The Walking Dead Episode 713 Recap: Bury Me Here

A nightmare sends Carol to the Kingdom proper to speak to Morgan. She wants to know why Jesus brought Daryl and the others to the Kingdom, and she wants the truth about what happened with the Saviors and Alexandria. Morgan won’t tell her. That was a conversation she had with Daryl, so she needs to go to Daryl for the truth. He offers to escort her to Alexandria to find out, but Carol heads back to her cottage. On the way out, Benjamin stops her, asking if he can escort her home, or help her in any way. He finally admits that he was watching her come towards the Kingdom, and kill a dozen walkers casually along the way, and he wants to learn. She refuses. So Benjamin goes to Morgan with a thank you gift: a bull fighter painted on black velvet.

Along her way home, Carol notices that a walker she had maimed — but left moving — on the way to the Kingdom, was now still and wholly dead. She looks around and sees no one, but continues cautiously.

Ezekiel is watching over his kingdom when Mila comes to him. She is afraid to get too close, because Shiva is napping nearby. (Speaking of Shiva, how the hell are they feeding that tiger? Wild cats of that size require something like 100lbs of food per day.) There is an infection in the smaller garden, and everything will have to be destroyed to prevent it from spreading to the main garden.

Richard and Morgan talk about being a father as they watch Benjamin father his little brother, Henry. It was in this scene that I knew Benjamin would die before the episode ended. Richard had the perfect life, the perfect family. Morgan declines to say anything about his family, but nods in agreement. “I know you are a good man,” Richard tells him, “but the day is going to come where you can’t be that good.” Time to head out with their delivery to the Saviors.

While on the road, they find the road is blocked with a long line of shopping carts. The group gets off the truck cautiously, checking for an ambush or other signs of trouble. Richard keeps them in formation, but things seem quiet. Just to be sure, they follow the carts — which seem to form an arrow — behind a building, where a shallow grave has been dug. “Bury me here” reads the cardboard tombstone. The group comments on how the world drives you crazy now. They clear the blockage and continue on.

They arrive late to the meeting with the Saviors, and tensions are high. All the Kingdom has to deliver is a meager selection of melons. Gavin wants their guns; all the Kingdomers draw. Gavin suggests they either give them up, or try to use them. Richard wants to hand them over, and Ezekiel agrees, but he wants Jared to give Morgan back his fighting stick. They eventually give up their guns, then Gavin has to have an “emotional talk” with them: they are short on their delivery. The Kingdom was supposed to deliver twelve melons, but they only have eleven. Ezekiel insists that can’t be true; he packed them up himself. But when he checks, he finds only eleven. Gavin informs him that he has to “learn the stakes” now, and Ezekiel quickly promises twice the tribute within the hour. “Right now is what matters,” Gavin says, and wants to deal with all of this right now. Jared pulls his gun on Richard, who stares down the barrel. He is ready to die, and does not try to fight back. “Do it,” he dares Jared. “Okay.” Jared shoots — but he purposely aims over Richard’s shoulder — and hits Benjamin in the leg. Gavin is pissed, almost alarmed, and warns his Saviors not to say anything about this. He then turns to Ezekiel and warns them to bring the remainder (the single melon) tomorrow. Ezekiel agrees, and they rush Benjamin into the truck. Benjamin was hit in the artery, and he is losing blood fast. Richard is in shock.

They don’t have time to get Benjamin to the Kingdom, so they stop at Carol’s cottage. She doesn’t stop them, but it doesn’t matter. Benjamin bleeds to death within minutes of arriving. Ezekiel apologizes for barging in on her, but she doesn’t seem mad. In fact, she wants Morgan to stay, but he is too upset.

Morgan walks back to the Kingdom, trying to outrun his demons in the process. He is hit with words of warnings on signs, and is dangerously close to getting back on the crazy train he was riding when Rick found him in season three. He stops by the shallow grave, stands in it, and holds a knife to his wrist. Ultimately, he doesn’t do it. Instead, he kicks a box nearby… and a melon rolls out. All the pieces come together for Morgan.

Morgan takes the box with the melon to Richard and throws it in front of him. “It was supposed to be me,” Richard said. This was all a setup. He has been frustrated that the Kingdom has done nothing to stop the Saviors. His wife died because he did nothing; his little girl died because he did nothing. He wants to use what happened to show the Saviors they get it, they know what to do. “They need to believe us,” he insists. “When we gain their trust back, we kill them.” Richard figures that now that one of their own has been killed, Ezekiel will have no choice but to join Alexandria and the Hilltop and go to war. Of course, it was supposed to be him. Last time they met with the Saviors, Gavin warned Richard that if anything went wrong, he would be the one to die. So his plan backfired, but he still wants to use it to force a war with the Saviors. Richard warns that Morgan will have to kill, or else he may as well just kill himself. He promises to tell Ezekiel what he did, and that he will spend the rest of his life making up for it.

The next day, Ezekiel packs a single melon into a well-secured box, and head out to meet the Saviors. When they arrive, Morgan asks if Richard told Ezekiel. He promises he will do it when they get back. Ezekiel overhears this and wants to talk about it now, but the Saviors arrive, and everyone shuts up. Morgan sees his and Benjamin’s sticks on the ground; he collects them. Gavin asks about Benjamin. He actually looks sad when he discovers Benjamin died, and tells Jared to start walking back before he kills him. Jared stomps away, and Gavin asks for his melon. Richard brings it to him, and promises they understand how serious the tributes are.

Suddenly, Morgan turns on Richard. He uses his stick to knock Richard to the ground, then sits on his chest and strangles him with his bare hands. A few final smashes of Richard’s head into the concrete, and Richard is dead. Everyone is in total shock; no one could even attempt to pull Morgan off of him. Morgan, his rage ebbing, explains that Richard set the whole thing up. He blocked the road to make them late, and hid a melon to make their delivery light. He wanted to start something between the two groups. Morgan stares Gavin down, and promises they understand what they need to do, and how to go on. Gavin tells them next week, same time, and the Saviors leave. Ezekiel is still in shock, and Morgan tells him Richard “wanted us to choose, that’s why Duane had to die.” It takes Morgan a moment to realize his slip of the tongue. He corrects himself, and tells Ezekiel to go. Morgan isn’t ready to leave just yet.

When he is ready, Morgan drags Richard through the streets by the ankles. He takes him to Richard’s shallow grave and finds a child’s backpack with a name on it: Katy. He buries the backpack with Richard. Then he takes some of his remaining rage out on the zombies in the street.

Still bloodied, Morgan goes to Carol’s cottage. “Do you really want to know what happened in Alexandria?” She does, but first wants to know what happened to him. “I killed Richard,” he answered, nonchalantly. “It was because of him that Benjamin died.” Carol still wants to know what happened in Alexandria. He tells her flatly that Negan killed Glenn and Abraham, beat them to death with a baseball bat. They killed Olivia and Spencer, too. Everything Alexandria does now is for the Saviors. Jesus brought the group to the Kingdom because Rick wants them to fight the Saviors. Carol looks like she is going to faint but pulls it together when Morgan announces he is going to go out and kill them, one by one. Carol stops him, knowing he is in no position to do that. “You can go and not go,” she tells him, echoing Ezekiel’s recommendation to her. She begs him to stay.

With a duffel bag over her shoulder, Carol enters the Kingdom. She goes straight to Ezekiel, who is gardening with Henry. Carol tells Ezekiel she is sorry, and that she is going to be here now. “We have to get ready. We have to fight.” Ezekiel agrees, “but not today.” He returns to gardening with Henry. Carol joins them.

Back at the cottage, Morgan sits on the porch, whittling. He seems to be shaving his stick down to a lethal point.

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