*Spoilers Ahead*
After all the talk about Glenn that permeated the conversations about The Walking Dead for the past week the show decides to focus on something completely different. I can’t say I’m surprised that the show decided to spend this episode focusing on Morgan’s backstory, it’s something they’ve done before with both Beth and The Governor in the past two seasons. Still, those episodes didn’t come in the wake of one of the shows biggest cliffhangers ever and I can understand the anger by some even if I don’t necessarily feel to0 upset over it.
That is mainly because “Here’s Not Here” is a great episode that is a showcase for both Lennie James and guest star John Caroll Lynch (who you probably remember as Marge’s husband in Fargo.) I mentioned the shows use of this trope before with The Governor (“Live Bait” and “Dead Weight”) and Beth (“Slabtown”) but this episode succeeds not just on the strength of it’s actors but because of it’s focus on two men and their growing relationship. Those other episodes attempted to introduce a slew of new characters at once and it didn’t work. “Here’s Not Here” simply focuses on letting us know the mysterious Eastman.
The episode is given a longer runtime and while that has proven tedious before I think this is one of the moments where it works. The longer episode gives us more time to connect to Eastman, who obviously dies, and actually gets us to feel for his demise. It also does a great job of actually showing us how Morgan went from violent psycho devastated by the loss of his wife and son to the calm peacemaker we’ve seen since his return. I’m not convinced this episode would have been as successful without the extra time to build this all up.
Perhaps the nicest surprise this week is the episode’s oddly uplifting tone. The Walking Dead is, understandably, a dark show so it was interesting to see Eastman come into the scene and essentially remain positive even when recounting his own terrible origin and facing his own death. In the span of 90 minutes the show manages to make us not only feel for Eastman but to understand him in a way that some of the main cast doesn’t even get.
That uplifting tone is brought back down to the usual reality of this show in the ending where we learn that Morgan did not kill the Wolf who ambushed him and instead put him in a cell similar to Eastman’s method on him. The Wolf promises to get out and kill again and it seems likely this will happen. The ending may bring things back to the world we actually live in but the episode is successful in making us understand Morgan and his worldview. The world may be full of evil people but what good is it to not try and help them?
This will all inevitably blow up in Morgan’s face, because it must, but I know that I’m certainly going to be pulling for him. The Walking Dead needs more people as utterly human as Morgan.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- My “Glenn isn’t showing up til the mid-season finale” theory is still going strong!
- I hope I wasn’t the only one who felt unreasonably sad about the goat being eaten?
- Seriously, it deserves to be said again but Lennie James is a goddamn treasure and the show would be foolish to get rid of him anytime soon.
- I loved the nice touch of the fish-eye lens when Morgan goes into “crazy” mode. Wonder if we’ll see that again?
- “What’s your name?” “Kill me.” “That’s a stupid name. It’s dangerous. You should change it.”
Jesse Swanson is a would-be writer, podcaster and funny guy who covers TV shows of all shapes and sizes. You can find him on Twitter @JesseSwanson