Sumith Prasad
AMC’s post-apocalyptic series ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ takes place years after the presumed death of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes in the ninth season of ‘The Walking Dead.’ Although the finale of the mothership series confirms that Rick hasn’t died as his loved ones believe, the episode doesn’t clarify how many years have passed since he disappeared from the “bridge” or where he is. The series premiere of the horror drama sheds light on the timeline of some of the most pivotal events that unfold in Rick and Michonne’s lives but without clarifying where they really are! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mysterious Civic Republic
‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ takes place in the Civic Republic, arguably the largest settlement or survivor community in ‘The Walking Dead’ universe with around 250,000 residents. It is a highly authoritarian community with a high-end military, which is known as the Civic Republic Military of CRM. After leaving his loved ones, Rick Grimes ends up in the Civic Republic. The community immensely believes in secrecy to keep itself and its members safe, which leads them to not allow any of the residents to leave the group, trapping Rick within the mysterious civilization. While ‘The Ones Who Live’ is tight-lipped about the exact location of the Civic Republic, another spin-off series ‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’ has left enough clues about it.
The Civic Republic is located within a fortified Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ever since the community’s introduction in ‘The Walking Dead,’ the fans have been trying to figure out where the group is located. A part of the same even considered the possibility of the community being based in a foreign country. However, the second season of ‘World Beyond’ revealed that the “Republic” is within Philadelphia. In the finale of the show, a main character named Silas Plaskett is taken to the Civic Republic for him to become a CRM officer. While he talks to Pollyanna McIntosh’s Jadis Stokes/Anne, who is also an integral part of the narrative of ‘The Ones Who Live,’ two iconic Philadelphia skyscrapers can be seen: One and Two Liberty Place.
The skyscrapers also feature in ‘The Ones Who Live,’ especially while Rick sits by a river, talking to Esteban. Since the Civic Republic is based in Pennsylvania, co-creator of the series and the chief content officer of ‘The Walking Dead’ franchise Scott M. Gimple asked Angela Kang, who served as the showrunner of the mothership series towards the later years, to not set the post-apocalyptic drama in the state. Thus, Kang had to set the introduction of Paola Lazaro’s Juanita Sanchez AKA Princess in a different region despite the character being found in Pittsburgh in the source comic book series of the same name.
“No, it’s not supposed to be Pittsburgh. We took a different path. The comic book destinations, we were mapping and we’re like, ‘Pittsburgh does feel a little out of the way.’ And also, there was a request from [‘The Walking Dead’ chief content officer Scott Gimple] from the universe side to sort of avoid that area, and so we are on a different path,” Kang told ComicBook.
The Timeline of The Ones Who Live
Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes disappears from ‘The Walking Dead’ universe for the first time in the ninth season of the original series. In a significant episode, Rick encounters a herd of hundreds of walkers, only for him to lead the undead to a bridge believing that the structure will collapse due to the weight of the zombies. When the bridge fails to fall, he realizes that he needs to sacrifice himself to destroy the herd. He uses a fallen dynamite to blow the bridge up, unintentionally making the others believe that he is dead as well. However, he is saved by Anne/Jadis. This incident happens around 2013.
The narrative of ‘The Ones Who Live’ begins five years after the incident at the bridge, which makes it clear that Rick loses one of his palms in 2018. A year then passes before he joins the Civic Republic Military under the guidance and pressure of Donald Okafor, the Lieutenant Colonel of the CRM, which takes the narrative to 2019. A few months may have passed by the time Rick decides to move on from his past and the memories of his loved ones to become a fully committed CRM soldier.
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