Where is Morgan Jones? And Why Do We Care So Much?

The Walking Dead is quite adept at making a quick impact on audiences with startling scenes and making us connect to characters emotionally very quickly.

We love them, hate them, trust them, fear them, mistrust them, wonder about them, but rarely are we indifferent about them. This is evident from the very first episode. We are introduced to Rick and Shane first and then Morgan and his son Duane.

Even as Duane knocks out our protagonist, Rick, with a shovel somehow we know he is not bad. We don’t even flinch when Morgan chastises Rick for his lack of common courtesy in not directly answering his questions about his wound.

Morgan teaches us all about the rules of the world of walkers that we are about to fall in love with over the dinner table. He speaks softly and even reminds his son about his grammar. We infer that his family has learned these rules first hand as Duane lets us know he’s seen the process of the undead coming back.

We watch the three men enjoy the bliss of a hot water shower at the police station, hope filling all of us–walkie talkies and guns and plans to meet up in Atlanta, none of us knowing at the time that we would never see Duane again and wouldn’t see Morgan for two more seasons. Notes to him on cars and watching Rick speak into the walkie would have to suffice to remind us that we loved him and hoped he would appear sometime, someway, somehow.

Rick and Morgan share their experiences with wives and family photos. Sadness and despair wash over us as we learn of his wife and we see her as a beautiful walker whom we know doesn’t recognize the home she once occupied, but we wish somehow she does.

And we watch Morgan wrestle with the desire to put her out of her undead sentence of walking as we wrestle with him. Having watched Rick put down Bunny Slipper Girl, we know it’s the best thing. We silently try to send Morgan the courage to pull the trigger. Please, do it. Do it. Do it. Oh, no. He can’t. Poor thing. Could I? It’s the first time we have to ask ourselves the question.

In just this one episode we fell in love with Morgan. He taught us the world of the walkers. The world we love. He introduced us to The Walking Dead. He represents The Walking Dead as much as any character I can name.

Seasons later as we’ve wondered if we will ever see Morgan again, when Rick discovers that a man Carl shot is unconscious and not dead, and Michonne asks, “Do we care?” The whole Walking Dead world screamed at their televisions, “YES!” as Morgan’s face was revealed.

We had hope that Morgan had returned. Alas, we learn that his son had been eaten by his walker mother and Morgan had seen red and found the need to clear the town of walkers and learned the lesson that everyone is infected He was distraught that Rick had never contacted him and had gone through quite a bit in the interim and despite Rick’s pleas to join them,Morgan would be staying in his crazy walker-catching town.

His mild insanity and traps for the walkers helped the group in their booby trapping of the prison and their first victory against The Governor. He also helped Rick see his way out of his own flirtation with craziness. Michonne’s place in the group was cemented during the trip to Morgan town and a lesson from Morgan was learned that is relevant now in Alexandria.

“If you got something good, that just means someone wants to take it.”

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Then we got bits and pieces of Morgan again this season! Will Morgan finally become a cast regular or are they still teasing us? Where’s Morgan? We care because we’ve loved him since the day the show started. And we want to be able to love him again every Sunday.

Next: Walking Dead 50 most shocking moments and deaths

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