[S6E4] Here's Not Here [CRACKED]
Flashbacks show Morgan's life some time after Rick's brief reunion with him. Morgan exhibits deranged and obsessive behaviour and accidentally burns his house down when he knocks over a lamp. Morgan then camps out in the forest where he lives with his illness and kills any walkers or humans that intrude upon his marked territory, including a father and son who cross his path.
[S6E4] Here's Not Here
Eastman begins talking about taking a trip, though he has no specific destination in mind, and leaves to scavenge supplies. Morgan leaves the cell to rescue Tabitha from attack by a pair of walkers and discovers a graveyard where Eastman has buried at least two dozen bodies. Eastman thanks Morgan on his return, they repair the damage together, and Eastman gives Morgan a bō stick and begins teaching him aikido.
Morgan takes up the bō staff, recognizing that Eastman's way is better, and returns to the cabin only to find a walker feasting on Tabitha. Morgan kills the walker and takes its body and Tabitha's to the graveyard where he finds Eastman succumbing to the bite. Morgan spots a grave marker with Wilton's name and Eastman confesses to kidnapping Wilton and starving him to death over 47 days, over which Eastman lost himself, and when he went to Atlanta to turn himself in he found that society had collapsed. Eastman bequeaths all he has to Morgan, including a rabbit's foot his daughter gave him, but advises Morgan to find more people and live. After burying Eastman and Tabitha, Morgan begins searching and finds a sign that leads to Terminus.
In a makeshift cell within the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Morgan Jones visits Owen, the wolf that he took prisoner after the skirmish earlier that day and recalls the man once saying he wanted to take everything that Morgan had. "Well, here it is," Morgan says, launching into his story. "Every last bit."
Eastman finally speaks to Morgan and explains that he used to be a forensic psychiatrist. He asks what Morgan did before the fall, and what he does now. "I clear," Morgan replies. "Walkers, people, anything that gets anywhere near me, I kill them."
Eastman suggests they go on a scavenging mission. Morgan takes Eastman to his campground to retrieve the supplies he took from the men he murdered. Sensing Morgan's trauma, Eastman orders Morgan to practice his Aikido forms. "Not here," Morgan begs, but Eastman insists.
Morgan allows the couple to leave, then he runs back to Eastman's cabin, where he finds a walker eating Tabitha. He somberly kills the goat and wheels the bodies to the graveyard, where Eastman is digging. Morgan spots a grave marker for Crighton Dallas Wilton. Eastman admits that he abducted Wilton from prison and starved him to death. "What I did to him, it didn't give me any peace," he says.
Back in the house, Eastman tells Morgan there's enough power, food and security to last Morgan the rest of his life, but advises Morgan against being alone. "Everything is about people, everything in this life that's worth a damn," he says. Before dying, Eastman gives Morgan his rabbit's foot.
Back in the present, Morgan concludes his tale, suggesting that Owen can be saved, just like he was. Owen shows Morgan a deep cut in his torso and predicts that he will die. "But if I don't, I am going to have to kill you, Morgan," he says. "I'm going to have to kill every person here." Morgan leaves, locking the door on his way out.
Sunday night's episode of The Walking Dead is all about Morgan, and where he learned to use his staff and why he doesn't kill people anymore. It's the episode we needed, just not necessarily the episode we wanted.
On the other hand, "Here's Not Here" is a pretty terrific detour, and a nice change of pace from the first three episodes of this season. We've barely been able to come up for air all season but in tonight's episode, we get to go through Aikido moves at sunset. There may be some good scares and some action, but much of the episode is about finding peace.
In any case, Eastman convinces Morgan of his mantra: "I have come to believe that all life is precious." And this is exactly what Morgan the crazed killer needs to hear at the time. The problem is that Eastman is operating under the assumption that he can fend for himself without killing, and maybe he can. Maybe in his context he can survive without ever having to kill another human being again. But Morgan in the present timeline, where he's recounting all of this to the crazy Wolf he has tied up, hasn't really asked all the right questions.
For instance, is it possible to believe that all life is precious and still come to the conclusion that in this instance, without a proper prison where you can lock up a psychopathic murderer who's threatening to murder you and everyone else he can find, including the children, that maybe there's a greater good to consider? Is there a time when killing one evil man saves the lives of many other innocent people? Is it so hard to just slip Carol the key and tell her to do the dirty work?
I suppose that there are different kinds of crazy. Morgan the PTSD-suffering, delusional wild man is not the same as the soulless evil we see in the Wolf. There's nothing delusional or feral about this man. He's calm as can be when he tells Morgan that he'll have to kill him.
I mean, on some level it's not a choice over whether you kill or not, it's a question of who dies. If Morgan had to pick, what would he do? If there was no other choice but kill the Wolf or let Baby Judith and Carl die, what would he choose? It's not as simple as saying life is precious, not in the world of The Walking Dead at least.
I've been writing about video games professionally for 12 years, and I've been at Forbes for 9. I'm here for review and commentary on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch games, and I'm a bit obsessed with Pokemon GO and Destiny 2. In my spare time I do consulting, and I've been getting worse at the banjo for easily 8 years now.
He makes his way with the walker to the graveyard, where Eastman is toiling away, the bite causing the life to fade from him. Tabitha figured out the door was open to the cell, something Morgan points out he never realized.
With Eastman gone, Morgan spends a little more time training alone (and digging a grave for Eastman) before he heads out on the mission to find people, to save lives. And that mission so happens to lead him to Terminus, and, of course, Alexandria, where Morgan has been telling this entire story to the wolf who ambushed him in episode 2.
Now we know where Morgan gets a few of his tokens, specifically the GooGoo Clusters from Eastman, a single bullet from the folks he spared in the woods, and lucky rabbit's foot, which came by way of Eastman's daughter. (Not so lucky for the rabbit though.)
With all of Eastman's talk about how precious life was and the fact that there's probably not a whole lot of living goats wandering around out there, you'd have thought he'd be a little more torn up about Tabitha's death. Then again, he probably knew he was about to die himself, so I can't be too hard on the guy.
There are many questions that fans hope will be answered this week. How did Morgan snap out of his crazy streak? What happened to his booby-trapped fortress that we saw back in season 3? How did he survive on his own among all the zombies? Why does he treasure all human life now? And where did he learn to fight with a bo staff that way?
TMNT: As Chris Hardwick pointed out, there are a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles references in this episode. Morgan has been called Donatello for a while now, but it is safe to say Eastman was the original Donatello. Additionally, Eastman is wearing a shirt with a turtle on it, and his name is Eastman, a.k.a. the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman. It may have all been coincidental, but it had to be noted.
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Some of this is a little clumsy, and it feels a little like Eastman is introducing these concepts as much for the audience as for Morgan. But it's done with such depth of feeling that I didn't mind. This is an episode about learning to live comfortably with yourself, about forgiving yourself for things that have gone wrong, and about finding a way forward. And, yes, there are zombies around the edges, but it's notable that the trauma Eastman himself had to overcome occurred before the apocalypse. The subjects this episode addresses apply even to those of us living in a non-apocalyptic world.
If there's one thing about "Here's Not Here" (and Gimple's vision of the show) that gives me pause, then, it's the character at the end, the captured Wolf to whom Morgan tells his story. Unmoved by tales of Eastman, the Wolf insists to Morgan that he's going to break out of his captivity and kill everybody he can get his hands on. Morgan, unaffected by this threat, merely leaves the man locked up, where he's sure to become a plot point at a later date.
He doesn't need to also explain to us that there are others in this universe who are brutal and would take all of that away. The rest of the series has already accomplished that handily. The final scene plays not as a reminder of this world's brutality, but as Gimple underlining a point we don't really need underlined, one that steps on the poignant conclusion of Morgan's flashback.
Later on, Morgan asks why Eastman has a cell in his cabin. Eastman built this place with his wife. There was no cell back then- just another living room. Eastman speaks of the convicts he interviewed. One man, Crighton Dallas Wilton, was up for parole and came off as likable to Morgan. He wrote letters to the prison board. Standup guy, but Eastman saw through him as a psychopath that knew how to play people. 041b061a72