A tire begins rolling along a dirt road. As it zooms out, Carol is restless on-top of a horse-drawn carriage. She’s being led by members of The Kingdom.
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As she stirs, Morgan starts walking alongside.
After a loud sound and terrifying vision, Carol Wakes up surrounded by zombies. The horse is being eaten, and Morgan is fighting off walkers alongside the others. Carol sees visions of what that area used to look like, before seeing the people turn to zombies before her eyes. She gets up from the fallen carriage and disappears behind a building.
As carol comes up on a house, alone, she sees another woman transform from a creepy image into a zombie. She is surrounded, and alone, until a few people come riding in on horseback. The newcomers and Morgan take out the rest of the walkers.
AsMorgan kills the last one, it turns into a person as it falls at Carol’s feet.
The new soldiers comment that the first two had found new people in Carol and Morgan, and they all begin to walk off. Before leaving, Morgan takes some time to fix a mailbox.
Carol is lying in a bed, out cold, and Morgan watches her from a nearby chair. She soon starts to wake, and looks incredibly confused. After asking Morgan how long she was asleep, he tells her that they’ve been there for 2 days.
“Where are we?” she asks
Cut to Morgan pushing Carol in a wheelchair through a community of healthy people, explaining that the doctor has fixed her up and that they will go back to Alexandria in about a week.
Morgan announces that the community is called The Kingdom, and he has been helping them in exchange for Carol’s care.
Carol wonders if they know what she did to the men on the road last season, and Morgan seems very vague. She asks him about the leader of the community, and he hesitantly tells her his name in King Ezekiel.
Morgan takes Carol inside and tells her the king “does his own thing”. As they two enter a theater, Ezekiel sits on atop a throne on a stage with a tiger by his side. The tiger roars, and the credits roll.
Commercial break.
Shiva, the tiger, roars at Carol and Morgan. Ezekiel chastises his pet and tells her these people are guests. He claims that any friend of Morgan will be given a fair shake at life in The Kingdom. Ezekiel says Welcome to The Kingdom, and then calls out Carol for not reacting when spoken to by the king.
He asks, “What do you think of The Kingdom? What do you think of the king?”
Carol says it’s all amazing, even after calling Shiva the wrong name. She says “I have no idea whats going on the most wonderful way.”
Ezekiel says anyone can stay at the kingdom as long as they contribute to the well-being of the people. After his squire Jerry makes a bad joke, Ezekiel offers fresh fruit to his guests.
Carol turns it down, and says she would love it if there was some chocolate.
Carol seems to flirt with Ezekiel, teasing that she needs a hair brush and she didn’t know she was meeting royalty. After a goodbye, Carol and Morgan leave the building.
Outside, Carol questions Morgan for believing in the king. She calls it all make-believe and play time, and that she won’t stay here. She says once Morgan isn’t watching her, she will go back to Alexandria.
Carol says Morgan has no right to try and help her in life and that he never has.
Morgan claims that he won’t let Carol die out in the wild, but she says that it doesn’t matter what he does.
A car is seen speeding away from a gate, and a couple of pigs are eating a downed walker beside a building.
Two voices can be heard as the hogs run away, and it seems that Ezekiel is taking Morgan hunting. A group of men, including the two, are seen rounding the pigs into a room and lock it.
They used a walker to lure them in and Richard explains that he wants their bellies full. After leaving the building, there are Walkers all around. Ezekiel tells a young soldier, Ben, to take out the walkers with a machete. The boy says he has practiced, but he seems to struggle. After Ben fails, Ezekiel finishes the job.
Richard tells Morgan that no one back home needs to know about the pigs eating the walkers, or about Ben failing his challenge.
Before departing, Ezekiel delivers a small message of hope to the soldiers that head in the other direction.
Commercial Break.
A gate opens back at The Kingdom, and Ezekiel’s truck is parked. After getting out, the king asks Morgan where he learned his skills with the stick. He praises Morgan for saving Ben with just one swing of the stick. He then delivers a message about how a realist thinks, and asks Morgan to train Benjamin as a warrior, just as he was taught.
Morgan claims that the stick has saved his life. and he doesn’t want to train anyone in weapons. Ezekiel pulls on Morgan’s heart stings, and he finally agrees.
Green plants, laundry lines, open windows, and the tiger are seen across the compound.
Carol is alone in her bed, staring at her wheelchair. She sees Morgan outside training, and a choir can be heard.
The choir sings together in a small room with their director.
Morgan is outside, training Ben. He thinks he’s going too fast, and that he needs to slow down for ben to learn.
Carol is wheeling her wheelchair up a ramp past two guards. As she passes, she grabs a knife and chocolate from a table.
Back to Morgan, he’s watching as Ben gets the hang of the stick.
Carol is sitting and folding laundry, talking to a man about the breakfast cobbler she has just eaten. She continues to put on the nice lady act, saying thinks like “geez” and giggling. After telling the man to get her tissues, she steals some clothes and pouts them under her blanket.
Morgan and Ben are training, and he seems to be keeping up. Ben sees the philosophy book that was already given to Morgan last season, and he asks if he can borrow it. Morgan seems reluctant, but hands the book to Ben.
Ezekiel arrives and tells both men to come with him and his soldiers. They have important matters to attend to. Morgan is told to bring his gun.
In a parking lot, the skinned pigs hang upside down. Ezekiel says that what he is doing is a secret to his people, and that this act is a cost of being the leader. He does this away from the community for a reason.
A truck pulls up, and dirty men get out. They thank ezekiel for being on time with his delivery, and begin to count the pigs. The leader of the men comments that the bigs are bigger than last time. Reginald says it’s because he made sure they were well-fed.He then asks for help loading them up.
One of the soldiers starts to tell Morgan that these men are the saviors, but he says he knows who they are.
Commercial Break.
The pigs get loaded in the truck, and one of the men tells Richard to lighten up and smile. He says they’re taking it easy on the kingdom, and Richard challenges him. The man takes a swing at Rich and they fight. Ezekiel commands everyone to put their weapons down and for Richard to let him go.
He says this is not what they do, and Rich has to stand there while he gets hit.
The savior leader tells his man to stop, and he gives Rich the finger before slapping him and walking away. As Ezekiel helps Rich up, he says they will address this later.
The man tells Ezekiel they will return next week, and it’s produce week. If they don’t give the exact number, someone will be killed.
Morgan asks about the Saviors, and Ezekiel tells him that the man he killed last season was one of them. It’s part of why Morgan is there.
Morgan sits at a cafeteria for Ben and his son. The boy wants to go to movie night, and he jokes with his dad as he leaves.
Morgan and Ben talk about being a dad, as Ben says he’s lost as a father. Ben says Ezekiel has helped and his father also taught him a lot. He says he was a great fighter for the Kingdom before he was killed on an assignment a year prior. Ben says Ezekiel is more careful now, and he’s keeping The Savior deal quiet because the people of The Kingdom will probably want to fight back.
Ben asks about the inscription in the book he was given, about how it says no killing, and he notices Morgan only eats vegetables. Morgan responds by saying no one can tell you the right way in life, and you need to fumble through and find it yourself. He says that sometimes we change our minds, and leaves the table to find Carol.
Morgan enters Carol’s room, and she is no where to be found. Her bed and wheelchair are empty, and Morgan sits down to think.
Commercial Break
It’s night and Carol is sneaking around in the bushes. Ezekiel appears and scares her. As he speaks, a fire is lit. He explains that the garden she has found herself in is his favorite place in The Kingdom. She tries to explain herself for leaving by saying she has no purpose.
Ezekiel excuses Jerry and has a private conversation with Carol. He tells her, “never bullshit a bullshitter.” He knows Carol is lying about her innocent persona and that he understands what she’s doing.
He says her guns were taken from Saviors, and it was admirable that she won a fight against those men. She calls him and The Kingdom a joke, and explains that it’s nothing like the outside.
Ezekiel says the people may need the fairy tale in order to survive in this world. He then asks to sit beside her on the bench.
Ezekiel tells her that people want someone to follow, to make them feel safe. People who feel safe are less dangerous. When they see a man with a tiger, they tell tall tales and make him a hero. Who is he to burst their bubble?
All of a sudden he was being treated like royalty, and he chose to act the part for them.
Ezekiel admits that he was a zookeeper and Shiva was a tiger that he cared for. Shiva was going to bleed out after falling into a pit, and he decided to stay behind and help her, even though she was dangerous. After that, she never snarled at Ezekiel.
Ezekiel says how dangerous she still is, but that she will never act out because she respects him.
After the infection began, Ezekiel went back to the zoo and saw that Shiva was the only animal left. She was the last thing in life he loved. The two travelled together and he used her power and his acting experience in order to start The Kingdom together.
He says his name really is Ezekiel, and that is the one thing that is totally real. He claims that his cards are now on the table for Carol to see. He asks her to keep his life a secret.
Carol doesn’t care about who he is, she claims she just wants to go away.
As she begins to leave Ezekiel apologizes to Carol for whatever bad things have happened to her. He says he knows it’s all bad when you feel like you’re alone. He then says that not everything is bad all the time, that there is still hope in life. Heroism, grace, and love still exist. He hopes life isn’t what Carol is walking away from. If that’s the case, he tells her she doesn’t have to. He embraced the contradiction of the world, and he could help her figure out where to go.
Carol asks why he cares, and Ezekiel replies that it’s because it makes him feel good. He says she can do what she wants but he’d like her to go out with one of his trusted men to see if it’s what she wants.
Commercial Break.
Carol and Morgan are riding horses by a graveyard when he asks her if it’s what she really wants. By the mailbox from the beginning of the episode, Morgan dismounts, and helps Carol down.
The two friends trade funny insults, and Morgan tells Carol to take care of herself. She says she will, and she opens the gate to the house where she was found earlier. As Morgan leaves, he puts down the flag on the mailbox.
Carol kills the zombie woman in the window and buries her in the back yard.
As she’s stoking a fire in the fireplace, she hears a knock on the door, followed by a tiger roar. Ezekiel is at the door with an apple, telling her she really has to try one of them.
The episode ends.
