If the first three episodes of The Walking Dead were just too action packed for you, then you were in luck with episode number four. I like Morgan’s character, but I didn’t need an entire show dedicated to showing how he evolved into the peace loving Aikido practitioner he is today.
Some flashbacks during a normal episode would have filled in the blanks nicely. Obviously I was not a huge fan of this episode, and I’m actually into Zen philosophy and love the martial arts. I can imagine the majority of other viewers were even less interested this week than me.
But maybe I’m wrong, fans love Lennie James, who plays Morgan.
In a vacuum, this was not a bad WD episode. Coming after the first three editions of season six, though? It was like being on a roller coaster and some drunk operator accidentally hit the emergency stop button.
We start out with Morgan being completely deranged. He’s killing Walkers and dragging their bodies into a pile for a bonfire. The guy also has to kill a couple of humans that are tracking him. They were up to no good, so he had little choice. He had to “clear” the area.
Morgan eventually wound up at a great cabin in the woods that looked very livable. He got KO’d by a Zen Master named Eastman, who just wanted him to drop his gun. Eastman is a former forensic psychologist who used to determine if criminals were rehabilitated or not, before they were up for parole.
Eastman is also very skilled with a kendo stick, and he winds up teaching Morgan some Aikido skills. This was after he locked Morgan in a cage inside his cabin. He also offered him a book called, “The Art of Peace.”
This guy Eastman was a pretty interesting character. His philosophy of not killing is where Morgan got his code. He makes a compelling argument about how humans are not built to kill. “We have no fangs, no armor, no claws, etc.” He says people need people and that we are all connected as a species.
This is a fine philosophy for judging criminals already behind bars. The world is safe from them as long as they are locked away. But the same ideas don’t work when you are face to face out in the open with dangerous people like the Wolves, Terminites, or the Governor.
The “create peace” philosophy is a nice thought with intelligent, enlightened people around you. It simply doesn’t work with savages, which are the biggest part the human population remaining in Rick’s world.
Eastman understood exactly what was going on in Morgan’s head. He could not escape the death of his wife and young son. The moments of their death were upon him every second of every day, and he could not get away from the thoughts.
Eastman told the story of a prisoner named Dallas that he kept in prison as he saw he was truly evil. The prisoner eventually escaped prison and killed Eastman’s entire family. This broke the psychologist, much like Morgan’s tragedies broke him mentally. Eastman told Morgan how he built the cage in the cabin for Dallas and had intended to watch him starve to death.
Morgan asked if he went through with it and noticed that Eastman was good at “redirecting,” when he only answered that “all life is precious.” Eastman did indeed starve the killer to death as we saw Dallas’ name on one of the posts at the Walker Cemetery at the end of the show.
Eventually, it went bad for Eastman as he ended up bitten by a stray Walker when he saved Morgan as he stood in a trance like state. Morgan did warn him the campsite was no place to practice Aikido.
Of course, Eastman had to be shot in the head before he turned, so his character was one and done. It was a slow burn this week, but the ending was interesting.
Morgan’s flashback to Eastman was actually him telling the story to the Wolves member who attacked him in a home at the end of episode two. Morgan is trying to convince this wicked man that he can change just as Morgan did under the teachings of Eastman.
The Wolfpack guy is not keen on the idea and mentions he is going to try and kill Morgan and anyone else in Alexandria he can. This includes women and children. Morgan lets him live and just locks him inside the home. Bad plan of course.
I get the philosophy of peace. I admire people who are non-violent. I just fail to see how that is supposed to work when facing monsters. Even Eastman said we are to take care of ourselves just like we take care of others.
Morgan is not taking care of himself by allowing a killer to remain in his city. He is not taking care of the other innocents in Alexandria either. He is choosing this savage’s life over everyone else when the man is openly talking about the murders he plans to commit!
I wish Morgan’s philosophy would work. His world would be a better place, even post-apocalypse. The peaceful philosophy is just too risky for those that deserve a peaceful world. The children of Alexandria should not have to suffer because Morgan wants to spread the good news of Zen to people who attacked the city once already.
Rick’s brutal philosophy is hard to accept, but it’s more likely to keep the real peace loving folks alive than Morgan’s ideals. Morgan’s actions are going to let evil gain momentum, not perpetuate peace.
In one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the fourth match day of the Champions League, Real Madrid will play host to reigning French champions Paris Saint-Germain at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night. The two sides are odds-on favourites to advance from the group, but will be vying for finishing as group winners to potentially avoid strong opposition in the round of 16 clashes. They played out a scoreless draw in the first leg at the Parc des Princes and fans will be hoping to see some goals at the Bernabeu from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Shakhtar Donetsk will play Malmo in the other match of Group A.
Week 10 of La Liga began with Atletico Madrid’s trip to the Estadio Riazor against Deportivo La Coruna. The 2014 Spanish champions took the lead in the encounter courtesy of a goal from Tiago, but the Galicians grabbed an equalising goal and took home a precious point. The 2000 Spanish champions have enjoyed a good start to the season and are lying ninth in the table after collecting five draws and two wins from their first ten games of the season so far.
It is almost hard to believe that we are nine weeks into the 2015 college football season. Finally, after two-plus months of play, we get to see the first College Football Playoff rankings. Who will be in the Top Four? Week 9 had a lot to do with how the first poll plays out. Here are the winners and losers from last week.
There has been a lot said about the assault that happened at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina. Supporters of Officer Ben Fields action have spoken out (and I’ll get to that in a few) and people who believe his actions were out of line have as well. While I have my opinions about the situation, which I will express, I want to point out an aspect of the video that bothered me just as much as the actual assault, and that’s the inaction of the black man in the room.
If you missed the New York Giants shootout with the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, I legitimately feel bad for you. The Saints squeezed out a 52-49 victory in one of the best, most evenly-matched offensive games of all time.
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It appeared the Tampa Bay Bucs were content to stuff the run as the game started in the Georgia Dome Sunday. Lovie Smith had seen enough of Devonta Freeman the past five weeks to know he was the force driving the Atlanta offense.
The first weekend of the 2015/16 NBA season is over, and most teams in the Association have played two to three games. That’s not a big enough volume to form any serious opinions regarding who the surprise teams will be this year. However, there are some early hints that the Detroit Pistons are going to over-achieve when compared to pre-season expectations.
Lots of celebrities were out Saturday night sporting some pretty elaborate and clever costumes. Whether it was Neil Patrick Harris and his family decked out in Star Wars themed attire or Kourtney Kardashian’s superhero crew, the stars were dressed to impress for Halloween night.
Heidi was photographed while walking the red carpet at her annual holiday party, which was held at Lavo in New York City. On the carpet, Klum donned purple gloves, a red wig and a tight red dress that showed off her notable boob and butt prosthetics. In addition to enhancements to her curves, Heidi also wore a prosthetic mask that had been molded to her face to ensure she would be comfortable throughout the night.
Another costume that garnered lots of attention was Viola Davis’ daughter, Genesis. Viola’s 4-year-old daughter with husband Julius Tennon was photographed wearing a white top and lipstick while holding up a golden statuette resembling an Oscar. Evidently, Genesis decided to channel her 
What makes Google search better than the competition? What could have possibly led it to become the top search engine and its name synonymous with search? Google has the most complex search algorithm of all search engines that uses over 200 major factors or signals to rank web pages. Compliance with those 200 signals is what makes SEO a science and knowledge of how to use them keeps thousands of webmasters at work and changes to these signals keeps them on their toes. Now Google’s search algorithm codenamed Hummingbird has several components to process those signals many SEO practitioners are familiar with, such as Panda, Penguin and PageRank. One of those components has been revealed to be a machine learning artificial intelligence that Google calls RankBrain.