Warning! SPOILERS for The Walking Dead season 10 and comics ahead!
The Walking Dead season 10 finally has Michonne and Ezekiel lock lips, but their kiss is not what the show's season 10 trailer led many to believe. The long-running AMC series has never had a strict focus on romance, but the relationships between its many characters are key to its appeal. Since the season 10 premiere, The Walking Dead has teased a few new romances, like Luke and Jules and even Carol and Daryl, but it was the tease of Michonne and Ezekiel from its earlier trailer that really sent fans wild.
Both Michonne and Ezekiel have been in romantic relationships before, of course, though neither end particularly well. After years of watching each other's backs, Rick and Michonne took their relationship to the next level in The Walking Dead season 6, but it tragically came to an end with Rick's "death" in the bridge explosion in season 9. Ezekiel and Carol wed during season 9's time jump, but following the gruesome murder of their son, Henry, Carol calls it quits. There's still a chance for either relationship to be salvaged - Rick is alive out there, and Carol and Ezekiel could reconcile - but hinting that Michonne and Ezekiel would next get together seemed to suggest to otherwise. After all, that's precisely what happens in The Walking Dead comics.
It's old news that AMC's The Walking Dead has taken liberties with its adaptation of the comics, but a major difference between the two are the romantic couplings. Instead of either Rick and Michonne or Carol and Ezekiel, it is Michonne and Ezekiel who enter into a relationship during the war with the Saviors. It's a rocky relationship, and during the following time jump, Michonne leaves for that solitary life at sea as Carol did in the TV show. Not longer after this, Ezekiel is killed by Alpha and has his head placed on a pike at the border, leaving Michonne distraught. Obviously, the timeline of events doesn't match up with The Walking Dead TV series, but inserting a clip of Michonne and Ezekiel kissing in the season 10 trailer had fans all but convinced the two would become romantically linked just as they are in the comics. Only, that isn't what happens at all.
In The Walking Dead season 10 episode 4, "Silence the Whisperers", Michonne comes upon Ezekiel out by himself as she, Judith, and others are traveling to Hilltop. Disturbed by seeing Ezekiel ride out into the woods alone, Michonne follows and finds him on a cliff side, clearly thinking about ending his life. Michonne gets Ezekiel's attention and has him step back from the ledge, at which point, he embraces and kisses her - creating the exact, tantalizing moment used in The Walking Dead's season 10 trailer. They pull back from each other, startled, and Ezekiel apologizes, blaming it on him not being in his right state of mind.
Michonne and Ezekiel's kiss was a marketing trick all along, but it was a great one that played with audience expectations based on what's previously happened in The Walking Dead comics and the currently single situation of both characters. Even better, though, the scene itself is a wonderful moment between two characters who haven't shared a lot of screen time. In discussing her grief and how she's struggled to remain strong since losing Rick, Michonne is able to comfort Ezekiel and assuage his own fears and doubts. The Walking Dead season 10 may not be giving fans the romantic relationship between Michonne and Ezekiel that was initially teased, but it is deepening the friendship between the two in an important way.
The Walking Dead season 10 continues next Sunday, November 3rd with "What It Always Is" at 9pm/8c on AMC.