The Walking Dead, Season 6, Episode 4: Here's Not Here
Been some time since I watched the Walking Dead. I'm not exactly sure why. Is it me feeling pissed off over Glenn's shitty death? Can't be that, I watch Game of Thrones regularly and that show has far more shit-deaths-for-great-people compared to Walking Dead. It could be the relative exhaustion that the show seems to keep revolving around the whole Wolf-attack/zombie-horde event that we've barely covered the aftermath of. Could be that I'm just tired of watching entire one-hour episodes that kind of rotates around the same couple of points.
This episode, thankfully, is a breath of fresh air, though it does have the somewhat unfortunate placement where it's smack dab after three episodes that back-to-back detail the huge, huge mess that our characters have to deal with, with a couple of cliffhangers (not just Glenn, but a couple of other outstanding plotlines as well), and Morgan himself having a relatively minor role beyond being Rick's personal Jiminy Cricket.
So it does feel a bit odd that the episode ends up dedicating its entire runtime to Morgan's flashback, and what he's been doing before season five. Dude's been making cameos all throughout season five, and joins the main cast here as the team's resident kung fu aikido specialist, with a brand-new thou shalt not kill creed. And this episode rectifies that by giving Morgan an entire flashback episode all to himself.
See, this episode's pretty amazing as it details Morgan's transformation from a fucking raging lunatic gibbering in a trap-town after the death of his son into the zen warrior-monk that can take down entire waves of Wolves without killing them. And he tells this story to the Wolf he beats up, about why he won't kill, and the whole story is presented as a framing device. Putting aside the suspension of disbelief that Morgan apparently took the time to tell his whole life-changing story to a Wolf during a crisis instead of going out and joining the search for Rick's team, or doing something actually productive, it's actually a decent framing device.
Morgan ends up walking away from the house knowing deep down that the Wolf he leaves alive is one of those irredeemable, inherently psychotic people that mr. Eastman told him about, but gets distracted from locking the dude up by, y'know, Rick shouting to open the gate. Which, of course, is going to be trouble.
But let's talk about the flashback, the real meat of the episode. So after Rick met Morgan all the way back in... season four? Three? Whichever one it was. He wandered around and the show's use of a shimmering border around Morgan whenever he's doing his self-imposed 'clear' duty is pretty well-done, showing just how devolved into anger and unbridled rage he is. Killing zombies, putting stakes on the ground, writing gibberish on the rocks, killing people who attempt to raid him... until he stumbles upon a pretty field, and a pretty farm, and the insane monk psychiatrist, Eastman, and his buddy goat.
Of course, we know the conclusion of this story. Morgan's going to survive and be zen, his rehabilitation will work, and Eastman (and his goat) will likely die, as mentors are wont to do. It's your standard origin story, and you're likely to see at least a couple in every fantasy setting. But the execution is pretty much top-notch.
Yeah, it's pretty convenient that the dude that finds Morgan is someone with enough self-defense skills (and aikido, a.k.a. 'hurt not your enemies' to boot) to staunch Morgan's mad rampages, but also a psychiatrist that helps Morgan to work through his issues. It's also convenient that he's taken the 'thou shalt not kill' bit to heart.
But Eastman's moments with Morgan is definitely well done. In a show where any form of optimism (or disagreement with Rick Grimes) is met with a swift, gruesome end to show how naivety nets you nothing but a stupid death, it's very refreshing to see that Eastman isn't shown as foolish or an idiot for trusting Morgan (who tried to kill him at least twice in the episode before he grows a little more sane) and actually succeeds in rehabilitating him. Eastman's no-killing creed really shows when we are shown how easily Eastman can kill Morgan -- both when he's warning Morgan to stay away from the cabin despite Morgan having a gun and not being anywhere close to locating where he is; and later when Morgan assaults him after being let out, and Eastman is choking Morgan but refuses to kill him out of principle.
Of course, Morgan's story is also pretty dark, and it comes out slowly over the episode as Morgan himself grows more sane and less angry at everything in the world, learning aikido and learning to accept the death of his wife and child. Eastman used to be a psychiatrist who saw a psychopath that's just pretending to be sane, and saw right through his act. The psychopath eventually broke loose, slaughtered Eastman's entire family and surrendered himself to the police just to fuck Eastman's life up. Before the zombie apocalypse, Eastman managed to kidnap the psychopath, put him in a cell and let him starve to death... but ends up being as damaged as pre-rehab Morgan in the process until he adopts his own creed. So Eastman isn't just some random zen dude trying to tell Morgan that it's all going to be better -- if nothing else, Eastman's backstory is even more cruel than Morgan, because his family is killed not by zombies, but by a man.
Yes, Morgan's transformation isn't immediate, and it's his faltering that causes Eastman to get bitten by a zombie. But at the same time, Morgan's quickly thrust into a same position that he used to be before his rehab session, and he chooses to let the two random strangers go instead of slaughtering them. Eastman dies peacefully after coming to terms with it and giving Morgan some last words of advice, and in a rarity for Walking Dead, we don't get to see his dead body or even hear the gunshot. We just see him practicing aikido for the last time, and the next shot is Morgan gearing up and walking past his gravestone.
Which is a pretty well-done, self-centered story. Of course, whether Morgan ends up turning into too naive of a person after sparing Mr. Wolf (that's who he's going to be called until I can think up of another name), or if he'll be put through the hell of losing another family again... it's going to be interesting to watch. Of course we're back with our regularly scheduled Alexandria plot in the next episode and I'm not sure if I'm even excited at all... especially since Mr. Wolf will eventually break free and put Morgan into another spiral of depression as his 'all life is precious' motto might very well be turned upside-down, and everything he believes for will be for naught.
Still, pretty cool and well-written episode.
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