A couple of weeks ago, Michonne was written out of The Walking Dead, with the impetus for the character’s exit being that she’d discovered evidence that long lost lover Rick Grimes was actually alive somewhere out there. We won’t see Danai Gurira again on the show (but maybe in the movies), as Michonne’s gone off in search of “the Brave Man,” and though young Judith Grimes know the truth of why her adoptive mother has left, she’s deciding not to tell anyone.
In season 10’s fifteenth episode, “The Tower,” Judith tagged along with Daryl Dixon while he went to check that the woods around the survivors’ safe house were secure. After an altercation with a Whisperer spy, who Daryl kills, a troubled Judith comes clean that Michonne got in contact and told her that she wouldn’t be back right away. The girl apologizes for keeping this from him for so long, but admitted that she didn’t want him to leave, too.
Interestingly, though she partially comes clean, Judith only tells Daryl a half-truth and makes no mention of the specifics of Michonne’s mission to find Rick. It’s left unsaid why she’s holding this back, but there are a couple of reasons that would make sense. For one, the mature part of her may be trying to spare Daryl the pain of hoping that his friend is still alive, when Michonne stressed to her that she doesn’t know if he is anymore, just that he survived his apparent death seven years ago.
It’s much more likely, however, that the real reason is the one Judith gives Daryl – she was scared he’d leave, as well. What if she told him about Rick and he chased after Michonne, to join in the search? Judith may be incredibly tough for her age, but she’s still very young and has had multiple loved ones leave her. Of course, she doesn’t want that to happen again and as such, we can certainly sympathize with her, despite how much we want Daryl to know about Rick’s survival.
The Walking Dead season 10 concludes with episode 10×16 “A Certain Doom” sometime later this year on AMC.