Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead didn’t disappoint fans as we saw the return of an old friend as Rick, Michonne and Carl ventured out on a gun run. So what happened?
Given the episode promo, as well as the sneak peeks, we knew 3×12 “Clear” was going to see Michonne, Carl and Rick do some bonding of sorts, whilst searching for ammunition and weapons to help secure the prison in the event of another Woodbury rampage or a walker breakthrough.
The episode begins with the trio speeding down a deserted road, the only disturbance being a lone hitchhiker who begs them to stop. They ignore him, driving past. As they approach a pileup of ruined and abandoned cars, Michonne tries to maneuver around the wreckage, only to get stuck in the mud. Walkers surround the car as Rick attempts to free the wheel. Just as they get free enough to move on, the hitchhiker catches up. Again they ignore the stranger’s pleas and drive on.
Later, the group finds Rick’s old police station. They enter, only to find that the gun locker has been cleared out completely. Rick suggests they visit local bars and liquor shops as the old owners would have kept guns under the counters. They move off in search, only to find a street filled with booby traps. A walker, ensnared in a wire, is then shot in the head by a masked man on a rooftop. The man then orders Rick and co. to drop their weapons, but Rick returns fire, and a shootout ensues.
As the masked man approaches Rick in the street, Carl jumps out of a storefront and shoots him. The man is knocked unconscious. The group removes the man’s mask to reveal Morgan! (Morgan was the man, with his son, who helped Rick in season 1.)
Shocked, Rick and Michonne carry Morgan to his apartment, and lay him down on a cot. The room is fully stocked with weapons, and Michonne and Carl begin packing the guns up, but Rick refuses to leave until Morgan wakes up.
In the room next door, Carl discovers a hand-drawn map of the town, just to find Rick’s house with Morgan’s scrawl written over it – “Burnt Out.” Carl then declares that he is going to find a crib for Judith in a nearby baby store. Rick says he can go, only on the requirement that Michonne goes with him. Outside, Carl tries to leave Michonne, but she chases him down. Having run past the baby store, she asks Carl why, and Carl tells Michonne, “I’m getting Judith something else first.”
Meanwhile, Morgan wakes up and lunges at Rick, pulling a knife from beneath the cot. As a struggle ensues, Rick screams at Morgan “You saved my life…you know me!” and Morgan in despair replies that he doesn’t know anyone anymore. He then stabs Rick in the shoulder, and Rick, shocked, points his gun at Morgan who pleads with Rick to kill him. Rick attempts to get Morgan to remember him, and recalls the walkie-talkies. Morgan says he tried to reach Rick countless times, but Rick was never there. Rick explains that he was pushed further and further into the country, and that he “didn’t have a choice.”
Morgan then reveals to Rick that Duane died as a result of his indecision. Due to his inability to kill his undead wife, she managed to get in and tore up their son. “The weak people,” he laments, “we have inherited the earth.”
Meanwhile, Carl tries to enter a cafe in town. Michonne pulls him back and Carl, in frustration, tells her that she can’t stop him. She agrees she can’t stop him, but tells him he can’t stop her helping him. As they enter the cafe from the back, having distracted walkers with one of Morgan’s mouse cages, Carl fetches a photo from the wall. However, quickly surrounded by walkers, Carl is forced to drop the picture and he and Michonne fight their way out. Distraught, Carl insists that they need to go back inside. Michonne orders him to stay outside, and then goes back in herself. The picture is a photo of Rick, Carl and Lori. Thanking Michonne, Carl says, “I just thought Judith should know what her mom looked like.”
Rick implores Morgan to come back with them to the prison. Morgan refuses, shaking his head and tells Rick he can’t bear to watch everyone die, by teeth or by bullet. He tells Rick to take guns. Then Michonne and Carl return with a crib and the photo. Carl apologises for shooting Morgan, and Morgan tells Carl never to be sorry.
Rick then asks Carl privately how things went with Michonne, and Carl discloses that he thinks “she might be one of us.” Then, as Michonne loads the group’s car trunk with the guns and ammo, she reveals to Rick that she knows she sees dead people (as in hallucinations, because walkers are dead, too, and not overly uncommon in The Walking Dead!) and that she used to talk to her dead boyfriend. “It happens.”
On their drive back from the town, they come across the shredded corpse of the hitchhiker who they saw on their way. They stop to collect his backpack and drive on.
What did you think of The Walking Dead 3×12 “Clear”? Did anything surprise you particularly? Did you think Morgan would be joining the survivors at the prison?
Let us know in the comments below!
Next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, 3×13 “Arrow on the Doorpost,” airs on Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.
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