'The Walking Dead' recap: Rick finally sees Morgan again

(The Walking Dead/ AMC)

This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” provided fans with an answer they had been waiting for since the first episode of the series.

At the end of the last episode, Rick declared he was going on a run to get more weapons to fight against the Governor.   

Knowing their supply is not even close to the size of the stock at Woodbury, he takes Michonne and Carl on a trip to his old home in Kings County in “Clear.”  

Discovering there is nothing left at Rick’s old police station, they decide to go check out some of the old bars and shops to see if the weapons the owners kept behind their counters—and that Rick signed the permits for way back when—are still there.

When the trio arrives at the section of street with the stores, they discover it has been turned into a sea of traps for walkers, with signs instructing people to keep out. Someone obviously put a lot of effort into keeping the zombies—and humans—away.  

As they are starting to make their way past the traps, a walker comes up behind them. Instead of being killed by one of the traps, it is killed by a masked man on a roof wearing body armor.

A firefight ensues as the man then tries to shoot at Rick, Carl and Michonne. The man is about to kill Rick when Carl comes out of nowhere and shoots the man in the chest.  Because of all of the armor, the man is only unconscious, not dead.  

Rick is shocked when he takes the man’s mask off and realizes that it is … Morgan, the guy who saved his life on the series premiere and explained to him what the heck was going on with the zombies when Rick got out of the hospital, oblivious to the scary, new way of the world.

“He saved my life,” Rick tells Michonne.

They bring Morgan upstairs to his hideout to wait for him to wake up.  Rick realizes that although Morgan has not turned, he has gone absolutely insane.  Chalk-drawn pictures and incoherent rants cover the walls.  Morgan also has a ton of weapons—exactly what the three came here to find.  

But Rick is distracted from the weapon-gathering, when he spots a walkie-talkie—the one that Morgan used to try and communicate with Rick when they first parted ways.  He also sees large writing on the wall: “DUANE TURNED.”  His question about where Morgan’s son was is now answered and he is overcome with emotion.

Carl is also not focused on gathering guns, because he finds a drawing of his old neighborhood on the wall.  “RICK’S HOUSE,” his childhood home is labeled, with the word “Taken” next to it, which is then crossed out and replaced with the word “Burnt.”  

Carl announces that he is going to a baby crib store nearby to get one for Judith.  Rick makes him promise that that is what he is really up to and has Michonne go with him.  

But it’s not what Carl is doing—at least not completely.  Realizing that his home is destroyed, Carl is in pursuit of a Grimes family photo hanging on the wall in a local café to bring back for Judith to show her what her mother looked like.

Michonne catches on to his plan and decides to help him out. After warding off a group of zombies still sitting in the diner, the photo is successfully retrieved.

Meanwhile, Morgan has woken up and tries to kill Rick.  

“You know me!” Rick yells over and over again, trying to spark Morgan’s memory, as he dodges his stabbing attempts.  

Finally, Morgan has a lucid moment and calms down when Rick recounts the walkie talkie story, explaining that the two lost communication when Rick was forced to go far away for the safety of his family.

Morgan starts crying and begs Rick to kill him.  Rick learns why Morgan is so upset and has gone crazy. Back in the show’s premiere, Rick had tried to convince Morgan to kill his wife, who had turned and was wandering around Morgan’s front lawn.  Morgan had chickened out, too devastated to pull the trigger.   

Later, Morgan and Duane were separated while scavenging for food and Duane’s mother appears and kills Duane.  Morgan blames himself for not having the courage to kill her originally.

“I did it finally,” he says. “But finally is too late. I was selfish. I was weak.”  

Rick tries to convince Morgan to drive back with them to the prison, but he refuses.  

Sensing Rick’s sadness when they begin to load up the car to head back, Michonne finally has a moment of compassion—something we never see from her.

“I know you see people,” she tells Rick and assures him that it is okay. “I talked to my dead boyfriend. It happens.”

Michonne, Rick and Carl head back to the prison—mission complete with large bags of guns they took from Morgan.  

Although not a completely satisfying ending, the episode finally provided an answer about Morgan and a brief moment of calm before the storm. The battle between Rick’s gang and Woodbury is about to go down.  

“The Walking Dead” airs Sunday nights on AMC.