Warning: spoilers ahead of Episode 10 of The Walking Dead Season 7.
The second half of The Walking Dead Season 7 is finally letting the good guys score some points against Negan and the Saviors. Daryl has been ready to hit the road and get some revenge ever since he escaped The Sanctuary in the midseason finale, but his time in The Kingdom didn't give him an outlet for his rage. Daryl has now officially bailed on The Kingdom, and actor Norman Reedus has an idea of who needs to step up in his absence: Morgan. Reedus shared his thoughts on Morgan and his pacifistic worldview on The Walking Dead, saying this:
Yeah, that mindset has got to go. I mean, I get it -- whaa, whaa, whaa -- but c'mon, dude, we need you! And he's the only person that has Ezekiel's ear. He's the only person that Ezekiel really trusts. Rick gives Daryl that job to stare him into submission and all that stuff, but it's just not going to happen. We need Morgan to do it and Morgan needs to step up.
Most of the characters on The Walking Dead have learned that there's little room for nonviolence when it comes to survival in the zombie apocalypse. Even Eugene and Father Gabriel have become battle-ready by this point. Morgan is really the only surviving major character who has been consistently against violence for multiple seasons now. Sure, he shot somebody at the end of Season 6, but it clearly didn't push him back onto a path of killing, and King Ezekiel has grown to trust Morgan for his calm demeanor. Still, as Norman Reedus commented in his chat with EW, Rick and Co. don't need Morgan to keep calm and carry on. They need Morgan to rally Ezekiel into action against Negan.
Of course, Daryl didn't exactly try his method of glowering Ezekiel into submission for very long. He didn't even last a whole episode in The Kingdom before deciding to bail and head for Hilltop. If Morgan ultimately does argue for war to Ezekiel, it will happen because Morgan decided that the time was right for action, not because Daryl is around to pressure him.
Khary Payton recently came out and revealed why Ezekiel wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to march to war with Rick's merry band of survivors. According to Payton, Ezekiel just doesn't know Rick well enough to risk the wrath of the Saviors. Morgan was around long before Rick showed up in The Kingdom; maybe Morgan's word will eventually be enough to convince Ezekiel that they need to fight back.
We'll have to wait and see if Morgan does step up in the not-too-distant future. Ezekiel is already facing pressure from Richard to take up arms against Negan; he might change his mind about staying neutral if Morgan chimes in to make the case for war. Only time will tell. New episodes of The Walking Dead air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Take a look at our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what else you can catch on the small screen nowadays, and don't forget to check out our list of Walking Dead characters that need to be used way more often.
