Morgan Jones (The Walking Dead)

Morgan Jones, as depicted in the comic book series.

Morgan's son, Duane, spots Rick wandering around their house and, mistaking him for a walker, knocks him out with a shovel. Morgan quickly comes to the realization that Rick is a living human and aids him back to health. He provides details to Rick of the outbreak and what has been happening within the world the past couple months. Rick later supplies him and his son with guns from the Sheriff's station to ensure their protection, and then departs from them to Atlanta.[1]

Morgan and Duane are later shown still remaining within their house several months afterward, during the winter. 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.[2]

Sometime within the following months, Duane falls prey to the walkers, specifically his walker-turned mother, and gets turned. Morgan, unable to cope with the death of his son, resorts to locking Duane in the house with chains. As his mental and physical health deteriorates, he begins murdering survivors who pass by so he can feed the boy. Rick, along with his son Carl and new second-in-command Abraham, arrive back to the town with the plan to bring Morgan into the group, which he agrees to after freeing his zombie son.[3] He quickly develops an intense fixation on Carl, who reminds him of Duane.[4] While in the group, he becomes one of the primary defenders of their campsite, and deepens his bond with Michonne, the two of them both connecting due to their damaged psyches and history of loss.[5] At the same time, he attempts to deepen his bond with Carl after witnessing first-hand the boy's cold-blooded mentality.[6] He believes himself to be responsible for maintaining Carl's childhood innocence and is determined to make amends for his failure to protect Duane.

Once arriving at the new walled-in community named the Alexandria Safe-Zone, he was assigned by the leader Douglas the role of being a chef. He and the rest of the survivors enjoyed the resources that the community offered, however he was one of the few who found himself frustrated with the fake upbeat attitude of their surroundings. After he and Michonne leave the welcome party hosted by the townspeople, the two finally engage in sex.[7] He deeply regrets his actions the following morning, believing himself to be an adulterer and continuing to cling to the memory of his deceased wife. His burdening of ill-conceived principles and refusal to let go of the past angers Michonne, despite their growing attraction towards one another.[8]

Morgan later apologizes for the hindrance in their relationship and reassures her that he is trying the best he can to get over all that has happened. She accepts[9] and the two are able to reunite as lovers once more.[10] Tension between the two of them develops again however, as Michonne becomes insulted by his egocentric demeanor when he justifies their sexual activities as him deserving to be happy.[11]

While helping fight off zombies with Rick, Morgan is caught off guard and bitten on the arm by a walker.[12] Michonne chops his arm off, and from there he is left bedridden. He confesses to Carl his knowledge of the murder committed by him and pleads for him not to let darkness overcome his morality.[13] Michonne later tries to make amends with him, only to discover that he has died from blood-loss. He is shortly thereafter put down by her before he has the chance to re-animate.[14]

In the television series, Rick's hometown - where the Jones' settle - is a small Georgia town called King County. In the series premiere "Days Gone Bye", Morgan examines Rick after his son Duane mistakes Rick for a walker and hits him with a shovel. Rick later wakes up tied to a bed, as Morgan checks Rick for zombie bites or fever, either of which could indicate he is turning into a walker. Morgan initially doubts Rick's status as a living being, going so far as to threaten to shoot him if he does not prove his humanity. After deciding Rick is not a threat, Morgan frees him using a Buck 110 hunting knife and shares what information he has regarding the apocalypse and the walkers.

The following day, Rick tells Morgan that his wife and son are missing and they are most likely alive, since the family photos have been taken from the house. Morgan and Duane tell Rick they may have set off to Atlanta, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set up a quarantine zone. Rick takes Morgan and Duane to his former Sheriff's headquarters, where the trio use the emergency generator to power up the station. They take hot showers and clean out the armory. Rick heads to Atlanta, while Morgan and Duane stay behind. Rick gives Morgan a rifle and a walkie-talkie and promises to broadcast every morning at dawn. Morgan goes to the top floor of his house, where he looks through old family photos before shooting several zombies. 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.

Subsequently, Rick returns to Atlanta in order to recover the walkie-talkie he dropped there and contact Morgan. Though Rick broadcasts messages to Morgan at the appointed time, Morgan never responds. After the decision is made to abandon their camp following a walker attack, Rick leaves behind a message for Morgan and a map of where they are going.

At the beginning of "What Lies Ahead," Rick attempts to contact Morgan over the walkie-talkie one final time without success. Rick warns Morgan that Atlanta is not safe and they are being forced to abandon the city in favor of Fort Benning. Rick expresses hope to see Morgan there someday and almost tells Morgan a secret that Doctor Edwin Jenner at the CDC had whispered in his ear, but ultimately chooses to remain silent on the subject.

In the episode "Clear", when Rick, Carl, and Michonne go on a run into King County, Morgan holds them at gunpoint from a roof. They have a shootout, and while trying to pursue Rick, Carl ultimately shoots Morgan in the chest. Rick pulls off Morgan's shirt, revealing that he had donned body armor. They drag his unconscious-self into his building, avoiding his traps, and lay him down on a bed. For safety measures, his hands are bound by Rick. While Rick is reading the strange writings on the wall, he discovers that Duane had reanimated, and decides to stay and wait for Morgan to wake up.

While Michonne and Carl go on a run, Rick waits for him to wake up, but Morgan grabs a knife that was taped to the side of the bed. He attacks Rick, claiming that he is not familiar with anyone anymore. He stabs Rick in the upper-left chest. Rick knocks the weapon away, pointing his revolver at Morgan's head, and Morgan begs Rick to kill him. Morgan is tied up again and, after patching himself up, Rick finally manages to make him remember that the two know each other. Morgan says that he tried to contact Rick every morning for several weeks, but he never answered the radio, before explaining what happened to Duane.

He is offered the chance to join the group at the prison, but he realizes that Rick is taking a lot of guns, meaning that they are preparing for a war. Morgan claims that Rick, Carl, and his people will die either by bullets or by walkers, and refuses to join them, not wanting to see anyone else die. While clearing out the walkers caught on his traps, Carl approaches Morgan and tells him that he is sorry for shooting him earlier. Morgan remarks to Carl, "Don't ever be sorry." While leaving King County, Rick, Carl, and Michonne watch as Morgan prepares to burn the corpses of the walkers he captured.

Note: Morgan Jones did not appear in The Walking Dead (season 4).[15]

After the credits in the episode "No Sanctuary", a masked man is seen approaching a Terminus sign Rick had written "No Sanctuary" on. He turns around and pulls off his mask, revealing himself to be Morgan who finds a cross mark on a tree and begins following a trail of them. 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 puts down a walker pinned under debris and comes across Fr. Gabriel Stokes's church, where he puts together a makeshift shrine and kneels in front of it, praying for a short time before laughing. Morgan finds the map with a route to Washington, D.C., lying on the ground (the one that Abraham Ford had previously given to Rick in the episode "Four Walls and a Roof") and reads the message Abraham had left on it for Rick. Morgan realizes that his friend is still alive somewhere.

In the season finale "Conquer", Morgan is in Virginia and sleeping in a car, before starting a fire. A man approaches him at gunpoint, revealing himself to be a member of the Wolves, and after a brief conversation, demands that Morgan surrender all of his supplies as well as himself. As another Wolves member lunges at Morgan from behind with a knife, Morgan dodges the attack and fights the men with a wooden staff, overpowering them and knocking them unconscious. Morgan places them in the backseat of the car and blows the horn—checking if any walkers are nearby—before departing. When Daryl Dixon and Aaron become trapped in a van surrounded by walkers when they set off a trap laid by the Wolves, Morgan rescues them and Aaron offers him the chance to come to Alexandria as a thank you for saving them. 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. Realizing that Morgan knows Rick, Daryl and Aaron bring him to Alexandria, where they arrive in time to witness Rick executing Pete Anderson under orders from Deanna Monroe following Pete's murder of Deanna's husband.

In the season premiere, "First Time Again", Morgan and Rick catch up, revealing that he learned how to use his staff from someone after the outbreak. Morgan is kept in a room for the night before Rick lets him free, telling him he doesn't take chances anymore. Morgan accompanies Rick in going out of the Safe Zone to bury Pete, when they come across a rock quarry filled with walkers. 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. Rick disarms Carter, which leads him into telling Morgan that no matter what happens, people like Carter will end up dying. During construction on a makeshift barrier, several walkers stumble into the work zone. Rick wants the Alexandrians to kill them, but Morgan intervenes, saying he doesn't take chances anymore either. As the group are luring the walkers out of the quarry and away from the Safe Zone, a blaring horn is heard coming from Alexandria. This causes the herd of walkers to begin making their way through the woods and back to the Safe Zone, with Morgan, Rick and Michonne running back to Alexandria.

In the episode "JSS", Morgan arrives back at Alexandria after a big rig truck crashed into a tower. He finds out that Alexandria was breached by a group known as the Wolves who are brutally slaughtering everyone they can in Alexandria with an arsenal of blades. The Reverend Gabriel being attacked by a Wolf but is saved by Morgan. When asked by Gabriel how he learned to fight like that Morgan responded, "from a cheese maker." Morgan ran around Alexandria to fight off other wolves and found himself surrounded by five of them. The leader of the pack recognized Morgan from their previous encounter. Morgan asked the Wolves to leave, but instead the Wolves attacked him. One by one the Wolves were knocked down by Morgan using only his staff in hand. He informs the Wolf that his people have guns and they would be shot if they didn't leave. The Wolves finally comply as they realize they can't win. Once the Wolves left Alexandria, Morgan surveys the carnage left behind by the attackers. He went inside a house the Wolves ravaged and was ambushed by who appears to be the leader of the Wolves. A fight ensued between them in the living room, and eventually Morgan was able gain an upper hand to subdue the Wolf leader and knocked him unconscious.

The episode "Here's Not Here" reveals how Morgan regained his sanity and learned his martial arts skills from a survivor named Eastman. After Rick left Morgan in King County, it's revealed that Morgan began attacking and killing anyone he came across. When he comes across Eastman, he was knocked unconscious and locked inside a cell in the cabin. While Morgan initially rebuffs Eastman's attempts to get to know him and help him move past his trauma (constantly telling him, he's going to kill Eastman when he gets out), Morgan eventually calms down and listens to Eastman's philosophy. From then on, Eastman taught Morgan how all life is precious as well as teaching him Aikido to allow him to defend himself without resorting to lethal force. The episode shows how Eastman died from a walker bite, but Morgan carries his peaceful ways on with a promise to never kill again. The episode ends with Morgan shown to have been telling the story to the Wolf leader (locked in his basement) in an attempt to convert him in turn.

In the episode "Heads Up", Morgan admits to Rick and Michonne that he let the Wolves escape, believing that people can change, though Rick doubts his ability to survive without getting his hands dirty. Morgan later visits Denise Cloyd and gains her help in treating the Wolf he captured. In the mid-season finale "Start to Finish", when Alexandria's walls are breached by a horde of walkers, Carol and Morgan take shelter in Morgan's house. She finds the captive Wolf, and threatens him with a knife, but Morgan intervenes and they fight, allowing the Wolf to escape.

In the mid-season premiere "No Way Out", the escaped Wolf is killed while saving Denise from walkers. When the Wolf reanimates, Morgan kills it and apologizes. In the episode "Not Tomorrow Yet", Morgan tries to talk the group out of attacking the Saviors, but Rick is determined to kill them all. With the strike force gone on their sneak attack, Morgan is seen back in Alexandria welding bars together to make a new detention cell. In the episode "Twice as Far", Morgan is seen reinforcing his jail cell, telling Rick it will give them options in the future. In the episode "East", after Carol goes missing, both Morgan and Rick set out to find her. They find an unknown man, whom Rick decides to shoot after the man asks for his horse, but Morgan stops him. The man is already gone by the time Morgan explains to Rick how everything is a cycle and by sparing the Wolf leader he kept in Alexandria, Denise was saved and was able to save Carl. The two then part ways with Rick giving Morgan a gun and telling him to come back once he finds Carol.

In the season finale "Last Day on Earth", Morgan continues to search for Carol. He finds the missing man's horse and is pleased to see he was telling the truth. Soon, he finds Carol, who has been shot twice by one of the Saviors. When the man moves to shoot Carol, Morgan kills him by repeatedly shooting him and then moves to help Carol when the man he and Rick encountered before returns with a friend. Morgan returns his horse and the men agree to help get Carol to safety.

Morgan first appears in the second episode of the season, "The Well" where it's revealed that the men he encountered at the end of last season brought him and Carol to a community known as The Kingdom. 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. While Carol dismisses Ezekiel's masquerade as a true medieval king as ridiculous, Morgan seems more open-minded. He begins to become more involved in the community, helping feed their pigs and dispatch walkers. Ezekiel, impressed by Morgan's skills with the staff, asks him to train Ben, a young survivor who is very important to him. Morgan is reluctant at first as he reasons the stick couldn't have saved Carol, but he eventually agrees.

While training Ben, Morgan allows Ben to borrow The Art of Peace a book Eastman gave him and states that he is struggling with his beliefs as he was forced to kill again to save Carol, but still continues to value life. Morgan is later present when Ezekiel and other members of the Kingdom give tribute to the Saviors with Ezekiel expressing his desire to fight and defeat the Saviors. The episode ends with Morgan escorting Carol to an abandoned house outside the Kingdom where they part on amicable terms before Morgan heads back. Morgan reappears in the mid-season finale "Hearts Still Beating", where Carol sees him leaving fruit by her door. She calls him inside and shows him Ezekiel has already brought plenty of fruit, before asking him how he is. When he responds that he's good, she then tells him to leave. The two are then approached by Ezekiel's adviser Richard, who asks for their help in convincing Ezekiel to launch a preemptive strike against the Saviors. Morgan refuses as he doesn't want to be the one to break the peace. When Carol reiterates that she just wants to be left alone, Morgan replies that she was never supposed to see him before leaving.

In "Rock in the Road", Morgan is reunited with Rick and the others when they are brought to the Kingdom by Jesus. He tells them that he found Carol, but she left a short time after being in the Kingdom. He later sits in on Rick's meeting with Ezekiel, where he asks the Kingdom to join their fight against the Saviors. Ezekiel asks Morgan for his opinion and Morgan admits that he believes war isn't the answer and suggests they find another way. This sways Ezekiel to turn down Rick and the group leave the Kingdom soon after (though Daryl stays behind in order to better hide from the Saviors). In "New Best Friends", Morgan is present at the next tribute to the Saviors when tensions escalate between Richard and Jared. When guns are drawn, Morgan and Ben use their staffs to stop Jared who then takes Morgan's staff. Despite this, he continues to disagree with Daryl who advocates war.

Morgan's moral conundrums come to a head in "Bury Me Here", when during a tribute, the Kingdom comes up short. To make an example of the Kingdom, Jared shoots Benjamin. They rush him to Carol's but Ben succumbs to his injuries and dies. Benjamin's death causes Morgan to become distraught and begin to lose his grip on reality (with flashbacks of King County flashing through his mind). When he realizes Richard engineered the situation, he confronts him. Richard claims it was supposed to be him, but that they can use Ben's death to rally the Kingdom. The next day, while compensating the Saviors, Morgan snaps and attacks Richard, stunning him with his staff before strangling him to death (shocking both sides). Morgan explains that Richard was behind Ben's death and is able to placate the Saviors. He then goes to see Carol and reveals what happened as well as telling her the truth about everyone the Saviors killed. He claims he's going to kill them all, one by one, but Carol convinces him to stay. The episode ends with Morgan sharpening his staff into a spear, symbolizing his abandonment of Eastmen's ideals in favor of violence.

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). Ezekiel convinces him to march with them to Alexandria. When they arrive, they join the Alexandrians in battle against the invading Saviors. During the battle, Morgan kills several Saviors (saving Rick at one point), making liberal use of both firearms and his spear. He is later seen sitting in silence, after the battle, where he is comforted by Carol (as both have been forced into killing again).

Morgan appears in the season premiere "Mercy" where he is part of Tara and Jesus's group of soldiers, assigned to attack several Savior compounds. "The Damned" shows the attack commencing with Morgan leading the attack, assuaging doubts by claiming "I don't die", a reference to his loved ones constantly dying while he survives. Morgan is shown to kill numerous Savior during the attack before encountering Jared, Benjamin's killer, again. He is about to kill him when Jesus stops him, stating they've surrendered. "Monsters" shows Morgan's group leading the captured Saviors back to Hilltop as prisoners. Jared continues to bait Morgan, but he refrains from taking action. When the prisoners attempt an escape, Morgan kills one of them, but is stopped by Jesus from killing the others. Their disagreement over killing leads Morgan to attack Jesus, leading to a heated fight. Despite seemingly being evenly matched, Jesus manages to disarm Morgan before returning his staff. Morgan claims "I know I'm not right. But that doesn't make me wrong" before leaving the group.

Its subsequently shown that Morgan chose to take up a post watching the Sanctuary instead of actively fighting in the war. In "Time for After," Morgan helps lay down covering fire for Daryl and Rosita's attack on the Sanctuary, helping them break through the walls with a garbage truck and allowing the herd inside. When Rick later arrives with the Scavengers, he finds the sentries dead, the Sanctuary clear of walkers and no sign of Morgan. In "How It's Gotta Be," Morgan is revealed to have survived the Saviors retaliation and makes his way back to the Kingdom in time to overhear Gavin threatening Ezekiel while the Kingdom is overrun with Saviors.

In a flashback in "Honor," Morgan witnesses the Saviors escape the Sanctuary and quickly flees. At the Kingdom, Morgan teams up with Carol to rescue Ezekiel and kill the Saviors who have taken over. Together, Morgan, Carol and a liberated Ezekiel kill the Saviors and reclaim the Kingdom. 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. Before Morgan can kill Gavin, Gavin is suddenly killed from behind by Benjamin's younger brother Henry to the three's shock. Subsequently, in "Dead or Alive Or," Morgan dodges questions from Henry about his brother's killer and contemplates telling him the truth. After finding out that Carl died helping a stranger, Morgan lies to Henry that Gavin was Benjamin's killer and as such, Henry already got his revenge.

During "Do Not Send Us Astray," Morgan is haunted by hallucinations of Gavin telling him that it should've been Morgan that killed him. 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. Afterwards, Morgan is saddened to learn that Henry is missing.

In "Still Gotta Mean Something," Morgan joins Carol in a search for Henry and continues hallucinating, this time of a dead Henry. Overwhelmed and having found a walker with Henry's fighting stick impaled through it, Morgan gives Henry up for dead and abandons Carol to continue the search on her own. Morgan tells Carol that "I don't die, I just see it" and feels that he can't save anyone he cares about. Instead, Morgan joins Rick's efforts to track down the escaped Savior prisoners which include Jared. The two men are captured by the Saviors, but Rick tries to convince the Saviors to release them as a herd of walkers are coming. When the herd arrives, Rick and Morgan are released and then turn on the Saviors, killing several of them. Morgan has a final confrontation with Jared, ending with Morgan trapping Jared and ensuring he is devoured by walkers, getting his revenge for the murder of Benjamin. Morgan and Rick discuss their first meeting and Morgan explains that his choice to save Rick at the time stemmed from the fact that his son was with him. Upon returning to the Hilltop, Morgan is shocked but relieved to find that Carol found and rescued Henry. Morgan informs Henry that he got revenge upon Benjamin's killer, but Henry just apologizes after seeing Morgan's state.

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. Morgan continues his aggressive stance towards the Saviors, slaughtering a group that the Militia ambushes while Jesus tries to console Morgan to take a less violent stance, using the blunt end of his stick for the living and the pointed end for the dead. During the final battle with the Saviors, Morgan nearly kills a subdued Savior, but instead decides to take Jesus' advice at the last moment and knocks out the man. 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. Morgan extends an offer from Rick for Jadis, the former leader of the Scavengers, to join Alexandria so that she doesn't have to be alone. Jadis, revealing her real name to be Anne, accepts his offer while Morgan stays by himself in the Junkyard that had acted as the home to the Scavengers.

Shortly after the war with the Saviors, Morgan is visited in the Junkyard by Jesus, Carol, and Rick who all separately attempt to get Morgan to return with them. Rick warns Morgan that no matter how far he runs, he will eventually find himself with people again. Subsequently, Morgan leaves the Junkyard and begins working his way west, ending up in Texas where he meets John Dorie. 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. At first, Morgan attempts to stay out of the affairs of his new friends, aside from attempting to convince Nick to let go of his path of vengeance which ends in Nick's death. 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. To save John's life after he gets shot, Morgan, Al, June, who is the woman John knew as Laura and a young girl named Charlie return to the Dell Diamond baseball stadium where Alicia's group had formed a community before it was destroyed by the Vultures. Morgan helps get the needed medical supplies and uses his own experiences to talk Alicia out of getting revenge on June and Charlie.

At the beginning of the second half of the season, Morgan decides to return to Alexandria to tell Rick that he was right: Morgan did find his way back to people after all. 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. However, a powerful hurricane hits, separating the group. While taking refuge in a semi-truck during the storm, Morgan is accidentally transported to Mississippi where he makes three new friends in Jim, Sarah and Wendell. 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. Having watched Al's video tapes, Martha sees Morgan's statement that "I lose people and then I lose myself" and sets out to make Morgan strong by killing his friends.

Morgan finds himself the leader of the group as they become cornered in a hospital and Jim is bitten. Blaming himself for their situation, Morgan attempts to sacrifice himself to allow his friends to escape, but they come back and rescue Morgan while Jim sacrifices himself so that they can all get away. Morgan decides to lead his new group to Alexandria, but attempts to help Martha first who has poisoned the others with antifreeze. Unable to help his friends, Morgan once again almost loses himself, but regains control and makes an arduous journey to save the others. Morgan succeeds in reaching the others in time and countering the antifreeze poisoning through the ethanol in beer from Jim's brewery. Upon returning to help Martha, she is discovered to have succumbed to a massive infection from an earlier untreated gunshot wound and Morgan puts her down and buries Martha.

Inspired by his conflict with Martha, a woman driven to insanity because no one would help, Morgan chooses not to return to Alexandria. Instead, Morgan decides to take over a denim factory and use it and the resources Polar Bear left behind to help other survivors in need. The rest of the group chooses to join in with Morgan's efforts instead of going their separate ways or to Alexandria.

In "Here to Help," Morgan leads most of his friends to help a survivor named Logan. In the months since they began their efforts, the group has not had any success as everyone is either dead, missing or don't want to be found. Morgan, Alicia, Al, John, June and Luciana get into a plane crash that leaves Luciana severely injured, forcing the others to fight off a herd of walkers as June frees Luciana. With the help of a group of kids, they manage to escape, but encounter high radiation signs and a strange walker blockade. At the nearby truck stop belonging to Polar Bear, Morgan makes contact with Logan, only to learn that he is Polar Bear's former partner who tricked them so that he could take over the factory.

In "The Hurt That Will Happen," Morgan's group searches for Al who disappeared while examining a strange walker at the plane crash site. After encountering another roadblock warning of high radiation, Morgan dispatches two walkers, falling into a trap belonging to a woman named Grace. Once the situation is defused, Grace explains that the walker Morgan had struggled with is radioactive due to a reactor meltdown at a nearby power plant. Morgan is forced to undergo decontamination and to permanently discard his fighting stick as it has become contaminated beyond cleaning. Grace is revealed to be the leader of a group of survivors that used the plant as their base until the meltdown killed the rest and turned their reanimated corpses radioactive. Morgan and Alicia help Grace check the crash site and fortunately determine that none of the walkers they had previously fought were contaminated, but they face another herd with a radioactive walker. Morgan helps Grace deal with the walker while Alicia takes care of the rest of the herd. Morgan later talks with Alicia about her growing recklessness and they are called to a campground where John and June have found the remains of more of the radioactive walkers and the reanimated residents who contracted radiation sickness after burning the bodies. Though Morgan offers their help to deal with the rest, Grace refuses and reveals that she has terminal radiation sickness. Morgan and Grace promise to keep in touch and Grace asks for Morgan to let her know if they encounter anymore of her friends so that she can safely put them down. In the finale, he is shot by Virginia. He manages to record a final message to his group, telling them to move on and do good. He passes out as walkers approach him, leaving his fate unknown.

Several weeks after being shot by Virginia, Morgan has managed to escape the Pioneers' grasp, but is in bad health from his gunshot wound that has become infected and gangrenous. It's revealed that Morgan was rescued by an unknown person who had killed the walkers that were about to eat him, stitched Morgan up and left him a note stating that he still had a greater purpose to live for. Virginia hires a bounty hunter, Emile, to find and kill Morgan. While scavenging for supplies, Morgan meets Isaac, who helps him hide from Emile. Isaac takes Morgan to a hidden valley where his pregnant wife, Rachel, is located. Emile finds Morgan, but Isaac rescues him and reveals that he was previously bitten prior to meeting him. Morgan kills Emile and steals his clothes, axe, and a key he was carrying with him. The next day, Morgan awakens to find the bullet extracted and that Isaac died from his infection, but not before Rachel gave birth to a girl, named Morgan. Morgan leaves the head of the bounty hunter for Virginia to find, leaving her stunned. Morgan tells Virginia over the radio, "Morgan Jones is dead. You're dealing with somebody else now."

Morgan subsequently dedicates himself to building a new community in the valley and adopts a willingness to be more violent, combining his staff and Emile's axe into one weapon. Morgan kills two men searching for the key that he took from Emile and begins rounding up his friends and other survivors while actively hunting Virginia and her Pioneers. After saving Alicia and Virginia's teenage sister Dakota, Morgan agrees to allow them both to join him, although Strand refuses and Alicia is shocked by Morgan's more violent methods. Morgan is later reunited with John Dorie near his cabin while on the run from a herd with Dakota and tries to convince the depressed John not to hide himself away from the world again. John is murdered by Dakota who discovers that Dakota was actually the killer of a man that his friend Janis was framed and executed for killing. Confronted by Morgan, Dakota reveals that she was actually the one who had saved Morgan's life after he was shot as she believes that only Morgan can kill Virginia whom Dakota hates.

Virginia threatens the life of Grace, whom Morgan has been unable to find, in order to draw him out of hiding, but Morgan reveals Dakota's murder of one of Virginia's Rangers and Virginia's coverup of it. Led by Strand, most of the Rangers turn against Virginia, but she sends Grace and Daniel away with her still-loyal second-in-command Hill, forcing Morgan to save Virginia in order to find Grace and Daniel. On the run with Virginia, Morgan reveals that Dakota had saved him and to his shock, Virginia explains that Dakota is actually her daughter, not her sister, a fact that Virginia has concealed from Dakota for her whole life. Chased by the Pioneers and the Outcasts led by Dwight's wife Sherry, Morgan takes an amazed Virginia to the community that he has built where she reveals the truth to Dakota and offers to face punishment for her crime if Morgan is the one to execute her, knowing that Morgan will make her death quick unlike her other enemies. At the last possible second, Morgan chooses not to go through with the execution after remembering the other people that he's killed. Instead, Morgan convinces everybody to let Virginia live with her actions and invites anyone who is willing to follow the rules to join his new community. 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. Morgan banishes Virginia and Dakota from his community, but a vengeful June executes Virginia with John's gun, believing that Virginia is responsible for her husband's murder as Virginia had covered up for Dakota even after knowing what she was capable of.

In "Rememeber 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 Clark. However, seven years later, an imprisoned Madison discovers that Mo has been returned to the island and is now known as "Wren." Escaping from PADRE with Mo, Madison encounters Morgan who has willingly given up Mo to PADRE, feeling that she is safer with them. For Mo's own protection, Morgan attempts to distance himself from her and clashes with Madison about his actions. Morgan has become a Collector for PADRE, taking children for them like Madison did, but he privately admits to Madison that, rather than just kidnapping kids, Morgan only takes kids who have no family or whose parents willingly give them up in the hopes of a better life. Morgan leads the group to an abandoned houseboat in a walker-infested swamp where Morgan had briefly lived with Mo. On the walls, Mo finds the names of Morgan's lost wife and son, Jenny and Duane, and King County, Georgia where Morgan had first met Rick Grimes and lost his family. Under attack by a herd, Morgan finally admits that he gave Mo up following a similar attack seven years ago, convinced that he couldn't keep her safe. Grace rescues the group, but Morgan and Grace turn their daughter back over to PADRE despite her pleas to remain with them, convinced that she is safer on the island while Madison allows herself to be taken back into custody rather than trying to flee. Fearing that Morgan will eventually choose Mo over PADRE, he is fired as a Collector.

In "Blue Jay," Morgan admits that his guilt over not doing something in the past is impacting Morgan's ability to be the father that Mo needs in the present. Madison helps Morgan to escape, ordering him to fix whatever it is so that he can be the father that Mo needs.

In "Odessa," Mo helps Madison and June to escape from PADRE, but Madison tells Mo that Morgan can't help them until he sorts out his personal mission. After joining Daniel's resistance group, Madison suggests that Morgan is the leader that the group needs.

In "King County," Morgan returns to King County, which has been partially reclaimed by nature and overrun by small herds of walkers in the decade since Morgan abandoned it. Morgan is soon joined by Grace and Mo, the latter of whom had deduced Morgan's destination from the writing on his houseboat walls and secretly arranged for Grace to join him with Mo stowing away without Grace's knowledge. Morgan finally reveals that his mission is to lay his son Duane to rest: after Duane was killed by Morgan's zombified wife Jenny, Morgan shot Jenny and ran away, leaving Duane to turn in the house where he had died. Morgan is consumed by guilt over his inability to properly lay his family to rest and the belief that he had failed them. However, PADRE forces led by Dwight and Sherry arrive, hunting for Morgan with Morgan's two old friends only reluctantly helping due to PADRE threatening their son Finch. Morgan continually refuses to abandon his mission, but at the same time, he struggles to actually face his lost family. Taking refuge in the house where Morgan had lived with Duane, the three find some of Morgan's writings from his period of insanity as well as the gun that Rick Grimes had left for Morgan to put down Jenny when they had first parted ways. With the encouragement of his family, Morgan takes up the old rifle to fight for his family. Captured by PADRE's forces, Morgan is taken to the house where her had lost Duane, only to find Jenny's body and no sign of his son. A devastated Morgan concludes that Duane must've gotten out years before and he has lost the chance to lay him to rest. Although Morgan resigns himself to execution, Dwight and Sherry kill the two PADRE guards with him, unwilling to allow Morgan to be killed and help Finch to escape from the island. Left alone, Grace reveals that she is now terminally ill from the radiation that she had absorbed before they met and the two promise to make the most of the time that they have left together. Returning to the house where he had lived, which is now on fire, Morgan fights through hallucinations of the walkers appearing as Jenny to rescue Mo. In the attic of the house, Morgan and Mo find a zombified Duane and a message reading "DUANE YOU STAY THERE," causing Morgan to realize that he'd moved Duane to the house and blocked out the memory of it. With Mo's life in danger, Morgan finally shoots his son with the gun that Rick had left for him, and he buries Jenny and Duane outside. However, Morgan and his new family's happiness is shattered when Grace is bitten by a surviving walker. Joining with Dwight, Sherry and Finch, they quickly begin racing Grace to June in a desperate attempt to save her life.

In "More Time Than You Know," Shrike contacts Morgan and offers to help him save Grace if he helps her to clear out a shipyard full of thousands of walkers. While Morgan initially takes the deal, he backs out after it's revealed that the job has to be done by hand. Already dying of terminal cancer from her radiation exposure, Grace begs her family to accept the inevitable and just enjoy the time that she has left together. After the treatment is revealed to have ultimately failed on Finch, Morgan finally agrees, but once he's gone to clear out a safe location for them, Mo impulsively continues on her own. However, the treatment fails on Grace and Morgan is unable to reach the train car in time, saying an emotional goodbye to the woman that he loves over the radio instead. When Mo can't bring herself to stab Grace in the head after she dies, Grace reanimates and attacks her daughter, but Morgan arrives in time to protect Mo and put Grace down. Not wanting to feel that kind of pain again, Mo agrees to help Shrike clear the shipyard despite Morgan's warnings that it's a suicide mission. Shrike returns Morgan's old battle axe to him, but locks Morgan in the train car surrounded by a herd when he persists in going after Mo.

In "All I See is Red," by the time that Madison reaches Morgan to help him, Morgan has somehow managed to get out of the train car and single-handedly slaughtered all of the walkers outside. The death of Grace and the loss of Mo causes Morgan to begin slipping back in and out of his periods of insanity, becoming consumed by red-tinged traumatic visions of those that he's lost and attacking everything and everyone around him with no control of himself or memory of his actions afterwards. Reclaiming his old battle axe, Morgan leads Madison, Daniel and his forces into the swamps where Mo, after becoming overwhelmed by the walkers at the shipyard, has led the herd. Shrike orders Mo to find her zombified father Krennick amongst the herd as he holds the coordinates that PADRE needs to begin their expansion. After getting separated from the others and attacking Mo in one of his states, Morgan becomes trapped with her in his old houseboat, surrounded by walkers and reveals that seven years before, he'd lost control when walkers swarmed them, leading to Morgan giving his daughter up as he believed that he couldn't break the cycle. Morgan helps Mo to escape before Madison rescues him and tells Morgan that you never really lose people, that they always remain a part of you. Morgan's acceptance of this finally allows him to break the cycle that he's been stuck in since the loss of his family. After putting down Krennick who bites his daughter, Morgan agrees to let Mo go if she wants to, but she decides to stay with her father and Morgan, Madison and Daniel successfully talk Ben and the Prefects down. June subsequently banishes Ben from PADRE after allowing him to euthanize Shrike.

Convinced that his friends are in good hands with Madison, Morgan decides to return to Alexandria and the friends that he had left behind there and to stop running from his past. After a final goodbye with Madison, Morgan returns to Eastman's cabin with Mo where he buries Grace by his old friend and talks to Eastman's grave about how much he's learned since losing him. 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 during their very first parting.