It took about five seconds for the complaints to roll in: “What do you mean this episode is all about Morgan’s story before coming to Alexandria?!?”.  Of course, nothing is that simple, and fans should be well aware by now that what seems disconnected is likely anything but.  This moment of apocalyptic Zen was just what the therapists ordered, and not just for Morgan.  This was a treatise on atonement, absolution, and everything in-between.  

Most of us like to believe that we would be Rick or Daryl in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, but the truth is a lot more complicated.  A lot more people would, should they make it, end up like Morgan: broken by the choices necessary to survive.  (One must admit that Team Grimes is far from well-adjusted as it is.)  So how could he go from the man who was trying to get “clear” to the principled warrior in Alexandria?


Enter Eastman: possibly the best one-off character in ages.  At the core, what I appreciated about Eastman was not his Zen-like approach to life in the apparent end times, his non-violent approach to the world, or his desire to find personal redemption and healing.  It was his choice to take a stranger that would have happily killed him at the beginning of the story and selflessly help him find a better way: “What we’ve done, we’ve done.  We evade it by moving forward, with a code to never do it again.  To make up for it.  To still accept what we were.  To accept everyone.  To protect everyone.  And in doing that, protect yourself.”  

I’ve taken issue with the long-form episodes of the past, but this season has delivered on the potential of longer run times.  This episode needed to be convincing, and taking the extra time to sell Morgan’s transformation was the key.  The quote above comes from one of the most beautiful sequences of the series to date, as Morgan turns the corner.  Tragedy is on the horizon, but one might argue that Eastman always knew how his story would end.  There’s beauty in that, too.


Equally powerful is the message that it’s not a fairy tale; you can embrace a philosophy in isolation, but it’s always harder in practice.  How much of Eastman’s dedication to his mindset was the result of staying out of contact with the larger world of human survivors for so long?  The Morgan who found himself trapped in an open cage, a prisoner of his own primal madness, is still a part of him, just as Eastman was still the same man that killed the man who murdered his family.  It’s never a choice between total love, total hate, total indifference; it’s a choice of which impulses will rule when a choice has to be made.





The irony for those who appreciate Eastman and Morgan’s approach is that the lesson might already be built into this episode: it only works in relative isolation.  One can see how Morgan’s attempt to apply this philosophy in Alexandria might be a huge mistake.  On the other hand, if it serves largely to mitigate Rick’s growing  of acceptable losses, perhaps it is a matter of two oppositional worldviews contributing to the endgame scenario.  Those familiar with the source material can perhaps see how that could work.