- Home
- TV
- TV News
‘Walking Dead’: Surprising Blast From the Past Puts Rick in Danger
Rick Grimes squares off against an old friend in the second episode of season eight, "The Damned."
Logo text
[Warning: This story contains spoilers for season eight, episode two, of AMC’s The Walking Dead, titled “The Damned.”]
Well, that was unexpected.
In the weeks and months leading up to the newest season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, folks like showrunner Scott M. Gimple and executive producer Greg Nicotero were very candid about their desire to use the opportunity of crossing the 100-episode marker as a way of honoring the past. As of the 101st episode of the series, consider that promise fulfilled: The Walking Dead just brought back one of its original castmembers in shocking fashion — and perhaps the biggest shock is that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) still remembers the character in question.
For viewers who don’t quite recall the person shoving a gun in Rick’s face at the end of this week’s episode, “The Damned,” you’re certainly not alone. This is a man who hasn’t appeared on Walking Dead in almost 100 full episodes: Morales, played by Juan Gabriel Pareja, last seen in the fifth episode of the first season of the series.
Here, a visual reminder of the man:
Morales was one of the first people Rick ever met in the apocalypse. They first encountered one another on a rooftop in the middle of Atlanta as walkers swarmed the streets below, while Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) hollered racist obscenities from high above. Rick and Morales were on the same page almost immediately, but the two barely had time to cement their solidarity, passing each other like ships in the night.
At the end of season one’s fourth episode, the Atlanta survivors came under attack from a pack of walkers, who killed a large swath of the camp. The following morning, Rick and the others decided to leave the site — but Morales, alongside his wife and two children, opted to leave the group, hoping for a family reunion with their loved ones in Birmingham, Alabama. Rick and Shane (Jon Bernthal) supplied Morales with a .357 revolver and a box of ammunition that was only half full, and the two parties subsequently parted ways. Morales was never seen or heard from again … until now.
Did Morales and his family ever make it to Birmingham? It sure doesn’t look like it — or, at least, their time in Birmingham was temporary, as the end of “The Damned” makes it clear that Morales is firmly on board with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors. There’s little love lost between Rick and Morales, especially given the fact that shortly before their reunion, Rick viciously killed a man who was very likely one of Morales’ family members — and that’s to say nothing of baby Gracie in the other room.
What’s going to happen, now that Rick and Morales have been reunited? How will Morales react when he learns that everyone from the Atlanta crew has died, with the exception of Rick, Carl (Chandler Riggs), Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus)? Are we really going to add Morales to an already impossibly huge cast, or should we expect to part ways with this character again just as swiftly as the first time? And who out there had “Morales returns” on their season-eight bingo card, because seriously? That’s some impressive predictive power!
Follow THR.com/WalkingDead all season long for interviews, theories, deep dives and more.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
| The Walking Dead character |
| "Guts" (2010) |
| "Monsters" (2017) |
| Frank Darabont |
| Juan Pareja |
| Supply Runner for the Atlanta Camp |
| Miranda Morales |
|
Morales is a fictional character from the horror drama television series The Walking Dead, which airs on AMC in the United States and is based on the comic book series of the same name. He was created by series developer Frank Darabont and was portrayed by Juan Pareja. Morales is an original character in the television series and has no counterpart in the comics. The character was first introduced in the first season as a member of the group that series protagonist Rick Grimes encounters in Atlanta. After a long absence in the series, Morales briefly returns in the eighth season as a member of the Saviors.
Character biography[edit]
Little background is given about Morales prior to the walker epidemic, including his first name, although he is initially shown in the Atlanta survivor camp with his wife Miranda (Viviana Chavez), and their two young children, Eliza (Maddie Lomax) and Louis (Noah Lomax). After the first season, Morales is not seen again until season eight.
Season 1[edit]
In the episode "Guts", Morales is one of a number of survivors who have come to Atlanta to scavenge for supplies. On the roof of the department store in which they have holed up, Merle Dixon, a virulent racist, attempts to assert his leadership over the group and insults Morales before beating T-Dog. Rick Grimes subdues Merle and handcuffs him to a pipe, leaving him under the watch of T-Dog while the rest of the group look for a way out. Morales helps cover Rick and Glenn with walker guts so that they can walk through a crowd of walkers to obtain a truck and the entire group (other than Merle) is able to escape the city in the box truck. In the episode "Tell It to the Frogs", Morales and the group return to the camp, where he reunites with his family, and Merle's brother Daryl becomes enraged to hear that his brother was abandoned. In the episode "Vatos", at dinner, Morales asks Dale about the watch he always carries, even though the world has ended. Soon after, the camp is overrun by a horde of walkers and Morales helps to fight them off. In the episode "Wildfire", Morales helps the group clean up after the attack. When the survivors decide to go to the CDC, the Moraleses decide to try their luck locating relatives in Birmingham, Alabama. Rick gives them some of the group's weapons and supplies.
Season 8[edit]
In the episode "The Damned", Rick attacks an outpost of the Saviors, and becomes devastated when he finds a sleeping infant in the outpost. Shortly afterwards he finds a picture of Miranda Morales and is shocked to be confronted from behind by Morales, now a hardened survivor and Savior lieutenant.
In the following episode "Monsters", Morales is shocked to learn that the Rick from Alexandria is in fact "Officer Friendly" as Morales knew him. Morales reveals that his family never made it to Birmingham and he lost his wife and two kids trying. Losing his family caused Morales to lose his mind and lose the will to live until he was found by the Saviors and inducted into their ranks. Despite Rick's attempts to talk Morales down, he is too far gone to listen and is now loyal to Negan beyond any loyalty he once had for Rick. Before the situation can escalate, Daryl Dixon enters and kills Morales with a crossbow bolt to the head. Though Daryl remembers Morales as well, he has no remorse for killing the man and quickly moves on.
Development and reception[edit]
Juan Gabriel Pareja was cast in the supporting role of Morales for the first season of The Walking Dead, which premiered in 2010.[1] Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club reviewed "Guts", the episode which introduced Morales, and noted that "Few of the scavenger group are especially well-drawn as characters", referring to Morales as a "cypher".[2] Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club reviewed the episode "Wildfire", and commented that "Morales and his family decide to peel off on their own and head to Alabama, in a nice scene that nonetheless makes you wonder why they were introduced in the first place."[3] Eric Goldman of IGN commented that "It was hard to feel much about the one family deciding not to go with everyone when they left the camp – Honestly, I couldn't tell you any of their names, and only the husband had any screen time of note."[4]
Matt Fowler of IGN reviewed the season eight episode "The Damned", and commented that he "really dug the Morales twist right at the end. In fact, some of the best elements of "The Damned" involved how much it actually strayed from the comics".[5] Forbes' Eric Kain commented that "Rick is eventually waylaid by a character we haven't seen since a long, long time ago. Morales (Juan Gabriel Pareja) is apparently a Savior now" and that the one thing he liked about the episode "was when Rick finds a baby after just killing a guy outside the baby's room. This stops him in his tracks and makes him realize that the Saviors aren't just monsters, but are also parents with children and families. That hard truth is compounded by the sudden reappearance of Morales."[6]
References[edit]
- ^ "Juan Pareja Guest Starring On New AMC Network Series, The Walking Dead". Only In Houston. 2010-10-25. Archived from the original on 2010-11-04. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
- ^ Pierce, Leonard (November 7, 2010). "Guts". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ Pierce, Leonard (November 28, 2010). "Wildfire". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ Goldman, Eric (November 28, 2010). "The Walking Dead: "Wildfire" Review". IGN. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ Matt Fowler (October 30, 2017). "The Walking Dead: "The Damned" Review". IGN. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
- ^ Eric Kain (October 29, 2017). "'The Walking Dead' Season 8, Episode 2 Review: None Of That Made Any Sense". Forbes. Retrieved November 1, 2017.