‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Stars Tease What’s Next In Virginia’s War

Spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 1 “The End Is The Beginning” past this point.

Sorry, Virginia (Colby Minifie), the old Morgan Jones (Lennie James) can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because he’d dead.

After being hunted and hounded by Ginny’s bounty hunter Emile (Demetrius Grosse), putting a new friend Isaac (Michael Abbott Jr.) to rest, and helping take care of a new Baby Morgan (shades of The Mandalorian, anyone?), the man with the killer staff has a new lease on life, and has shed his red, bloodshot eyes. However, he’s not the same man he was before, as made clear when he sends Virginia a head in a box, and a message.

“What I think is interesting to note is that Morgan says, in that scene, ‘Morgan Jones is dead. You’re dealing with someone else now.'” Minifie told Decider about Virginia’s reaction to that grim ending. “And I think that scares the living shit out of Virginia, because she knows how to handle Morgan at the stage that she knew him as, which was a pacifist.”

His pacifism has been one of Morgan’s defining traits — or at least one of the things he’s wrestled with — since his introduction way back at the beginning of The Walking Dead. He ultimately found peace and a new sense of purpose in the classic TWD Season 6 episode “Here’s Not Here,” but thanks to a deadly gunshot wound via Virginia, he spent most of this week’s premiere stumbling around feverishly before once gain picking up his staff and fighting for something he believed in.

Now, Morgan 2.0 has a mission, and he’s coming straight for Ginny.

“She knew how to push his buttons, and how to get what she wanted out of him,” Minifie continued. “Now… She has no idea what she’s dealing with. She’s like, ‘What has he become?’ I think you’ll see a different side of both of them. I think that’s all I can say.”

Though this week’s episode only featured Morgan, upcoming hours will focus on other members of the main cast, from Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Strand (Colman Domingo) in week two, to the rest of the cast as the season continues. Though they’ll all be dealing with their own issues as part of Ginny’s Pioneer society, it’s only a matter of time before people are forced to choose sides.

“There’s something about the whole ethos of the show in the past two seasons,” Domingo told us when asked about Morgan’s change  of POV at the end of the premiere. “Which was: looking on the bright side, looking on the positive side. That’s the key to our survival. I think that everyone is exploring going to their darker side a little bit. That’s also part of survival as well. Sometimes you’ve got to burn it down. I think it’s always a commentary on society as a whole. You want to be your best self; but sometimes you feel like, ‘I need to burn this shit down.'”

Morgan is certainly headed towards a conflict, but it’s an open question on who will be burning shit down: Morgan? Or Virginia?

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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