The Walking Dead: Who is the Old Familiar Face Rick Met?

"Atlanta was a long time ago."

By Matt Fowler

Warning: Full spoilers for the twist from the end of the most recent Walking Dead, "The Damned."

With The Walking Dead's 100th episode, "Mercy," paying subtle tribute to the first episode of the series, "Days Gone Bye," it's no surprise that this week's episode pulled from Season 1 as well. It was a shocking wayback twist that brought Juan Gabriel Pareja's Morales back to the show for the first time since leaving everyone behind in the first season's penultimate episode, "Wildfire."

Morales, for those who need a refresher, was one of the original cast members of the show. He, along with wife Miranda and children Eliza and Louis, were a part of the Atlanta-adjacent survivor group that included Lori, Shane, Carl, the Dixon brothers, Carol and her family, Dale, Andrea, and Amy.

Everyone listens to Dale's deep trap mixtape.

We never discovered Morales' first name, or the exact circumstances of how his family became a part of this group, but he was one of the first people Rick met after being rescued by Glenn and brought inside the abandoned department store ("Guts"). There was never much more to Morales' character other than just being a decent guy who loved his family and put himself in danger to help others (he did, after all, crawl into the sewer tunnels under the store by himself to search for an exit).

Upon returning to the survivor camp, Morales was the one who insisted that everyone tell Daryl the truth about what happened to his brother, Merle back on the roof of the store - again, showing the he was a standup guy, even in the face of a zombie apocalypse. Morales was also known for being the dude who started the conversation with Dale about his watch.

"Staring contest...go!"

The most notable thing about Morales though, and his family, was that he lived. He may have left the show in Season 1, but he didn't die like - say - Ed, Amy, Jacqui, and Jim. He decided not to go with Rick and the rest to the CDC. He took off with his family in a separate car, headed to Birmingham to see if there were any remaining family members there.

Now, it's not like this show to leave us with a dangling thread like that, but it was also probably safe to assume that his Morales and his family died off-screen somehow. Many fans have wondered, over the years, what might have happened to them, but the consensus was that they all, eventually, ripped apart by walkers.

As of "The Damned" however, it seems like that theory was mostly true. Morales is still alive but his family, presumedly, are gone. And not only is Morales alive, but he was now a ruthless member of the Saviors, in the mansion that Rick and Daryl infiltrated in search of a large stockpile of weapons.

At first, we saw Rick pick up a photograph and come to a very abrupt realization. After surviving a brutal brawl just minutes earlier, Rick was already shaken, but the fact that he seemed to recognize the man in the photo (who we couldn't see yet) indicated that things were about to get a lot worse.

"Wait, I recognize that shadowy blob of mystery."

With a gun pointed right at Rick's head, Morales revealed himself. It took Rick a few seconds to put all the pieces together since, as Morales acknowledged, Atlanta "was a long time ago." From what we can guess, at this point, things did go majorly south for Morales and his family and he probably lost all of them horribly.

Negan's Saviors have a way of not only absorbing bullies and bastards into their ranks, but also lost souls. Those who have nothing else to lose. It's possible that Morales, in a lost mental state the way we've seen so many other characters on the show (Abraham, Morgan, etc) threw in with the Saviors as a way to take back control in his life and give into his rage.

Morales is all out of bubble gum.

Morales and Rick's shared past was obviously not enough to get Rick off the hook here. Morales told him it was over and that he'd already signaled the rest of the Saviors to come and help - which was also a slight ironic jab since one of the things Rick gave Morales when he left back in Season 1 was a walkie-talkie.

Now, do you think Morales was just learning about Rick's role in the war during this very moment or do you think he's been keenly aware, for a while, that the guy out there battling Negan was, specifically, Rick Grimes: The Cop He Knew Years Back? It feels like Morales already knew that enemy "Rick" was his Rick. What do you think?

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at http://ift.tt/2aJ67FB.

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