All I can say is...YES! Tonight's episode of The Walking Dead focuses on The Kingdom as well as Morgan and Carol's struggles to stay out of the fight against the Saviors. Both of these characters face a test in this hour, but The Kingdom itself is truly shaken by the events in "Bury Me Here." Who makes a fatal choice that creates a "no turning back now" situation? Here's where we are when the episode ends.
It Feels So Empty Without Me
Though Carol has made a nice little home for herself, the first time we see her tonight is right after a nightmare. She's resumed smoking...you know, that "disgusting habit" Carol warned Shelly about right before the Wolves hacked her to death with a machete...and she seems different from the woman we saw snuggled up and reading a book on the couch a few weeks ago. I know Carol lives in a zombie world and all, but I don't think it's the Walkers causing her a restless sleep. Carol has some unresolved issues to attend to.
Carol heads to The Kingdom and immediately asks to see Morgan. "Why did Jesus bring Daryl and everyone else to The Kingdom?" Come on, Morgan. She knows things aren't okay. Morgan tells Carol the group was here to chat with Ezekiel about all of the communities working together...but neglects to mention anything about beating the Saviors or why. Carol wants to know if Daryl lied to her and Morgan defers her back to Daryl. He offers to go with her to Alexandria to talk with him, but I'm not sure why he thinks Daryl is in Alexandria. Maybe he's just trying to take her there so she can see (or not see) for herself who is okay and who isn't. Carol storms off and Benjamin follows her, hoping to learn some valuable skills from her. Carol shuts him down and keeps going. Poor kid. He just wants to be able to contribute.
This Looks Like A Job For Me
Ezekiel, Benjamin, Richard, Morgan, and the other folks who normally do the Saviors' supply drop off are preparing for their next trip. Richard gives Morgan a little bit of his background, saying he once had a happy life with a happy family. "I didn't ask for much and I got more than I deserved." Morgan nods, acknowledging he had the same before the disease spread. Richard mentions again that he thinks Morgan's approach is wrong, but then everyone boards the truck to head out and the two men do not finish the conversation. Side note: Each time we see Shiva now I am going to think back on that awful deer from last week. How do we get a pretty awesome growling tiger and an animated deer that Walt Disney would have turned down for Bambi? Just sayin.'
The truck is halted on the road when it reaches a blockade of shopping carts. Everyone exits, guns raised, and they walk together around the nearest building where they come across an open empty grave. There is a cardboard sign that says "Bury Me Here." Now earlier in the episode Richard had been digging here right next to a little girl's backpack...what's he trying to pull? I hope he's not trying to set another trap for Carol.
The group disassembles the shopping carts and the truck reaches the drop off meeting spot. The Saviors are already there and growing impatient. Douchebag is wielding Morgan's weapon like an idiot when they arrive and the mood is tense from the get go. Gavin asks for Ezekiel and his group to turn over their guns and Richard is the first one to say they should cooperate. Huh? Ezekiel agrees to hand over the guns if Morgan gets his stick back. Gavin isn't interested in negotiating though and Ezekiel caves....again. Gavin is also going apeshit because there's supposed to be 12 melons in the delivery and there are only 11 in the bins. Ezekiel counted himself before they left The Kingdom and doesn't understand how one could be gone. Oh shit. Richard SO did this on purpose. He wanted someone to get hurt to ignite a fire under Ezekiel's ass. Douchebag points a gun at Richard's head and Richard is tearful as he stands ready to accept the bullet. Instead though....Douchebag shoots Benjamin in the leg and the kid starts bleeding out immediately. Gavin tells Ezekiel to get the remainder of the delivery to them by tomorrow and Ezekiel looks almost evil in his "I understand" response. They load Benjamin into the truck as quick as they can to get him back to The Kingdom before he bleeds to death. Richard has a look of disbelief on his face as they leave. Yeah buddy...the Saviors never punish the person you think they will punish. Way to go.
The closest place to get Benjamin some help is Carol's house. She has to pause her tomato planting to clear off her table inside. Benjamin is pale now and he has lost a ton of blood. He looks at Morgan and says "to injure your opponent is to injure yourself" which comes from that "all life is precious" book Morgan gave him to read. He dies soon after and I'm so pissed at Richard. He literally dug his own grave and assumed he'd be sacrificing himself, and this poor kid died instead. Morgan leaves and walks to the open grave again. He sees another sign that says "Just Listen" and he goes through a range of emotions, most notably rage, as he relives losing his wife and son again through Benjamin's death. He kicks over a bin on the road...a bin that has a melon in it. Morgan realizes now what has happened.
Could Start A Revolution
After the men return home to The Kingdom, Morgan confronts Richard and Richard admits his guilt immediately."I was going to give MY life to show you." Richard explains that he is still constantly beating himself up for not doing anything when the apocalypse started. He didn't think other people's problems were his to solve. "Who the hell am I, right?" He lost his wife to a fire in their camp...and then lost his little girl 3 days later while they were on the run. Richard cries and tells Morgan that they need to use Benjamin's death to convince Ezekiel that enough is enough. Hell, if this won't do it, what would? "This is it, Morgan. You. Have. To. Kill. Or else you might as well just kill yourself. Someone had to die. I had to be the one and that didn't happen...so I'll be the one to lead our army to crush the Saviors." His plan is to obey the Saviors and do the drop off as planned. He wants Gavin to think everything is okay so they won't suspect The Kingdom will turn on them.
Morgan spends some time in his room pondering everything Richard has said. He has witnessed Ezekiel break the news to Benjamin's little brother who now has no family left. He joins the group the next morning when they take the big truck to deliver just one melon. As they wait for the Saviors to arrive, Morgan sees his own stick as well as Benjamin's on the ground near Benjamin's blood. He grabs them and nudges Richard to tell Ezekiel (in front of Ezekiel) the truth. The Saviors cars pull up right at that moment and Gavin gets out and asks how the kid is doing. Gavin's intention had been for Richard to die and when he finds out Benjamin his dead, he screams and his moronic comrade to walk home without saying a word or giving anyone a look. Richard then hands over the melon and starts sucking up to Gavin. He begins to say "We get it" when Morgan approaches Richard from behind and starts beating the shit out of him. I assume he'll realize what he's doing and stop, but he doesn't. He chokes Richard. He slams Richard's head against the pavement over and over again. He ultimately kills Richard and no one makes a move to stop him. Morgan turns to Ezekiel and Gavin and tells them what Richard did. He looks at Gavin and tells him "I wanted to show you we get it and we understand what it is we need to do." Gavin buys it and says he'll see them next week at the same time.
After the Saviors drive off, Ezekiel still stands in disbelief over what has just happened. Morgan explains that Richard wanted it to be him. He cries about Benjamin and tells the rest of the group to go home without him. Morgan brings Richard's body to the "Bury Me Here" grave and unearths the backpack in the process. He buries it with Richard and takes out his emotions on half a dozen Walkers on his way to Carol's house.
Guess Who's Back, Back Again
Carol answers the door and is alarmed by the blood covering Morgan. He quickly tells her he killed Richard...then also tells her the fate of Abraham and Glenn as well as the losses of Spencer and Olivia right there in front of all of Alexandria. Carol then leaves Morgan to stay at her house (turning his stick into a spear by the way), packs up her stuff and goes straight to Ezekiel. "I'm going to be here now. We have to get ready. We have to fight." Ezekiel replies, "We do, but not today," He and Carol then work in the vegetable garden with Benjamin's little brother.
The episode ends there and wow. While I always thought Morgan would come around to the idea that he would need to kill to protect the ones he cares about (already happened with Carol), I never could have imagined his first casualty in this revolt would be Richard. I love this though. Richard had told Morgan during his "someone had to die" speech that he would have to kill at some point, and Richard literally had no idea what hit him when Morgan finally made that choice. Fantastic. I'm sad about young Benjamin, but I've been even more sad about cabin Carol and Ezekiel constantly bowing down to the Saviors. Morgan made a very strategic move tonight and I think it was a good one.Looking ahead, Carol now has to turn her badassery switch back on even though she told Daryl a few weeks ago there would be nothing left of her if she had to kill more people. I hope this isn't the beginning of the end for Carol. You could tell when she walked into The Kingdom at the end she didn't have a "Let's get these assholes!" attitude. Instead it was a very sad "We have to fight." I'm glad she was able to follow that statement by sitting down and planting vegetables with Ezekiel though. The King lost someone very important to him in this hour and Carol realized people very important to her had recently died as well...but they were able to grieve the loss of these lives by planting new life so to speak. Will Carol, Morgan, and Ezekiel lead the army as a trio now? Will Carol pop in to Alexandria or Hilltop at any point and say hello to her peeps? Is she going to unleash hell on Daryl for lying to her or will she be understanding when she sees him next? Are we going to get a legit battle before the season ends? AND if we do, are we going to see Shiva tear into some heads? Lets put the tiger to use, shall we?
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