With viewers of television’s highest-rated show dying to know about the fate of Glenn on The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 4, this AMC smash turned the focus on a different character Sunday night.
And it somehow managed to make us fall in love with Morgan.
After we open with Morgan telling one of the Wolves that he’s gonna give them everything he has, we flash back to a time when Morgan was playing with less than a full deck, “clearing” the woods by killing both walkers and humans.
We even see him turn down a cabin owner’s offer of falafel, ending up knocked out and apprehended in a cell as a result.
Upon waking up, Morgan finds food, soap and water.
Asked his name by the cabin owner (Eastman), Morgan replied “kill me,” to which Eastman simply made a joke, gave Morgan a copy of The Art of Peace and asked him to be nice to his pet goat, Tabitha.
Eastman then tries to get through to his reluctant guest by opening up about his past, telling Morgan he worked as a forensic psychiatrist prior to the zombie apocalypse.
After figuring that Morgan was suffering from PTSD, Eastman revealed that the door to the cell wasn’t actually locked. It never had been.
Morgan could stay or leave… or choose Option C, apparently: try to kill his captor. But he just got beat up for this effort instead.
Later on, Eastman again opened up about his his daughter once found him crying (over the terrible things the convicts he evaluated for a living had done).
She gave him a rabbit’s foot for luck… he found a flyer for an aikido class… and it changed his life.
He’s not afraid to use force, but he never kills.
Perhaps this honesty and these lessons off, as Eastman went out scavenging, only for viewers to see see that Morgan had opened up the book and also saved the goat from walkers.
Following this adventure, Eastman presented Morgan with a “fixed” spear. It had the sharp tip cut off. He also started to teach him aikido and also to teach him about how “life is precious.” ALL life, that is.
So… what’s the deal with the cell, Morgan asked? It had been built for a prisoner who killed Eastman’s wife and children. Did Eastman kill him in return? He avoided Morgan’s question.
From there, Morgan led Eastman to his former campsite to grab his gear. They were attacked by a walker, who bit Eastman. Freaking out, Morgan then attacked his new friends, got knocked down and returned to saying “kill me.”
Morgan refused to go home with Eastman, sharpening a new stick and going back to his ways as a feral animal in the woods.
Finally, Morgan saved a couple, got some sense back in him, went over to Eastman and learned that Tabitha had been killed by a walker.
In helping to bury the goat, he also learned that Eastman had, indeed, killed the guy who murdered his family, though it did not being him “peace.”
As this hour concluded, we returned to the present. We see that Morgan has been telling his tale to the Wolf who jumped him a few weeks back.
The Wolf threatens to kill Morgan, and everyone else in Alexandria, but Morgan heeds Eastman’s advice and lets him live, leaving him simply tied up, not put down.
Why do we feel like we may end up regretting this decision?
Go watch The Walking Dead online if you need to catch up and sound off below on this in-depth delving into the character of Morgan.