Why The Walking Dead’s Morgan May Be the Most Dangerous Threat Yet
Season 6, Episode 4 of The Walking Dead titled “Here’s Not Here” was not just an artful character study on how Morgan the Unhinged became Morgan the Stick-Wielding Pacifist. It was also a preview of how he could destroy all of Alexandria.
The episode flashed back to Morgan (Lennie James) suffering from a P.T.S.D.-related psychotic break and obsessed with “clearing” areas of any moving things, living or dead. Eventually, he ended up at the home of Eastman (John Caroll Lynch), a former prison psychiatrist and pacifist who taught Morgan Aikido, an ancient Japanese martial art that emphasizes the value of human life. Eastman’s pacifist ways meant he wasn’t long for the brutal world of The Walking Dead, but Morgan is determined to carry out his teachings, and has chosen his first patient: a Wolf from the attack on Alexandria.
Morgan’s decision to keep a Wolf as part of an experimental rehabilitation program may seem noble at first. He’s just following the message of his beloved teacher. But this program is likely to have a lower success rate considering Morgan’s patient threatened to kill not only Morgan, but also all the men, women, and children of Alexandria. Plus, Morgan’s no psychiatrist. How, exactly, does Morgan think he will bring his captivate back from the brink? He already gave his best inspirational speech a shot to which the wolf replied with a psychotic version of “cool story, bro.”
The problem isn’t that Morgan likes to spare lives— in this episode, he was right to let that couple in the woods go—it’s that, following Eastman’s example, he’s decided to spare all lives. Even those that are beyond saving.
Take, for example, the Wolves Morgan encountered last season. He let them live, and, in turn, they came back to ransack the town of Alexandria, killing dozens of people in the process. When he spared the Wolves yet again, they ended up attacking Rick in the RV. We’re still not sure if Rick will make it out of that encounter alive.
This reluctance to kill was a problem for Morgan long before he met Eastman and discovered pacifism. When Morgan couldn’t pull the trigger on his wife-turned-zombie, she ended up killing their son. Morgan may not like to admit it, but by refusing to have blood on his hands, he, well, has even more blood on his hands. And they’re likely about to get bloodier.
Executive producer David Alpert recently told Variety, “Morgan’s clearly embraced this humanist approach, and on the attack at Alexandria he really made some decisions that clearly have endangered the group, there’s no doubt about it.”
Two episodes ago, Rick told the Alexandrians that in this world, ”We have to come for them before they come for us. It’s that simple.” Traditionally, in The Walking Dead world, the realists survive and the idealists die. But this time, an idealist might take the realists down with him.
Vanity Fair
