If you were watching The Walking Dead back in 2018, you probably remember the sheer panic in the fandom. Rumors were flying. Andrew Lincoln was spotted at airports. Then came the official word: the cowboy was hanging up his hat. But for anyone binge-watching now or just trying to piece together the messy timeline of the CRM, the big question remains: when does Rick leave TWD and, more importantly, how did they actually pull it off without killing him?
He doesn't just wander off into the sunset. It’s a violent, hallucinatory, and honestly pretty polarizing exit that happens way earlier in the series than most people expect.
The Exact Moment: Season 9, Episode 5
Rick Grimes makes his final appearance as a series regular in Season 9, Episode 5, titled "What Comes After."
It’s not a season finale. That’s what trips a lot of people up. Usually, a lead character departure is saved for a massive mid-season or season-ending cliffhanger, but AMC decided to drop this bombshell just five episodes into the ninth season.
The lead-up is brutal. In the previous episode, Rick is thrown from his horse and impaled on a rusted piece of rebar. Yeah, it's as painful to watch as it sounds. He spends his entire final episode slipping in and out of consciousness, bleeding out while trying to lead a massive walker herd away from the construction camp. It’s a trip down memory lane, featuring cameos from Shane (Jon Bernthal), Hershel (Scott Wilson), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green).
The Bridge and the Explosion
The "death" scene happens at the bridge the communities were building. Rick realizes the only way to stop the herd from reaching his family is to destroy the bridge. He looks at the dynamite, mutters "I found them" (referring to his family), and pulls the trigger on his Colt Python.
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Boom.
The bridge goes up. The walkers fall into the river. Daryl, Michonne, and Maggie watch from the banks, absolutely devastated. To them, Rick Grimes died a hero’s death in a fiery explosion.
Wait, He Didn’t Actually Die?
If you stopped watching the second the screen faded to black, you missed the twist. Down the river, Anne (formerly Jadis) is waiting for a helicopter from a mysterious group. She sees Rick’s body washed up on the shore. He’s alive, though barely.
She radios the pilot, claiming she has a "B" (not an "A"), and convinces them to pick him up. The last shot of Rick in the main series is him hooked up to an IV on a helicopter, flying toward a horizon we wouldn't see again for years.
Why Andrew Lincoln Walked Away
It wasn't about the money or "creative differences." It was about the commute.
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Andrew Lincoln is British. The Walking Dead filmed in the humid, mosquito-infested woods of Georgia for eight months out of every year. By the time Season 9 rolled around, Lincoln had been doing this for nearly a decade. His kids were getting older, and he was tired of being away from his family in the UK.
He actually planned to leave in Season 8, but he stuck around a bit longer to make sure the transition to a Rick-less world felt right.
The Aftermath of His Departure
When Rick left, the show took a massive gamble. Immediately after the helicopter flew away, there was a six-year time jump. We saw a grown-up Judith Grimes wearing her dad's hat and carrying his gun.
Honestly? The show struggled. Rick was the moral compass. Without him, the vacuum was filled by characters like Daryl and Carol, but the ratings definitely took a hit. Fans wanted closure, and "What Comes After" left them with a massive, unresolved mystery that wouldn't be fully addressed until the series finale and the subsequent spinoffs.
The Long Road to The Ones Who Live
For years, AMC promised a trilogy of Rick Grimes movies. Those never happened. Instead, the story evolved into a six-episode limited series called The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which premiered in 2024.
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If you're looking for the "true" end to Rick's story, you won't find it in the main show. You have to jump over to the spinoff to see:
- What happened to him at the CRM (Civic Republic Military).
- Why he couldn't just "walk home" to Alexandria.
- How he and Michonne finally reunited.
Quick Facts for the Timeline Obsessed
If you're trying to keep the facts straight, here’s the breakdown:
- Rick’s Departure: Season 9, Episode 5.
- Final Cameo: He appears in the very last minutes of the series finale (Season 11, Episode 24) in a teaser sequence.
- The Return: He stars in The Ones Who Live (2024).
It’s worth noting that even though Rick "left" in 2018, the character's shadow hung over every single episode until the series ended in 2022. The search for Rick is what eventually drove Michonne off the show in Season 10, too.
What You Should Do Next
If you just finished Season 9, Episode 5 and you're feeling that "Rick-shaped hole" in your heart, don't give up on the franchise yet.
- Watch the rest of Season 9. It introduces the Whisperers, who are arguably the creepiest villains the show ever had.
- Keep an eye out for Michonne’s exit. She leaves in Season 10, Episode 13, and it directly sets up the search for Rick.
- Jump straight to The Ones Who Live. If you only care about Rick and Michonne, you can technically skip the later seasons and go right to their spinoff, though you'll miss a lot of context regarding the Commonwealth.
Basically, Rick didn't leave because he was bored of the apocalypse. He left because he was a dad who wanted to go home, and he left the show in a way that allowed it to keep breathing—even if it was a little bit gasping for air for a while.