Walking Dead Finally Explains A Rick Grimes & Morgan Scene 13 Years Later (2024)

Warning: spoilers ahead for Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 4.

13 years after the scene occurred in The Walking Dead, Morgan and Rick’s cryptic conversation about Morgan’s wife was finally explained in Fear The Walking Dead season 8. Fear The Walking Dead was left in an unenviable position when The Walking Dead wrapped up with season 11. While Fear The Walking Dead has established an immersive lore of its own, the show is still a spinoff and viewers still expect that some of The Walking Dead’s characters will appear in the series. As a result, Fear The Walking Dead season 8 features The Walking Dead stalwart Morgan as one of its lead characters.

However, this leaves the spinoff in something of a quandary. If the show downplays Morgan’s involvement, it will feel like his presence is pointless. However, if the series focuses on Morgan more than Fear The Walking Dead season 8’s disappointing villain PADRE, then the show runs the risk of feeling more like a mere extension of the original show instead of its own beast. For the most part, Fear The Walking Dead season 8 uses Madison’s character arc to ensure that viewers care about characters other than Morgan. However, in Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 4, “King County,” the spinoff focused on Morgan's story entirely.

Rick Grimes Wanted Morgan To Put Down Jenny In The Walking Dead Episode 1

In Fear The Walking Dead season 8, Morgan told Grace and Mo that The Walking Dead hero Rick Grimes gave him a rifle to put down his zombified wife Jenny. This happened 13 years ago in The Walking Dead season 1, episode 1, “Days Gone By.” However, Rick never explicitly said what the weapon was for. He did say "Scope's accurate..." with a telling look, however, with the implication being that Morgan should shoot Jenny before she became a lethal liability. In “King County,” Morgan finally explains what Rick really meant, and confirms that he understood the euphemism.

As was often the case with Rick’s hard-nosed pragmatism, the advice was unsentimental but helpful. Morgan proved Rick’s heroic instincts were right when he admitted that his son Duane only became a Walker because Jenny bit him, a fate that might have been avoided if Morgan has not been afraid of taking Rick’s advice. This event led to Morgan’s tragic amnesia as, overwhelmed by guilt over his son’s transformation into a Walker, Morgan lost his mind and became a cold-blooded killer. Hence, in “King County,” Morgan returned to the scene of the traumatic event to put Duane out of his misery.

Fear The Walking Dead Pays Off Rick & Morgan's Very First Meeting

Rick wanted Morgan to accept that his zombified wife was no longer herself way back in The Walking Dead’s pilot episode. Already, the franchise’s hero was displaying the callous but necessary demeanor that allowed him to survive throughout 11 seasons of the series. He was also inadvertently illustrating the essential difference between himself and Morgan that would come to define both characters. While Fear The Walking Dead’s Morgan froze at times of distress when faced with conflict, Rick took decisive action. This was not always a good thing for either character, but Morgan’s character arc has repeatedly seen him learn the value of borrowing Rick’s impulsive approach.

In Rick and Morgan’s first meeting, Morgan’s approach to the zombie apocalypse seemed antithetical to Rick's worldview. Upon learning about the end of civilization, Rick immediately wanted to head for Atlanta where there might still be survivors. In contrast, Morgan wanted to stay put and rely on the relative safety of home. Morgan’s conservative caution and Rick’s proactive stance butted heads throughout The Walking Dead’s run, with both characters struggling to relate to each other. In “King County,” this tension finally comes to a head long after Rick and Morgan’s final meeting.

Rick Grimes Tried To Avoid Morgan's Walking Dead Downfall

If viewers assume Morgan's torment throughout both shows has been fueled by his failure to put down Jenny (and, by extension, save Duane), then Morgan could have averted that fate by simply doing what Rick wanted him to do. Admittedly, The Walking Dead franchise’s zombie virus meant that life was never going to be smooth sailing for either character after the apocalypse. However, Morgan could have avoided a lot of trauma if he had listened to Rick. By refusing to kill Jenny, Morgan ended up forcing himself to kill both Jenny and Duane. In the long run, Fear The Walking Dead’s hero should have believed in The Walking Dead’s leading man.