Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): Morgan Jones

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!

As Morgan Jones has moved to the cast of Fear the Walking Dead, the aforementioned spoiler embargo applies to the first seven seasons of Fear as well.

Morgan Jones

"I feel like I've been sixteen different somebodies since it all ended."

Portrayed By: Lennie James^{Foreign voice actors} Alejandro "Peyo" García (Spanish dub), Tsuguo Mogami (Japanese dub), Engelbert von Nordhausen (German dub), Thierry Desroses (French dub), Paolo Marchese (Italian dub), Lukáš Hlavica (Czech dub), Zsolt Anger [Seasons 1, 3, 5], Ákos Kőszegi [Seasons 6-8, Fear] (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 1, 3, 5-8) | Fear the Walking Dead (Seasons 4-8)

Debut: "Days Gone Bye"

"People can — They can try and set you in the right direction, but they can't show you the way. You know, you got to find that for yourself, and I thought I had it. I did. But I'm — I'm just fumbling through."

A survivor in Rick's hometown, Morgan lost his wife while they and their son were passing through the town. They found Rick after he woke up, and explained to him what was going on. Rick gave him a radio so they could keep in contact. He returns in Season 3, having gone mad with grief after losing his son to the Walkers. However, he eventually recovers his sanity thanks to the counsel of Eastman, who teaches him to become a Martial Pacifist. After Eastman passes away, he begins to seek out Rick, embarking on a lengthy quest to find him in the fifth season that takes him all the way to Alexandria, where he finds himself at odds with Rick and Carol's brutality.

Morgan is forced to call into question Eastman’s absolutist teachings as the group enters the Savior War. The sheer brutality of the war and its' effect on his sanity causes Morgan to leave the community after Negan's defeat, arriving in Texas and encountering new groups of survivors who make him question if he can really go it alone. This leads Morgan to the realization that Rick was right and that he needed to remain with people. Thus, Morgan becomes the leader of a caravan of survivors and began leading them in being do-gooders across the state. But even when he found a new love with Grace, Morgan’s world came crashing down when Virginia’s Pioneers subjugated the group. Morgan was forced to abandon his no-killing policy once and for all as he sought once again to build a community after defeating Virginia, only for the nuclear devastation of Texas and a subsequent feud with Strand to put him and his friends on the back foot once again.

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A-G

• Adaptational Badass: Comic!Morgan was much less capable of kicking ass, having never fortified King County or built booby-traps, and could barely get a headshot on a walker, let alone become proficient in Aikido.
• The Aloner:
  • Despite reconciling with Rick, he refuses to join him at the prison (partially because he realizes Rick is preparing for his war with The Governor) but accepts a map to the prison until he can "get clear". He eventually leaves and encounters Eastman before heading in the direction of Terminus. After finding Rick's map, he travels the over 650 miles between Terminus and Washington, D.C., all on his own.
  • After the end of the Savior War, Morgan decides to take some alone time at the Scavengers' landfill. When his friends come and ask him to return, he flees the region. His arc in the fourth season of Fear has him realize that Rick was right, that he ultimately must remain with other people and can't stay by himself. It takes almost the entire season for him to admit he's been a coward for not wanting to stick by his allies.
• Archenemy:
  • In The Walking Dead Season 6, Owen the Alpha Wolf becomes his. In Seasons 7 and 8, Jared the Savior takes this trope due to having murdered his apprentice Benjamin.
  • Victor Strand views him as this due to callously pinning all the blame for Teddy's victory on him in order to minimize his own part in the devastation. For the most part, Morgan is unable to muster enough spite for Strand to return this sentiment, but he does warn him to not hurt their friends and attempts an assassination of him, before conceding to Alicia's desire for war as the season goes on.
• Ascended Extra: Prior to Season 6 of The Walking Dead, Lennie James' busy schedule prevented him from having a larger role, which is why he did not appear in Seasons 2 and 4. The producers nevertheless resolved to have him in as much as possible, so Morgan had two uncredited cameos in The Stinger's of "No Sanctuary" and "Coda", and a full appearance in "Conquer". After being an infrequently recurring character for the first five seasons, he joins the main cast in Season 6, Promotion to Opening Titles and all. This is also in play when one considers his comic counterpart, who quickly faded into the background upon his rejoining the group, whereas this Morgan is a major character. He eventually crosses over to become one of the main characters of Fear the Walking Dead, giving him even more original storylines since Fear is not directly based on the comics as the flagship series is.
• The Atoner:
  • For not being able shoot his undead wife before she bites their son, he puts himself in a self-imposed penance to clear King County of walkers (and other humans, for that matter).
  • Then, when he goes off the deep end doing that, he learns to be a Technical Pacifist from Eastman and atones for his "clearing" of other people by swearing to never kill again (of course, he only fully adopts this view after accidentally getting Eastman killed).
• Back for the Finale: Played With. Morgan is among the many characters who return in a fashion for a montage of various characters saying "we're the ones who live" in the epilogue of the Grand Finale of the original series; stock footage of Morgan is used, but Lennie James records the line specifically for the montage, to give Morgan some sort of presence in the show's final episode.
• Badass Boast: Subverted. At first, Morgan's "I don't die" isn't a boast but a sad reflection of how he will continue to live as people he gets close to perish. By Season 6 of Fear, when Dwight tells Morgan that he thought he'd died, Morgan smiles and says, "You know I don't die, Dwight."
• Badass Longcoat: One he scrounged from the late Emile LaRoux. It looks magnificent in a Wild West kind of way.
• Bald of Authority: Falls into this role after he takes over the remnants of Madison's group at the end of Fear Season 4.
• Beard of Sorrow: He grows one by "The End is the Beginning", to demonstrate how Virginia's arrival took away everything he loved.
• Berserk Button: He notably reacts poorly when Alicia insists that walkers still retain personality and intelligence from before their turn. This is because his hesitation to put down his wife for the same line of thought left her alive and able to later kill their son.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up in the nick of time to save Aaron and Daryl from a trap laid by the Wolves.
• Big Good: In Fear Season 6, contrasting Virginia's Big Bad. Morgan seeks to build a settlement where everyone can be safe and looks for a way to rescue his friends, who have been spread out across Virginia's various franchises.
• The Big Guy: He really steps up to the plate as one of the Coalition's heavy hitters during the Savior War.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In his conflict with Carol, he points out that killing is not always the solution, while she points out that sometimes you have to kill to protect those you care about.
• Breakout Character: One of the most popular characters despite the scarcity of his appearances. His appearances in The Stinger's of Season 5 helped to greatly hype up his return to the main ensemble, and for Season 6, he's front and center in many of the promotions. Morgan is later the first character chosen to cross over to Fear the Walking Dead in a major role before becoming the lead character, and ultimately survives his tenure on Fear as well, leaving the show alive and well with it being teased he will eventually reunite with Rick.
• The Bus Came Back: For a one-episode appearance in Season 3's "Clear". He spends the majority of Season 5 Commuting on a Bus before officially returning to the main storyline in the finale.
• But Now I Must Go:
  • Shaken from the death of his surrogate son Benjamin, the effects it had on his little brother Henry, and the horrors of the Savior War, Morgan leaves Virginia and his friends from Atlanta, presumably forever.
  • In Fear Season 7, with the sub lost to radiation and the war with Strand approaching, Morgan is told by Grace that he must flee Texas to find somewhere safe for Mo and their group to live. Despite the war due to happen that night, Morgan decides he has to follow Grace's wishes and leaves into the Gulf to start looking.
  • In the Fear mid-season 8 finale, Morgan leaves the group so Madison can resume command of them and the reformed PADRE. He sets out to return to Alexandria with Mo in tow, and so he can reunite with Rick.
• The Cameo: His appearances in the "No Sanctuary" and "Coda" post-credits scenes.
• Cassandra Truth: A downplayed example. Morgan partially refuses to join Rick at the prison because he says he's unwilling to bear witness to the horrors of whatever war Rick is gearing up for. Sure enough, the prison is destroyed after the final battle with The Governor by the time Morgan arrives.
• Christianity is Catholic: Seems to be, as he grips a set of beads while praying in Gabriel's church.
• Combat Pragmatist: He kills a Savior at one point by reaching into the man's gunshot wound and ripping out his intestines.
• Cool Shades: Sports a pair in "Coda."
• Crazy-Prepared: By "Clear", his new base has been laced with booby traps for walkers and even outlined with escape routes using drawn arrows on the ground for every possible scenario. Also, his firearms and ammunition stock...
• Crazy Survivalist: By "Clear", he's become hardened to the realities of the zombie apocalypse. Thanks to Eastman's council, he recovers by "No Sanctuary", though he slips into it again after Benjamin's death in "Bury Me Here".
• Crusading Widower: He becomes a very dark example of this trope after the deaths of his wife and son.
• Curbstomp Battle: Delivers a non-fatal one to the two Wolves who try to kill him in Virginia.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Here's Not Here" is a flashback episode entirely focused on explaining how Morgan went from the insane survivalist he was in "Clear" to the kindhearted yet militant pacifist he has become by "No Sanctuary".
• Death Seeker: Shows signs of this after the loss of his wife, which might likely have prompted his actions at the end of "Days Gone Bye". He later begs Rick to shoot him because he couldn't bring himself to commit suicide. His search for Rick and much more Zen mentality as of "No Sanctuary" show that he's overcome his depression.
• Decomposite Character: His comic death - being bitten by a walker and having his arm amputated by Michonne, causing him to bleed out - goes to Tyreese in the show.
• Demoted to Extra: Zig-zagged. In the comics, Morgan rejoined the group almost immediately after the fall of the prison. In the show, he doesn't rejoin the group until after they reach Alexandria. However, he becomes a full-fledged main character after this, whereas in the comic he only had a minor supporting role.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Duane being killed by his undead wife, who he was previously unable to bring himself to kill. After Eastman's teachings, he's recovered and become much more emotionally stable. It's later implied that his sanity is tied to his newfound pacifism and adherence to aikido, so he's not fully recovered yet. Crosses this again after his protege Benjamin gets killed by Jared, prompting Morgan to abandon his pacifist ways and decide that from that point on, every Savior must (and will) die.
  • After Virginia takes away his friends and shoots him, the beginning of Fear Season 6 leaves him a broken wreck, unable to reconcile his pacifistic goals with the brutality of the world. It takes him several episodes to recover and accept that his old goals and life as a do-gooder are over.
• Does Not Like Guns: He is hesitant about guns since learning aikido (besides using them on walkers, anyway) and his new philosophy on not killing, right down to refusing to take one when the Wolves attack. Rick has to practically make him take one when he goes to look for Carol on his own and even though he starts carrying from that point on he is still hesitant to use a firearm after having to shoot and kill a Savior to save Carol. He starts using guns again after abandoning his no killing philosophy while fighting against the Saviors, though his weapon is still a spear.
• Driven to Suicide: At the end of Season 6 of Fear with Teddy's nukes approaching, he and Grace agree to kill themselves since even if they survive the impact, it won't be worth trying to eke out a living in the unimaginable devastation that is about to happen. However, when Mo arrives on the scene, Morgan quickly bounces back with a new purpose in life.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: He joins Rick's group for good at the end of "Conquer".
• Face Death with Dignity: When Virginia has him at gunpoint and is about to kill him, he doesn't beg and simply stares her down, waiting for the end. Luckily, the shot she fires is a blank.
• Fallen Hero: Duane's death turned Morgan almost completely insane, booby trapping an entire town, and robbing and killing travelers.
• Fatal Flaw: On Fear, Morgan develops a nasty tendency to allow himself to easily get distracted and let his guard down when under a high-stress situation.
  • In Season 4, when Martha asks for the painkillers he offered to her earlier - and after he's just learned the group has been poisoned - Morgan hastily tries to give it to her, only for her to grab him to force him into a car wreck.
  • In Season 5, even after being told of might of Virginia's forces approaching, he refuses to simply flee Humbug Gulch, determined to prove he can make it work as a safe zone despite countless reasons as to why he shouldn't bother. This results in buying Virginia the time she needs to catch up to the group and capture them.
  • In Season 6, he lets his anger at Strand delay him in gaining access to Teddy's control room as he stops to bicker with him over Strand's attempt to kill him, and it gives Teddy the precious few seconds he needed to launch his nukes.
  • In Season 7, his assassination attempt of Strand nearly works until Strand notices the blue dye from the poison still lingering on his thumb. With the Stalker attack, Morgan was evidently too distracted to simply wash his hands or at least wipe off his thumb. It not only compounds his failure to kill Strand, but it also results in the loss of what was a potential mending of fences between the two men, as well as Grace and Mo being forced to stay at the Tower.
• Foil: Just like Shane became a sort of Evil Counterpart to Rick, Morgan becomes an extreme, darker reflection of what Rick could've become in The Walking Dead Season 3, and Rick himself realizes this. Rick's attempts to bring Morgan back with him to the prison sound like Rick attempting to give advice to himself to prevent himself from going further into Sanity Slippage. By the end of Season 5, while Rick has gone Darker and Edgier, Morgan has become more of a Good Counterpart similar to the Rick of Seasons 1, 2, and early Season 4.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: An interesting case, considering he was just a father trying to look out for his son. When his son dies after being attacked by Morgan's undead wife, Morgan's outlook on life changes for the worse. Collecting enough guns to start a war, he manages to turn King County into one big old deathtrap for walkers and for anyone else that comes through town.
• Genre Blind: Fails to see that being a Badass Pacifist in a world where Humans Are the Real Monsters is not exactly a well thought out ideal as he initially assumed.
• Good Is Dumb: He gets into a heavy conflict with Carol because he views the Wolves as redeemable despite their murderous cruelty. Unfortunately, he and Carol nearly kill each other while fighting over the fate of Owen the Alpha Wolf. They both end up knocked out because of their fight and he escapes with Denise held hostage.
• Good Is Not Soft: In his heroic moments. Despite his adamant Thou Shalt Not Kill policy, he still doesn't hesitate to beat the shit out of hostile people who attack him. Every single Wolf that attacks him gets their ass kicked, and he's even willing to beat Carol (who's in her early 50s and suffering from a mild concussion) when she tries to kill Owen.
• Grammar Nazi: A very understated version. Despite the end of the world, he feels it is important for his son to use proper grammar.

H-P

• Hero of Another Story: After Rick leaves him and Duane. But when he returns in "Clear", Morgan has changed. Since that episode, however, Morgan embarks on his own journey to find Rick, coming across the destroyed prison and Gabriel's church before he finally reunites with Rick at Alexandria in "Conquer".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He becomes best friends with John and is devastated when he perishes. Their friendship was so strong that he can only refer to John's father as "Mr. Dorie" with the utmost respect, and is similarly devastated when Sr. dies.
• He Who Fights Monsters: In "Clear", he talks about this trope, in particular how he's become as uncaring as the walkers. He outgrows it by the time he and Rick reunite but returns to it after Benjamin is murdered by Jared.
• Honor Before Reason: He insists on sparing the Wolves who attack Alexandria even though it means they'll escape and likely return for vengeance. He is so adamant about his no killing policy that in "Start to Finish" he gets into a fight with Carol and knocks her out because she wanted to kill Owen. Owen uses the fight as an opportunity to escape and take Denise as a hostage.
• Iconic Outfit: His sunglasses, face wrap, beige shirt and jacket, and black helmet. They're some of the few belongings he kept with him travelling.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Basically, Morgan's response to killing several of Virginia's Pioneers. He gave them the choice to switch sides, but they swore loyalty to Virginia, and he was forced to put them down to avoid yet another obstacle to his mission.
• Idiot Ball: Firing his sniper rifle at zombies to attract a horde around his house (which his son is in!) so he can shoot his zombified wife. He doesn't even manage to do that.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: When he finally has Virginia dead to rights, he refuses to kill her for this reason, stating that he doesn't want to start the future of his community off with a Public Execution. June takes care of the job for him in short order.
• Improvised Weapon: He ends up fusing the spear with the blade of the axe he takes from a bounty hunter named Emile in Fear.
• In the Hood: He is reintroduced wearing one during his search for Rick in the post-credit scene of "No Sanctuary".
• It's All My Fault: Blames himself for the death of Duane. Later, when he is caught with no way out of a walker-infested swamp and forced to surrender to PADRE, he believes he is not qualified to be Mo's parent and gives up his status as her father.
• I Will Find You: After Terminus turns out to be a bust, he finds a map to Washington, D.C. with Rick's name on it and subsequently travels over 650 miles to find him.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Forced by circumstances to kill his zombified wife and son.
• The Leader: Eventually takes over leadership of Madison Clark's surviving group as well as some new additions like John and June.
• Madness Mantra: Several.
  • The word "Clear", from the episode of the same name, is written all over his house.
  • A hallucination of Gavin taunts him with the phrase, "You know what it is."
• Martial Pacifist: Becomes this after his initial rehabilitation. He fights off but spares the two Wolves that want to take his supplies and kill him.
• Missed Him by That Much: Morgan reaches Gabriel's church only two or three weeks behind Rick's group, at which point they have already gone to Virginia.
• Mr. Exposition: In the pilot. He explains to Rick (and, by extension, the audience) about the walkers, and also tells him about the evacuation zone in Atlanta.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has this reaction when, in the middle of one of his psychotic episodes, he almost kills young Henry.
• My Greatest Failure: Morgan has never quite been the same since the death of Duane. He also considers the death of his wife as this, though Duane's death is what really pushed him over the edge into insanity.
• My Way or the Highway: Frequently. He refuses to break his Thou Shalt Not Kill mindset in TWD Season 6. This goes as far as to refuse to kill the psychotic Wolves and locking their leader, Owen, in a room in Alexandria. When Carol finds out, she tries to kill Owen, and in his refusal to allow her to do this out of his belief that he can be redeemed, Morgan fights her and ends up knocking her unconscious. In Season 7, he's forced to do some major introspection once he fails to uphold Eastman's absolutist teachings. In Season 6 of Fear, he outright admits he's had this mindset and seeks to make up for it.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Due to leaving the show for Fear, several of his friends have died since he left Alexandria; most prominently, Rick is believed to have perished following a horde invasion in "What Comes After", and Henry was one of the many victims of the pike massacre incurred by Alpha in Season 9. He admits that Rick may not even be at Alexandria by the time of the final season of Fear and seeks to reunite with those he can.
• Nice Guy: In Season 1. He becomes this again in Season 5 after recovering from his Sanity Slippage. In Season 6, he's probably the nicest member of the main cast. After suffering the death of Benjamin, he once again becomes a cold and aloof, yet still more rational version of the character he was in Season 3. He returns to this in Season 4 of Fear and then again in Season 6, but this time with a dash of Good Is Not Soft.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • His unwillingness to kill The Wolves when they attack Alexandria allows some of them to escape with a gun. Said escapees attack Rick in the next episode, and the ensuing fight ruins Rick's plans to block the herd that is headed for Alexandria.
  • He also secretly locks up the Wolves' leader, Owen, in an attempt to reform him, and gets into a physical altercation with Carol when she wants to kill him to prevent the possibility that he will escape and kill some of their own people. Owen uses the fight as a distraction to escape and take Denise (who is also in the room) hostage.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Morgan's primary arc from Seasons 4-5 of Fear have him debate the merits of helping people and staying loyal to them after everything he's lost, and ultimately deciding that it's worth trying to do good and help people. For becoming a crusading helper around Texas, he is ultimately punished severely by Virginia who tears his group apart as she pleases (including being petty enough to separate the newlyweds, June and John) and then shoots him out of nothing but pure spite. It rattles Morgan to the core who realizes his pacifistic ways simply won't cut it anymore.
• Not Worth Killing: He allows Teddy to leave after launching the nukes, convinced he’s probably going to die anyway. He ends up right when shortly after the launch, the Dorie's goad Dakota into killing him.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: He calls zombies "walkers," introducing Rick to the term.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Duane was killed by the reanimated Jenny.
• Papa Wolf: To Duane. The first time he meets Rick, he outright threatens to kill him if he tries anything to harm him or his son. Years later, he confirms to Rick that he would have killed him if Duane hadn't been there to witness it.
• One-Man Army: Dispatches enemies left and right when he goes into battle mode during the Savior War. He's easily one of the most skilled and formidable fighters in the entire Walking Dead universe.
• Papa Wolf: Once he becomes Mo's adoptive father, he displays a certain crazed look longtime fans of the franchise will clearly recognize when she's in danger.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Added to the Title Sequence of The Walking Dead Season 6. He is the first character to be removed from the credits without being killed off, since he leaves the show at the end of Season 8 for Fear.
• Promotion to Parent: He was hoping for this with Grace's baby as he was fully intending to become her husband and a father again, but sadly the baby was stillborn. He gets a third chance at parenthood when Rachel turns up dead with Mo on her person, and Morgan quickly accepts Mo as his daughter on the spot.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of the pilot episode. He also leaves the cast of the main series after Season 8, which is shown in the first episode of Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead, traveling from Virginia to Texas. He leaves Fear in the mid-season finale of Season 8, intending to reunite with Rick and his allies at Alexandria.

Q-Z

• The Quest: After being reformed by Eastman, he embarks on one to find sanctuary and community at Terminus. When he finds evidence of Rick's location, he travels over 650 miles to Virginia.
• Reckless Pacifist: Unfortunately, his pacifist ideology comes into conflict with Rick's group due to the fact that killing has grown into the much-preferred norm of the zombie world. In fact, his choice to show mercy to the Wolves caused them to nearly murder his friends Rick and Denise.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: At the beginning of Season 6 of Fear, his eyes are a cloudy, bloody red, presumably as a result of his near-fatal wounds in the previous season finale. This is also when he defies his Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy, acknowledging that violence is sometimes necessary and decapitating Emile (and upgrading from his stick to the former's axe).
• Restrained Revenge:
  • Despite Martha’s insane determination to kill his friends, Morgan ultimately refuses to strike the killing blow, but he still refuses to try to save her life. He handcuffs her to his car so that she can’t hurt anyone after she dies and reanimates, and for a psychopath like Martha who loves walkers for how they kill indiscriminately, it works.
  • Despite having several damn good reasons to want Virginia dead, he ultimately chooses to banish her and Dakota instead. June disagrees.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: He tells Rick that if he hadn't saved the Alpha Wolf, then he would have never pulled his Heroic Sacrifice to save Denise, who would eventually save Carl's life after the latter was near-fatally shot in the eye. However, it is not clear if Owen saving Denise is out of actual kindness or just self-preservation.
• Room Full of Crazy: His hideout in "Clear" is covered in graffiti to this effect. They seem to tell him of past events, such as the death of Duane and others, as well as reminders of his plans, tactics, and booby traps.
• Sanity Slippage: A recurring theme in Morgan's arc.
  • After Duane is killed by his zombie wife and he has to put them both down. He writes fanatically on walls including basic reminders, creates death traps for and robs any travelers, and has become obsessed with clearing the town of walkers in a penance for Duane. Thanks to Eastman's counseling, by Season 5, he's much saner.
  • He starts to slip again in Season 7 after the death of his new Morality Pet Benjamin, strangling the man who was responsible, and putting to an end his pacifistic ways in the hopes of killing every Savior he comes across. Though he's slightly more stable than he was in Season 3, only targeting Saviors and not just attacking everyone who gets in his way.
  • In Season 6 of Fear, Morgan aptly describes his ever-shifting mental state as making him feel like he's "been about sixteen different somebodies since it all ended."
  • In Season 8 of Fear he is shown to have relapsed after being forced to surrender Mo to PADRE, before suffering an almost complete relapse after Grace dies and Mo leaves him to rejoin PADRE. Thankfully, Madison and Mo are able to pull him out of it.
• Save the Villain: He spares Owen and imprisons him in Alexandria in order to reform him, just like Eastman did for him. He goes as far as to fight Carol when she tries to kill the Wolf. Unfortunately, Owen has no interest in being redeemed.
• Ship Tease: With Grace in Fear Season 5. He eventually confesses his feelings in the finale (which she returns), but they are separated by Virginia's forces shortly afterward and Morgan has yet to reunite with her again. They're finally back together as of "Things Left to Do", making them an Official Couple.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Jericho (2006). The scene in which Morgan appears to shoot his wife is shot from the same angle, and is almost identical, to a scene in which Robert Hawkins is defending the titular town.
  • To Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Morgan learned how to fight with a jo staff from a man named Eastman, who shares a name with the creator of said franchise; and Lennie James learned it behind the scenes from one of the original stunt doubles for Donatello.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Survives the Alexandria Safe-Zone walker herd.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: After joining the cast of Fear, he quickly becomes the main character and thus much of the focus shifts from the Clark family to him. Lennie James is even given top billing over some of the longer-running cast members like Alycia Debnam-Carey.
• Survivalist Stash: According to AMC, Morgan gathered 59 guns, 5 bows, and 48 grenades. Rick manages to rearm the prison and still leave plenty for Morgan.
• Technical Pacifist: Although he's reluctant to take a life after his time with Eastman, he has no problems with beating others up.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Another big part of Morgan's character is his willingness/hesitation to kill.
  • It's his newfound philosophy as of Season 5, but it causes some problems for him. Sparing the two Wolves who attacked him causes them to find Alexandria and launch a full-scale attack on it. During said battle, he lets even more of them live, allowing them to escape with a gun. He even spares Owen, the Alpha Wolf, in order to reform him. It's implied, however, that he's willing to end someone's life if it means putting them out of their misery as in the case of the bitten Eastman and Carter. In "Last Day on Earth" he is forced to gun down a Savior trying to murder Carol. While in the Kingdom he appears to have taken back up his vow as while he is convinced to start carrying a gun he is hesitant to use it.
  • His philosophy is generally deconstructed after what happened with the Wolves and Carol. He acknowledges to Rick that his way isn't perfect as he knows it has caused problems for the group, and it’s implied to have led to his decision to break his code to save Carol and to not return to Alexandria.
  • He breaks out of this mindset in Season 7, killing Richard for causing Benjamin's death and telling Carol he will kill every Savior he comes across.
  • He lapses back into it at the end of Season 8 when it once more starts to take a toll on his sanity.
  • And finally seems to put it to rest for good in Season 6 of Fear. When Sherry's group inform him that they are going to kill Virginia, Morgan is onboard, but wants to wait until the moment is right instead of going in guns-blazing. Later, he outright tries to assassinate Strand in Season 7. In Season 8, he admits that he should never have followed "all life is precious" in the way Eastman did.
• Took a Level in Badass: In "Days Gone Bye", Morgan is a fairly rusty shot, and prefers to just hide from walkers. By Season 3, he has fortified King County, apparently robbed dozens of people passing through, and comes close to killing Rick, Michonne, and Carl on his own. By Season 5, he's even more badass now that he's sane, and trained in Aikido, effortlessly beating the crap out of the two Wolves who attack him. In late Season 7, he returns to killing and becomes a veritable One-Man Army, nonchalantly taking down every Savior who crosses his path and racking up one of the highest kill counts during the war. In Season 8, he's able to hold his own in a fight with Jesus.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: As of "No Sanctuary", though lost again by "Bury Me Here".
• Took a Level in Idealism: In Season 5, he becomes a firm believer in valuing the lives of others and that everyone is capable of being redeemed, thanks to Eastman and his training in Akido and the philosophies associated with the martial art.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Always as a result of his Sanity Slippage.
  • Introduced as a Nice Guy in the first episode, but his son's death turns him completely insane. At some point he becomes a cold-blooded murderer who kills everyone who gets in his way, until he befriends a guy named Eastman who helped him rehabilitate.
  • After a Heroic BSoD at the end of Season 7, he starts giving up all his pacifist ideals and returning to his old ways. In Season 8 he's much more violent and ruthless, at least towards his enemies.
• Undying Loyalty: He has more or less developed this to Rick, given that he was willing to cross half of the overrun North American continent to find his old friend. When he meets Daryl and Aaron, he refuses the latter's offer to bring him to Alexandria, as he believes he must continue his search for Rick elsewhere, but thankfully, he gets the best of both worlds as Rick is at Alexandria. Afterwards, he's hesitant about Rick's orders since they almost always involve killing, but he still is usually right behind him.
• Walking Spoiler: Morgan reappears in "Clear" and in the post-credit scenes of "No Sanctuary" and "Coda" before rejoining Rick's group for good in the Season 5 finale, "Conquer".
• Walking the Earth:
  • He burns down King County and wanders around the woods as a madman before encountering Eastman, who helps him regain his sanity. After his mentor's death, Morgan heads towards Terminus. When he discovers Rick's warning, he follows the Hunters' trail markers to their base at the school, then to Gabriel's church, where he finds Abraham's map. After that, he heads through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia before encountering Daryl and Aaron.
  • After the Savior War, he leaves Virginia and wanders all the way to Texas where he meets John Dorie, Al, and eventually Madison's group. At the end of his tenure on Fear, he sets out once again, leaving his allies from Madison's group to reunite with the Coalition in Virginia.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Morgan, upon his reintroduction, wields a staff, which reflects his new-found sturdiness and opposition to spilling blood. It becomes a spear once he decides to avenge his protege Benjamin's death by fighting the Saviors.
• We Used to Be Friends: He and Victor fall out after the latter tries to have him killed so he can claim all the glory for stopping Teddy just to prove himself to Alicia, only for this to buy Teddy enough time to launch his nukes. Victor blames everything on Morgan and his ways while Morgan is understandably still sore at Victor for trying to kill him and just making things worse. They end up on opposite sides of an attempted war as the season progresses, and even attempt to kill one another again: Morgan via poisoning and Strand by having Morgan nearly fed to a walker.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gives one to Rick for not keeping up with his radio messages.
  • He seems alarmed by the sight of the bloody Rick who just executed Pete in "Conquer". In the immediate aftermath in Season 6, he is disturbed by Rick's more violent and pragmatic nature, which contrasts with Morgan's newfound idealistic worldview.
  • He is similarly disturbed by Carol's ruthlessness when defending Alexandria.
  • He has one to all of Alexandria when they are convinced to battle the Saviors and assassinate Negan, but he's handily overruled.
  • He's on the receiving end when Alicia learns that Morgan was the one responsible for slaughtering the members of the convoy who were transporting Dakota.
• Would Hit a Girl: Is perfectly willing to beat Carol into unconsciousness when she tries to kill Owen, since he's dead set on redeeming the villain and refuses to break Thou Shalt Not Kill.
• Zen Survivor: By "No Sanctuary", he's become this. He's more combat-capable, and carries a cheerful, almost sage-like disposition.

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"This message is for Rick Grimes. It's Morgan Jones. Man, I'm gonna come and look for you, whether you're at Alexandria or not. I will leave this message every morning at dawn, and I'll leave the walkie on for a few minutes after. Who knows? Maybe you might even be listening."