Wow . The warfare between Rick and Negan we ’d been teased with for two full season may have get — and is still in full - baseball swing — but a unlike struggle is take in post simultaneously , and it ’s arguably the more of import one . For eon , Rick has preached to his the great unwashed it ’s “ us ” or “ them . ” Now , he ’s finally starting to see he may have gone too far — and for those he ’s leading , it may be too late .
essentially , “ Monsters ” takes all the subtext of the moral dilemma at the heart of The Walking Dead and makes it text . There are at least two open conversations that ready out the issue as unmortgaged as can be . The first is between Jesus and Morgan , as they see the ( very ) enceinte radical of Saviors they ’ve taken captive back to Hilltop . Both Tara and Morgan are savage about it ; Tara assumes that Maggie will have them kill rather than let them in the colony , while Jesus hopes they can be gaol in some of the trailer out back until the battle is over . Morgan , on the other manus , is patently thinking about shooting the prisoner at any minute . Jesus see the murder in his eyes , and then this conversation involve position :
Jesus : We made our decision .
Morgan : Nothing ’s been settle .
Jesus : Well , nothing ’s lasting except impermanence , I judge . In that path I ’ll concord . But we are take these men to the Hilltop . That ’s where were going , and that ’s what we ’re doing .
Morgan : You sleep together how severe this . Who these multitude are .
Jesus : No matter what they ’ve done , they ’re people . There are many kinds of danger , many kinds of dying . I kill , I ’ve kill . You do , you have . But we do n’t execute .
Morgan : I have .
To be fair , lots of the “ undecomposed bozo ” of The Walking Dead have execute hoi polloi , most especially Rick — and let ’s clarify execution as killing those who put no quick risk — but it ’s gotten more uncouth recently , arguably ever since Rick executed drunk , opprobrious dipshit Pete Andersonback in the season five finale(with Mayor Deanna ’s permission ) . Since then , Rick has decided all his problem search like nail and can be solved with a hammer , and that hammer is last .
But afterkilling that baby ’s father last episode — despite it being a very readable “ Rick or him ” scenario — coming face - to - face with esprit de corps has suddenly made Rick think that there are option other than killing . He know Morales , although it was only for a short while ; despite the fact Morales has got a gun on him and is calling the Saviors to take him ( Negan wants Rick , “ The Widow ” Maggie , and “ The King ” Ezekiel direct alive ) , Rick decide to judge another way .
team spirit wo n’t have it , though , because he bonk who Rick has become , because having joined the Saviors he ’s become the same thing . I ’ll let him excuse it ( although I ’ve edited it a bit for clarity because Morales is a bit of a rambler ) .
Morales : As soon as I saw you . I make out you ’d made the same choice as me . From there to here . Shit . Well , I guess we ai n’t the same guys we used to be , huh ? ‘ have you ’re a freak .
…
Rick : We ’re not the same .
Morales : How ’s that ?
Rick : appear at you .
esprit de corps : Look at me ? Look at us , Rick . count at us . We ’re two shit who ’ll do whatever we have to just to keep going . The only difference is I ’m the one holding the torpedo . That does n’t make me any bad than you , Rick . That just arrive at me favorable . ‘ Cause get ’s face it . If it was n’t me ? If it was you holding the throttle ? I ’d be brains out on the floor right now .
Rick : You do n’t love that .
esprit de corps : And you do ? Huh ?
Rick : I know I would n’t require to .
Morales : occur on . Is that the unspoiled you’re able to do ?
Rick : I ’d at least seek to find another way .
morale : Yeah ? Why ? ‘ Cause we know each other for a few mean solar day back at the start ?
( Rick mumbles )
Morales : You desire to know what I opine ? I think you’re able to talk all you want . you may say all the words — Lori , Shane , Andrea , Glenn — they’re all idle . Somewhere along the room , Officer Friendly died right along with him . Just like I did . With them . That ’s what I know , Rick .
Morales is 100 pct not wrong . Rick has n’t tried to find another way in years , and it ’s literally only this consequence , after realizing he killed a father protecting his baby , then seeing someone he used to know — that he finds himself want to resolve this situation without kill . But that ’s when Daryl down in and shoots Morales in the head with a crossbow .
Rick shouting , “ Wait , no ! ” to Daryl was satisfy to me , just as it much have been to Herschel up in post - revelatory zombie heaven , even if it was too late . There was a real possibility that Rick could have gotten esprit de corps to switch sides , but Daryl killing him — when he could have easily stuck him up from behind and force him to drop his accelerator — wipe off that possibility . That , coupled with the baby Gracie situation , give Rick stir .
And the hits keep come . At the goal of the episode , a lone Savior fires at Rick and Daryl from behind a tree diagram . understand the guy has to be alone , Rick enjoin him to swing his gun and come in on out ; Rick dedicate him his Christian Bible that if he tells them what they need to know , he can take a machine and leave . The Savior does so , and explains that the guns Dwight had say them were there had been moved the previous day to another compound . And that ’s when Daryl shoots the Savior in the head , too .
Rick is implausibly dismayed , but he has no one to blame but himself . In the very last episode , Morgan distinctly remembers Rick ’s instructions to the radical “ to kill them all , ” more specifically that they have to kill them all to be good . For that Rick , mercy was not an option .
It ’s a lesson that Morgan has taken to ticker , and hard . He ’s gone back to the dead - inside killing machine he was before he run into Eastman and becameTWD ’s irregular Prince of Peace , the use now held by Jesus . So when there ’s a surprise automaton attack , and a group of tied - up Saviors habituate the bedlam to escape , Morgan is all too felicitous to black market through the woods to hunt them down to defeat them . Since their hand are spring and they ’re tied together , it ’s not that unvoiced for him to catch up and shoot one down , but Jesus stops him from drink down a bit . Morgan is fed up with Jesus ’ mercifulness , and attacks him .
To be readable : Morgan require to kill the unarmed prisoner so badly that he ’s willing to fight — maybe even kill — his familiar Jesus to do so . I ’ve sure as shooting think The Walking Dead can be slow sometimes , but I ca n’t imagine that they want anyone to conceive that Morgan is in the right here to snipe Jesus . It ’d be as if he were attack Glenn , another guy who would n’t execute anybody , no matter what Rick preach . Jesus takes Morgan down , although not well , and Morgan leave , saying he “ ca n’t be part of this”—“this ” being not killing their captive . The rest continue to Hilltop .
At Hilltop , this all descend full circle when Gregory the Weasel arrives and begs to be allow in . He ’s betrayed Hilltop to the Saviors , threatened to evict family , and arrived in Gabriel ’s cable car without Gabriel . He has no skill other than sucking and being weaselly , neither of which would help him hold out if Maggie refuses to let him back into Hilltop . Eventually , after it ’s clear she wo n’t be letting him in , Gregory stops posture and admit he fled because he was frightened , and that he join Negan because retrieve the Saviors would get ahead . It ’s not really an apologia , and Maggie is smart enough to sleep together that — and to know that if he lets him in , he ’ll still be weaselly and shitty and pose a potential danger . But she let him in , instead of leaving him outside to die . She chooses mercifulness .
And that ’s when Jesus , Morgan , Tara , and several dozen tied - up Saviors show up , and the micro - problem of whether to save Gregory becomes the macro - problem of what to do with all these prisoners . Putting them in the laggard means bringing enemy inside the walls , expose the household there to peril , and presumably wasting precious food supply on course their enemies . kill them means removing the possible action that they ’ll attack again … but it also signify that they ’ll have to dig a mass grave . That ’s … that ’s not honorable .
I ’m still apprehensive , because for the past several seasons anytime it looked like Rick and the others were approach a moral predicament they would only start evoke , but I do n’t recall The walk Dead ever being so direct and overt about need whether pity has a place in a world like this , if there ’s a time value in showing mercy to those that would do you harm . Based on the first two sequence , this will clearly be the question of the season ( or at least the half - season ) . ground on all the season that have get before it , however — andRick ’s red-faced - rimmed eye from the premiere — I’m afraid we already know what the answer is .
Assorted Musings:
In other plot line , Aaron ’s husband Eric , who was scud in the catgut last week , sends Aaron to go fetch up the blast on the compound and decease and turns into a zombi and Aaron is very sad . We ’ve spent so slight time with Eric — and not much more with Aaron lately , honestly — that this did n’t have much wallop .
Meanwhile , Ezekiel is still smile and talking about how his squad is go to lash out their chemical compound and not lose a undivided man , which manifestly means they seem to take the entire chemical compound without losing a single man , but are basically standing around gloat before they actually sweep the compound , then some Saviors bulge up from the compound ’s windows and Ezekiel lose a circle of men . It ’s dumb and obvious .
That zombi attack was nonsensical . So not only do the automaton somehow pop up correctly next to them without anyone noticing , but it turn out they fail to notice them despite the fact the zombies have had to literally get wise down a small hill to get to them . Also , seeing zombies head trip and summersault down that J. J. Hill was deeply , profoundly silly .
Morgan is wearing the armor of the kid who was killed inthe notorious cantaloupe installment . I had n’t noticed before . Symbolically it ’s powerful , but once you realise Morgan is wearing size X armor it is incredibly difficult not to see how goofy he calculate .
Xander Berkeley ’s performance as Gregory when he was trying to talk himself back inside Hilltop was delicious . He is so comically the worst that he ’s massively entertaining . “ I did not eat [ that little young woman ’s ] pancakes ! ”
Also delightful : Once Maggie mercifully let Gregory inside Hilltop and Jesus shows up with the prisoners , Gregory in a flash abandons everything he was saying about mankind having fears and make mistakes and how pardon is key to start shrieking about how the Saviors could not possibly be let inside Hilltop as they ’re totally irredeemable . Gregory is just the absolute best at being the worst .
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