Morgan clears a street full of THE WALKING DEAD when Richard forces him to kill in “Bury Me Here.” They let us have some fun last week, this week was back to the business of action and consequence. “Bury me Here” is mostly about Morgan and Richard. Morgan is doing his best to avoid violence while Richard goes out of his way to encourage it. This time, Richard’s plan does not involve sacrificing Carol, but does involve creating a situation that will certainly mean his execution.
Richard plans to derail a routine drop by shorting their next offering by a single cantaloupe. King Ezekiel checks each truck personally before they roll out so Richard constructs a roadblock of shopping carts. When the truck reaches the obstruction, Richard deploys the entire security team to secure the area and clear the road. While everyone is preoccupied scanning for threats, Richard removes and hides one of the cantaloupes. He rejoins the group and reminds young Benjamin to keep his gun barrel up.
We can see where this is going. We’ve seen Benjamin a lot this episode. He gave Morgan a painting that reminds him of a book Morgan gave him to read and he tells Morgan he met a girl, but won’t say her name. Benjamin asks prickly Carol if he can spend the day shadowing her instead of going on the offering run. He’s impressed by the way she coolly and effectively clears walkers and wants to learn from her. She says “no” and tells him to go on the offering run.
The leader for this group of Savior’s is Gavin and he’s been warning Richard and Ezekiel for weeks to keep in line. At the handoff, Gavin asks Ezekiel and his men to surrender all the guns they have on them. Richard tells his crew to do it, at this point, Morgan doesn’t even have his staff. Gavin discovers they have eleven melons instead of the twelve owed by agreement. King Ezekiel doesn’t understand, he counted the offering himself, there were twelve when they rolled out. Gavin tells one his hench, Jared, to deal the discipline. Jared points his gun at Richard’s face. So Far, this is exactly what Richard planned, but Jared shoots Benjamin instead.
Gavin tells Ezekiel they can rush Benjamin home to get medical help, but they must return the next day with the missing cantaloupe. Ezekiel stops at Carol’s for first aid but Benjamin dies a few minutes after they arrive. Morgan thinks it over and suspects Richard had something to do with the missing offering. Richard confesses he set up the carts and hoped to spark a fight, but he was sure Gavin would kill him first, not Benjamin. Still, Richard argues his point with Morgan, peace is a respectable goal, but they need to take the fight to the Saviors. Richard promises to tell Ezekiel everything he did and take full responsibility for Benjamin’s death, but first they must convince Gavin and the Saviors that they understand his message. They’ll fall in line like they always have.
The next day, Ezekiel packs the truck with the single melon he owes Gavin. They arrive a little early, this isn’t the time to make the Savior’s wait. Morgan asks Richard if he talked to Ezekiel yet, but Richard says he’ll do it later. Gavin arrives and takes his missing cantaloupe. He asks how Benjamin is recovering but when he finds out he died, he orders Jared to leave immediately and walk back to their sanctuary alone. Morgan attacks Richard and beats him to death with his hands. No one on either side tries to stop him. When, he’s done, Morgan tells Ezekiel and Gavin how Richard set up the whole issue with the offering to start a fight. Morgan explains to Gavin that they don’t mean to cause the Savior’s any trouble and will deal with anyone that does on their own.
Gavin is okay with this and willing to meet in a week, everything back to normal. Morgan stays behind to bury Richard in a grave he dug earlier in the day next to a sign that reads, “Bury Me Here.” This is a tough time for Morgan and he goes a little crazy. He runs into the streets to kill all the walkers he can find. Then, he drops by Carol’s house to tell her that Negan beat Glenn and Ford to death with his baseball bat, and he’s also killed Spencer and Olivia too. Morgan thinks he’s better off alone, but Carol offers him her house. She heads back inside The Kingdom’s gates and tells Ezekiel she is going to stay there now, to help prepare the people for the fight headed their way. Ezekiel agrees they’ll have to fight, just not that night.
This is the Carol we’ve been waiting for. Morgan is another story, the last we see of him, he’s sharpening the end of his staff to a spear point. Never can tell which way he’ll go. Three episodes left in season seven and winds of war are growing louder.
Season 7, Episode 13 (S07E13)
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9PM on AMC
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Eric Rodriguez | Contributor
