Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's "Bury Me Here."
As it happens with a glacier that can't attain the cold temperatures needed to stay intact, cracks have been forming within Morgan's psyche ever since he returned to Rick's life as the focused non-killing machine. The Kingdom, with its apprenticeships and spear-based weaponry, seemed a perfect place for Morgan's sanity to thrive, and it mostly was until tonight's "Bury Me Deep" took him back beyond the far side. All because one bad apple can spoil the bunch, with Richard being both the bad apple and the worm in this scenario, and "the bunch" being Morgan's mind.
Viewers knew that Richard was going to end up destroying something soon, given his intentions on turning Carol into Savior bait that Daryl spurned so harshly, and we were also set up to be perfectly fine with whatever terrible fate inevitably befell him. And though his newest plan was at least formed with martyr-like intentions, things obviously didn't go according to his wishes, and Richard unwittingly cut another innocent's life short while also splintering Morgan's grasp on the world, sending him careening back to where we'd seen him in Season 3's "Clear."
The episode did a nice job of ticking off Morgan's boxes to foreshadow him completely going off by the end of the episode. First, he witnesses the Saviors injuring his friend/student Benjamin, which is a blow. He then has to go off seeking Carol's assistance in treating Benjamin's wounds, which is also troublesome for him, knowing Carol's self-exile was specifically to avoid situations like this, and he's the one who seemingly stabbed Benjamin's head to stop the risk of walker-dom. And that was when it all went haywire, as Morgan took off, jabbering to himself and seemingly set to take his own life in Richard's grave. Soon, however, his heavy despair was molded into rage when he discovered Richard was behind the melon-based mayhem.
Morgan was swimming blindly through an ocean of mental fatigue, but that didn't necessarily mean he would flip on his murder-free mantra, and he was calm enough when Richard offered his own mildly heartbreaking reasoning behind his need to bring the fight to the Saviors by any and all means. Having also lost his family, Morgan understands the lengths that people can go...and after seeing how devastated everyone in The Kingdom is over Benjamin's death, he understood his own lengths were about to be extended.
That second meeting with the Saviors was a more eventful one, culminating in Morgan going savage on Richard's throat and face, choking him to death and then smoothing everything over so that no further action is warranted from either the Saviors or the Kingdom. He does refer to Benjamin as "Duane," his dead son, so that's worrisome, but at least he's on a mission, no longer looking like a character who has moral issues with killing those who deserve it.
Morgan actually has to be talked down from his Savior-sniping plan by Carol, of all people; he also admitted to Carol how bad things really were in Alexandria, despite Daryl's claims that no one had died, which he had previously refused to talk about. When we last see Morgan, he's temporarily not raging out, though he IS sharpening one end of his trusty bo into a fine point. And we all know sharp sticks aren't indicative of future peace treaties.
Could Morgan again be so far gone that his safety is seriously in jeopardy? We can all start going clear as we wait for The Walking Dead to return to its Sunday night airings on AMC. Take a load off and check out our list of the funniest Walking Dead characters and then head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what TV debuts and returns you'll be watching in the comings weeks.
