#TOWL Revelings complete ✓😇

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL Master List

The Ones Who Live: Episode 1 - Episode 6

Episode One - “Years” 🪓

#1: The Hand (1.01)

#2: The Dreamgirl (1.01)

#3: The Getting Back To You (1.01)

#4: The Bench (1.01)

#5: The Eager (1.01)

 #6: The Gone (1.01)

#7: The Choice (1.01)

#8: The Last Letter (1.01)

#9: The 5 Pizzas & A Wedding Ring (1.01)

#10: The Burning (1.01)

Episode Two - “Gone” 🗡

#11: The One & Only  (1.02)

#12: The Building (1.02)

#13: The Recovery (1.02)

#14: The Magnetic Reunion (1.02)

#15: The Going (1.02)

#16: The Secret Rendezvous (1.02)

#17: The Danger (1.02)

Episode Three - “Bye” 🚁

#18: The Broken Bliss (1.03)

#19: The Bad B (1.03)

#20: The 'Poison' (1.03)

#21: The Getaway Plan (1.03)

#22: The Trouble in 'Paradise' (1.03)

#23: The Portrait (1.03)

#24: The Helplessly Devoted  (1.03)

#25: The Irresistible (1.03)

#26: The Crazy (1.03)

Episode Four - “What We” 👑

#27: The Timeout (1.04)

#28: The Big Reveal (1.04)

#29: The Malfunction (1.04)

#30: The Story of the Brave Man (1.04)

#31: The Heart Rip (1.04)

#32: The Safety (1.04)

#33: The Push (1.04)

#34: The Trapped (1.04)

#35: The Buildup (1.04)

#36: The Ressurection (1.04)

#37: The Good Kind Heart (1.04)

#38: The Scars (1.04)

#39: The Love of My Life (1.04)

#40: The Living Dead (1.04)

#41: The Loving Memory (1.04)

#42: The Fuel (1.04)

Episode Five - “Become” 💍

#43: The Good Life (1.05)

#44: The Family Gifts (1.05)

#45: The Son's Best Friend (1.05)

#46: The Never Letting Go (1.05)

#47: The Lovebirds & The Snake (1.05)

#48: The Wedding Plans (1.05)

#49: The Final Deal (1.05)

#50: The Dream Come True (1.05)

#51: The Mr. & Mrs. Grimes (1.05)

Episode 6 - “The Last Time” 🧨

#52: The Ring Finger (1.06)

#53: The Dossier (1.06)

#54: The Missed (1.06)

#55: The Future Generations (1.06)

#56: The Real CRM (1.06)

#57: The Father (1.06)

#58: The Fearless (1.06)

#59: The Eternal Love (1.06)

#60: The Cure (1.06)

#61: The Happy Ending (1.06)

#62: The Happy Beginning (1.06)

[whateverisbeautiful]

Obviously obsessed with everything you write and love how you get all the subtleties and nuances in TWD & TOWL. I'm just rewatching TWD and it's so interesting Rick's relationship with Lori and especially when they're on the run and find the prison. He really actually does seem to hate her on rewatching it and the guilt he feels afterwards doesn't feel like love but just that he feels guilty about being "disloyal" to her - like I don't think if she had lived they would have ever gotten back together. Her betrayal of him, not just with Shane, but how she doubts him constantly and the final one being when she pulls away from him after he tells her he killed Shane. It's such an interesting difference from how he truly loves Michonne and even tries (lol) to pull away from her in TOWL. Your perspectives on Rick's love interests (including stupid Jessie ::eyeball:: which I still don't fully get to this day) would be so good to read if you ever had a chance

Thank you!! 💕 Oh those two ladies’ names will be making an appearance in some upcoming ep4/ep5 posts because I definitely have thoughts. But this message made me want to share some now too. I completely agree that Rick and Lori would have split had she lived. By season 3 they both knew the marriage was over a long time ago and it was just a matter of finally accepting that. 

And that’s spot on how the betrayal from Lori had so many layers to it, even beyond Shane. Especially her constant doubt in him. Whenever I see scenes from early TWD several things always hit me about the Rick and Lori dynamic and so I wrote them out right here⬇👌🏽:

#1: Rick and Lori loved each other like relatives but not like spouses. It truly seemed to be a marriage rooted so much more in duty/tradition than passion/and genuine organic connection. And just simply enjoying each other as people - sometimes it seemed like they both had to push themselves to even do that.

That’s another thing I love about Richonne: they love each other so passionately and they also really really like and enjoy each other. Michonne truly likes the way Rick shows affection and the way he thinks, expresses himself, leads, jokes, tries, and walks (😏). And Rick, I mean he likes, enjoys, and reveres every facet of Michonne as a person. 😇

#2: I always interpret that Rick and Lori were perhaps influenced by “small-town syndrome” as a high school couple who were expected to settle down and start a family quickly after graduating.

In my head, I envision that Lori might have even been more interested in Shane when she was a teen, but he was a womanizer so she went with Rick who was far more husband material. But then once Shane started playing Family Man at the end of the world, Lori felt Shane finally had everything she desired from him, and she wasted no time letting him replace Rick in her and her child's life.

#3: The revelation that always makes me so sad for Rick is that deep down Lori wanted Shane to be the one left standing when things inevitably came to blows between Rick and Shane. On my rewatches I see that more and more.

I think she knew that if Shane lived it would be the 'neater' option for her. She’d already accepted losing Rick when she thought he was dead in a coma. So if Rick was out of the picture again, she could just go back to how it was before Rick “came back from the dead.” Shane could raise the baby they all knew deep down was his, she could be with the man she actually felt a spark with, and Carl was really close with Shane, so she could go back to having Shane acting as a dad to her son too.

And most of all, where Rick was extremely loyal and devoted to his family and the group, I think Lori preferred the way Shane would feel loyal and devoted to her and Carl above the group. Not realizing that Rick does prioritize family, just in a more healthy way than Shane, who would likely recklessly screw over the group in his attempts to protect Lori and Carl, which would have ended badly for everybody. And with Lori’s affinity for traditional gender roles, I think she resonated more with Shane’s stereotypical display of masculinity and had more trust that he could protect her over Rick.

#4: I really think that part of why Rick doesn’t look at Lori when he tells her that he killed Shane is because he knows what he’s going to see in her eyes when he tells her. He knows he’s going to see, even if for a brief second on her face, that Shane being the one left alive is the outcome she actually wanted, and that she had fallen in love with him. Lori might have even hated herself for feeling that she preferred Shane live instead, but I think that’s still how she felt.

And since he still is going to be committed to protecting her as the mother of his child and a member of the group, it's like Rick was trying to avoid having the damaging image of Lori’s disappointment etched in his brain since he still had a job to do in keeping her alive and safe.

However, it turned out that Rick didn’t even have to be looking at her face, because her reaction to the news was so intense that he still probably knew full well that Lori’s attachment to Shane went a lot deeper than they wanted to admit.

#5: There’s a lot of emotions clearly boiling beneath the surface within Rick when they find the prison in season 3. I think he hates a lot about their situation but is trying to not let that turn into hating Lori, even if he doesn't exactly like her. I do think Rick and Lori have love for each other in s3 but Rick knows they are not even a little bit in love with each other.

He also knows what’s left of this marriage is pretty beyond repair, and I think maybe part of the guilt he feels is that he doesn’t want to try to repair it either. After all of Lori's hurt, lies, betrayal, he's understandably done.

I agree how a lot of his post-Lori guilt had more to do with things outside of just love. Like feeling guilty that he had mentally pulled away from her without the two getting closure. And he's a dutiful and responsible person so of course it would eat away at him that he wasn't able to save his wife, even if in so many ways he no longer viewed her as a wife but more like Carl's mother.

On the phone with imaginary Lori, Rick tells her how he had been waiting to open the door and finally address everything with her because he first had to focus on securing a home base for them. So he feels guilt that they both tabled those necessary conversations about their crumbled marriage too long and now they'll never get to have them. He feels guilty that he didn't at least communicate that he loved her even if he wasn't in love with her. And he feels guilty that he "couldn't put it back together."

Fortunately tho...Rick met someone who could 😇...