The Walking Dead: Here's Not Here (6x04)

As an individual episode, this was great. But I do have a complaint. Let's take a look.

Cons:

This season is enormously frustrating because so far it's had zero continuity. Episode One was about Rick and the others trying to get the Walkers away from Alexandria. Episode Two was about the Alexandrians fighting off the Wolves. Episode Three was back to Rick, et. al. And then this episode, Episode Four, was a flashback episode about Morgan. I find it enormously difficult to settle in to the season when there's no consistency. As much as I think this episode was amazing, I found myself resenting all the screen time that Morgan was getting, when I just wanted to know what was going on with Rick and the rest of our group.

Pros:

But let's be real. This episode was absolutely astounding, and if I'm looking at it on its own merits, it gets high marks. The plot is pretty basic - we see what happened to Morgan Jones leading up to his eventual reunion with Rick and the gang at Alexandria. Unlike the episodes a few seasons ago that focused on the Governor, this episode was extremely solid and felt like its own stand-alone film. The gist is that Morgan has gone mad with grief and loneliness, and he kills anything in his path, whether it be Walker or Human. He is found by a man named Eastman, who slowly cures Morgan of his homicidal mania. Eastman unfortunately gets bitten, and he dies, leaving Morgan alone once again. Morgan then finds the sign leading to Terminus, and continues onward, eventually finding his way to Alexandria.

The pacing of this episode was awesome. It had long stretches of quiet moments, little bursts of action, deep conversation between the two principal characters, and more. It was really just a long, drawn out study of what it means to be human, as we delved deeper and deeper into the natures of Morgan and Eastman. Major kudos go to the actors, Lennie James (Morgan) and John Carroll Lynch (Eastman). They both portrayed their characters with a great level of nuance, and the respect between them was well earned.

Eastman worked in criminal psychiatry, which is one of the reasons why he believes Morgan is more than just a murderous lunatic. He sees the person he used to be. He tells Morgan that in all his years working with prisoners, he's met a lot of people who have done terrible things, but only one truly evil person. We then learn more about this -  Eastman's wife and children were killed by a criminal who had escaped from prison to get his revenge against Eastman for preventing him from getting out on parole. The biggest emotional gut punch comes when we learn that Eastman is himself a murderer - he kidnapped the murderer of his wife and kids, trapped him in a cage, and starved him to death. Yeesh. That's such a horrific image, and it made my skin crawl.

But it's juxtaposed with the Eastman that we see now - a vegetarian who cares for his goat and takes in Morgan even after Morgan tries to kill him. He's come to believe that all life is precious. Killing the murderer of his family did not bring him peace. Eastman, despite the horrible thing he did, is the only reason Morgan survives and moves on, finally coming to peace with his horrifying past actions and experiences.

The episode ends with Morgan finishing up this story, which he told to one of the Wolves that he captured in Alexandria. Morgan believes that maybe this man can be redeemed, just like Morgan himself was redeemed by Eastman. But the Wolf does not appear to be very open to change. He promises to kill Morgan and all the other Alexandrians if given the chance. As Morgan locks the Wolf in his prison, he hears Rick's voice, frantically calling for the gates to be opened.

I liked this ending, because it brought things back to the present, and actually set up a lot of interesting discussions to be had in future. Morgan's belief in redemption for all is really admirable, but his benevolence in Episode Two is what nearly got Rick killed, and it really doesn't look like this remaining Wolf is gearing up to change his ways. The fact that Rick's voice is heard at the very end serves to remind us of this cause-and-effect. Killing people for no reason is obviously wrong, but the power of granting life or death is a power only a god should have - and Morgan is playing with this power just as surely as Rick is. I can't wait to see where this goes.

I guess that's what I've got. I'm getting antsy for some continuity. I'd love to see the actual fallout in Alexandria next week, and maybe have a few episodes that consistently deal with the remnants of this recently brutalized community. There are a lot of balls up in the air right now, and I think we're due some focus on them. But this episode was truly stunning - I can't wait to see how Morgan's character develops from here.

9/10