‘The Walking Dead’: Hershel’s Return Scene Revealed

Hershel Greene made his first appearance on The Walking Dead on Sunday night since a Season Four flashback scene after the character died.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×05 follow. Major spoilers!

During one of the sequences which played out in Rick’s mind as he bled out on his horseback, he visited Hershel Greene in his mind. During the scene, Rick’s inner monologue was allowed to play out, as he revealed his inner struggled and sorrows while Hershel reassured him he was doming the right thing.

In the scene, Rick and Hershel looked out at a beautiful orange sunset from Hershel’s barn. “This place, it’s beautiful,” Rick says.

“It is something, isn’t it?” Hershel tells him.

Rick gets serious, quickly. “I’m so sorry for what happened to you, to Beth, and Glenn. For everything Maggie’s lost,” he says, before blaming himself. “Maybe if I tried harder, done things different, listened more…”

“My girl, she’s strong, and my grandson, he’ll only make her stronger,” Hershel says. “You ain’t gotta worry about her.”

As he did from the earliest moments of The Walking Dead‘s apocalypse, Rick reveals his priorities. “I need to find my family,” Rick said. “I need to keep them together.”

“No you don’t,” Hershel tells him. “You only think you do. I know it’s been hard.”

“It has. What you wanted from me for Carl, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve been trying…”

“But we’ll get there, all of us.”

It is all starting to add up and take its toll on Rick. “I’m tired, Hershel,” Rick says. “My family, maybe I can find them here?”

“No, Rick,” Hershel says, placing his hand on Rick’s heart. “You have to wake up.”

Like Shane Walsh before him, Hershel’s messages send Rick back to the land of the living where he continued to dodge a massive walker herd giving chase to his trail of blood.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.