SPOILER ALERT: Read only if you have already watched Sundays episode of The Walking Dead, Bury Me Here.
Sorry, Eastman. All that every life is precious mumbo-jumbo you fed Morgan when you had him in your cabin cell? Well, your pupil basically just spent hours sharpening his stick so he could stab it right the face. Thats right: Morgan is back to his killing ways, and not just in an I-have-to-do-it-to-protect-Carol sort of way.
This time, Morgan straight-up murdered duplicitous Kingdom fighter Richard after Richards plan to steal a cantaloupe to get himself killed and thereby force Ezekiel into action went awry when the Saviors shot and killed Benjamin instead. Uncovering the ruse, Morgan confronted Richard with his words, and then later with his stick and his hands choking the life out of his former ally before then using Richards words to force the Saviors into a false sense of security so he could then later kill them all one by one. (Hey, if youre going to start killing, may as well not half-ass it!)
We spoke to showrunner Scott M. Gimple who also wrote this episode to get his take on Morgans big moment, as well as what the aftershocks mean for Carol. (Also make sure to read our episode Q&A with the man who plays Morgan, Lennie James.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, youre the Morgan guy, and have written all the big Morgan episodes going all the way back to Clear. Is it because you wrote Clear that you feel like, okay, I should see this guy through? I cant imagine its coincidence that its worked out that way.
SCOTT M. GIMPLE: Its kind of funny. I mean, I loved writing Clear, and I loved the pilot of this show and the start of Morgans story. And I guess I do wind up writing the episodes. With Morgans return, I had to do a lot of work. I had to schedule basically everything that happened in season 6, I had to figure out before the start of season 5. And that even probably led me toward thinking about the future. I think about all of the characters a great deal, but for whatever reason, Ive been like a season ahead on Morgan for a while. So it just winds up that I get these stories that are stuck in my head for so long that I just want to do them. Its been very satisfying.
This episode, in particular, was in the middle of a great deal of chaos. People were telling me that it was not a good idea for me to write an episode near the end of the season, which may or may not have been true. It was a lot of really late nights and stolen hours, but its definitely on the spectrum of fan fiction where Im doing it just to do it because I love doing it.
So whats the next step for him? We see him taking down a bunch of zombies with anger, not mercy. He says hes going to kill, we see him sharpening that stick at the very end. Wheres he at now and what does it mean going forward?
I would just take the imagery and what he says. He says hes going to kill them one by one and we see him sharpening that stick, which is very tragic for that character in a lot of ways. I dont know if everybody will look at it that way either. Some people might think its not a tragedy at all, but for a person whos found peace through peace, who had that stick that was sharpened and he was walking through the woods with it occasionally killing people and to be freed of that, now to be right back in that position I think thats tragedy.
I agree, but it will be interesting to see what other people think because some may say, Yeah, about damn time! Morgans a badass again!
I mean, they needed him now more than ever, but hes already paying the cost. Its already hurting him and I think thats just so sad for that character. I think Lennies performance, at the end of the scene after the Saviors have left and he killed Ezekiel and he just killed Richard, and when he gets Benjamins name wrong and he stumbles over Duane you know, thats a line that I would certainly worry about. Its pretty direct, and then when I saw how he played it, I was blown away.
Your opinion: good move or bad move to tell Carol what really happened?
I think thats on the tragic scale. I dont think thats him being sweet or nice, but I think its him sort of looking at the world as a dark and brutal place and telling the truth to someone whos asking for the dark and brutal truth. It feels like theres almost a little hostility to it, and yet Carol extends something to him thats kind of what Ezekiel said to her: You can go, we can all go, or you dont have to go. It gives him that place, which is not pretty. Hes still isolating himself, but its not him going off in the woods and being completely away forever. I love their relationship and how their lives have turned and I dont think thats the end of their relationship, but to see that turn from the very first episode you saw them in the Kingdom in episode 2, it was satisfying to see that. It was satisfying to do that. It was something we got excited about.
And Carol is all-in now, right?
She is, and she has to be. There is no choice for her, and thats something that Daryl knew that as soon as he said to her what really happened she would be put into action, and thats why he didnt say anything. And I think Morgan said it because he wants her in action because he wants these people gone. He wants these people to pay, and he knows that Carol is not to be trifled with.
