The Walking Dead Recap With Spoilers: Here’s Not Here

Morgan says, “You said you like talking, I remember that.” He refers to his first encounter with the Wolves. He says he’ll give “Every last bit,” to the Wolf like he wanted.

THEN.

The “CLEAR” spray paint is on the wall. Morgan is held up in his makeshift fortress. He talks to himself. “You don’t clear! It doesn’t many how many days! How much time! He knocks over a lamp and starts a fire. “You were supposed to!” he yells. “Here’s Not Here” is written on the wall as the flame builds.

Credits roll.

Morgan runs through the woods with a protective mask on and beats walkers with the end of an assault rifle. He piles up their bodies in an opening. Night falls and he burns the bodies.A walker emerges from the woods, heading to the fire and Morgan takes it out. Others approach as well, but Morgan beats them with the gun. One walker bursts from the fire but meets the same fate as the rest.

The next day, Morgan prepares spike from sticks around the ashes. A walker with its hands tied together wanders in the woods and Morgan kills it, adding it to the pile. He boils water and pours it in bottles before having a beer. “CLEAR” is written on a stone inside of his spike traps.

Morgan walks through the woods. He notices he is being followed by two young men and hurries ahead of them. He hides and drives a branch into one’s throat and then chokes the other while yelling, “You know you don’t!” at him.

Another fire burns at night and Morgan stand over it. The next day, he gathers walkers caught on his spikes. He uses blood to mark trees and write, “Pointless acts,” “Here’s not here,” and “Clear,” on rocks and tress. He wanders the woods and finds a lit up patch with flowers growing.He talks to himself as he grasps a branch in his hand, saying “You know what it is,” before unleashing some ninja moves on thin air. He hears a goat in the distance and carefully steps over some rope with cans tied to it.

Morgan finds a house where a goat is tied to a string. Someone yells to Morgan to step away from the goat. He hasn’t figured out how to make cheese yet. Morgan fires at him but the man invites him to put the gun down and have something to eat with him. Morgan hunts for the man who reiterates his invitation before threatening Morgan with a last chance. He is hit in the head with a stick and the man says, “Sorry,” before knocking him out and locking him in a cell.

Morgan wakes up in a cell with food. He notices a drawing on the wall. The man enters and asks Morgan his name and Morgan says, “Kill me,” then starts yelling it repetitively. The man tosses Negan a book about peace. “My name is Eastman,” he tells Morgan. “It’s okay, Tabitha,” he says in the other room. Morgan watches him run outside and dispatch a walker using a tree branch.

Morgan eats a tomato and talks to himself. Eastman brings the goat inside and asks Morgan to please not hurt the goat, attributing the request to Morgan shooting at him yet still being fed.

The next day, Morgan watches the man practice usingbranch as a weapon and put down walkers. He drags the bodies away. “16 hours and 19 on the flow,” Morgan says to himself.

Eastman prepares food as Morgan looks on from the cell. Eastman tries some cheese but almost throws it up because it is so bad.

Later, Eastman begins talking to Morgan, telling him he’s a forensic psychologist from Atlanta. He asks Morgan what he does and Morgan says he clears walkers, people, or anything that gets anywhere near him. The man asks why and Morgan says, “Because that’s why I’m still here.” Eastman disagrees and gives Morgan some lunch.

Morgan examines the zipper on his gloves. He yanks it off and uses it to pry a board from the wall but Eastman starts heading back. “It’s PTSD,” he tells Morgan. Morgan tells Eastman about the two men he killed earlier in the episode. “That’s what I did, that’s what I do,” he tells Eastman. Eastman asks if he’s ever saved anyone but Morgan calls them, “Pointless acts.” Eastman questions Morgan’s wedding ring and whether or not he had children. He tells Morgan he is the way he is because he loved them so much. Eastman wants Morgan to get to know him but Morgan insists he will kill him. Eastman explains that humans aren’t made to kill, that’s why PTSD exists. He insists we all can heal. “It’s all a circle and everyone gets a return,” Eastman says, before telling Morgan the cell door is open and offering him the opportunity to stay or go.

Morgan opens the door and charges Eastman, who tosses him onto the couch. Eastman asks Morgan to stop as he pins him onto the ground. Morgan looks for a weapon near the fireplace. Eastman cuts him off but Morgan ends up getting Eastman into a chokehold. Eastman flips him over and restrains Morgan on the ground. Morgan raises his hands in defeat and Eastman grabs his stick and notices the drawing fell to the ground and broke. He reiterates the two choices he gave Morgan: the door or the couch. Morgan rises up returns to his cell. Eastman picks up the broken drawing before propping he cell door open.

In the night, Eastman prepares some food. He explains he used aikaedo to restrain Morgan. It’s something he used to restrain prisoners. Morgan says Eastman’s wife and daughter are dead. Eastman starts talking about a trip they’re going to go on but he doesn’t know where they’ll go. He shuts the light and says goodnight. Morgan exits the cell and looks at the drawing.

The next morning, Eastman talks about potential with the food. He wants to go scavenge supplies for the trip and invites Morgan but there’s no response, so he goes alone.

Morgan sits in his cell and picks up the book, The Art of Peace, which has a note about aikido inside. “Aikido means not to kill. Although nearly all creeds have a commandment against taking life, most of them justify killing for one reason or another. In aikido, however, we try to completely avoid killing, even the most evil person.”

Morgan hears walkers outside and knows Tabitha is outside unprotected. He hears the animal under duress and goes outside to save it. A wedding ring around the walker’s neck catches his attention but he is able to kill the pair of walkers. He brings Tabitha in the house before removing the bodies. After dragging the body a while, Morgan finds a graveyard. He starts digging for the two walkers he killed today. Eastman arrives and thanks Morgan for saving Tabitha. Before Morgan puts the bodies in the ground, Eastman removes their wallets and IDs to properly mark their headstones.

Tehe two arrive back at the house and Eastman tells Morgan he has to fix the fence around the tomato plant then shows him he fixed Morgan’s spear before giving him his own stick weapon.

Morgan and Eastman work together around the garden. Eastman teaches him aikido. He lectures Morgan on believing all life is precious. Morgan recites aikido creeds with Eastman.

Over dinner, Morgan asks Eastman why he has a cell in the cabin. Eastman tells Morgan he built this place a long time ago, it didn’t have a cell then. At work, he interviewed over 800 men and 25 women. One man, who committed some unspeakable acts, and Eastman claims he was a likable person. He saw right through the man and knew he was psychopath. He knew that the man knew what he was and wanted and instantly punched Eastman in the face. He remembers the man’s face, his eyes, and his evil. The man’s mask had slipped and he would kill Eastman right there. He pulls out a rabbit’s foot and speaks of how aikido saved him. The man eventually broke out of jail, walked to Eastman’s house, and killed his wife, daughter and son. He built the cell with the intention of bringing the man to it and watching him starve to death. However, he’s come to believe that all life is precious. That’s why they’re eating oatmeal burgers. “You’re good at it….redirecting,” Morgan says.

Eastman wants to head to the islands off the coast and at the very least, see the beach. They need supplies and Morgan knows where they can find them. He leads Eastman to his circular spike trap area and begins going through supplies. Eastman asks Morgan who he lost. “My wife and son,” Morgan tells him. Eastman asks their names. “Jenny and Dwayne,” he tells Eastman, who offers condolences. Eastman says, “Forms, right here. Right now.” The two stand facing one another, bow, and Morgan begins going through stances and moves with his stick. Eastman corrects Morgan’s posture and dismisses him.

A walker comes from the woods and Eastman instructs Morgan to kill him. It’s the young man from earlier in the episode and Morgan freezes. Eastman pushes him out of the way but is bitten in the back. Morgan yells at Eastman for stepping in the way and insists, “Tell me how it is!” Eastman says let’s go home but Morgan starts to fight with him. The two spar in the traps and Eastman knocks Morgan to the ground. Morgan pleads with Eastman to kill him but he doesn’t. Eastman loads the walker’s body onto his cart.

Morgan sharpens weapons in the same place. He goes into the woods hunting and finds a walker wandering around. He kills it, saving two people. A man and woman. The woman places a can of food on the ground and a bullet. She whispers, “thank you,” before scampering off.

Morgan grabs his stick and starts running through the woods. He finds a walker eating Tabith then proceeds to Eastman’s graveyard. He tells Eastman to sit down and let him dig the grave. Morgan finds the head stone of the man who killed Eastman’s family. Eastman admits to snatching him from his work place. He put Crighton Dallas Wilton in the cell and let him starve to death. It took 47 days and then Eastman was gone. He ws where Morgan was. It didn’t give him any peace. Rather, Eastman found his peace when he decided to never kill again. He decided to go to Atlanta and turn himself in, which is how he found out the world ended. Morgan tells Eastman the world hasn’t ended and Eastman calls it progress.

Eastman explains his daughter’s precious drawing to Morgan. Eastman tells Morgan he can stay at Eastman’s house and survive for the rest of his life but he shouldn’t. He needs people. Eastman is ready to go. He has a gun in his lockbox. Before going to it, he hands Morgan his rabbit’s foot and tells him, “I hope it’s lucky for you, too, whatever you decide.” “I’ve decided,” Morgan tells him.

Morgan practices aikido by himself in the same place he trained with Eastman. He leaves the house with his pack and gear and walks through the graveyard. On his journey, he sees the sign for Terminus.

NOW.

Morgan finishes telling his story to the Wolf who questions whether Morgan believes it can work out that way with him. He tells Morgan he’s shaking a little and sweating a little before revealing a wound on his side. He tells Morgan that he was hoping to find medicine to help him. If he doesn’t die, he’ll have to kill every person in Alexandria because those are the rules. Morgan leaves the room and locks the door behind him. Rick calls for Morgan and Morgan runs to him.