Michonne's Walking Dead Exit Explained: What Happened & What Comes Next

The Departure of Michonne

Danai Gurira left The Walking Dead after the season 10 episode 'What We Became,' and there were instantly questions about where Michonne went. While Michonne returned in the TWD finale, there's still intense speculation about what she was doing during her absence from the show

Michonne in The Walking Dead season 10 in a dark room, looking scared and angry.

Michonne left Maggie, Daryl, and the rest of the survivors to find Rick, who had been absent since season 9. Both Rick and Michonne were included at the end of The Walking Dead season 11, though the brief appearance didn't reveal anything about where Michonne had been. While many viewers were hoping for Rick and Michonne to reunite with Rick's daughter Judith or connect once again with Maggie or Daryl, it was instead revealed that Rick was on the run from the Civic Republic Military (CPM), and Michonne was still searching for him. Rick and Michonne are all but guaranteed to reconnect when The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live debuts in February 2024, and hopefully the spinoff will reveal exactly where Michonne went after leaving TWD in season 10.

Michonne And Rick On The Couch In The Walking Dead Season 6

Michonne's Final Episode

Before she returned in the series finale, Michonne's final episode of The Walking Dead came in season 10, episode 13, 'What We Became'. Having sailed with Virgil to the island where his family is, they arrive to find the naval base abandoned. Very quickly, Michonne begins to suspect something isn't right, and her suspicions are soon confirmed when she learns Virgil's family is dead. The weapons she was promised are also nowhere in sight. Realizing she's been lied to, things take a strange turn when Michonne begins hearing other voices in the compound. When she goes looking for their source, Virgil traps her, locking Michonne in a room overnight.

Michonne and Rick touching foreheads on The Walking Dead

Michonne learns the truth from other people who once lived and worked at the naval base with Virgil until he locked them up too. Virgil was welcoming to newcomers, but soon revealed his true, malicious intentions. One evening a riot broke out, and in the chaos, Virgil locked all the doors to the building — only he didn't realize his family was still inside. Virgil served breakfast to Michonne, only to tell her he'd drugged it with a hallucinogenic. She experiences a psychedelic vision in which she's first visited by Siddiq and then imagines her life if she had never saved Andrea or met Rick, instead joining up with Negan and the Saviors where she's seen wielding Lucille. Once Michonne awakes, she attacks Virgil and gets his keys. As she's freeing everyone, Virgil runs off and burns their boat. Though incredibly angry, Michonne shows Virgil mercy but demands he returns her belongings. As Michonne collects her things, she sees Rick's cowboy boots, the pair he's been wearing since season 1. She demands Virgil show her where he found them, and he leads Michonne to a ship that washed up on the island. Inside, she finds an old smartphone with Rick's name, illustrations of Judith and her, as well as some Japanese writing engraved into its glass screen. This is when Michonne finally realized that Rick is alive. Michonne radios Judith Grimes, revealing to her that the 'brave man' might be alive, and she's off to find him.

letters campfire walking dead michonne rick

After Season 10 Michonne Heads To New Jersey Michonne wasn't killed off in The Walking Dead, but she never fully returned to the show between season 10 and the series finale. Where exactly she's going at the very end of 'What We Become' was unclear at the time, but her mission was obvious — she is trying to find Rick. The only clue she had, however, was the ship's manifest referring to the New Jersey Shipyard. That in itself wasn't much to go off of, but Michonne is a resourceful survivor, and if any group well-stocked enough to send a ship from New Jersey to Virginia is still hanging around the shipyards, she'll find them. This is, of course, assuming Michonne doesn't run into any trouble with the new group, but because this is The Walking Dead, trouble with a new group seems all but guaranteed. It had been six years since Rick was taken away in the helicopter, so there's no telling exactly when it was in those six years that he was on the ship. Also, if he managed to come this close to Alexandria, why didn't Rick just go home? The group that took Rick away was identified in an episode of Fear The Walking Dead as the Civic Republic Military.

Michonne and Rick look at each other in The Walking Dead

Michonne's Return and the Upcoming Spinoff

Originally, the Rick and Michonne The Walking Dead reunion was supposed to happen in a series of movies. That has all changed. Instead, the Rick and Michonne The Walking Dead property will be a new spinoff series titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, one of three TWD spinoffs set after the events of season 11. The Rick and Michonne spinoff is due to arrive in 2024, and has been described by AMC as an 'epic love story.' What awaits Michonne and Rick remains to be seen, though it's clear their story on The Walking Dead isn't over yet.

Michonne and Rick have a laugh in the mud in The Walking Dead