A flashback episode "Here's Not Here" reveals that after encountering Rick the second time, Morgan met a survivor named Eastman who helped him recover from his mental break, teaching him aikido and insisting that he never has to kill people.

At last finding a way to accept his losses with Madison Clark's help, Morgan decides to return to Alexandria with his daughter to reunite with the friends that he had left behind, Rick Grimes in particular.

In an attempt to preserve old tradition and celebrate Christmas with Duane to lift his spirits, Morgan is able to find a Game Boy from a nearby store and give it to him as a present.

As he hoped, the noise attracts more walkers, including his dead wife Jenny, but Morgan finds himself unable to shoot her and breaks down in tears.

Morgan reappears after the credits in the episode "Coda" where he follows the tree markings left by Gareth to the elementary school where he and the Hunters had cannibalized Bob Stookey's leg.

Morgan initially turns down the offer, but says he is lost but on his way to somewhere, and shows Daryl the map to Washington, D.C., with Rick's name on it that he had found at the church.

Morgan helps Rick with his plan to lure the walkers out of the quarry and away from the Safe Zone, knowing it's only a matter of time before they break free.

Morgan is present when they walk in on Carter (Ethan Embry) discussing his plans to kill Rick and take the Safe Zone back, holding a gun to Eugene.

After Carol wakes up from a long sleep, Morgan introduces her to the leader of the community, King Ezekiel and his pet Bengal tiger Shiva.

In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", Morgan is found by Ezekiel, Carol and a group of Kingdom survivors en route to Alexandria, donning Benjamin's armor and wielding his spear.

Ezekiel asks him if he is determined to erase who he was with Morgan claiming he doesn't wish it, but is "stuck" (implying his inability to live in their world with both his life and values).

Morgan captures Gavin, the high-ranking Savior lieutenant responsible for Benjamin's death and prepares to kill him despite the efforts of Carol and Ezekiel to convince him otherwise.

Morgan participates in the defense of the Hilltop Colony and helps to repel the attack and then to deal with the reanimated residents who have been turned by the Saviors' tainted weapons.

In "Wrath," Morgan's mental state continues to deteriorate, causing him to now hallucinate Jared and accidentally knock Henry over while going after Alden and the freed Savior prisoners who were returning from a legitimate errand for the Hilltop.

After listening to Rick's speech to the gathered communities, Morgan hands over Benjamin's armor to be given to Henry and decides to go his own way for a while so he can move on and heal away from other people.

After running into a hostile group of survivors, the two men are rescued by a journalist named Althea and are then captured by Victor Strand, Luciana Galvez and Nick and Alicia Clark.

After hearing the story of John and his love for the woman he knew as Laura, Morgan decides to go after his new friends and attempt to stop their war with the Vultures, to no success.

During this time, Morgan's group discovers that a series of truck drivers led by a man called Polar Bear have been leaving supplies along the roadways for anyone who needs them.

The group makes their way back to Texas, leaving boxes of supplies belonging to the original truck driver along the road for other survivors, but come into conflict with a woman named Martha who was driven insane after losing her husband in a car accident when no one would help her.

After narrowly surviving his gunshot wound, Morgan subsequently dedicates himself to building a new community in the valley and adopts a willingness to be more violent as he reunites his friends and engages in conflict with the Pioneers.

Many of Morgan's friends decide to join him, but Strand declines, instead opting to lead the Pioneers, insisting that a grave threat that Virginia has been preparing for is still out there.

After Grace's daughter is stillborn, Morgan learns of the threat poised by Teddy Maddox and teams up with Strand to stop him from launching nuclear warheads from a beached submarine.

In "Remember What They Took From You," following his arrival at PADRE, which is located on an island in Georgia, Morgan successfully rescues his daughter Mo with the help of Madison.

Now truly at peace with his losses, Morgan experiences flashbacks of fond memories with Jenny, Duane, Eastman, Benjamin, Nick, Isaac, Rachel, John Dorie, John Dorie Sr., Alicia and Grace - the people that he's lost along the way - and broadcasts an open message to Rick that he's coming to find him, promising that he'll rebroadcast the message and leave the radio open for a few minutes each day at dawn, echoing Rick and Morgan's promise to each other during their very first parting.

[16] Mike Ryan of Vanity Fair described Morgan in his review of the episode as "scared shitless of zombies breaking in, which seems like a reasonable reaction".

[17] Liz Kelly and Jen Chaney of The Washington Post commented on Morgan and Duane, "whose loss of the mother figure in their family reminded us a little of "Lost's" Michael and Walt".

Club described Morgan as "beautifully played by the always welcome Lennie James" and adding that he "adds a moment of poignancy, as he finds himself actually apologizing for having not killed his now-reanimated wife".

[20] Kris King of Starpulse noted that Morgan "has a powerful scene involving the fate of his wife and his grizzly attempt to come to terms with his loss".

[21] Writing for The Atlantic, Scott Meslow describes what he considers "the episode's most devastating scene", in which "Morgan aims at [his wife's] head through a rifle from a window, almost pulling the trigger several times before collapsing in tears.

"[24] In his recap of the episode for the Los Angeles Times, Emily VanDerWerff called Lennie James a "brilliant actor", and felt that "his role is significant enough that he essentially becomes the main supporting player in the piece".