Since The Walking Dead aired its controversial cliffhanger finale in April, fans of the series have been theorizing as to what to expect from the upcoming seventh season of the apocalyptic drama. While much of this conversation has been based around which one(s) of the main characters perished at the hands of Negan's barbed wire bat Lucille, there are also quite a few characters who weren't in that tense final scene. Perhaps the most significant of these is Morgan and Carol, who were last scene with a mysterious new group from The Kingdom. Just prior to this, Morgan took a big step and killed a Savior in order to save Carol's life. And now that he has finally killed someone, the question is: will Morgan be willing to kill again in Season 7?
The Walking Dead's showrunner Scott M. Gimple recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly, and revealed where Morgan's head is after momentarily abandoning the philosophy which had saved his life:
Morgan was never certain, and now his going through the world without killing anyone, is that just wishful thinking at this point? That's a big part of his story this season. I will say obviously we're not going to be seeing him wringing his hands and bemoaning this the whole time. In fact, what we saw, it's more that he will see that he has no choice but to move away from the philosophy, but it's not going to be easy for him.
There we go, people. The killing machine known as Morgan Jones is coming back in The Walking Dead's seventh season, although he doesn't seem too pleased about it.
Morgan has been one of the most complex characters in The Walking Dead's long history. First appearing in the pilot episode, Morgan became one of the fan favorites and biggest mysteries on the show, as we hoped that he and Rick would one day unite. He made occasional appearances throughout the years, displaying a mixture of stability and sanity with each episode. But when he finally became a series regular in Season 6, he had apparently tuned over yet another new leaf and sworn off killing people- despite the apocalypse and chaos around him.
This philosophy was fleshed out in last season's episode "Here's Not Here", which was a 90-minute episode focusing solely on Morgan's unseen journey. We learned how unstable and feral he was before meeting Eastmen, who taught Morgan the ways of Aikido. It was this practice which slowly returned Morgan's sanity and humanity, and explained his inability to kill- much to Carol's dismay. The conflict between these two supporting characters was particularly captivating, and it should be interesting to see how it grows now that he's killing and Carol no longer wants to.
But with the impending battle between The Saviors and the other nearby communities, Morgan's deadly skills may be needed sooner rather than later.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC on Sunday, October 23rd.
