'The Walking Dead' Recap: 'Bury Me Here'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

The beauty of The Walking Dead is that it is one of the few horror stories out there, that actually bothers to dig deep into human emotion and analyze how we feel and react to the toughest parts of life (in the most extreme fashion of course) and while we’ve experienced an interesting gauntlet of feels when it comes to this series, they rarely stick to a particular one, opting to allow for the audience and the story to explore new territory of the human psyche.
 
But one particular element when it comes to the human condition continues to rear its head on this series…loss. It’s something that our characters have had to deal with on a fairly consistent basis due to the world they inhabit and obviously, it’s been quite the focus of season seven as well. However, this is the first season where characters have had time to process their pain and overcome it, making for some uplifting storylines. But last night, the show decided to ask the question…what happens when we don’t deal with loss, and we find a way to bury it deep inside instead. The answer to that is not a pleasant one and it made ‘Bury Me Here’ an intense and powerful episode revolving around Richard and Morgan’s inability to let anything go.
 
Richard’s journey stood out in obvious fashion because we’ve known for some time he’s harboring all kinds of pain revolving around loss and that it is driving him to do questionable things. But last night, well everything came to a head with this man. Not only did we learn that an act of hesitation long ago after the world came to an end is what cost him his family, but his inability to act in the face of adversity is why he is suddenly hellbent on starting a fight so that no one else has to suffer like he did. Which means…he put a grand plan of sabotage into motion, one that forced a confrontation with the Saviors, in the hopes that it would finally convince Ezekiel to fight…but instead the altercation cost young Benjamin his life. 
 
The pain of seeing a young life lost for no good reason was too much for Morgan to bear and well…in an attempt to calm his nerves, he found out that Richard was behind the whole thing after all…and he even managed to force a confession upon confronting him about his treachery. But seeing Richard pay for his crimes in a civil way was more than he could bear and in a stunning moment during another delivery to the Saviors, Morgan broke his cardinal rule…and murdered Richard in cold blood, revealing the whole plot to Ezekiel and the Saviors in the hopes of keeping the peace and well…wow. It really doesn't get much more heartbreaking than this, to see Morgan fall in such devastating fashion considering how hard he has worked to find peace after all this time.

---

It means plain and simple, that his time with Eastman was all for naught. He never found a better way. He never found true peace. All Eastman managed to do was help him bury his pain and hide it under the illusion of calm and his fury has been brewing inside all this time. This of course explains the irritation we've seen in his eyes sometimes. It's not disdain for murder or frustration over the fact that people simply do not understand. It's his anger, building and bubbling and Richard is the man that finally brought it to the surface and is if the act of putting Richard down wasn't hard enough to watch...there was also the moment when he referred to Benjamin as Duane, more or less completing his regression, and all of this begets the question...what comes next for Morgan?

As far as this reviewer can tell...vengeance...and a death wish. Because clearly now the Saviors are Morgan's new target for fury and amidst the myriad of instability and flashbacks we saw last night, it's still inherently obvious that Morgan is incapable of ending the pain on his own by way of suicide, as was revealed to us in the third season episode, 'Clear' and while no one wants to see Morgan die by his own hands or at all for that matter...his quest to make every single last one of the Saviors pay is a dangerous one and it cannot end well. Which is why it was a wonderful gesture for Carol to surrender up her little Fortress of Solitude to allow Morgan to do his thing and stay there instead, so that maybe, just maybe...he can retain a touch of his humanity.

However, Morgan's return to the darkest places of his soul was not a complete and total loss. Because in a way, he inspired Carol to face her own demons at last. She was far more alert and active in this episode, even going so far as to seek out and eventually get the truth about what happened with the Saviors and Alexandria and his ability to inspire didn't end there...because the closing moments of the show provided us with quite the poignant moment where Carol returned to the Kingdom to point out to Ezekiel that it was time to fight and the King...finally agreed. Clearly he's seen enough of what the Saviors have to offer and just like Rick he came to realize that they are only going to demand more and more until there is nothing left to give...

But while we should be celebrating the fact that the Kingdom seems to be ready to march to war with Alexandria as an ally, let's be honest, how they came to that decision is quite the pyrrhic victory. After all, Benjamin and Richard are dead and Morgan...is on the cusp of becoming downright feral once again and when all is said and done, this was...quite the emotional episode. I think it's safe to say that the audience has been rooting for Morgan to make peace with his pain after the heart wrenching episode that was 'Clear' and seeing him fall to pieces in this story and watching that agony wash over him again was incredibly difficult. At this point, I think the only thing that can save him from slipping away further is Rick...but with war on the horizon...there's simply no time to properly deal with Morgan's suffering so all we can do, is hope for the best. Until next time.

---