Fear the Walking Dead: Why Morgan needs to help people

Morgan Jones is on a mission to help people in Fear the Walking Dead. With all he’s been through on both shows, there are a plethora of reasons as to why he is so adamant about staying on this path.

Season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead follows Morgan and the rest of the characters continuing to try and help people in need even though they have been quite unsuccessful for the past few months. This has been a recurring element of Morgan’s journey in Texas since he ran into Martha last season and was deeply impacted by just how far gone she was. In “Here to Help,” we see his determination and drive while speaking to Alicia and trying to motivate her to keep up the fight.

One of the main reasons this mission is so personal and important to Morgan stems from the very first episode of the main series. After Rick woke up from his coma and stumbled out of the hospital, Morgan and his son Duane are the first two living people he ran into. Morgan was on edge and fearful back then, but he still made the decision to risk the lives of himself and Duane to help Rick when he needed it the most. Because of that one act of kindness, Rick would go on to bring together countless survivors and create a group that is still standing today. Morgan could have simply minded his own business and looked after himself and his son, but by him helping Rick, he set in motion a chain of events that led to many more people being helped.

Since the end of All Out War and his journey to Texas, Morgan has been living a more peaceful life that is more in line with the teachings of Eastman’s “all life is precious” mantra. Terrible things have indeed happened in the past either directly or indirectly as the result of Morgan living like this; Alexandria was attacked by the Wolves, Benjamin was killed, etc. These bad things that have happened weigh heavily on Morgan, but he has also been in a mental state where violence overtakes him, and that wasn’t good for him. His “clear” mode is not beneficial to himself or the people around him at all, so he seems to be trying to avoid slipping back to that dark state. By making the act of helping people his sole mission in life, he may just be able to stay on the path that Eastman put him on and thus avoid becomes a killing machine once again.

In his conversation with Alicia about keeping their mission going, Madison is mentioned and a valid point is raised. The first half of season 4 of Fear shows Madison working tirelessly to not only build a life for her children and the other survivors at the Dell Diamond Baseball Stadium, but to keep it going. In their ventures outside of the stadium, the survivors tried to find people who needed help, including June. In many ways, Madison and Morgan parallel one another as they both attempt to help people who don’t necessarily want to be helped. In “No One’s Gone”, Madison literally gives up her life in order to give her children and friends a second chance at life. Morgan points out that Madison’s sacrifice doesn’t meany anything if Alicia doesn’t follow in her footsteps and help others like her mother did.

“It should be hard. It should be. Maybe that’s how we know we’re on the right track,” Morgan tells Alicia when she’s feeling hopeless about their mission. Nothing in the apocalypse or life in general is easy. Something that has been seen time and time again is that characters that are at their lowest don’t just recover over night. It takes time and it takes being around people for struggling survivors to turn their lives around. This is what Morgan is try to convey to Alicia. He’s been there and she has too. He also seems to believe that this mission to help others is the group’s chance to make up for all the bad things they have done, including killing people. Each of the characters have blood on their hands, and those sins are not going to be forgiven right away. They may have to spend the rest of their lives trying to make peace with what they’ve done.

Is Morgan right about helping people or is their mission truly hopeless? Share your thoughts in the comments!