The following post contains spoilers for last night’s episode of Walking Dead
After last week’s explosive action-filled Walking Dead midseason premiere, this week was positively staid. There was some minor action, the introduction of a new character and a new power couple! This episode jumped ahead two months after the massive zombie torching to reveal that Michonne is living with Rick, Carl and Judith and that Carl has recovered from getting his eye shot out. There’s no word as to how all those piles of zombie bodies were disposed of, nor do we learn about Rick and Michonne’s intimate living situation – until the end of the episode when they hook up. It’s presented as the first time they get busy as there’s some awkward hand-holding preceding it. (You can read a full recap on AMC’s site.)

Some twitter users are questioning why Rick was so quick to find another girlfriend, but it’s been two months since Jessie died. We know the timeline because Danai Gurira was on Talking Dead last night (Nathan Fillion was the other guest) and said that the group has been able to settle and get toward a sense of normalcy in the interim. On Talking Dead, Gurira explained why she thought this was the time for Rick and Micchone to hookup. #Richonne!

These are two characters that are not going to fall for each other until they really have, they’re not going to preconceive it so it really has to be the right moment. I think this episode was definitely that moment because they actually had time to be mundane, to like live in those just day to day details that you miss when you don’t get to have them. They got to settle in and have some domesticity.

Gurira also explained that Michonne has always lived in the house with Rick and Carl, in the downstairs bedroom while Rick was upstairs. She said her character went through “a lot of moments that allow her to become more emotionally available” after all the trauma she’s had in her life. The catalyst to allowing Michonne to open up, according to Gurira, was finding zombie Deanna and helping her son, Spencer, put his mother to rest (apparently Deanna helped Michonne figure out what she wants) and also talking to Carl on the porch. She said that Rick had changed too, and was “embracing people” and really listening to them, which is something Michonne had been pushing him to do. She joked that “women always want to see a man change” and later said “it really felt like the right place for them to end up.”

They had Andrew Lincoln on in a pretaped interview and he said after reading the script with Rick’s hookup with Michonne he thought “my mom is going to be so thrilled.” He added that “it was such a great episode to shoot. We did the kiss scene and after I did the kiss I went ‘it’s a lot more fun working with you than Norman.'”

After hearing Gurira explain it like that, I’m not as against this hookup as I first was. It makes a lot of sense for the characters in that they grew into a romance. Still, I’m worried for Walking Dead. #Richonne could easily be a “jump the shark” moment. What’s next, couples dates with Abraham and Rosita? (How did that reunion go anyway?)

As for the new character, Jesus, he has some incredible combat and escape skills and he’s sneaky and crafty with a sense of righteousness. I can see him becoming an asset to the group.

Photos credit AMC: Gene Page