Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. As Rick has moved to the cast of The Ones Who Live, a sequel series, if you have not seen the eleven seasons of The Walking Dead read at your own risk!

Richard D. "Rick" Grimes

"They're fucking with the wrong people." ^note "screwing" in the broadcasted version

Portrayed By: Andrew Lincoln^{Foreign voice actors}Juan Amador Pulido (Spanish dub), Marco Antônio Abreu (Brazillian Portuguese dub), Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese dub), Viktor Neumann (German dub), Tanguy Goasdoué (French dub), Christian Iansante (Italian dub), Filip Blažek (Czech dub), Zoltán Rajkai (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 1-9, 10^note Hallucination/flashback (archive footage), 11) | The Walking Dead Webisodes: Cold Storage^note Photograph | Fear the Walking Dead (Season 4) | The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Debut: "Days Gone Bye"

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anyone gets in the way of that is gonna lose."

The original main protagonist of The Walking Dead, who has so many tropes he has received his own page.

Rick was a sheriff's deputy before the outbreak alongside Shane, but was shot and ended up in a coma. He awoke in the hospital weeks after the outbreak began, and quickly learned of the walkers. He headed to Atlanta looking for his family, and found them in a camp outside the city, where he became the leader of the survivors. While starting off idealistic, the events of the show have forced Rick to become more ruthless and pragmatic, and he will not hesitate to kill any threat, walker or human, to the group. His relationship with Lori severely degraded, as he learned of her affair with Shane and is forced to kill him once he becomes a threat due to his jealousy of Rick.

Following the move to the prison and the conflict with Woodbury, Rick's mental state grew increasingly unhinged, a problem compounded by the death of Lori during the birth of their daughter Judith. Following the end of the battle against Woodbury, Rick stepped down from his leadership position to focus on raising Carl and Judith in the growing community of survivors at the prison. When The Governor returns with a vengeance, Rick was forced to take up command and embrace his darker side once more.

After leading his group through conflicts with the survivors of Terminus and Grady Memorial Hospital, Rick and his people joined the community at Alexandria. Finding them weak and unsuited for life in the apocalypse, Rick made plans to take over and harden the survivors, but ultimately Rick was humbled when they proved their loyalty and mettle to him in a great battle with a massive walker herd. Taking leadership of the community and entering a relationship with Michonne, Rick regained hope for the future. His newfound confidence proved to be his downfall when he grossly underestimated the threat of the Saviors, and was forced to submit to Negan. Initially willing to suffer subjugation, Rick realized the Saviors would never honor any peace and formed a rebellion out of the Saviors' slave states to make good on his promise to kill Negan someday. The war took heavy casualties, none more dire than Carl, who asked for Rick to spare Negan's life. Rick ultimately honored his son's dying wish and began leading the united communities into a new era of peace.

Despite Rick's best efforts to maintain the peace between the five communities, a year and a half later, the survivors were once again on the brink of war due to lingering bad blood, particularly from Rick's choice to spare Negan's life. It took Daryl and Maggie going behind his back to make Rick realize he may have made the wrong decision, but undeterred, Rick sacrificed himself to destroy a herd of walkers threatening the communities. Rick was on death's door until he was rescued by Anne, and spirited away on a helicopter by a mysterious unknown group. Six years pass, and Rick has yet to return home...

---

Tropes #-F

• 10-Minute Retirement: Repeatedly. The world just won't let Rick Grimes take a break.
• Abandoned Hospital Awakening: In the pilot episode.
• Abled in the Adaptation:
  • His right hand was chopped-off by the Governor in the source material. That never occurs in the show, though it is teased several times. The first episode of The Ones Who Live sees him cut off his left hand in a bid to escape the CRM.
  • In the comics, the All-out War storyline concludes with Rick getting his right leg permanently injured by Negan. The show's version has Rick literally standing tall over the antagonist.
• Achilles in His Tent:
  • After Lori's death, he snaps and goes on a walker killing spree. He later gets a bit better... but, after he sees Lori's hallucination in "The Suicide King", he spends most of the next episode doing "stuff" when in reality, he had been wandering around, looking for a sign for Lori. After Hershel gives a heart to heart and then The Governor does a surprise attack, Rick finally springs back to action. It takes meeting with the now crazed Morgan for him to get back to his full senses.
  • Between Seasons 3 and 4, Rick has rejected all forms of leadership or fighting, trying to live as a simple farmer providing for the survivors. This ends by the episode "Infection".
  • Negan's killing of Abraham and Glenn forces Rick to essentially give the Saviors what they want. It's not until Spencer and Olivia are also killed that Rick gets back into action.
• Action Dad: Justified as he is a cop.
• Adaptation Deviation: In Season 9, he is Put on a Bus and removed from the Alexandria region’s story, something that never happened in the comics.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Rick's hair is dirty blonde in the comics.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Compared to the comics, Rick takes Lori's death much harder to the point that he suffers from a severe case of Sanity Slippage. He improves somewhat by Season 4.
  • In the comics, Rick is shaken by Negan's introduction and the murder of Glenn, but he only pretends to submit to Negan to keep Alexandria safe while he makes plans to take down Negan. In the show, Rick puts up no act — Negan really does break him and Rick tries to convince everyone that doing this is the only way to survive. He finally regains the will to fight halfway through the season when he sees that despite his efforts, his friends are still being hurt by the Saviors.
  • Unlike the comics, Rick's worries comes true with the death of Carl in Season 8.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Played straight at first, but it keeps getting Double Subverted since the Season 2 finale. By Season 3, he is more close to his comic counterpart until his Heel Realization by the end of that season. In Season 4, he re-Took a Level in Kindness, thus playing this straight once again until the Season Finale where he finally embraces his Anti-Hero self. From Season 5 onward, he's very much like his comic counterpart.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: His primary weapon is his Colt Python unlike the comics where he more prominently uses a hatchet. The red-handled machete does appear from Seasons 4-6, but is lost when the Saviors claim it during a tribute.
• Advertised Extra: In Season 9. A lot of the promotional art for the season (as well as the cover of the DVD) depicts him front and center, which might lead one to think he plays a far bigger role in the season even though he is Put on a Bus at the end of the fifth episode and doesn't return. Granted, he does play a pivotal part in all five episodes he does appear in, but it's still a smaller role compared to other characters who do appear in every episode or almost every episode, like Daryl and Michonne. It's understandable considering it's Rick's final season on the show and he'd been the unquestionable main protagonist up to that point. What's more, his absence still lingers on the characters long after he's gone, making him a Small Role, Big Impact in terms of the season's overall story.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He's finally broken by Negan when he nearly forces him to cut Carl's arm off, and he uncharacteristically begs and pleads to him until Negan is convinced that he's been pacified.
• Anti-Hero: As the series progresses, Rick becomes more pragmatic and unscrupulous, as he seems more and more willing to pull the trigger if it means keeping the group safe. It eventually gets to the point where he's exceedingly brutal with enemies and more than willing to kill someone or leave them for dead if he even considers it a possibility doing otherwise could threaten the group, and other characters often have to act as his Morality Chain. This being an exceedingly dark series though, he's still sometimes fallen to the point that he's nearly a Villain Protagonist. He remains sympathetic at these times only because his enemies are even worse, most being monsters who happily Kick the Dog and cross the Moral Event Horizon every chance they get. By the time they get their dues, you may be wishing Rick was crueler.
• Anti-Villain: Is this at his absolute worst points. Rick wants nothing more than to keep his family and friends safe, and he's willing to do anything it takes to ensure that. And in a world full of flesh-eating corpses and gun-toting psychos, it's not unheard for Rick to sometimes lose himself while trying to protect his loved ones.
• Apologetic Attacker: Inverted with Shane. Rick lays the blame on Shane for his own death, but only because Rick clearly can not deal with the guilt on his conscious of killing his best friend in self-defense.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He is a sheriff's deputy prior to the zombie outbreak.
• Audience Surrogate: He serves as one in the pilot episode, as he is a person unexperienced with the Zombie Apocalypse who has to come to terms with the new world, much like how the audience must be introduced to the premise and setting of the show.
• Ax-Crazy: Takes a level in this after Lori's death, although it is subsequently reversed after Rick has time to grieve. Although this side of him can come out if he's stressed enough or utterly pissed.
• Back for the Finale: Rick makes his return in the epilogue of the Grand Finale of the mothership show, finally providing an update on his whereabouts and confirming he’s trying to find his way home.
• Badass Boast: Rick gets one during this exchange with Merle in the second episode:
  Merle: You won't shoot me. You're a cop.
  Rick: All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody gets in the way of that is going to lose.
  • Again in the Season 4 finale.
    Rick: They're going to feel pretty stupid when they find out...
    Abraham: They're going to find out what?
    Rick: They're fucking/screwing with the wrong people.
  • He delivers one again after Negan's kill.
  "Not today, not tomorrow... but I’m gonna kill you."
• Bash Brothers: Formerly with Shane and then with Daryl starting Season 3.
• Battle Couple: With Michonne starting the second half of Season 6.
• Beard of Sorrow: Initially keeps it shaved, but as the tragedies pile up (and as he has less access to shaving utensils), he lets it go.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: One of the reasons why he went to rescue Glenn. When any survivor shows him or his family decency, he accepts them as family — proven by his almost instant acceptance of newcomers Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita.
• Berserk Button: Suggesting he cannot protect his family (be it his wife and children, or any of his extended family) will quickly get you on his bad side. Becomes more prominent with each passing season as he loses many of those close to him, making Rick even more determined and ruthless in protecting those he has left. In Season 7, when Spencer mocks Rick over Glenn and Abraham's deaths, he threatens to break his jaw. In the same episode, though he's spent the entire episode quietly submitting to Negan, he finally begins to snap when Negan brags that he wants to take Maggie, who he recently made a widow, as one of his wives, but thankfully Gabriel arrives and defuses the situation.
• The Berserker:
  • After the death of Lori, Rick proceeds to grab an axe and goes off to slaughters most of the walkers by himself, not to clear out the prison but to exact his rage upon them.
  • When Jessie and her sons are devoured by a horde of walkers and Carl is shot in the eye, Rick retaliates by rampaging through the herd.
• Berserker Tears: When Lori dies in Season 3, and then again in Season 7 when Abraham and Glenn are brutally murdered by Negan.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: In the pilot, he almost shoots himself when the tank he's taken shelter under is completely surrounded and walkers begin crawling towards him. He solemnly says, "Lori, Carl... I'm sorry"... and, before can he pull the trigger, looks up and notices a hatch above his head...
• Beware the Nice Ones: Rick is likely one of the most good, if not nice characters in the show, but hitting one of his berserk buttons will end you.
• Big Damn Reunion: Rick has had several powerful moments where he reunites with his loved ones after a prolonged period of time.
  • With Lori and Carl in "Tell it to the Frogs".
  • With Judith, who was presumed dead in the prison attack, in "No Sanctuary".
  • With Michonne in the first two episodes of The Ones Who Live.
  • With Judith in the finale of The Ones Who Live, and this is also where he meets his son RJ for the first time.
• Big Good: He grows into this role by Season 4, after showing shades of it in Season 3. He becomes the Big Good of Alexandria in Season 6 when Deanna realizes she is no longer fit to lead the community, and later shares the role with Maggie (and to a lesser extent, Ezekiel) in Season 8 during the Savior War. In Season 9, he becomes the Big Good to the entire Washington region of the five allied communities, especially due to becoming a war hero after defeating Negan. His apparent death helps shatter the bonds the communities have forged and it takes over half a decade for everyone to finally come together again.
• Big "NO!": When the Governor swings at Hershel's neck with Michonne's katana.
• Bond One-Liner:
  • "Shut up." - Bob Lamson
  • "...What?" - Ethan
• Break the Haughty: The entire Season 7 premiere is this for a Rick who had become increasingly overconfident and ruthless in the way that he ran his group (particularly with his approach to the Saviors, attempting to kill them all in one battle without even considering gaining more intel on them first). When he and his core group are completely at the Saviors' mercy, Negan spends the entire episode mentally torturing him, showing him the price of his arrogance.
• Bring My Red Jacket: By most of Season 3, Rick has worn a shirt that has been covered in walker blood (caused from his walker rampage after Lori's death) that has changed from its brownish color to a more reddish one.
• The Cameo: He appears in the Fear the Walking Dead fourth season premiere, trying to convince Morgan to return home with him, and unfortunately inspiring him to just outright leave the region.
• Cartwright Curse: Both his first wife, Lori, and his budding girlfriend, Jessie, are dead by the middle of Season 6.
• The Cassandra: Had the others listened to him about going back to Terminus and finishing off its survivors, they wouldn't have had cannibalistic psychopaths trailing them.
• The Chains of Commanding:
  • As the series goes on, the burdens on him as the leader of the group grow, leading up to the declaration of a Ricktatorship at the end of Season 2. Rick feels that having to mediate between the constant squabbling and infighting in the group when making decisions is doing no good since they now question his leadership abilities after everything he has sacrificed for them, so he rants at them that from now on, they follow what he says without question.
  • However, at the end of Season 3, he realizes the toll that this is taking on his mental state and tells the group that he can't keep making decisions for them anymore, and that they will decide together what to do from then on.
  • It comes up again in Seasons 5 and 6 after the group arrives in Alexandria. It takes a while for Rick to accept that he's no longer in charge of everyone, and Michonne even has to give him a sharp bump on the noggin to prevent him from attacking the Alexandrians at one point. When he does take charge of everyone, he has to deal with the pains of suddenly having a few dozen survivors who have never had to really defend themselves before, and shows favoritism to his experienced Atlanta group, only causing more friction. Deanna and Michonne have to spell it out to him that they are his responsibility as much as his original group.
  • In Season 9, though he does a better job at hiding it than before, it’s clear he’s uncomfortable with being revered as a quasi-folk hero after ending the Savior War, and has to deal with the politics and drama of hundreds of survivors, least of all the Saviors who surrendered. Being in charge of so many people unfortunately also means he can’t quite devote as much one-on-one time with his people, including his veteran friends and family, and in true manager fashion, this sometimes means he becomes ignorant of how they’re actually feeling. He is surprised when Daryl decides to leave the Sanctuary, even though Daryl spent an extended period of time there as a tortured slave; he’s clearly surprised at Maggie’s hostility to providing basically free supplies to the Saviors and later insists she was coming around to them despite the fact many of them still treat her like shit; and like Michonne, he has tragically underestimated just how damaged his best friends are from his decision to spare Negan. If Rick had been allotted more time to deal with his group one-on-one, it’s likely things would’ve never have gotten as bad as they did and led to the chain of events that resulted in his apparent death.
• Character Development: The show as of Season 6 can be divided into two eras based on his development.
  • The first era focuses on Rick coping with the horrors of the world and ultimately failing to remain a Martial Pacifist. When he realizes he's becoming too dark, he tries to dial it back by going back to being a humble Nice Guy. However, after the loss of Hershel, Rick ultimately realizes that his mission in life is not allowing his brutality to dominate over his humanity, or vice versa; Rick's mission is that of a balance between his humanity and brutality. He becomes a mix of the best of both Hershel and Shane, making him into the Rick Grimes his family needs him to be in the world.
  • After spending half of Season 5 Out of Focus, his second era of development begins in the second half of that season when the group comes to Alexandria. Deanna tries to inspire some optimism in him, but Rick mostly ignores her, believing she and her community are far too weak to change. When Deanna cedes control of the town to him, he has little patience for the townspeople, but ultimately is proven wrong about them when they help him fight off the herd in the Battle for Alexandria. Rick reflects that he's now got something he hasn't felt in a long time: hope for the future. Everything Deanna had said was true: Alexandria is a genuine chance to rebuild civilization and the world - and he's now ready to lead his expanded family into that future. Rick develops into a man who's never been more hopeful about the future, someone with the drive to rebuild and save his world. This carries on for the remainder of his tenure on the show, as the Saviors are the threat to his future he combats and defeats before helping everyone find peace.
• Character Tic: He tends to hold his left hand at his side when he's firing his guns one-handed. It's very easily seen in "Days Gone Bye" when he's running to meet Glenn in the alley, and "Wrath" when he's running up to Negan. - Rick actually develops more character tics as the seasons progress. He develops a habit of making very explicit death threats to people who wrong him. He also picks up Shane’s old habit of twitching his fingers when agitated.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Averted. Rick is declared leader by popular vote the second he shows up at the campsite, despite not really asking for it. He has spent almost every second since questioning whether the decisions he's making from his position are the right ones or not, not to mention the rest of the group asking the same questions. At the end of Season 2, he browbeats them into submitting to his authority and declares the group will no longer be a democracy; late in Season 3, however, he realizes that this is just making things worse and admits this to the group.
• Cincinnatus: Voluntarily steps down from the Ricktatorship and gives control to the Council in between Seasons 3 and 4 so that he can settle down and become a humble farmer.
• Classical Anti-Hero: It's repeatedly demonstrated that Rick simply doesn't want to be the one to hold the weight of so many lives on his shoulders, make the painful choices, and that he would much rather follow than bear The Chains of Commanding. This results in much of his conflict with Shane in Season 2, as well as his Ideal Hero phase in Season 4.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: For Season 1, Rick handles Diplomacy for the group, while Daryl specializes in Combat, and Glenn is the Stealth expert.
• Combat Pragmatist: Increasingly as the series progresses, reaching a climax in the Season 4 finale where he bites out a man's throat to defend his son.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: In regards to Jessie in Season 5. When he sees her walking with Pete, his hand lingers on his gun. Disturbingly enough, this actually makes him resemble Shane in a way.
• Crusading Widower: After Lori's death.
• Dead Person Conversation: In The Ones Who Live, he mentions to Michonne how he kept himself sane by speaking with his late son Carl in his dreams.
• Death Glare: He gets better and better at this as the seasons progress and as his dark side becomes more and more embraced. Just try and tell yourself you wouldn't be scared if he gave you the one he gave to Gareth in the moments before he messily hacked him to pieces.
• Death Wail:
  • Gives one after he kills Shane.
  • In "Killer Within", after he finds out that Lori died during labor. And what a wail it is.
• Determinator: Not only does he manage to find his family in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse after being in a coma for three months, he manages to keep the group mostly intact and forges them into an effective walker killing team.
• Decomposite Character: Where to begin...
  • Following his departure from the show, his role as the leader of Alexandria and the Coalition is divided in various ways between Michonne, Gabriel and Daryl.
  • Daryl largely becomes the father figure to Judith, similarly to Rick and Carl's relationship late in the comics.
  • Over in Fear the Walking Dead, John Dorie was introduced around the time of Rick's departure. Superficial similarities aside, John dies in a manner heavily reminiscent of Rick's own death in the comics.
• Disney Death: To both the characters on the show and the audience, Rick initially looks to have been killed in an explosion that destroys the bridge the communities had been building. The following scene reveals him to be wounded but alive, and he is airlifted to safety and taken to unknown whereabouts by Anne, who does not inform his friends of this.
• Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: Starts displaying this attitude in Season 5, ordering his group to kill anyone who might harm them. It comes back to haunt him in Season 6 when they slaughter an entire outpost of Saviors and Negan murders Glenn and Abraham as payback.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: At the end of Season 2 when the group questions his leadership and him killing Shane.
  Rick: I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together. Alive! I've been doing that all along, no matter what; I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ sake! You saw how he was like. How he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice! He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean. Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe — maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe — Maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't -- why don't you go out and find yourself. Send me a postcard! Go on, there's the door. You can do better. Let's see how far you get. No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Subverted in that he doesn't die, but it would have been a hell of way to go. He leads a horde of walkers across the bridge and fires his gun at a few sticks of dynamite, destroying the bridge and knocking all the remaining walkers into the water. All while rapidly bleeding out from a wound.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything he went through, including eight years of being separated from his family and friends, Rick finally makes it back home and is reunited with his loved ones at the end of The Ones Who Live.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Considering how much shit he goes through protecting his group and keeping them going, it's not surprising that Rick develops a white-hot hatred towards Father Gabriel for betraying his group to Deanna.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he doesn't regret how it allowed him to save Carl, in The Ones Who Live he says biting out Joe's throat and killing him like a walker was the worst thing he ever did to save someone else's life and is still rattled by it.
• Fair Cop: Rick is a handsome sheriff's deputy.
• Farm Boy: He attempts to be this during his 10-Minute Retirement. Obviously, it doesn't last.
• The Fettered: In Season 1 and roughly the first half of Season 2, he's extremely unwilling to allow loss of human life, especially when compared to Shane. He'll still kill other humans if forced to, however. Come Season 3, though, his fetters begin breaking down with his sanity.
• Fighting the Lancer: His conflict with Shane is the driving plot of the second season.
• Firing One-Handed: Rick likes to do this with handguns, specifically when picking off walkers.
• Fish out of Water: When he joins Alexandria.
• Foil: Has one in Shane, the Governor and Morgan. Shane shows the different routes two very similar men could take, the Governor contrasts with Rick over leadership styles and treatment of strangers, and Morgan shows what could happen to Rick without his family and others to support him. Both Morgan and the Governor can be used to compare with Rick on how men cope with the loss of loved ones.
  • The contrast with Shane is particularly evident with Rick's Alexandria storyline. Shane wanted to kill Rick and steal Lori because of a deluded love for Lori and a desire to be group leader. Rick wanted to kill Pete because he wanted to protect Jessie from him, and because it would be objectively safer for the community, not principally due to his feelings for Jessie. But he still gave Pete the chance to settle the situation peacefully.
• A Friend in Need: Rick's reasoning to go rescue Glenn, since Glenn could have easily left Rick to die in the tank but instead risked his life to rescue him.

Tropes G-L

• Give Me a Sign: In "What Lies Ahead", Rick expresses his doubts about his leadership in a church, asking a wooden figure of Jesus for "a nudge... anything... to let me know I'm going in the right direction." When not long afterward his son is shot, he becomes a Nay-Theist.
• Glass Cannon: In unarmed combat. Changes by Season 5 and 6, where he's now shown to be absolutely lethal against multiple attackers, as two Wolves learn the hard way.
• The Gunslinger: Type D, Quick Draw.
• Hallucinations: After Lori dies, Rick begins hearing voices and seeing her everywhere. The hallucinations only persist as he continues to make increasingly questionable decisions as the war with Woodbury escalates - but once the conflict ends and he takes several steps back from the Villain Protagonist he was becoming, the apparitions end.
• Handicapped Badass: Rick is this as of the pilot episode of The Ones Who Live, forcing himself to hack off his left hand in a vain attempt to escape the CRM. The military later gives him a prosthetic with a blade attachment to use in combat.
• Happily Married: Showrunner Angela Kang revealed that Rick and Michonne got married at some point, likely during the 18-month Time Skip between Seasons 8 and 9. This claim ended up being retconned by The Ones Who Live, which reveals that while they were married in all but name, Rick was planning on an official ceremony from Gabriel before his disappearance. In the fifth episode, he properly proposes to her, finally taking her as his official wife.
• Heel Realization: Towards the end of Season 3, he finally realizes what kind of a leader he's been since he Took a Level in Jerkass and starts mending his group, thus ending his "Ricktatorship".
• The Hero: Starts as easily the most unambiguously heroic character in the cast. At first.
• Heroic Safe Mode: After Lori's death, his reasoning more or less shuts down for some time and he goes on a walker killing spree.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Rick pulls one of these on a walker. Of course, it's not like she had any legs to pedal it with.
• He's Back!:
  • After taking the pacifist route throughout most of Season 4, he reminds the audience just how far he's willing to go to protect the people he loves by biting a man's throat out in the season finale.
  • After spending the first half of Season 7 being subjugated by Negan and forced to scavenge for supplies Rick realizes in the midseason finale that he can't allow it to continue anymore after a visit from The Saviors ends with Aaron being brutally beaten, Spencer and Olivia dead and Eugene kidnapped. Rick therefore decides that it is time to fight back as symbolized by him regaining his trademark Colt Python from Daryl.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • With Shane pre-series. Unfortunately, it's a friendship that just wasn't built to last in the apocalypse...
  • With Daryl, from about Season 3 onward. He outright calls Daryl his "brother" in the Season 4 finale, and when the two are reunited midway through Season 7 following Daryl's captivity with the Saviors, they share a bromantic hug.
• He Who Fights Monsters: It's slow and steady, but by Season 5 Rick has become a mirror image of Shane, right down to his Machiavellian leadership style and lusting for a woman married to another man. Also, sharp-eyed viewers can see Rick picking up mannerisms from the antagonists he's defeated, such as using Gareth's hand signals or popping his collar like the Governor. He pulls back from this in "Conquer," however.
• Honor Before Reason: He refuses to break any of Hershel's rules in order to keep the group from getting kicked off the farm, and is even willing to help him capture walkers to put in the barn. This starts going away as life gets worse and worse, however.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Subverted in the first two seasons, as well as the first half of Season 4, when Rick is trying to do good and be a good leader. However, in his more ruthless moments, such as throughout Season 3 and for the remainder of Season 4 and onward, Rick gives out a killer Death Glare.
• Iconic Item: Besides his hat, his Colt Python. His red-handled machete that he uses to kill Gareth becomes one from Seasons 5-7.
• Iconic Outfit: He finally gets a hold of his dark brown jacket/coat from the comics during the second half of Season 4 and immediately starts wearing it.
• Ideal Hero: Actively tries to become this as of Season 4 after taking in Woodbury's survivors. He becomes a farmer and avoids violence, leading by example, in an attempt to salvage his and Carl's humanity . He'll also take in other survivors into the group as long as it is safe to do so. When the Governor shows up with a new group attempting to overtake the prison, he instead pleads that they join the group and simply be peaceful, stating that they can change from the bad things they have done. Unfortunately, this only gets him kicked in the face - he loses Hershel, the prison is overrun, and Rick is left destitute and bloodied for some time after. Deconstructed in that it's only when Rick finally casts aside his self-doubts and restraint that he becomes a truly effective leader.
• The Idealist: At first, though by the end of Season 2 lost. He eventually regains some idealism, such as protecting strangers, by the Season 3 finale.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Uses this justification when he kills Shane, and later lives by this as a philosophy. If he must do something to survive or to protect his loved ones, he'll do it.
• I Lied: In "Still Gotta Mean Something", he promises a group of Saviors who have him and Morgan captured and are reconsidering their decision to escape that they will not kill them and they can all head back to Hilltop in peace. When the Saviors free Rick and Morgan to help fend off a walker herd, the duo proceed to wipe them all out and Rick simply tells the last dying Savior, "I lied" before executing him with a shot to the head.
• Important Haircut: He shaves and has his hair trimmed when he tries to start a new life in Alexandria.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Rick starts as one of the most idealistic and merciful members of the cast, but his personality is darkened severely by his experiences. By the end of Season 3, he's realized how far he is slipping and starts to make amends.
• Inelegant Blubbering: In "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be", when he's begging Negan not to force him to cut off Carl's arm himself. There's even a snot bubble.
• In-Series Nickname: "Officer Friendly" from the Atlanta group, particularly Morales.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite avoiding his comic counterpart's fate of having his right hand cut off by the Governor in their first meeting, Rick still eventually loses one of his hands years later, when he cuts off his left hand in the first episode of The Ones Who Live in a failed escape attempt.
• Jack of All Stats: While Rick is primarily known for his excellent marksmanship, he can handle himself quite well in melee combat.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: While he always had a pragmatic streak, Rick begins questioning any good will given to him after having his trust and hope betrayed repeatedly.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Seasons 3, and from 5 onward, separated by a brief return to his Nice Guy self in Season 4.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In Season 3, Glenn tries to talk to him and comfort him after the death of Lori. Rick's response is to snap at and physically assault Glenn before giving him a psychotic Death Glare.
  • Also in Season 3, he leaves a stranger who is literally begging for help to die in the wilderness, then when he is inevitably mauled to death by walkers, steals his stuff. He's basically one tiny step up from the Governor — he won't actively hunt and kill people just to steal their things, but he's more than happy to allow them to die and steal their things.
  • When Carl tries to pry him away from his fight with Pete, he shoves him away. Still nothing compared to Pete who outright punches his wife when she tries to stop him.
  • In Season 6, he has a large hatred for Father Gabriel after he betrayed them in Season 5. He flatly turns down any attempt by Gabriel to make peace or atone for his actions. While it's understandable that he'd be pissed for Gabriel betraying him after saving his life countless times over, his hatred for Gabriel becomes downright petty as the season progresses, and even Carl is disgusted by his dad's spite.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Whenever he comes across someone who is Obviously Evil or trying to kill him, Rick will gladly Pay Evil unto Evil. A lot of the time it's actually satisfying to see.
• Kirk Summation: The defining moment of his Character Development in Season 4 has Rick attempting to settle the conflict with the Governor peacefully. He pleads that they should live together to avoid any further bloodshed, and declares that people can come back from the bad things they do to survive. The Governor, expecting Rick to instigate a fight, is absolutely irritated and Hershel, the Team Dad, proudly smiles at Rick's change this season.
• Knight in Sour Armor: As of the Season 2 finale, adding to his newfound Good Is Not Nice attitude.
• Knight Templar Parent: Becomes one to Carl in Season 4. Leading by example by becoming a farmer and settling down, he forbids Carl from involving himself in any danger or the use of firearms in an attempt to salvage Carl's humanity.
• The Leader: The Levelheaded type, which people surviving the apocalypse desperately need.
• Leave No Survivors: When Rick sees the hung corpses in the Terminus slaughterhouse. He tells Bob, Daryl and Glenn to spare nobody from Terminus and to not even hesitate to kill... because they won't.
• Living Legend: Triumphing over Negan and ending the Savior War elevates Rick to become a living folk hero amongst the five communities. The Sanctuary is shown to revere him, and his mere presence is able to de-escalate a huge argument at the camp. His apparent death hits the region hard and it takes years for them to come back together. Ezekiel specifically memorializes Rick at the fair, and Daryl makes it clear during the Whisperer War they are fighting to save Rick’s legacy.

Tropes M-R

• Machete Mayhem: Starts using one during Season 3 and a red handled machete is now his other go to weapon in Season 5, after making his promise with killing Gareth with the same weapon. Red Machete confirms that Rick lost it when it was looted by the Saviors in "Service", and later taken by a rogue Savior who himself lost it when he was killed. It's since been found by a woman in the countryside.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: It's never officially been answered whether Judith is his daughter or Shane's. Rick himself firmly believes Shane is the father, but vows to love Judith as his own regardless.
• Man Bites Man: He rips Joe's throat out with his bare teeth after the Claimers have captured him, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl in the Season 4 finale.
• Manly Tears: On a few notable occasions:
  • When he wakes up from his coma and returns home to find his family gone.
  • After killing Shane.
  • Upon learning that Lori has died in childbirth.
  • When Beth is shot in the head by Dawn.
  • Averted when Negan nearly forces him to chop off Carl's arm. See Inelegant Blubbering above.
• Mind Rape: Subjected to this by Negan, who spends an entire night mentally torturing Rick until he breaks and complies with him. Subverted later on because its effects don't necessarily last; Rick still looks at him with remnants of defiance and has to hold himself back from attacking Negan when he comes to Alexandria. Negan, on his part, continues to mock and intimidate Rick to make sure he remembers what happened that night.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Rick isn't very large like some of his other group members, but is still quite strong. He proves that even though he has a slim physique he can still hold his own in a fight with people bigger than him such as Tyreese, Merle, Shane, Pete, and Negan.
• My Greatest Failure: He clearly regards Carl's death as this, lamenting that he wasn't able to protect him as a father should.
• My Way or the Highway:
  • At the end of the second season when he takes full control of the group. declaring there isn't a democracy any longer in the group under him. He reverses course at the end of the third season when he realizes he doesn't want to become like the Governor.
  • In Season 5, he's frustrated when he's outvoted twice, once when the group refuses to turn back and wipe out Terminus, and when Tyreese and Daryl vote to do a peaceful hostage exchange for Beth and Carol. Both of these group decisions backfire, and come the tail end of the season, the only person who really questions Rick is Michonne, the lesson apparently having been learned.
  • Happens again in Season 6. After becoming frustrated with the Alexandrians' naivete, Rick starts to become more and more ruthless about how they should be training and living behind the walls. Michonne urges him to compromise at several points, saying that gradual progress will be better than the immediate resistance his current methods will meet. Rick listens to her, for the most part.
  • In the Season 8 finale, he makes a (hypocritical) decision to keep Negan alive, without asking Maggie or anyone else who has lost loved ones to the Saviors. During the year-and-a-half Time Skip between Season 8 and 9 and up until "The Obliged", he refuses to listen to anyone else and only starts listening when a brawl between him and Daryl escalates into them being trapped in a pit and forced to vent their frustrations to one another.
  • Rick also decides to keep the Saviors alive without asking anyone else. Not only that, but he also makes Hilltop give them food and makes Maggie take the blame and Hilltop's anger for his decisions.
• Nay-Theist: He moves into this territory after asking God for a sign and, next thing you know, his son gets shot, though he phrases it to Hershel as more "trying to stay out of God's way in hopes he'll stay out of mine".
• Never Found the Body: For Michonne and everyone else. They see Rick sacrificing himself and blowing up a bridge as a herd of walkers are coming for him, making it appear that he has died in the process. However, his body is blown out into the river and he is later rescued by Anne, who takes Rick on a helicopter to an unknown destination. Six years later, Daryl is still looking for Rick's body to give him a proper burial.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Due to having been spirited away by the CRM, Rick has missed out on the deaths of many of his friends and allies.
• Nice Guy: Started out as this, being one of the most trusting survivors and having a mission to find his family. But, the stresses of the apocalypse have not been kind to his sanity or conscience. He did make a return to his old self in Season 4... until he met the Claimers, from which point he finally began to balance his normal self with his (usually) crazy self.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His assault on Pete and lashing out at the citizens of Alexandria lands him and his group in hot water.
• Not Helping Your Case: After he beats Pete he tries to convince the Alexandrians that they need him to keep them safe, but he does so by pointing a gun at the civilians and giving them "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Official Couple: He is married to Lori for the first two seasons before her death early into Season 3. He begins forming a relationship with Jessie in Season 6, but she is killed shortly afterward. After a few months, Rick realizes the true extent of his bond with Michonne and they get together in the second half of Season 6.
• One-Man Army: Rick eventually becomes one of, if not the, most dangerous fighters featured on the show. Whether it's a group of antagonistic survivors or a thousand-strong herd of walkers, Rick eventually becomes powerful enough to wade into them with less worries than a duck getting into a pond.
• Our Hero Is Dead: Other than Anne, the rest of his friends and family believe that he died when he blew up a bridge to get rid of a walker horde. Michonne finally gets a lead on his possible survival partway through Season 10. She informs Judith of this, though Judith doesn't actually tell anyone until the series finale, where she reveals the details surrounding Michonne's absence to Daryl and Carol.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Tragically, Carl shoots himself before succumbing to a walker bite midway through Season 8.
• Out of Focus: He doesn't have too much focus in the first half of Season 5, given that his primary arc of accepting his status as an Anti-Hero was completed in the Season 4 finale. This ends in the second half of the season as the group reaches Alexandria.
• Papa Wolf: There's almost nothing he won't do if he feels his family is being threatened. This trait is fully displayed in the Season 4 finale after his son is almost raped, by brutally killing the bastard who attempted to do it. He also rips out Joe's throat with his teeth in order to get to Carl. Not much later, he hacks Gareth to pieces with his machete for strongly implying he's eager to eat Judith.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Becomes his modus-operandi as time passes, starting with putting a machete into Tomas' head for repeatedly trying to get him killed.
  • When the group escapes from Terminus, Rick is the one who insists that they return and finish off any survivors, stating, "They don't get to live."
• Perma-Stubble: Almost a year after his being shot, prior to the Zombie Apocalypse, he still has the same length of stubble on his chin.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • "I hear Nebraska's nice." - Dave and Tony
  • "Yeah. Shit happens." - Tomas
  • "He's mine." - Dan
  • "Besides... I already made you a promise." - Gareth
  • "I'm sorry it had to come to this." - Primo
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: He eventually manages to end all of the conflict in the group and lead them into becoming an extremely effective walker-killing machine.
• Put on a Bus: After surviving a tremendous explosion that leaves everyone thinking he's dead, a heavily wounded Rick is taken by Anne on a helicopter heading to an unknown destination.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After beating up Pete for abusing his wife Jessie, (which never would have happened in the first place if the Alexandrians hadn't been turning a blind eye to said abuse because Pete was their only surgeon), Rick finally gets fed up and calls them out on their stubborn refusal to accept that the world as it was is gone now and to adapt to the new one, no matter how many lives that costs or endangers.
  Rick: "Things don't get better because you... want them to!"
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Shane's Red (Seasons 1 and 2), The Red to Daryl's Blue (Season 3 on).
• Reluctant Hero: An important character trait, even if Rick rarely admits it. He tells Jenner that he has no idea what to do, rants at the group in the Season 2 finale that he was forced to kill Shane to protect them, and eventually resigns from leadership after going mad in Season 3. He eventually is forced back into a leadership role in Season 4 to deal with the new crises, and does away with this trope entirely in Season 5.
• Retired Badass: From the end of Season 3 to the episode "Infection", Rick puts down his gun and becomes a farmer.
• Retired Gunfighter: At the start of Season 4.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Rick's favored weapon is Colt Python revolver pistol, as he was originally a small-town sheriff.
• The Rival: To the Governor, since they don't hate each other enough to be considered arch-enemies. At least until Season 4.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • After learning about Lori's death, he grabs an axe and goes on a walker killing spree.
  • After Jessie is devoured by a horde of walkers and Carl is blinded in one eye an utterly enraged Rick goes into Unstoppable Rage, picks up an axe, and starts carving the horde apart singlehandedly and by the looks of it, winning the fight.

Tropes S-Z

• Sanity Slippage:
  • Starts down that path when Lori dies, compounding his Good Is Not Nice attitude.
  • Hallucinations: In "Made to Suffer", he believes one of his attackers during the rescue mission to Woodbury is Shane.
  • Once again in "The Suicide King", where at the end of the episode, he sees what he apparently believes is Lori's spirit in a cell on the second level of the prison, causing him to completely lose it.
  • Hearing Voices: Hears Amy, Jim, Jacqui, and even Lori over the phone in the room where Lori died.
  • He undergoes Epiphany Therapy after reuniting with Morgan, who after losing his son to his zombified wife crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
  • He's at it again when he snaps at the people of Alexandria and tells them that their society is a lie because he's not like them.
• Second Love: He eventually becomes this for Michonne, as the first man she is known to have been involved with since the death of her boyfriend.
• The Sheriff: Technically just a deputy, but damn if that's not a nice hat.
• Ship Tease: With Michonne and with Jessie in Season 5. He ends up in a brief relationship with Jessie in Season 6 and after her death ends up with Michonne.
• Shoot the Dog: After poking holes in Shane's story about Randall escaping (who was already dead thanks to Shane), which led all the men in a wild goose chase and lured Rick in open field to kill him, Rick stabs him in the heart, killing him.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: He cuts off his left hand to escape the CRM only to stumble due to the shock and having to cauterize the wound, making his escape last only about fifty feet.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: He was in a coma in hospital after being shot. Partly justified by Shane blocking his room's door with a trolley to prevent walkers from entering, and someone in such a position having a small chance of surviving dehydration.
• Smug Snake: Towards the end of Season 6 he becomes extremely cocky when it comes to dealing with the Saviors, and it comes back to bite him big time.
• Sole Survivor: As of Carl's death in "Honor", Rick is now the last surviving member of the original pre-Judith Grimes family.
• Spared by the Adaptation: As a result of his near-fatal Heroic Sacrifice during the events of Season 9, Rick sits out for the rest of the series and is spared from being gunned down by Sebastian as a result.
• Team Dad: Of his group, particularly as the seasons pass and the constant losses of the group's moral centers like Dale and Hershel. He's the one keeping the group together and moving.
• Technical Pacifist: In the first two episodes of Season 4, in an attempt to instill similar values in Carl.
• Time-Passage Beard: His beard becomes longer and fuller as the seasons progress. He eventually shaves it off when the group enters Alexandria, but it returns by the second half of Season 6.
• Took a Level in Badass: In The Ones Who Live, Rick ups his badass credentials by fully undergoing the CRM's combat training, allowing him to hold his own against an experienced Marine like Okafor. He also learns how to fly a helicopter.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Progressively as the show goes on, though dialed back in Season 9 to an extent.
• Took a Level in Idealism: In Season 9, though more due to wanting to honor the late Carl's wishes than having much hope for humanity.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: At the end of Season 2, after killing Shane. He fully gets over it in Season 3, ending the Ricktatorship in the finale. Technically becomes this again in Season 5 as he embraces his Anti-Hero self.
• Took a Level in Kindness: At the end of Season 3. He fully displays this in Season 4.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • He is coldly furious when Gareth gleefully (and loudly) professes an interest in eating Judith, not to mention the other things that he has done, and when Gareth is at his mercy, Rick takes him apart with a machete without changing facial expression.
  • He has a moment of this during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the walker horde. He quietly gets his axe while ignoring Michonne's calls as he quietly walks towards a hungry mob of walkers. But when he fights them he goes into an Unstoppable Rage.
• Underestimating Badassery: He bit off way more than he could chew with the Saviors. At that point he thought the Alexandrians were the meanest, toughest group around and that people didn't know who they were messing with. Then Negan gives him the score.
• The Unfettered: A heroic example in Season 5.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After he convinces a group of Saviors to free him and Morgan to help them to fight the walkers, he breaks his promise and kills all these Saviors (after giving them his word), including the one who has just saved Rick's life.
• Unscrupulous Hero: In Season 3, mixed with Anti-Villain and bordering on Nominal Hero. Returns to a lighter, more emotionally stable version of this in Season 5.
• Unstoppable Rage: Simply put, it is very hard to calm Rick down once he's legitimately pissed off. Talking Dead even named this state, "Beast Mode."
  • When the situation with a belligerent and distraught Tyreese, who had just found the immolated corpses of Karen and David, comes to a head Tyreese ends up getting into a fight with Rick, who flies into a berserker rage and beats him to a pulp.
  • When the Claimers attack and attempt to rape Carl in the Season 4 finale, Rick goes absolutely ballistic and rips out Joe's throat with his teeth in order to get to his son. Once Michonne and Daryl handle the others, Rick personally goes after the child molester and viciously guts him with a hunting knife.
  • Rick spends several moments messily hacking Gareth to pieces, even cutting open his torso and exposing his rib cage, once he's got the smug cannibal under his boot, and hacks one more time even after the guy's clearly dead.
  • Michonne has to knock him out from behind when he goes into a rage fighting Pete to the death. He calms down quite a bit after waking up and having a long talk with her.
  • In "No Way Out," after seeing Jessie and her children die, and Carl's eye shot out, he takes out his axe, wanders into the mega herd and just starts swinging. He racks up a huge body count single-handedly before the rest of the named cast and most of Alexandria come out to help him, which seems to immediately calm him down.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: He manages to get ahold of Lucille and beat Negan with her twice, albeit briefly.
• Villain Killer: Rick has put an end to a number of the show's antagonists, notably Shane Walsh and Gareth. This is surprisingly averted with The Governor and Negan, the two greatest foes Rick ever faces — Michonne stabs the Governor before he can kill Rick and he's later finished off with a headshot by Lily, while Rick makes the conscious choice to spare Negan in order to preserve the integrity of the future Carl wanted him to build. In The Ones Who Live, he kills Major General Beale, the leader of the CRM, and helps Michonne wipe out most of the CRM's leadership.
• Villain Protagonist: Rick comes dangerously close to passing into this category quite a few times over the course of the series as his character gets steadily darker, though usually he and his group are going up against people far worse than him. He especially starts to show this tendency during the group's stay in Alexandria, telling Carol and Daryl point blank that if the people there are weak they'll just take the community by force. He scales it back by "Conquer", however, and Michonne effectively takes up the mantle of being his conscience.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Rick uses a very large, nickel-plated Colt Python, showing that he's an idealist (nickel-plated = shining armor) field leader (pistols demonstrate leader, but the size implies he actually uses it). Very much contrasted to Shane's Mossberg 590. He stops using it when he starts going crazy, but uses it again when he starts getting his act back together.
• Wife-Basher Basher: It sure is satisfying watching him beat Jessie's abusive husband Pete to a pulp in "Try". In the season finale, he shoots Pete in the head without hesitation when ordered to by Deanna (whose husband has just been murdered by Pete).
• You Are in Command Now: Deanna steps down as leader and gives Rick full control of Alexandria in "Now".

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"We're the sword that kills. We're the sword that gives life. One life. One unstoppable life. We're not dead. You are."