“All life is precious”
We finally found out the story behind Morgan’s significant change in character and it did soften my stance on him a bit but I’m still very frustrated with him and his decisions in S6. Coming into this episode I don’t think I had ever been as angry with a fictional character then I was with Morgan haha I was already frustrated by his new passivity when the attack by the Wolves occurred but it grew into a raging inferno during Ep2. Before I go into the repercussions Morgan’s new philosophy has created, I think I’ll start at how he came to embrace it.
I really loved this episode, right up there with my favourites of the series. I am just so fascinated by all the stories in the Zombie Apocalypse. Every time they pass a random message like the ones the Governor saw after Woodbury fell, my imagination goes wild. I want to know the whole story, who wrote it and why and what happened before and after. Whenever they come across people or abandoned shelters, same thing, I want to know as much as I can. I would love a show following a survivor in the ZA and just showing the stories of everything he/she encounters. In fact I have been putting one together myself to ease my imagination but until then I really connect with the episodes that go there. So when the episode started with Morgan finding a cabin in the woods that is definitely being lived in, my mind started racing.
They couldn’t have introduced a better character, Eastman was a great addition to the show and helped carry this episode. I was really hoping they would give us all the background on Eastman and his set up and they definitely did not disappoint. I was really shocked about the story of the prisoner and what happened to his family. I loved the story behind the cabin and the cell, as disturbing as it was. And man even though you hated that Crighton Dallas Winston guy, hearing him say it took 47 days for him to starve to death really took me aback. You can see why Eastman chose to fully adopt the Aikido philosophy, he went so far to get revenge that he almost lost himself. The good part at least. That’s the thing about revenge, like Eastman said, it will bring you no peace. Now I don’t want to say that Winston didn’t deserve to be punished by whatever means but sometimes you can go too far and I think Eastman recognized that. You have to hang onto the Good inside you or else you lose yourself, that’s why he stopped killing and focused on saving. We aren’t made to kill. To keep himself from ever going back to where he went with Winston, he couldn’t kill things.
Having said that I truly believe Eastman would have killed the Wolves attacking Alexandria. “All life is precious” does not mean you never kill, it can’t. Morgan saves the life of evil scumbags allowing them to harm more innocent people so where is the concern for the lives of the innocent. If you believe all life is precious, then sometimes you need to do things to protect life, even against other forms of life. To me, “All life is precious” is about giving someone a choice. Some people in the ZA, like Morgan once, just kill no matter what to survive. Even if they have an opportunity not to, they still do. Everyone is a potential threat so better to take them out first and survive than risk it to chance. Even Eastman said he would not allow Morgan to kill him so he was obviously ready to ensure his survival if Morgan chose not to accept 1 of his options. That’s why I don’t believe Eastman would have allowed those Wolves to live, especially watching as they hack people to death while still alive. I do think he would have let the 2 Wolves live just as Morgan did, but once the attack started the circumstances are different and require different action. They do not have the means to care for and house prisoners in the ZA, not to mention being responsible for the protection of innocent people. Someone that dedicates their life to killing and savagery as the Wolves did, cease to be life and become death. They deserve no protection or mercy. They are only existing to find people to kill and take their things. They are not crazy either, they are very lucid in their demeanor. They acknowledge their evil and boast about the fact that they will kill everyone the first chance they get despite any kindness being shown to them. In a perfect world, you would love to be able to work with each person and bring back the Good part of themselves. But clearly the ZA is far from a perfect world so hard choices must be made. To protect the precious life of the innocent in a ZA, sometimes it requires complete elimination of a threat. By all means give people a choice/chance if you can but once someone makes a choice, they must deal with the consequences.
And that is where I have my biggest problem with Morgan. He is talking about saving the Wolf they just watched mercilessly and cruelly slaughtering an innocent person, even as the guy is defiantly stating the killing will not stop. Sorry but to me that is completely ridiculous and shows a callous lack of empathy for the innocent. That Wolf made a choice to kill yet does not have to face consequences for it, only the innocent does. I guarantee if Eastman had other survivors with him and Morgan killed some of them before confronting Eastman, Morgan would’ve been takin a dirt nap. You re-direct if you can but like I said earlier, at a certain point in a ZA you must eliminate the threat to protect the innocent.
Morgan’s actions based on his “all life is precious” philosophy have had devastating consequences for many innocent people. Not killing the 2 Wolves that surprised him allowed them to capture and kill red poncho guy, and then find Aaron’s backpack leading them to Alexandria. They attacked and many innocent people were butchered. He allowed a group of them to leave WITH A FUCKING GUN which almost got Rick killed and attracted the herd of Walkers straight to their camp which could have a disastrous conclusion. When you really look at it, the only people being protected are evil people and the ones being hurt/killed are the good ones. I’d say that goes against the whole “all life is precious” philosophy. Chris Hardwick had a great point about Morgan in that he is displaying an addict’s personality. When he kills he goes way too far but when he stops killing he doesn’t allow himself to go far enough. It’s either none or all. He can’t kill some of the time and protect life the other, it’s either kill all the time or not at all. It’s very flawed for obvious reasons but it will be interesting to see if Morgan can find that middle ground before he gets more people or himself killed.
From the preview for next week it looks like we won’t have to wait long to see what the repercussions are as I believe we hear Rick’s voice yelling to open the gate. And sure enough, he hasn’t killed the Alpha Wolf and is leaving an opportunity for very bad things to happen. Pisses me off something fierce haha Also looks like Maggie is going to look for Glenn, ugh man Glenn with everything going down it doesn’t seem real yet but it will be very soon I’m sure. I think he will survive initial attack somehow but will be bit and hang on long enough to say goodbye. Not looking forward to that. They almost wrote themselves into a corner with Glenn, it would be a huge stretch if he gets out unscathed but I don’t want the character gone so what do ya do. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
