Recap: The Walking Dead S6 E04 – Here’s Not Here

Come on, you knew it was coming. The dreaded episode where, according to some viewers, nothing happens. After a quarry full of walkers, a Wolf invasion on Alexandria and a possible unceremonious/disrespectful death of a main character, we spend 90 minutes with the one guy that garners tons of fan respect despite the fact that we know very little about him: Morgan. Instead of killing the Wolf with bad teeth, he regales him with the story of how he came to be the guy who doesn’t believe in killing.

Rewind to back when Morgan was living alone and writing stuff all over the walls. Dude has gone a little bit crazy. He’s yelling at people who aren’t there, killing anything and anyone who gets in his way and then writing, “clear” in the immediate vicinity. You know, like Tangina in Poltergeist saying, “This house is clean.” Morgan has gone so far off of the rails that he has given himself his own tagline and moniker.

Conveniently, Morgan stumbles upon a really nice cabin that has a garden and a goat named Tabitha. The owner of this home, Eastman, has very few requests, mainly, that Morgan behave in a peaceful manner, but this is far too much for Morgan to currently accommodate. Morgan is an angry man and it takes a lot of time for Eastman to tame the wild beast. While he waits for Morgan to just settle the fuck down, he goes about his business of tending the garden, perfecting his cheese making skills and burying the stray walkers that find his abode. It truly is a nice, peaceful life this man has managed to make for himself in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.

Played by John Caroll Lynch, Eastman is a former forensic psychiatrist who went to hell and back in his personal life before deciding to live by the code of Akido. It’s this peace of mind that allows him to coax Morgan out of his PTSD and teach him to fight while still respecting all life. There is a lot of romanticizing about finding the greater good in not just other people, but in yourself as well. Some people are born evil, but they still don’t deserve to die by your hand. It takes a lot of push and pull, but, ultimately, Morgan comes around to Eastman’s way of thinking.

While I’m always quick to point out that The Walking Dead is a dramatic series and, therefore, is not always going to be full of action, this episode worked mainly because the two actors are so good. Lynch managed to play a sympathetic, disfigured, clown suit wearing serial killer in AHS Freakshow and Lennie James has made us fall in love with a guy that we know almost nothing about. In lesser skilled hands, this could have been a truly painfully boring episode. With the requisite moments of convenience and a boatload of metaphors about going through doors while also opening and closing a lot of literal doors, “Here’s Not Here” could have come in at the normal episode run time and still been just as effective.

Ending with Morgan facing his own Crighton Dallas Wilton, walking through a door and locking the Wolf inside, it all felt pretty heavy handed, but at least now we know why Morgan subscribes to the notion that all life is precious. Bonus: we hear Rick yelling, “Open the gate!”

Sidenotes:

The “Now” and “Then” utilized was very Supernatural.

Yes, we all noticed that Steven Yuen’s name was missing from the credits and, no, we still don’t believe he’s really dead.

Now we know why Morgan left a rabbit’s foot, a Goo Goo Cluster and a single bullet on the altar at the church.

Ugh. You just knew Tabitha wasn’t going to make it to the end of the episode.