flies by, and a drunk Thorne throws a glass at him and thanks Rick for showing her that she can't get away. In his apartment, Rick breaks down and flips over a table in anger.

Rick sits on a bench overlooking the Civic Republic from across the water and is joined by his friend Esteban who had heard about Rick cutting off his own hand to escape. Esteban notes that for two years, Rick didn't talk to anybody, but Esteban kept talking to him until they developed a friendship. Esteban knows that for Rick, he sees the Hidden City as being like Alcatraz while the other consignees see it as a chance for a good life. It's a big day for Esteban as it's his last day on the outskirts as a consignee. As of the next day, he will be in the Civic Republic as the Deputy Manager of Water and Power of Ward 3. Esteban is excited that after his six long years, his consignment is finally over and he will be inside of the walls as a citizen. Rick jokes about getting Esteban a gift and Esteban is surprised to hear that Okafor is still trying to make Rick into a soldier, even after everything that's happened. Amazed, Esteban suggests that Rick should sign up just to get Okafor off of his back and then make his next move while he's out there scavenging. As Esteban starts to tell Rick about his journalist girlfriend, Rick becomes thoughtful as he ponders Esteban's suggestion.

Dressed in the uniform that Okafor had left for him, Rick visits Okafor at his home to sign up for the CRM, promising that "it's the end... and the start" and Okafor welcomes him to the CRM. Rick is outfitted with a large metal prosthetic taking on the form of a closed fist with a deployable blade and Rick trains in hand-to-hand combat with the other soldiers, including Thorne who had also joined up, learns how to fly a helicopter from a flight simulator, joins the ranks in saluting Major General Beale, and later flies a helicopter himself under Okafor's watch.

Months later, in a continuation of the previous dream, Michonne prepares to leave, but suggests that they meet up there again as she eats in the park every day around this same time. Rick attempts to ask for Michonne's name, but he is awakened from his dream by Okafor.

Okafor leads Rick and Thorne down a tunnel in a stadium to a collapsed area near the end so that they can talk in private. Rick takes out an approaching walker with his new blade and Okafor collects dog tags from the man who had been a soldier in life. Okafor tells Rick and Thorne that they've been training for a year and they're both soldiers now, before asking if they really think that all of this was about the two of them just becoming soldiers. This was all about them becoming leaders: Okafor intends to help Rick and Thorne become part of Force Command within the CRM. A surprised Rick reminds Okafor that he had tried to escape four times and cut off his own hand while Thorne reveals that she had tried to kill him, much to Rick's surprise.

Handing them each some books, Okafor reveals that he wants Rick and Thorne to help him change things from the inside, explaining that he thinks that the two of them possess something that the CRM needs to become what it needs to be. Thorne questions why the CRM needs to change since the city lives and runs itself while the CRM runs the world outside and everything is working when nothing else is. Rick points out that people can't leave, and they're not free. Okafor states that no one is free in this world, but they're alive. Rick and Thorne are still alive, and they're not supposed to be. "The CRM designates people they find as A's and B's. A's have a strength. A's will die for what they believe in. People follow A's. The people we cross in the world, the few we bring in, they're classified as B's. Everyday people who are just trying to survive. B's get in. A's are sent away and killed, except you two." Okafor is the reason that Rick and Thorne were spared, and he adds that "the CRM needs to change. The CRM needs strong leaders to change them. Being the monster to... fight the monsters -- that can't last. And this is why I need the two of you. All the other secrets, you'll receive when you move up the ranks, and you'll receive the Echelon Briefing. That's when you get all the info, the whys, the things 90 percent of our force doesn't know about, and 100 percent of our city doesn't."

Rick asks if the CRM even wants them to be leaders and questions if they even know about this meeting where Okafor is telling Rick and Thorne about A's and B's and secret briefings. Okafor admits that he's acting on his own because Okafor believes that A's who become soldiers and leaders are the only thing that could possibly change the CRM. Rick questions why if he's an A and can think for himself, Okafor believes that he will even go along with this. Okafor states that he believes that if either one of them had the chance to save the world, they would, and they'd have to. Okafor has Rick and Thorne open one of the books and they start discussing the Cold War.

Leaving the meeting, Thorne warns Rick that she knows that he's obviously looking at this differently than she is and threatens to end Rick if he tries to include her in his plans. Rick asks if she was the one who gave Okafor his scar, and Thorne admits that she shot at him. Thorne explains that she was in the South African Navy and served on submarines where she was great at playing poker. Wanting to see just how great, Thorne decided to try her luck by attending a poker tournament in Las Vegas, but she didn't play a single hand before the lights went out, suggesting that Thorne's luck is terrible. Okafor found her half-dead in the Atlantic Ocean on Thorne's fourth attempt to get back home since the end of the world and Thorne had tried to kill him so that she could stay there. Thorne knows why Rick's done the things that he has in trying to escape and going so far as to take his hand off. It's the same reason that Thorne had: there's someone that Rick loves out there. Thorne has accepted that she's not going to see her someone again because she knows that that person doesn't want her to die. Thorne suggests that she had only grazed Okafor's face because somewhere deep down Thorne knew that she wasn't making it back to Capetown alive. Thorne warns that if she shoots at Rick, she won't miss or graze him either. Thorne doesn't care what kind of game Rick's playing, but Rick heard what Okafor said should've happened to them and this is all that she has left and the life that she had before is all gone. Thorne insists that this is all that Rick has left too, but Rick angrily tells her that the people that he left behind aren't gone. "She isn't. They aren't. We are. If you want my help, just ask," states Thorne. Thorne invites Rick to have a drink with her.

Rick jogs through the compound with a number of other soldiers, passing Okafor and several Frontliners who are covered in blood. Out of breath, Rick stops to sit on the bench to look at the Civic Republic and he is joined by Major General Beale. Beale comments that there is life surrounded by death all in one view, something that Rick agrees with. Beale tells Rick that another thing that they have over Portland and Omaha in the Alliance of Three is that, unlike the other two cities, the Civic Republic is fairly well hidden without much effort. Rick recalls seeing how the U.S. Military had napalmed Atlanta and Beale calls them monsters worse than the walkers. Beale explains that the CRM - as the Pennsylvania National Guard at the time - was able to stop the military from bombing Philadelphia, the city that would eventually become the Civic Republic through sacrifice, luck, calm and Okafor. Beale reveals to the surprised Rick that Okafor had been a part of the U.S. Air Force, and he was supposed to bomb the city, but Okafor instead bombed 4,000 Marines staging at Lincoln Financial Field and he switched sides. Rick states that he did too in a way and Beale states that Rick and Thorne wouldn't have been let into consignment let alone the CRM, but Okafor made a compelling argument. Beale decides to ask Rick a question, although Beale doesn't expect him to answer and nor does Rick have to: is Okafor up to anything that he should know about. Rick lies that Okafor is not, pleasing Beale with his answer. Beale asks how Rick survived and he simply responds that it was through sacrifice. As Rick tried to escape four times, Beale wonders why he's here, if Rick wants to kill, to die, or if all of this is just another attempt to escape. Rick tells Beale to look in his eyes and tell Rick what he thinks. After a moment, Beale decides to just sit and share the view with Rick for awhile.

In a flashback to their meeting, Okafor warns Rick and Thorne that the CRM's latest modeling shows a tipping point and there's a reckoning coming soon. They might be asking why they can't just turn away, but sometimes one person, sometimes two, have the power and the responsibility to change everything. They'll see it, face it and Okafor knows that they'll make the right choice when that defining moment comes. Time passes and Rick goes over maps of an abandoned chemical plant, plays poker with Thorne and puts down another zombified soldier, collecting its body.

Rick visits Esteban, who has been promoted to Water Manager of Ward 3, in a Civic Republic park. Esteban asks where Rick's consignment jacket is and how he's even here if it's not a furlough day before realizing that Rick has joined the CRM. Rick shows Esteban the map that he was going over and asks his friend where the tunnel under the manhole goes. Esteban is reluctant to help him, but Rick is determined to get home or to die trying. Esteban pointedly "doesn't tell him" that the tunnel will take him due east to a junction about a mile out with a padlocked grate that can be opened with the code 4399. Esteban admits that he gets it, but Rick doesn't have to die so he urges Rick to survive.

Rick dons his uniform and dog tags, puts a bullet on a string, dons a duffle bag, and joins a resource mission to the chemical plant. Rick breaks off from the others, unfurls the walker body from his bag, cuts off its hand and plants his dog tags on it, intending to use the corpse to fake his own death so that he can get away. Rick climbs over a fuel truck, using two flashing devices to draw a herd next to it, and then opens the manhole by placing the bullet through the hole in order to get leverage. As Rick prepares to use a grenade to detonate the tanker, a walker bites him in the arm, although Rick is protected by his suit. Rick takes out the walker and another one that approaches him, only to find a little girl covered in walker blood behind her. The little girl screams in fear and runs into the walkers, and after a moment Rick decides to go after her, dropping the grenade down the manhole instead. As Rick struggles with one of the walkers, the rest of the herd is gunned down by Thorne, who had seen the whole thing, with a silenced pistol.

Thorne kicks Rick his helmet as a man announces over the radio that the mission is complete and the tablets that they had collected are loaded. Rick calls in that they've found an evacuee to take to the extraction point, but the girl reveals that one of the walkers that Rick had killed was her mother. Thorne reassures the girl that Rick is a good man and that they're from a good place that they are all going to go back to. Looking at the manhole, Rick asks Thorne for help, but she tells Rick that she is helping him by stopping Rick. "He would've found you and whoever you're running to. He knows about you, Grimes," warns Thorne. Reluctantly, Rick leaves with Thorne and the little girl.

In Okafor's apartment, Rick confronts him at blade point, demanding to know what Okafor knows about him. Okafor quotes Rick's message in a bottle that he had thrown into the water during escape number three. Okafor went to Rat Island after Rick was recaptured and found the note as well as looking through the phones, recognizing that the woman on them is who Rick is trying to get back to, but the child is Rick's daughter. Rick demands to know who else knows, but Okafor simply tells him that Michonne is an unusual name and if the CRM starts a search for her around where they picked him up, they'll likely find her. Okafor suggests that killing him will help Rick's chances and maybe he shouldn't have told Thorne that he knows things about Rick, but Thorne tells him things. The CRM would've sent Okafor to find Rick, clean up his mess and finally erase Rick. Because Rick is his charge, Okafor is the one who would have to kill him and Michonne and anyone else that Rick ran to out there just because he knows about the Civic Republic.

Recalling passing the blood covered Okafor and watching the heavily armed helicopter take off, Rick insists that he doesn't care why Okafor is covered in blood, why the bombs go out and don't come back because this isn't his city, and these aren't his people. However, Okafor argues that Rick does care because everyone alive are his people. Rick furiously yells that this isn't everything and Okafor doesn't get to choose for the world or for him. Okafor states that he didn't make the choice, Rick did, but Rick states that his wife, his daughter and his life is his choice. Rick didn't go through everything that he has and did what he did to let anyone else choose anything for him. Okafor reiterates that Rick made the choice, but Rick accuses that Okafor only lives for those people in that city because you he has nothing else but his duty, percentages and yields, A's and B's.

Losing his temper, Okafor overpowers Rick and furiously tells him that he lost everything. "I bombed Atlanta, and I bombed Los Angeles, and I was en route to do the same to Philadelphia! Estelle -- a Marine named Estelle -- that was my wife, and she didn't wanna have to go in to "liquidate" all the people I didn't manage to liquidate. We didn't wanna see, Rick, another city die for nothing! And I had power, and I had a choice. And I killed my wife... and 4,000 other people. And we saved hundreds of thousands, maybe the whole world with her choice. I tried with you, Rick. I tried."

Apologizing, Rick slashes Okafor's arm and they engage in another brief fight before Okafor grabs a gun. Rick begs Okafor to either let him go or kill him, but Okafor refuses and puts his gun away. Okafor tells Rick that his loved ones are still with him, but Rick fights here now, he fights for them, and Rick already made the choice. Pouring them both a drink, Okafor tells Rick that he's moving Rick and Thorne to Logistics, and they are going to help convert a college in the Cascades into a forward operating base over the next 12 months making it battle-ready for the Frontliners. All top CRM commanders will convene a summit there in one year to open the base. Rick and Thorne will be project leads on the conversion team and this is them getting in and starting on the path to the higher echelons of power. While Rick doesn't want power, he already has it.

Several helicopters take off from the CRM base, drawing Rick's interest as he drinks in his apartment before Throne bursts in. Thorne turns on the news where a news anchor is reporting that Omaha had missed a scheduled rendezvous with Portland and the Civic Republic, causing Beale to send a CRM reconnaissance mission to ascertain the status of Omaha, discovering that Omaha, one of the three surviving cities on the continent, has fallen and with it nearly 90,000 people. Initial surveys showed a collapsed section of the city's permitter barrier which will be investigated by the CRM in the coming weeks to determine if it was pressure from a herd that caused it. An emotional Thorne tells Rick that the people of Omaha should've seen it coming because they let people know where they were, suggesting that people did it. While Thorne doesn't know who did it, she does know that the Civic Republic is alive, and Omaha is dead. Thorne is more sure than ever that secrets work, and this is the answer. The Civic Republic is the place that will create the future, and Portland needs to follow their lead.

Thorne reveals that the girl Rick had saved at the chemical plant had lived in a museum with a group, including her parents - the first two walkers that Rick had put down by the manhole - where they hunted, grew mushrooms and built fences before one day, the dead got inside, and everyone died. The girl survived by hiding under a giant sculpture with the walkers - the people that the girl had known - tearing themselves up trying to get to her, causing the girl to get covered in their blood and organs. When the girl couldn't take it anymore after two days, she stepped out to die, but the walkers didn't attack her because she was covered in walker blood and guts. With no one left and nowhere to go, the girl just walked with the herd and tried not to make a noise so that she could hide until the girl met Rick and Thorne who put down her group. Rick, Thorne and the girl all want to be somewhere else with someone else, but they all got stuck in the right place. Thorne is sure that Rick is going to see that some day and she's not sorry that she stopped him from escaping and saved Rick's life even when he didn't want it to be saved. Finishing Rick's drink and breaking the glass, Thorne quips that "at least there's one more good man in this world, hmm? One more good man to try and save the world... whether he wants to or not." After Thorne leaves, Rick sits listening to the news broadcast and contemplates committing suicide with a shard of the broken glass, but he can't go through with it after remembering some burning fields.

The next morning, Rick gets up and writes a final letter to Michonne which is narrated along with the other letters that he wrote to her through a series of voiceovers: "I always thought I would wait to tell you everything when we were finally back together, that it'd just be a story on the porch after the sun went down, when we could barely see each other, but I have to tell you now. Not everything. I can't face everything. This is most of it, but all of it, it was always about getting back to you. What happened on the bridge, I didn't think I'd survive. And I woke up in a military hospital. An army found me, a force of thousands, protecting a working, hidden city of hundreds of thousands. Security and secrecy above all. That's the army's code. So, no one can leave ever. The city governs itself completely separate from the military. But it follows that one rule, that law from outside the walls. The people they rescue, they work in the outskirts, killing walkers for energy or growing food or managing water, the waste. After six years of it, they get into the city, away from the army, from the outskirts. They're called consignees. And I was one of them, but I was never gonna go in, I was gonna get away. I was gonna get back to you. God damn it, I was. First time I tried, the army didn't know what to do with me. Because no one tries to escape. No one wants to. Would they put me in jail? Kill me? A Lieutenant Colonel named Okafor, he convinced them to keep me a consignee, and I kept trying to escape. But I couldn't. I couldn't get back to you. I kept trying to get away, so they put me on a leash when we went out into the world. I couldn't get away. I couldn't get back to you. I was trapped. Okafor protected me because he said he saw something in me. He wanted me to join his program, to join their army, to use my life for them. He put it this way: "I keep on telling you. For people like us... there's no escape for the living." He wanted to change things, change the army without them even knowing it. And he wanted my help to do it. I'd play along, but it wasn't my fight. Early on, the army had found two other cities, Portland and Omaha. Not as big, not as sophisticated, and not keeping themselves secret. All three cities became an alliance, even though two don't know where the third is. The world is so much bigger than we knew, Michonne, so much better, and so much worse. Everything was about secrets. The army kept the city a secret at all costs. Everything the army did was secret to the city. And then there were the soldiers with those blood-red stripes keeping what they did a secret to the whole force. Secrets on secrets. And the only thing I cared about was holding onto mine. After all the years of training and the talks with Okafor, playing the good soldier, I found a way back to you. It was a faraway mission,.. a resource run to an abandoned chemical plant. I got a walker body, cut off its hand... left it with my dog tags. The corpse would burn. "There's no escape for the living," so I had to make sure they thought I was dead. I thought about ending it, just stopping it all. But then -- then it would just be nothing, wouldn't it? All of it for nothing, but I still decided to die. I've been writing you letters the whole time, reaching out, to feel something, writing just to imagine you could read them. This my last one, the last letter I write to you that you'll never see. I love you. I don't see the dead anymore, or the ones I lost, or the sun, the sky, or the water. I don't see you anymore. I just see what's ahead. Metal rotors and gun oil and blood. What I have to do, what I can do to help save the world, even if you don't know I ever did that. I love you so much. I love you so, so much. I tried. Please just know I tried. I tried... but I failed."

At the ruins of the Cascade College, Rick and Thorne clear out walkers and transform it over time into a forward operating base for the CRM. A tearful Rick, now fully accepting his role in the CRM, later burns his phones and letters to Michonne.

In another dream, Rick sits with a pizza waiting for Michonne, offering to share it with her or to return to his miserable job. Michonne admits that she does like pizza, but she orders Rick to shut up about his misery as he's not stuck anywhere. Michonne isn't where she wants to be, but she's not stuck either. They can make this whole world theirs if they want to. Rick suggests that he could come there one day with five pizzas and a wedding ring, an idea that Michonne likes. As they kiss and Michonne tells Rick that she believes in him, the dream turns into a nightmare with Michonne catching on fire and Rick reliving bad memories ending with the bridge explosion.

In the present, Rick flies Okafor and four of his men up the coast and a concerned Okafor asks if Rick's alright as he's been unusually silent lately. Rick admits that he's been thinking about a night when he was 7 years old when Rick went to get some water because he was thirsty, and he couldn't sleep. Rick saw through the kitchen window that the family's crops were burning outside, scaring Rick so badly that he couldn't move. Rick's father then showed up to get him out, half of his body burnt and looking like a monster. Rick's father told him that he didn't need to be scared, that it was just the burning, that the flames were protecting the plants for the next harvest and while it may look like the end of the world, it was really just the beginning. Rick's father was so certain and steady that it made him calm, and Rick believed him. Rick's father survived and he was okay, and it was okay. The Grimes family got a new barn and a new house and the harvest the next year was the best it ever was. Years later, after Rick's father died, his mother revealed to him that it wasn't lightning that started the fire, but Rick's father. The farm was going to fail and what Rick's father did saved it and them. The truth just rocked Rick because Rick had thought that his father was the most honest man he knew. "My mother said what he did wasn't right. She said that the scars and the pain, it just reminded him... that he saved us."

Rick agrees to join Okafor's cause and Okafor tells Rick that he knows that Rick is the right thing for this force and this plan. If they succeed, there will be no more A's and B's and no more Omahas. Okafor admits that he still doesn't know how it's all going to work out so he's going to tell Rick one more secret: "when you get to that point... swear on the sword. Don't let it take. You'll know. Trust me, you'll know." Suddenly, a projectile shoots through the helicopter's window and into Okafor's chest. As Rick orders Protocol Three, the projectile detonates, blowing Okafor up. The helicopter is hit by several more explosions and crashes as Rick frantically calls in the situation and their location.

Activating his beacon, Rick orders the Frontliners to prepare to engage, but two more explosives fling the men to the ground, killing two and stunning Rick and two others. A figure armed with a katana finishes off the other two men and disarms Rick, only to stop after removing his helmet. The attacker turns out to be Michonne who removes her mask and Rick and Michonne stare at each other in shock, reunited for the first time in years.

Other Cast

Co-Stars

• Alexis Rae Forlenza as Little Girl
• Karma Jenkins as Hannah
• Les Trent as Anchor

Uncredited

• Norman Reedus as Civic Republic Resident
• Dejay Roestenberg as Little Girl's Mother
• Alexandra Lopez Galan as Consignee
• Stephanie McIntyre as CRM Frontliner
• John Martineau as CRM Frontliner
• Olivier as CRM Frontliner
• Genoveva Rossi as Walker
• Blade as Siggard Family Horse (Archive Footage)
• Moses J. Moseley as Mike (Archive Footage)
• Theshay West as Terry (Archive Footage)
• Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes (Archive Footage)
• Tom Payne as Paul Rovia (Archive Footage)
• Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon (Archive Footage)
• Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee (Archive Footage)
• Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier (Archive Footage)
• Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes (Archive Footage)
• Maggie Grace as Althea Szewczyk-Przygocki (Archive Footage)
• Justin Hall as CRM Soldier (Archive Footage)
• James Armstrong as CRM Soldier (Archive Footage)

Deaths

• Little Girl's Father (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
• Little Girl's Mother (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
• Estelle Okafor (Confirmed Fate)
• Mr. Grimes (Confirmed Fate, Pre-Apocalypse)
• Donald Okafor
• 4,000 unnamed U.S. Marines (Confirmed Fate; 3 Zombified)
• All unnamed members of the little girl's group (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Possibly, Zombified)
• 3 unnamed Frontliners

Trivia

• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Rick Grimes.
• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Michonne Grimes.
• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Anne. (Flashback)
• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of Johnathan Beale. (Flashback)
• First appearance of Pearl Thorne. (Flashback)
• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of the Civic Republic of Philadelphia.
• First appearance (in The Ones Who Live continuity) of the Civic Republic Military.
• Only appearance of Donald Okafor. (Alive)
• Only appearance of Esteban Garcia. (Flashback)
• Only appearance of Hannah. (Flashback)
• The title of the episode, "Years", refers to the years that Rick spent at the Civic Republic.
  • The titles of the first three episodes, "Years", "Gone", and "Bye" are a parallel to the premiere of the TV Series, "Days Gone Bye".
  • This episode was originally revealed with the title "Scrim From the Bottom".
• This episode was shown in advance at a premiere on February 7, 2024.
• The opening contains flashbacks made up of scenes from The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
• The opening credits reveals that the Civic Republic's full name is the Civic Republic of Philadelphia. Texas and parts of the surrounding states are also depicted on a map as being covered by a large circle with a radiation symbol in the middle, reflecting the Nuking of Texas in Fear the Walking Dead.
• It's revealed that the "he" that the CRM pilot mentioned in "Rest in Peace" was the person who had told Rick that "there's no escape for the living", Donald Okafor.
• It's hinted by Okafor that the CRM might be somewhat aware of the existence of Alexandria Safe Zone, and to a lesser extent the Hilltop Colony, the Kingdom, the Sanctuary, and Oceanside.
  • Okafor hints that they may be aware of those locations due to a combination of Rick's note and tracking where he came from based on where they picked him up.
  • It's also possible that Anne may have told the CRM about the communities after she joined them.
• Okafor hands Pearl and Rick copies of the book The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba.
  • Morgan Jones received a copy of this book from Eastman and later gave it to Nick Clark.
• Robert O'Hara and Luba Mason were initially set to appear in this episode; however both characters were cut from the episode, despite still being credited.
  • Luba Mason's agent confirmed in a comment on his Instagram post that her character's name was "Willow" before removing the comment.^[3]
  • The name of Robert O'Hara's character was never revealed.
• The episode garnered over 3 millions views in the first three days since the episode was released, including AMC+ subscription views.^[4]
• There's a deleted scene taking place in a hospital between Rick and Okafor after Rick had cut off his hand.

Comic Parallels

• Rick amputating his hand and getting a prosthetic is loosely based on events in the Comic Series.
  • In Issue 28, The Governor cuts off Rick's hand.
  • In Issue 127, Rick is shown having a prosthetic hand.

Episode Highlights

• Rick cuts off his left hand in an escape attempt.
• The significance of A's and B's are finally explained by Okafor.
  • "A" refers to strong people, leaders, who are willing to die for what they believe in. A's are not allowed to enter the Civic Republic and are taken away to be killed. They are taken to the Civic Republic Research Facility in Ithaca, New York to be used for study in combating the virus as walkers. The only A's ever allowed into the CRM are Rick and Pearl Thorne due to the influence of Okafor who saw them as the key to changing the CRM from the inside.
  • "B" refers to everyday people who are just trying to survive. These people are taken in by the Civic Republic and placed into their consignment program.
• The CRM is revealed to have originally been the Pennsylvania National Guard who managed to save Philadelphia from Operation Cobalt with the help of Okafor who was an Air Force pilot who bombed 4,000 Marines sent to "liquidate" everyone who survived the bombing.

References

v · d · e Episodes of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Season 1	"Years" • "Gone" • "Bye" • "What We" • "Become" • "The Last Time"
Episode Guide: TV Series • Fear • World Beyond • Tales • Dead City • Daryl Dixon • Webisodes