The Walking Dead: Will Andrea Return for Michonne’s Final Story in Season 10B?

Will The Walking Dead bring back Laurie Holden‘s Andrea as part of the sendoff for Danai Gurira‘s Michonne? In the final episode for Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, a bloodied Rick hallucinated key figures from his past, including ex-best friend Shane (Jon Bernthal) and mentor Hershel (Scott Wilson) before imagining a pile of corpses filled with familiar faces. Before Gurira exits The Walking Dead, Michonne will experience similar echoes from the past: we’ll once again see Michonne backed by a pair of leashed walkers in a throwback to her time with Andrea, and Season 10B will flash back to early days Michonne some time before — or during — the events of Season 3.

The series has a history of bringing back characters who have died, typically through flashback or dream and hallucination sequences. Shane, Hershel, Beth (Emily Kinney), Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), the Governor (David Morrissey) are just a handful of characters who returned after their deaths, whether it be during a revisiting of past events or as “ghosts” witnessed by a character who is under stress or dying.

Trailers for the second half of Season 10 reveal at least one Michonne flashback set prior to the events of Season 3 Episode 3, “Walk With Me,” where Michonne was forced to cut down her walker “pets” to prevent being discovered by the Governor.

Michonne’s look in the upcoming flashback resembles how the character appeared in the Season 2 finale, where she was portrayed by a stand-in when rescuing Andrea from the burning Greene family farm overrun by walkers, and Season 3, where Michonne spent much of her time with Andrea before fleeing the dangerous Woodbury community.

Unless the flashback is set during the period before Michonne and Andrea spent the winter surviving together between Seasons 2 and 3, it could be an opportunity to include a key figure from Michonne’s past in her exit story. After avenging the late Andrea by stabbing the Governor in Season 4 Episode 8, Michonne remembered Andrea when opening up about her traumatic past with Carl (Chandler Riggs) in Season 4 Episode 16, “A.”

“I was gone for a long time,” she said. “But then Andrea brought me back. Your dad brought me back. You did.” Interestingly, that episode was co-written by current showrunner Angela Kang, who earlier revealed the death of close friend Siddiq (Avi Nash) will play into Michonne’s final story.

As Michonne confronts recent events and her past, the time is right for one last scene between Michonne and Andrea.

Holden last appeared on The Walking Dead in 2013 episode “Welcome to the Tombs,” where Andrea committed suicide to prevent reanimating after suffering an incurable walker bite. The actress in past years criticized the death, saying it was a last-minute script change put into motion by then-showrunner Glen Mazzara. Holden wanted Andrea to kill the villain, taking issue with his “victimization” of the terrorized Andrea.

In comments made in 2019, Holden again expressed disappointment with Mazzara’s handling of Andrea, saying aboard Walker Stalker Cruise she will “always be grateful” future showrunner Scott Gimple stepped in to redeem the character before her death.

“Do I wish that there had been more time? Yeah, absolutely. Do I wish that I could have been part of storytelling where the man that was victimizing the woman actually didn’t get away with it? 100 percent,” Holden said. “But it is what it is, and I love what I was part of.”

The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with new episodes Feb. 23 on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.