Andrew Lincoln has opened up about the deeper meaning behind Rick and Michonne’s intimate scene in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 4. After a near-death encounter with a group of Walkers, the show’s main pair end up sleeping together in a sex scene. During the scene, though, Rick seems unsure, as if he’s uncomfortable being so close to his wife after all these years.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lincoln explained the meaning behind Rick and Michonne’s sex scene in The Ones Who Live episode 4. The actor explained how the scene reflects Rick not wanting to feel love for his wife again, showing just how broken he is because of the CRM. Check out what Lincoln had to say below:

Yeah, I think it is about pain. As Danai just said, it’s about him wanting her and then fearing what he’s about to unlock again. He gets to sort of articulate it in the scene further in the episode, when he gets to say that ‘I can’t do this again. I haven’t got the capacity to do this again. I’ve worked out how to die and live again.’

So it is an absolutely necessary scene that allows Michonne to realize that there’s something really broken here, more broken than she’s ever anticipated. It’s not just resolved by their intimacy. It explains a lot of his behavior prior to this meeting. It also informs that scene when she says, ‘It doesn’t matter if we die in this building, so be it, but we’re not done. It’s not time to go.’

So the scene was about a real intimacy, a sort of frightening intimacy. This is a part of his personality he has shut down. It’s almost like he’s trying to stop himself from feeling this love again. She sees that and she just says, ‘Just trust. We’re back. We’re the same…’ I find it very moving. I think it’s a very, very moving scene, because it’s about them connecting in a way that he’s had to deny for seven years. He’s denied that connection for the sake of living on in this half-life for the CRM

Why Rick & Michonne’s Sex Scene Was Necessary

The nervousness Rick feels during the sex scene is expanded upon afterwards, when he still doesn’t want to go home with Michonne. She’s finally able to break down his barrier, revealing he is scared that, by going back home with her, he’ll lose her again and won’t live through it. After admitting part of his fear stems from when Carl died in The Walking Dead, Michonne shows him a phone carving she had made of his son. This helps spark the determination he needs to escape with his wife.

By showing such an intimate moment between the two, The Ones Who Live revealed just how important such closeness is to their relationship. The sex scene ultimately revealed just how much they still love one another, even though Rick had been broken down by his time in the CRM. Without such a close scene between the two, Michonne convincing him they could escape wouldn’t have been as powerful a moment.

Now that the pair are back on the road, they’re likely to grow closer than ever before in The Walking Dead‘s timeline. However, with two episodes remaining in The Ones Who Live, they’ll no doubt run into more trouble before their story comes to an end. The love they shared in episode 4 is a testament to how much they care about one another, but might be tested again before the show ends.