‘The Walking Dead’: Who Is Morales?

Sunday night’s The Damned episode of The Walking Dead shocked fans when it brought back missing-since-Season 1 character Morales. For some casual fans of the AMC series or those needing a refresher, the question of “Who is Morales?” is left burning in their minds.

Morales, played by Juan Pareja, is a character who was with Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead‘s first season. When Rick elected to lead the group (which at the time consisted of his wife Lori, son Carl, Daryl, Glenn, Carol, Amy, Andrea, Shane, Dale, T-Dog and Jaqui) to the CDC in Atlanta, Morales decided he would take his wife Miranda and their two kids to Birmingham, Alabama in search of their extended family.

The last time Morales was seen, he had never killed a living human. His kill count only consisted of several walkers during the unexpected ambush of the camp outside of Atlanta. Ironically enough, Morales’ weapon of choice appeared to be a baseball bat, and he is now a member of a group lead by the villainous Negan who carries a bat named Lucille.

Despite Rick’s recognition of Morales as an old friend, the character informed the former sheriff he had already phoned for the Saviors.

How Morales ended up as a member of the Saviors is a mystery for now but according to Pareja on an After the Dead interview, he has fleshed out Morales’ history with showrunner Scott Gimple. “It’s a little something that Scott Gimple and I discussed a little bit as we were preparing and leading up to it,” Pareja said. “We had a couple of good conversations that kind of laid down a little bit of the history of where Morales has been. And we’ll find out a little bit more of that on the show. But like I said, I don’t want to give too much away and ruin the fun for you guys.”

Pareja does say seeing Morales’ backstory play out as the promised Fear the Walking Dead crossover event is a possibility.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.