The Walking Dead
Episode 7.13 “Bury Me Here”
Written by Scott M. Gimple
Directed by Alrick Riley
Starring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Christian Serratos, Sonequa Martin-Green, Josh McDermitt, Khary Payton, Austin Amelio, Tom Payne, Katelyn Nacon, Alanna Masterson
AMC
Air Date: Sunday, March 12, 2017
Warning – SPOILERS for AMC’s The Walking Dead…
Last week’s The Walking Dead showed us Rick and Michonne on their road-trip honeymoon of sorts, where their romantic excursion was peppered with Walker attacks, but ended with a major score of food and weapons. But the weapons were not enough for their Heapster allies to start up the fight against Negan and the Saviors, so Rick and crew will be off again to find more guns. But before that happens, it looks like Tara will be confessing to Rick about the Oceanside community, who are potential allies for them against Negan. Meanwhile, frenemies Rosita and Sasha have made a pact “” they’re off to kill Negan or die trying.
For this week’s episode, 7.13 “Bury Me Here,” we leave the Alexandrians and return to King Ezekiel and The Kingdom, which includes Morgan and also Carol in her nearby cottage.
The episode opens with King Ezekiel and his royal soldiers loading a single melon into their truck, the same truck they use to bring their tributes to the Saviors. What does this mean? We will certainly find out (the hard way!).
Next up is Carol at her cottage. She can’t sleep. Is she thinking about her friends back at Alexandria and wondering what really happened with them? Daryl had told her that they were all fine and that they, like the Kingdom, had made a deal with the Saviors.
The next morning at the Kingdom, Morgan is teaching Benjamin’s younger brother Henry how to fight with the staff when Carol shows up. Outside the gates, she had downed several Walkers on her own, which Benjamin witnesses and is impressed and wants to learn from her, but she tells him to go on his tribute drop instead. She’s there to see Morgan.
In Morgan’s room, Carol flat out asks him if what Daryl told her was true, and she wants to know why Jesus brought Daryl and everyone else to the Kingdom. Morgan tells her to go ask Daryl if she wants this information. She’s about to press him, but he reminds her that when she asked him not to reveal to anyone that she was nearby at the cottage, he obliged her. He asks her: “You found what you wanted, right? You got away from everyone — is it what you wanted? Or was it just too late to get away?” She remains silent. He then offers to accompany her to Alexandria so she can get the answers, but she takes off instead.
On her way out, Carol spots the Walker she left downed, but still animated. It’s now dead. Someone in the shadows is watching her. We then see Richard looking down at a child’s book bag that says “Katy” on it. This is his deceased daughter’s bag, which we saw in a previous episode him keeping at that secret trailer he has. He then starts digging.
Meanwhile, King Ezekiel is outside looking over his Kingdom, watching as one of his soldiers collects 12 melons in a wheelbarrow, when Nablia comes bearing bad news. Most of their plants have weevils in them destroying their crops. They’ll have to burn them out, but at least they’ll be able to replant. This was definitely a foreshadowing, because the theme of this episode is for the Kingdom to realize that they need to fight the Saviors because there’s no way their current way of life can be sustained. I think this means they’ll end up having to destroy everything they have in order to rebuilt is without the Saviors having dominion over them.
Back at Morgan’s room, young Benjamin comes to visit bringing him a painting as a gift. Benjamin thanks him for giving the Aikido book.
Outside, King Ezekiel is with his soldiers packing the truck with the 12 melons. Richard tells Morgan that Benjamin is too young to be a father (the young man is caring for his little brother Henry now that their father is dead). Richard then reveals that he had been a dad and had had a great life before. Morgan acknowledges that he had been a dad, too. Richard then goes into his usual spiel about how there’s no way they can keep up their agreement with the Saviors. He tells Morgan he knows he’s a good man. “The day’s coming when you can’t be that good,” Richard says, “and when that day comes, don’t beat yourself up about it.” Oh, that day is coming, Richard, it’s coming!!!
On their way to meet the Saviors, the Kingdom group comes upon a roadblock of shopping carts that leads them to a recently dug grave with a sign on it reading “Bury me here.” This looks like where Richard had been digging, but he plays dumb. Ezekiel says they are fortunate that this world hasn’t driven them crazy. “It’s not luck,” Ben says, “the world does drive people crazy,” stating that Ezekiel has just created another world for them.
They then head on, now late, to the tribute drop point, where the Saviors are already waiting. They do their usual tough guy routine, and Jerry gets a hit to the face, but it’s when lead guy Gavin sees that they are one melon short that things really go south. Gavin demands their guns and there’s a standoff, but in the end, the Kingdom group gives them over. This is when Jared and Richard have another one of their altercations with Jared pointing his gun to Richard’s head. “Just do it,” Richard says. Richard is ready to die – it’s obvious he came there that day to sacrifice himself in order to get Ezekiel to finally fight the Saviors. But Jared quickly switches to Benjamin, shooting the young boy. This wasn’t part of Gavin’s plan, so he lets them leave to try to save Benjamin, but he warns them that they are to do their deliveries on time and they are to bring the missing melon.
They rush Benjamin, who’s bleeding out, to Carol’s cottage, since it’s closer and she has medical supplies. But they are unable to save the young man, whose last words were to Morgan, quoting from his book: “To injure an opponent is to injure yourself.” Richard is in shock that this happened, and Morgan grabs a knife and runs out.
Morgan runs out to the road and starts flipping out, having flashbacks of his dead son Duane, as well as the time when he had the nervous breakdown and had written “Clear” everywhere. But in this moment, he also starts remembering things that Richard has said and done, realizing that Richard set everything up. He even inadvertently finds the missing melon!
Furious, Morgan goes to confront Richard, who readily admits to everything. “It was supposed to be me,” Richard says, confessing that he had planned to sacrifice himself to motivate Ezekiel to fight the Saviors. He then tells the story of how he lost his wife and daughter after things went bad in the camp they were in. He laments that he did nothing to help the situation when they got there, figuring that people smarter and stronger than him would handle it. He blames his inaction for losing his family, and so he won’t do “nothing” anymore. They can use Benjamin’s death to get Ezekiel to join Alexandria and Hilltop to fight, but first they must convince the Saviors that they are frightened into submission before finally ending them.
Back in his room, Morgan is thinking and crying. Outside, we see Ezekiel consoling young Henry and then watching as the gardeners work. We then are shown again the opening scene with the one melon being loaded into the truck. It’s time for them to meet the Saviors again.
When they arrive at the tribute spot, Morgan discovers that Richard has yet to confess to Ezekiel like he promised to. He says he’ll do it later. On the ground is Morgan’s staff, now broken, lying in Benjamin’s blood. Morgan grabs it. When the Saviors arrive, Gavin asks after Benjamin, and realizes he died. This pissed him off. So much so that he tells Jared to start walking back home or else, and the man does.
Richard then steps forward to tell Gavin that they understand how things need to be, to get across that they will be subservient. But Morgan runs up behind Richard, hitting him with his stick and then strangling him to death. Surprisingly, no one from the Kingdom jumps in to stop this; instead, they just look on in horror. Morgan then reveals that Richard set up everything before, stealing the one melon, creating the roadblock, and making them late, all of which led to Benjamin’s death, in an effort to start a war between the Kingdom and the Saviors. He uses Richard’s own words to assure Gavin that the Kingdom know their place. “We get it,” Morgan says to Gavin, “we understand what we need to do.” This sounds good to Gavin. Richard’s plan lives on, but now more effectively.
After the Saviors drive away, Morgan explains that this was Richard’s plan to get them to fight, and that he was trying to sacrifice himself for this cause. “That’s why Duane had to die,” Morgan says, confusing the group. Who’s Duane? Morgan corrects himself, saying he meant Benjamin. But we know that Duane is his young son who was killed by his undead wife after he couldn’t bring himself to shoot her. (In a previous episode, we saw Morgan berating himself for not acting to prevent Duane’s death.) Morgan then has them go back home without him; he stays behind to bury Richard in the grave he designated for himself, along with little Katy’s backpack.
Morgan then arrives at Carol cottage. He confesses to killing Richard with his bare hands because he got Benjamin killed. He also reveals to her that Negan beat Glenn and Abraham to death with his baseball bat, and that the Saviors killed Spencer and Olivia, too. And now the Alexandrians have to do everything for the Saviors, but Rick does want to fight them. That’s why Jesus brought them to the Kingdom. She’s upset as Morgan goes to leave. “I’m going to kill them one by one,” Morgan proclaims, but she stops him from going. “You can go and not go,” she says, echoing what Ezekiel had told her when she wanted to leave the Kingdom.
We next see Carol arriving at the Kingdom. Ezekiel is planting with young Henry. She tells him that she’s going to be staying there with them now, because they have to get ready “” they have to fight. “We do, but not today,” Ezekiel agrees, before going back to Henry. Carol goes over to join them.
The last scene is of Morgan sitting on Carol’s porch, sharpening his staff into a spear. Apparently, she’s taking his place at the Kingdom while he composes himself at her place.
Obviously, we knew all along that something tragic had to happen at the Kingdom in order to get Ezekiel to agree to fight the Saviors, and now we have it. That means Rick will now have members of the Hilltop, the Kingdom, and the Heapsters with him to fight the Saviors, along with the possibility of the Oceanside community. But will that be enough?
Image Gallery
Video
The Walking Dead Ep. 713 Official Sneak Peek: ‘Where is Morgan?’
Carol journeys to the Hilltop in search of Morgan.
The Walking Dead Ep. 713 Next On: ‘Bury Me Here’
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