“The Code”
Morgan searches for Alicia in the storm but is forced to retreat into the back of a semi, where he finds another box of supplies telling him to take what he needs. He sleeps there and the next morning walks outside to discover he’s been accidentally driven to Mississippi. Morgan explores inside where he finds a radio transmitter – a voice on the other end asks, “Is that you, polar bear?” Morgan confesses he might have accidentally hitched a ride to Mississippi and the stranger tells him to “take what you need and leave what you don’t.” Recognizing the phrase, Morgan demands to know who she is, but she doesn’t answer.
Morgan enjoys the modern luxuries of the bathroom until someone cocks their gun and warns him to get out. Morgan walks out to find a man in a wheelchair pointing a shotgun at him. The man, Wendell, asks about the supplies in his bag and Morgan says a woman on the radio told him it was OK to take. Wendell scoffs as a woman named Sarah walks in – she explains she’s Wendell’s adopted sister.
Outside, Morgan tells them he’s headed to Virginia but they say he should stay with them – after all they saved him from the hurricane. Morgan, who didn’t realize the storm was a hurricane, asks them to drive him back for his friends, but they say they’re probably all dead. He says he’s going to look anyway – and Wendell and Sarah allow him to pack up a car with supplies. He expresses his appreciation, and they tell him to keep on trucking.
Morgan hits a roadblock from the storm, where he finds another box telling him take what he needs. He hallucinates hearing Alicia and Strand so he runs back the other way and radios Sarah and Wendell to lie and say the bridge is out. Morgan returns to the truck stop and when Sarah and Wendell don’t show, takes a car to head East.
On the road, Morgan spots a man tied up with a bag on his head running from a group of walkers. Morgan kills them and saves the man, Jim, who tells him he was kidnapped. Jim explains he brews beer and his kidnappers wanted his recipes. Later, he tells Morgan he believes society will eventually be rebuilt, and when it does he’ll have beer for them. Morgan explains he’s going to a place trying to do just that and invites him to come with him. They meet up with Sarah and Wendell, who thank Morgan for finding Jim for them. Wendell and Sarah were his kidnappers, damn how small is this world??
Morgan and Jim sit tied up in the back of the truck as Sarah explains how they stole the truck from a guy in Texas. They close the back and head off towards Virginia in the hopes Morgan eventually reveals Alexandria’s location. On the road, Jim tells Morgan he nearly got rich by selling his beer to a major corporation before the apocalypse ruined it for him. He asks Morgan to tell Sarah and Wendell where Alexandria is so he can resume his dream of giving beer to the world. Suddenly, the truck stops – they’re too heavy and have to get out.
Jim tells Wendell and Sarah they’re not getting his recipe but he’ll give them all the beer they want if he’s untied and taken to Alexandria. Sarah unties him and asks Morgan what he would do to get untied when suddenly a group of walkers show up. They quickly pack up and Jim trips while getting his brewing supplies, causing Morgan to fall down the hill into the walkers. Morgan jumps on an overturned van and quickly gets surrounded by walkers as his new “friends” watch him from the bridge.
Sarah radios him and says she’ll help him if he reveals Alexandria’s location, so he gives them half the directions and says he’ll tell them the rest once they save him. They won’t budge, so he gives them the rest of the directions. They realize they can’t actually save him, so they thank Morgan and head on their way.
That night, Morgan radios his new “friends” and asks them to come back so he can do the right thing, and when no one responds, he kicks some of the walkers, loses a boot, and then jumps onto the hill. He frees himself with a knife on the ground, grabs a street sign, and kills the walkers before escaping.
The next day Morgan returns to the bridge and finds their truck. Sarah and Wendell meet him to say his directions were BS, and his plan to return to Texas is foolish. They ask him for the correct directions and he says he’ll take them to Virginia AFTER they pick up his friends. They eventually agree. Morgan, Wendell, Sarah, and Jim leave boxes of supplies on the way to Texas as Morgan radios the woman on the other end of that transmitter to say they’re headed back to Texas to return it. We see the woman who receives the message, and she tells a walker impaled to a wall that they’re going back on the road after all. She marks “take what you need, leave what you don’t” on his face and tells him they’re going to Texas.
What did YOU think of the episode? How are you liking the new characters? Tell us in the comments!
