"The Walking Dead" Recap: "Here's Not Here"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Sometimes The Walking Dead can be a cruel show and these last two weeks have been a fine example of that. After all, the debate over Glenn's fate rages on and this week's episode offered no help in settling the matter because last night's 90 minute tale...was all about Morgan and it was also damn good. With that in mind, let's get right down to it and discuss, "Here's Not Here".

The Good: Well, we've all been wondering just what the hell happened to Morgan in that gap between "Clear" and the season five finale and that's where we spent our entire 90 minutes last night, learning all the details in what turned out to be another power house episode revolving around Morgan. Which is interesting when you think about it. After all, season six is the first time he's been a major character on the show yet "Clear" is still one of the series' best entries to date and last night's run was no slouch either, in fact it actually turned out to be quite a beautiful episode of redemption in so many ways.  As always, Lennie James was stellar on screen, giving us insight into the madness that consumed Morgan and if the man doesn't at least get nominated for an Emmy for this episode it's nothing short of a crime. 

In fact, I think the only writer qualified to handle Morgan in episodes like this is Scott Gimple and it so happens he wrote last night's tour de force that just happened to break us away from the nightmares happening in and around Alexandria and well, this little break from the madness worked wonderfully. It was simply fascinating to watch Morgan slowly come back from the brink...all through little acts of kindness and trust and a few ass kickings along the way and we also need to take a moment to talk about veteran actor John Carroll Lynch and his performance as Eastman last night because the man was amazing. He did such a wonderful job playing this broken man who found his redemption in the most beautiful fashion that it is an honest shame Eastman died in this episode. But, what would this show be without a little darkness to go with the beauty and those final moments with the creepy Wolf...well I guess we are going to see if everyone can be saved or not, but wow...what an episode.

The Bad: Well, two things really. It's evil of the show to keep the Glenn thing hanging over our heads, but they certainly are and I'm really bummed that Eastman didn't make it out of his cabin. This was a super cool character that deserves more screen time. Maybe he'll pop up in flashbacks. 

The Verdict: This was a wonderful episode, simple as that. It may not have advanced the plot of the season that much, but who cares? To see Morgan's redemption, to get a solid idea of why he's in Alexandria and what that all means for the future of the show gives this episode a sharp contrast over last week and I loved every second of it.

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