Prior to Season 8 of AMC’s The Walking Dead, we look at the show’s characters and their moral codes, starting with the protagonist: Rick Grimes.
.
.
Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:00
[I’m keeping this group together alive.]
00:02
The post-apocalyptic world of The
00:05
Walking Dead acts like a psychological experiment. If we strip away our normal
00:10
social conventions, what is human nature? Over the seasons it becomes glaringly
00:15
clear that the real danger to the characters isn’t the walkers, but other
00:19
human beings. And while everyone can agree on killing walkers it’s their
00:23
attitudes on killing humans that really differ. In this treacherous world each
00:28
character and group must have a moral code to get through what they experience.
00:32
[I had a code. It was simple. Stupid. But it was something.]
00:41
So in this ScreenPrism series on The Walking Dead
00:43
we are going to look at various characters or groups and ask what their
00:48
moral codes, values, and attitudes to violence tell us about who they are deep
00:53
down. We’ll start with the show’s main character Rick Grimes, leader of the
00:57
Atlanta survivors group, which is also known simply as the survivors.
01:02
[We stick together.]
01:03
As we track his evolution from
01:06
principled sheriff’s deputy to unapologetic killer, there is still
01:10
something crucial and consistent that defines his morality.
01:14
[Rick Grimes saved my
01:15
life over and over. There’s terrifying people out there and
01:21
he rescued me from them. People like us need people like him.]
01:31
The key to Rick’s motivation is his vision of a moral future. And he’ll do
01:35
whatever it takes to ensure that his group lives to see it.
01:38
[But these people…
01:40
these people are my family. But if what you’re hiding until now hurts them in any
01:50
way I’ll kill you.]
01:54
[Make me understand.]
01:55
[I owe a debt to a man I met and his
01:59
little boy. Lauri, if they hadn’t taken me in I’d have died.]
02:04
In early seasons of the show Rick holds on to his identity as a
02:07
sheriff’s deputy, acting as a defender of the old order of justice. Rick is newer
02:13
to the apocalypse than the rest of his group, since he was in a coma when it
02:16
occurred. So it’s ironic that he becomes the group’s leader. It’s as if his
02:20
abilities in the old world of law and order still matter most. And the group
02:25
wants to incorporate these values into their future. Rick is still fighting
02:29
crime just on a greater scale. He’s defending humanity, and maybe because of
02:34
his background in law enforcement he has a harder time than other characters
02:38
accepting that the rules of morality have changed.
02:41
[Your friends drew on us. They gave us no choice. I’m
02:46
sure we’ve all lost enough people. Dumb things we we wish we didn’t have to
02:52
but it’s like that now, you know that!]
02:54
Rick is his group’s and the show’s moral
02:57
compass. He’s so pure that he feels sympathy even for walkers
03:03
and will risk his life for people he barely knows. He has a strong sense of
03:07
right and wrong, almost to a fault. His upstanding way of doing things
03:11
actually puts others in jeopardy, which might remind us of one of our
03:15
other favorite heroic TV characters. Rick insists on returning to Atlanta to
03:20
rescue Merle Dixon after leaving him handcuffed on a roof.
03:22
[You’re putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that Rick.]
03:25
looks for Sofia even though this
03:27
makes the group vulnerable to walkers
03:29
[Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple.]
03:33
And and saves Randall, a total stranger.
03:35
[We couldn’t just leave him behind. He
03:38
would have bled out, if he lived that long.]
03:40
The problem is that Rick wants to
03:42
protect everyone, and in the world of the show, one person’s safety usually comes at
03:46
the expense of someone else’s.
03:48
[Shane says my good intentions are making us weaker.
03:51
But I can’t make the hard decisions for the good of the group.]
03:54
[They’re are all hard decisions.]
03:56
[Maybe I’m holding on to a way of
03:57
thinking that doesn’t make sense anymore.]
03:59
Eventually Rick has to face that obeying
04:01
the old laws isn’t always the same as doing the right thing in this complex
04:05
new world. It may be noble to refuse to compromise his values even in times of
04:10
crisis.
04:11
[I’m going back.]
04:13
But it’s also not smart if doing so means certain death
04:16
for people who depend on him.
04:18
[If something happened I have to go.]
04:20
[No. Your place is here.]
04:21
Rick has to bend his rules for the group to have a future at
04:25
all. The old sheriff’s uniform he still wears in seasons one and two is a visual
04:30
reminder of Rick’s moral righteousness. When he puts it away this symbolizes his
04:34
acceptance that the moral code it represents just doesn’t make sense
04:38
anymore. And he begins building a new code from
04:41
the ground up. Still he’s determined to preserve his son Carl’s innocence,
04:45
refusing to execute Randall when he realizes Carl is watching, and giving
04:49
Carl his sheriff’s hat in hopes of passing on the values he holds so dear
04:53
to the next generation.
04:55
[Won’t you miss it?]
04:57
[Maybe you’ll let me borrow it from time to time.]
05:08
Rick’s character arc focuses on his
05:10
coming to terms with the dark side of human nature, acknowledging that people
05:14
are inclined towards violence as much as they are towards compassion.
05:18
[Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we are the Walking Dead.]
05:33
The walkers start
05:34
as a physical threat but evolve into a moral one, both because they embody what
05:38
people made evolved into and because they push people to act in violent,
05:42
defensive ways that make them feel less than human. Rick is devastated by the
05:46
revelation that the Walker gene is a part of all human beings. He seems to
05:50
connect this to his own capacity to kill.
05:53
[Whatever it is we all carry it.]
05:59
Although human beings have both good and bad in them, if they all come back as
06:03
walkers due to this disease of darkness it suggests that people’s essence boils
06:08
down to the very worst most animal versions of themselves. So many groups on
06:13
the show prove this idea to be true but Rick wants to prove it wrong by
06:17
rebuilding a moral society. Yet Rick does have to accept violence to stay our hero.
06:22
Throughout the show we see that violence is necessary for the group’s survival.
06:27
To refuse to take part is actually cowardly, because it just passes the baton putting
06:32
the burden of being violent on others. Rick comes to understand that killing
06:36
can be the courageous and right thing to do. A huge turning point comes when he
06:40
kills his best friend Shane. The act proves he’s willing to sacrifice people
06:44
he cares about if they jeopardize the group at large.
06:47
[You saw what he was like; how he pushed me; how he compromised us; how threatened us.]
06:56
The group is more important than individual relationships because its
07:01
size is protective, and one loose cannon puts everyone in danger. Still whereas
07:06
other characters easily adapt to violence, for Rick the act of killing is
07:10
emotional — it hurts him bringing out guilt and remorse that speak to how
07:15
durable his old inner morality still is.
07:28
The intensity of his reaction to killing is directly tied to his feelings about
07:32
the person he kills. Just think of how he sobs when he kills Shane and is almost
07:36
bursting with rage in later killings. When he kills people who don’t mean
07:39
anything to him or who pose a less urgent threat, like Pete, he’s much colder.
07:45
Rick kills at least one person in every season of the show except the first. And
07:50
over time he becomes less and less apologetic for violent actions. This
07:54
comes to a head in season 4 when the claimers Joe and Dan threatened to rape
07:58
Carl and Michonne. And Rick rips out Joe’s jugular with his bare teeth.
08:02
Rick’s viciousness in the scene testifies to the intensity of his love.
08:07
His primal ferocity still comes from that emotional place and demonstrates
08:12
how in the post-apocalyptic world love and protectiveness can take a violent
08:16
form. The brutality he shows in killing Gareth and the other cannibals in season
08:21
5 also comes after they threatened the people he loves most.
08:24
[Look you’re behind
08:25
one of these two doors and we have more than enough firepower to take down both.]
08:28
Murder becomes life-giving — the only way to rescue people and keep them alive. But
08:34
Rick’s acceptance of violence reveals a fundamental change in his moral code. He
08:39
no longer believes that most human beings are innately good. It’s ironic
08:43
that he’s become so much like the realistic disillusioned Shane he used to
08:46
clash with. When he lectures the Alexandrians who live in a totally
08:50
insular community, he might as well be talking to his former self.
08:54
[Your way’s gonna destroy this place. It’s going to get people killed. it already gotten people
09:01
killed, and I’m not gonna stand by and just let it happen.
09:06
If you don’t fight you die.]
09:09
And unlike in the first few seasons, Rick now distrusts
09:12
anyone who’s not a part of his group.
09:14
[You’re my brother.]
09:18
Each group on The Walking Dead is defined by what they live for.
09:22
And Rick lives for his people.
09:24
[I’ve killed people. I don’t even know how many, but I know why they’re all
09:34
dead. They’re dead so my family — all those
09:39
people out there — can be alive. So I could be alive for them.]
09:45
[Sounds like I want to be part of your family.]
09:49
In the early seasons, his wife Laurie and Karl come
09:52
before everyone else. But as the show goes on, we see that the group has taken
09:57
the place of the nuclear family unit. Many of the group members have lost
10:00
spouses and children, making the other survivors the only family they have.
10:05
[These are families.These are family too.]
10:09
Strong relationships are key to getting through
10:11
tough times, and Rick has made himself the patriarch of this new family.
10:16
[He’s a man with a good heart, who feels the things he does, things he has to do. And
10:22
all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other
10:27
we’re family now. Rick started that.]
10:30
There’s a deeper symbolism in the fact
10:33
that many when talking about the show refer to Rick’s group as simply the survivors,
10:37
even though other groups are technically surviving too. Everything Rick’s group
10:42
does is shaped by the need to survive. But this group is also fighting to be
10:47
spiritual human survivors, not just to continue living as something less than
10:51
human. In this environment where the future of humanity is in doubt Rick’s
10:56
adaptation of the family unit is revolutionary. Because while other groups
11:00
give in to infighting and destruction, Rick’s survivors are trying to rebuild
11:05
society on a foundation of love; to grow a community of human beings who value
11:10
each other. Rick’s friendships are the reason he
11:13
believes in that future at all. The group is the future.
11:24
Rick’s moral code is also what makes villainous groups like the Saviors so
11:28
eager to break him. When Negan commands Rick to cut off Karl’s arm — saying that
11:33
otherwise he’ll massacre the entire group — Rick’s shell-shocked expression
11:37
shows us that hurting the people he loves is the most unnatural thing in the
11:41
world to him. And this look is exactly what Negan’s been after.
11:49
[That is the look I wanted to see.]
11:54
In Negan’s mind it’s proof that the strong relationships of
11:57
the survivors are no match for true sadism. So it’s as if Rick’s moral code
12:02
has failed.
12:03
[Sucks, don’t it? The moment you realize you don’t know shit.]
12:09
Negan’s barbaric self-serving polygamist vision of the future is the polar opposite of
12:13
Rick’s, like a shadow future he has to define and clarify his vision against.
12:18
Initially Rick makes himself accept Negan’s rules to keep the group alive so
12:23
there’s still hope for the future he imagines for his children.
12:26
[I’ll die before she does, and I hope that’s a long time from now so
12:30
I can raise her and protect her and
12:34
teach her how to survive. This is how we live now. I had to accept that too so I could keep
12:42
everyone else alive.]
12:43
In a surprising way Rick has come to embody the idea that
12:46
the ends justify the means. He can put up with almost anything and break any rule
12:51
that needs to be broken if this keeps his family alive so that the loving
12:55
moral future he believes in might one day come to pass. But when Negan’s
13:00
unpredictable ways make him too much of a danger to the group
13:03
Rick acknowledges the need to strike back.
13:05
Because if they bend too far and don’t fight the evils that seek to dominate
13:08
them, that better future will likely never be possible.
13:12
[We’re the ones who live. That’s why we have to fight.
13:20
Not for us, but for Judith, for Carl, for Alexandria, for the hilltop, for all
13:30
of us. We can fight them Rick. We can find a way to beat them. We can do this.]
13:41
[Yeah I know that now.]
13:44
Rick needs his belief in a new day to come — it’s what separates him from other
13:48
groups. If we have no higher purpose than not dying
13:51
the result is total immorality and mindlessness, which is why some of the
13:55
groups we meet aren’t meaningfully different from the walkers.
13:59
Rick may no longer be the rigid unshakeable leader we met in season one
14:03
but this actually makes him more human. And in the world of The Walking Dead
14:07
humanity is heroic. Ultimately the walkers symbolize the danger of
14:11
dehumanization. They look like people but they’re missing what makes us more. Rick
14:16
leads his group — and the show overall — in finding a middle ground between
14:20
humanity and violence, between morality and survivalism, between the means and
14:25
the end. Even if his moral code has evolved he retains his core values of
14:30
love and loyalty. And it’s because of his code that he hasn’t been inwardly
14:34
destroyed by his killings. Rick’s belief in the future is really a
14:37
belief in the underlying goodness of humanity, and the sacred importance of
14:41
preserving that goodness at all costs. And this faith that deep down we’re good,
14:46
instead of just waiting to become walkers, is what’s needed for humanity
14:50
to have any chance of persevering through darkness. Rick’s hope for that
14:54
happy safe future makes him not just a moral leader, but a visionary.
14:58
[I can sacrifice one of us for the greater good, because we are the greater good.]
—
This post was previously published on Youtube.
—
***
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls on a regular basis, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
Talk to you soon.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video
.