Monday, November 2, 2015

The Walking Dead: Season 6 Episode 4 - Here's Not Here


Hello fellow walkers!  We continue which has been a tremendous first half of season 6.  If anyone watched the previews for this week it was fairly easy to determine we would not be getting a resolution to last week's ambiguous "death" scene.  Instead, we rewound time to see exactly what happened to Morgan since the Season 3 "Clear" episode (written by the now showrunner Scott Gimple).  We found out what turned him from crazed living/walker "clearer" to more of Batman's "no kill policy" against the living.   This episode (and this season so far) gets a trademark WOW rating from yours truly.  Let's dive into the recap!

Discussion Points

The episode is bookended by the present day Morgan.  We had assumed Morgan was driven to killing that wolf a couple weeks back, but it was left up to interpretation.  It turns out there was a reason.  He was not dead and Morgan was about to tell him his story and explain why he was not going to kill him.   We flashback to the crazy Morgan we saw back in season 3 and follow his story from there. 
  • I couldn't really make sense of a lot of things Crazy Morgan was saying.  He was saying things like "You weren't supposed to be here!"   Now, if I went back to the Clear episode maybe it would make more sense.  Maybe he was speaking about Rick.  Whatever it was, he set fire to where he was staying, suited up and started taking out walkers and setting up a new camp.  
  • He piled up dead walkers and set them on fire which attracted more walkers.  And then he'd do the same to them.  He created a wall of spikes to up the kill count even more.  And then he'd write his signature CLEAR on the rocks in blood along with other quotes like "Here's Not Here"  and "Pointless Acts".  
  • He came across 2 people still living and took them out too.   We were reminded that Morgan will kill anything to keep himself alive.  It's basically where Rick is right now, but not to this extreme.  He only strangled the one guy though and did not go for the brain.  I assumed he dragged him to his fire pyre, but it turns out later that he didn't! 
  • Morgan trudged on to a cabin/complex in the woods, complete with a goat named Tabitha.  He did not realize he was stumbling into a life altering situation.  
  • Morgan was taken down by the ever calm Eastman who put him in a in-home jail cell.  The house appeared to have solar panels but I did not observe any electricity being used during the episode.  He had plenty of food and fed Morgan and was very peaceful towards him. 
  • Eastman tossed "The Art of Peace" book into Morgan's cell which stayed on the floor for half of the episode.  
  • Eastman was patient with Morgan and kept giving him opportunities to kill him or Tabatha but throwing in some words of wisdom that gave Morgan pause.   He explained that he was a forensic psychiatrist at a prison in Atlanta.  It was his job to determine if prisoners would do the awful things again that got them in prison in the first place.  He said that all 800 some odd people that he interviewed could be fixed.   All but one  (should've caught the foreshadowing there).   He explained that humans aren't killers by nature.  It's why so many military vets get PTSD.   Humans have guilt and feelings.  Eastman believes that all people can be put back on the right path.   
  • He explains to Morgan that the cell door was never locked and he can come out whenever and leave or take the couch.  He refused to let Morgan kill him, but of course Morgan tried anyway.   Eastman gets the upper hand and teaches Morgan another lesson.   
  • Eastman has learned the art of Aikido which was inspired by his daughter who picked him up when he was down at his lowest.  She gave him a rabbit's foot for luck and he found the flyer for Aikido that same day.  Aikido is the fighting art that we've seen Morgan of the present knows.  It teaches you to respect your opponent and respect life.  But it also keeps you alive.  
  • Morgan slowly begins to do things around the compound and learn the art of aikido.  As they bond they start discussing more about their backgrounds. 
  • We get a truly heartbreaking story from Eastman about his family.  That one person who was truly unredeemable was named Crichton Dallas Walton.  He was up for parole and extremely likable.  Eastman saw through the act and Crichton knew that he know.  Aikido saved Eastman that day when Crichton tried to take his life.  But eventually Crichton got out of prison and killed Eastman's whole family, then turned himself back in.  He only got out to achieve that one goal.   Eastman was vague about if he took vengeance  on this man, but we learned eventually that he did.  He built the cell to capture Crichton (during his outdoor prison work) and wanted to watch him starve.  It took him 47 days to starve out.  Eastman cut himself off from the rest of the world and didn't even know the "world ended" until he went to Atlanta to turn himself in.   He had to walk back 30 miles to his compound, but says it was the best thing that ever happened to him as he mastered his Aikido during the process.  
  • Eastman had been preparing for a journey and wanted to bring Morgan with him.  He believed that humans needed to be together to truly make life worth living.  He didn't know where they were going, but they had to go somewhere.  They were getting supplies for the trip and went back to Morgan's campsite.  The man the Morgan killed came back to them and Morgan hesitated.  Eastman saved Morgan but at the expense of getting bit.  
  • Eastman spent the end of his time preparing Morgan for his new take at life.  He then asked Morgan to take him out with his gun (which was not shown).  Oh right, and Tabitha finally got taken out by a walker too.  RIP Eastman and Tabitha!   We spent one episode with these 2 and they made their presence known and felt!  Great casting! 
  • By the end of the episode we saw Morgan a changed man and looking more like we saw him in the brief clips last season.  He stumbled upon the railway tracks and started walking towards Terminus which catches us up to those brief glimpses last year.  
Back in the present day, the wolf was not that impressed by his story.  He showed that he is injured.  I figured it was a walker bite but it must be something else.  He came to the town hoping to find something that would help with the healing process, but then they lost the battle with the Alexandrians.  He said that if he does get out he will be forced to kill everyone because that is HIS code.  Morgan showed restraint and left the house locking the doors behind him (a clear difference with Eastman's policy.  Lennie James suggests that he's not quite to Eastman's Zen state yet).  

So that's the episode!  It was pretty great.  A couple things I didn't mention above.  I wonder if Eastman worked for the prison where Rick and the crew were.  If it's the Atlanta area, surely it was.   Nice way to tie the stories together.  And of course, Eastman's obsession with making Goat Cheese was a fabulous sub-plot to the story!   It looks like we'll continue to wait for the resolution on Glenn, but I'm enjoying all perspectives of the story Gimple and crew are putting together.  Bring on the rest of the season.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week! 

13 comments:

MJ said...

Did not watch Talking Dead yet. With the show being longer and my NYG exhasuting me I just couldn't stay up. And I have to confess that while the episode was interesting - I actually nodded off once or twice. Which has never happened to me during TWD.

Oh Morgan you idiot ! You should have killed this guy. It's ok not to be like Rickand Carol - but don't be Tyreese either. Is there no middle ground These wolves attacked wantonly and vicisiously - they do not deserve mercy. And his mercy almost got Rick killed last week - just as tyreese's mercy got Bob bob-a-cued.

Crazy Morgan did not make sense to me either. Here's not Here ? Which I know is the ep name. Pointless Acts probably goes toward no matter how many you kill there are still more coming - but i dunno. What two living people did he take out ? I remember a woman and a limping man - who left him a can of food and a bullet - but didn't he let them walk away ? I recognized Eastman from the movie Volcano. Loved that the 'cell' was never locked - and that the goat figured that out when Morgan did not. Not sure I agree with Eastman and his 'everyone can be fixed' as a whole - but I'm sure the writers are speaking to Rick and Carol and the group sometimes wondering if they can come back from who they are. Thought it interesting that during the 47 days he watched the killer of his family starve was when he walker apololypse happened. Cause Morgan's meet up with Rick was similar. Both not being aware of what was going on. I doubt any one was surprised that the one guy we saw Morgan not kill was the one to bite Eastman. Proving the point - does Morgan never learn ?? LOL

MJ said...

Oh wiat ! I remember now - it was the father and son that Morgan killed the dad and not the son - who later bites Eastman. Forgot for a minute.

Mike V. said...

You must've been tired. I was totally into that episode!! I did forget it was a 90 minute episode until we caught up to real time sooner than usual. lol

I'm with you...the guy needs to die. But this episode made a convincing case of why Morgan won't.

Pointless acts he actually did explain during the episode. Saving his friends or something like that. When he helped people he called it a pointless act (helping Rick I guess). Here's not Here made no sense to me.

You don't remember the 2 dudes in the beginning of the episode that he killed? He killed them really quick. Didn't even hesitate. They were running in the woods..he popped up and stabbed the one guy in the throat and strangled the other one. Totally forgot to even bring up the other 2 in the recap. whoops! lol

The dude that played Eastman has been in so much stuff. I've seen Volcano but wouldn't have remembered him from that!

I wonder if Crichton turned in that cell when he had went off to Atlanta? Or if it was before everyone was infected.

Just read your 2nd post but don't feel like going back and editing my comment! Glad you figured it out! lol

MJ said...

Apparently GooGoo Clusters are a real thing ? Sounded made up. I forgot til I read it today - nice call back with Rick letting Morgan hold Judith and Eastman telling Morgan he will hold a child again. Too bad Eastman couldn't hang around for awhile - be the new Dale/Hershel.

Lots of people complaining about the lack of action - wanting more balance and not 90 minutes of backstory. I have to assume that Gimple has a reason for putting the Morgan ep right after the first three. First for the change of pace but I think mostly is that he wanted us to understand why Morgan is the way he is now - cause we are going to have to forgive him in the future for some stupidity on his part to come. SIGH

I do believe Glenn is alive right now - but I fear that we will see him killed next episode we do see him in. Though people are noting that Steven Yeun's name was not in the credits last night.

Eastman was apparently Twisty the Clown from AHS. Also Carnival - which I never saw. In Volcano he's the one who jumped into the lava in the train tunnel saving the conducter.

Mike V. said...

GooGoo Clusters - My wife mentioned when they showed up..."Made in Tennessee!!" lol That's where she's from.

Yeah I thought that was a weird comment for him to say "you will hold a child again" but yeah I thought that was referring to him holding Judith too. I mean I know he had a child so I get why he said it. Just seemed random at the time he said it.

There will always be complainers! I think the balance has been good this season. Every episode is different but they're all adding up to an awesome story. You're probably right that Morgan is going to do something stupid! We've already seen that his decisions cause repercussions. I'm sure that will continue.

Interesting that Steve Yeun's name wasn't in the credits. I wonder if it was in any of the credits. You have to be in so many episodes a season to be listed as a series regular I think.

I did see Eastman was twisty the clown as well. lol I vaguely remember that from Volcano. I only saw it once and probably the day it premiered. lol

Zainab Sher said...

It was a great episode, but ill timed. I wanted to see what happened to Glenn and Rick and crew and when I got this, no matter how well done, I was disappointed in the back of my head. sigh.

MJ said...

Eastman - He's a clown again on AHS. Just watched last week's ep last night. Won't say more.

Mike V. said...

Hmm...I watched AHS last week too. He was back??? I must've missed it or already forgot. lol

Zainab - I hear you on ill timed, but lots of shows do this. I remember LOST when they blew up the sub in season 6. Everyone wanted to see the immediate fallout but then they went to the "Across the Sea" episode where we learned about Jacob and the Man in Black. Granted, that's a bad example because half of the LOST audience hated that episode. lol But my point is that it's not unprecedented for the next episode to deal nothing with the events from the previous week. And Scott Gimple has trained us over the past couple seasons to expect that. We just need to be patient and trust it's all going to come together!

MJ said...

Eastman - He was John Wayne Gacy - he put the clown make up on at the end. LOL


No - they put the Morgan ep in now cause he is gonna get one or many people killed and they wanted us to 'understand' him before that happened. LOL Morgan will probably be gone by mid-season break since the actor is usually too busy to hand around for a whole season. Just saying.

Mike V. said...

Eastman - ohhhhhh right!! I didn't make the connection between the 2 seasons. That's pretty funny.

Even if that's true, which I somewhat agree with you, that doesn't change the fact of what I said about the Morgan episode. :) As for the actor being too busy to stick around....I don't think it's ever been a question of Lennie James' schedule, but what the script/story required. I don't claim to know how busy he is, but his IMDB shows his slate is pretty clear! lol And it also has him starring in episodes through 2016. But granted, if you're in enough episodes in a season you are a series regular and get billed us such in the credits (and probably on IMDB). He could still die sooner than those 2016 eps.

I think they want us to "understand" Morgan because he is going to be the latest to challenge Rick's stance on things. And knowing what he's all about at this stage will add to the tension based on how far we've followed Rick and his crew. Surely not everyone will die before the crew is reunited! lol

mj said...

After Clear the producers said they'd love to have him back but his schedule would not allow - so that is what i meant

Mike V. said...

That was 3 seasons ago! That's because at the time I think he was on that other AMC show bombed. Now he's signed on as a series regular. I don't think his schedule has anything to do with it now.

Mike V. said...

It was kinda like when Nestor Carbonell was Richard but ended up on another show because he wasn't signed a series regular. And because the other show got cancelled in season 4 due to the writer's strike...he was able to come back to LOST and then they made sure they signed him up.