Are you team Rick/Jessie or Rick/Michonne? Maybe you’re team Who Cares?!? In any case, a lot of people have been wondering when Rick was going to hook up with someone. His wife has been gone for quite a while now, so when he arrived in Alexandria and met Jessie it seemed like a sure thing. Jessie did have a husband in the way, but he seemed more interested in beating her than being nice to her, so if she’s affected by his death at all, it’s likely due to the children. So, are they going to team up, or aren’t they?
According to executive producer Scott M. Gimple, the pair haven’t been interested in having sex, because they are really just concentrating on trying to survive.
It’s also worth noting that it might be a little out of character for Rick to jump right in the sack with Jessie given his current life changes. Rick and the group have been living as nomads for quite some time. Having a bed and what is supposed to be a non-threatening, stable living environment could throw them all off kilter a bit. As Gimple puts it, “They’re going to live wholly as human beings – physically, emotionally, sexually – but they are coming out of a very long journey where they weren’t exactly living like people. So there’s a transition there.”
While Gimple chose not to confirm a potential hook up between Rick and Jessie, he did say you could call her a “love interest.” He went on to say, “There’s a connection on a lot of levels. But Jessie does have her own story and her own arc. Rick is part of that, but Rick is not the arc. It has everything to do with how desperately she wants to become a survivor and someone who can protect her family on her own. She’s not looking for someone to do it for her.”
While none of us know what the future hold for Rick and Jessie, I have to commend Gimple on pointing out that Jessie’s story might include Rick, but it’s not about him, and most importantly, he is not the arc in her story. Too often, you see this happen and it’s nice that in a world as strong as The Walking Dead, that the writers have made an effort to write female characters that are strong, capable, independent bad-asses, whether they are in relationships or not.