Clear

Clear is the twelfth episode of Season 3 of The Walking Dead and the fourth episode of the second half of the season. It aired March 3, 2013 at 9/8c on AMC.

Plot Synopsis
Michonne, Rick, and Carl drive down a deserted road, speeding past a lone hitchhiker who begs them to stop.

They approach a pileup of wrecked cars. Michonne maneuvers onto the shoulder and the car gets stuck in mud. As Rick tries to free the wheel, Carl privately expresses reservations about Michonne. "For right now, we have the same problems, so maybe we can work on them together," Rick reasons.

They free the car just as the hitchhiker catches up to them. Ignoring the stranger's pleas, Rick orders Michonne to drive on.

Later, they enter Rick's old police station and find the weapons locker completely emptied out. Rick suggests they visit nearby bars and liquor stores, whose owners kept guns under the counters.

They reach a street filled with booby traps and watch as a walker tangles itself in wire. A masked man shoots the walker from a nearby rooftop then orders Rick and the others to drop their guns. Rick returns fire and a shootout ensues. As the man approaches Rick on the street, Carl pops out of a storefront and shoots him. The man, wearing body armor, falls unconscious: It's Morgan.

Rick and Michonne carry Morgan into his apartment and lay him down on a cot. The room is fully stocked with weapons presumably collected from the police station and surrounding areas. Michonne and Carl begin packing up the guns as Rick searches the room. He starts to read writings scrawled all over the wall. Rick then finds a walkie talkie, and remembers that it was the same walkie-talkie that he had given Morgan to contact him every morning at dawn. This brings him back to his intentions during that time, to find his wife and son. Rick gets reminded of Lori, and looks down in pain. When he lifts his head back up, he finds a more significant writing on the wall: "DUANE TURNED". It is then that Rick refuses to leave until Morgan wakes up.

In an adjacent room, Carl studies a hand-drawn map of the town. Morgan has scrawled the words "Burnt out" over Rick's house. Carl declares that he's going to fetch a crib from a nearby baby store. Rick allows him to go on the condition that Michonne accompanies him.

Outside, Carl tries to ditch Michonne. She chases him down and notes that he passed the baby store. "I'm getting Judith something else first," he declares.

Rick finds the gun that he had given Morgan, a rifle Morgan used to take out walkers from upstairs of his home. "I'm sorry for what you've been through," Rick says to him. Then Morgan wakes up and quietly pulls a knife stashed underneath the cot. Rick hears a bullet casing fall, and realizes that Morgan is awake. Morgan lunges at Rick and Rick defends himself by whiping Morgan with the butt of his rifle. The two struggle, as Morgan pins Rick down. "You saved my life, Morgan, you know me!" Rick screams. "I don't know anyone anymore!" Morgan says, stabbing Rick in the shoulder. Rick throws Morgan off and points his gun at Morgan, who begs for him to shoot him.

Outside, a walker impales itself on Morgan's wooden stakes as it tries to get a caged rat.

Rick jogs Morgan's memory recalling the walkie-talkies they used to try to communicate with each other. Morgan says he tried to reach Rick, but Rick was never there.

"We kept getting pushed back deeper into the country," Rick explains. "I swear to God I didn't have a choice." Morgan recalls how Rick gave him the rifle for him to kill his undead wife. However, he was unable to kill his wife because he was too "weak." Later, Morgan ordered Duane to stay put as he searches a cell. When he comes back, he sees Jenny, his own wife, in the doorway. She's confronted by Duane, but he's unable to kill her, similar to Morgan. Morgan calls for Duane, and he snaps his attention to his father as Jenny comes down on him. It is then Morgan decides to finally put down his wife, but it was too late. Duane was bit and succumbed to his injuries.

"The weak people," he laments, "we have inherited the earth."

Meanwhile, Carl tries to enter a cafe but Michonne holds him back. "You can't stop me," he says. "I can't stop you," she agrees, "but you can't stop me from helping you."

Michonne and Carl roll Morgan's rat cages through the cafe's front door to draw walkers away. They sneak inside and Carl removes a framed photo from the wall. A walker grabs Carl but Michonne kills it, proving to Carl that Michonne is a valuable and useful person to the group. As Michonne and Carl make their escape, a rat suddenly appears in front of them, bringing a herd of walkers with it. They're soon surrounded by walkers, however, and the two go the other way around, shooting and slicing walkers along the way. As Carl flips a table, he accidently drops the photo as they make it outside.

Distraught, Carl insists on going back inside, even though all the walkers inside are banging on the door. Michonne orders him to stay put and heads around the back. Within minutes, she retrieves the photo by herself: It's a picture of Rick, Lori and Carl. "I just thought Judith should know what her mom looked like," Carl says, thanking Michonne. However, Michonne also took a cat statue, saying "It's just too damn gorgeous."

Rick urges Morgan to join them at the prison. Morgan refuses, stating that the reason Rick needs all the guns must be because it's not safe at the prison and that he doesn't want to watch everyone die. "You will be torn apart by teeth or bullets," Morgan warns, telling Rick to take the guns.

Michonne and Carl return with the crib. Carl apologizes to Morgan for shooting him. Morgan tells Carl to ,"Never be sorry".

Rick privately asks Carl how things fared with Michonne. "I think she might be one of us," Carl says.

As Michonne loads the trunk with guns and ammo, she tells Rick that she knows he sees dead people. "I used to talk to my dead boyfriend," she confides, "It happens."

As they drive back to the prison, they pass Morgan one last time, burning the bodies of walkers. They eventually come across the torn apart corpse of the hitchhiker, they pull over to pick up his backpack, then continue on.

Co-Stars

 * Russ Comegys as Hitchhiker.

Special Guest Star
 * Lennie James as Morgan Jones.

Uncredited

 * Triston Johnson as Walker.

Deaths

 * Erin (Zombified)
 * Hitchhiker
 * Duane Jones (Mentioned)
 * Jenny Jones (Zombified & Mentioned)

Trivia

 * Morgan Jones reappears in this episode after being absent for more than two seasons.
 * Towards the end of the episode, Michonne is seen carrying a crossbow from Morgan's apartment because Rick took it for Daryl.
 * This is the first episode Woodbury has not appeared in since it was introduced.
 * Beth is the only character from Rick's group not credited in this episode.
 * This is the third episode that a majority of the cast does not appear, the first being "18 Miles Out" and the second being "Walk with Me".
 * This episode also features the fewest number of actors thus far.
 * The name of the episode refers to when Morgan says he has to stay behind so he can "clear". He is referring to clearing his neighborhood from signs of the apocalypse. Morgan has been alone since his son's death, and with all his grief, he's been "clearing" his neighborood back to normal after everything changed around him, as he didn't move around like Rick.
 * "Clear" also refers to Rick beginning to clear his head after Lori's death and he begins to come back to his senses. Rick sees Morgan and realizes that what Morgan has become isn't far from what Rick would have became if he continues on his path.
 * The picture Carl wanted to get from the restaraunt was seen in The Walking Dead Webisodes: Cold Storage.
 * The song that played in the closing scenes of the episode is called "Lead Me Home" by Jamie N. Commons.
 * Rick says "I'm sorry this happened to you" to a seemingly-unconscious Morgan. Rick also said this same line in the series pilot when he sympathizes for Hannah before killing her. It was likely a reference to the pilot since both episodes featured Morgan.