Rick Grimes’ injury in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Episode 1 explained

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live catches audiences up to what Rick Grimes has been doing the past few years, and something’s different. Or rather…missing.

Rick Grimes has been through a lot. After awaking from a coma and finding his entire world destroyed by a global outbreak, he has to step up as a leader, a father, and a husband. This is the basis of The Walking Dead, the series that put zombies back on the map.

Now, Rick has returned in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The spinoff explains what he’s been up to since exiting in Season 9 of the main series. Let’s just say…it hasn’t been easy for him.

Namely, the new show gives fans one thing that they’ve been waiting to happen to Rick for years now. Here’s what you need to know about Rick’s injury in Episode 1 of The Ones Who Live. Warning: Major spoilers ahead!

What happened to Rick in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Episode 1?

In the first episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Rick cuts off his hand during an escape attempt from the CRM.

In Episode 1, Rick is sent along with other CRM consignees to take out some walkers in the woods. They’re strapped to leashes that keep them tethered to the guards, but Rick manages to get out of sight. It’s there that he takes his axe and cuts off his hand. Bloody and traumatized, he also cauterizes the wound.

Sadly, it’s all for nothing, as he falls unconscious and is recaptured.

Later in the episode, we’re also shown that Rick is able to continue with his work in the CRM, including training to be a solider. He’s also treated with a prosthetic stump that has a retractable blade, perfect for walker-killing.

Does Rick lose his hand in The Walking Dead comic book?

Rick losing is hand is an event famously depicted in the comic books on which the show is based, but it never actually happened on-screen.

After years of speculation, the end of the series came and went, and it was clear to fans that Rick made it out the other side with all his limbs.

Many found this confusing and disappointing, since the incident is one that played a pivotal role in Rick’s character development. It would even become a well-known piece of imagery from the comics down the line.

Image Comics

However, as The Ones Who Live drew closer, there were plenty of theories suggesting that this might be it. Well, those fans were correct. The opening scene of The Ones Who Live Episode 1 shows Rick losing his hand while trying to make a run for it.

That said, the events that lead to Rick losing his hand in the comic book are very different. In the book, he loses it at the hands (heh) of The Governor. It all happens in Issue #28, when The Governor is trying to get information out of Rick, who refuses. In the series, this Rick inflicts the amputation on himself purposefully.

…Both ways sound as bad as each other, honestly.

To catch up on The Walking Dead, find out how to watch The Ones Who Live here.