Morgan did not know the gate was not locked by Eastman until Eastman told him. Before that, he did not bother to check the lock but rather, he went for the window bars with a zipper. He just did not trust Eastman as it is shown that he tried to kill him after he got out.

As for Eastman, I do not think his not locking the gate is because he could tell that Morgan is not truly evil. For one, there is no way that he could make that conclusion in such a brief encounter. I think the reason is that he knows Morgan would not trust him and so Morgan would make the assumption that the gate is locked. This makes more sense to me.

The show writers said ''can people be trusted?'' is an issue in this episode.

It is almost the same for Morgan. I do not think Morgan can tell for sure that the Wolf is truly evil and could not be changed a bit. Morgan is definitely not a trained and experienced psychiatrist and so he could not tell the character of this guy within seconds. The wolf's response to his storytelling is certainly not very good. (Just imagine, even if the wolf showed a very positive response, would it be a total surprise that a person would turn around so quickly?) So, Morgan locked it to play it safe. This indicates that Morgan is not naive enough that his storytelling could change the wolf (or any person) around in such a short time.

 

isnt all of this opening and closing symbolism awesome? To top it off, we have Rick yelling for someone to open the gate at the end.

No doubt, as it was mentioned by Eastman, that Morgan has PTSD (who wouldn't by this point in the ZA?). Morgan has survivor guilt, to top it all off. He was reluctant to kill zombified Jenny- he does, only after his only living family member is killed by her. Then, it's too late.

It brings back the scene in 401, when Rick relays his run in with Clara, wondering if he'd get to the point of not coming back- if something were to happen to Carl or Judith. He's watched several people die under his leadership, plus the demons he has of not achieving peace with his wife before her death, his son having to put down his own mother etc.



The survivor guilt has Morgan (more so, of course b/c he's on his own) and Rick going from one extreme to the other. Morgan deals with it by wiping out every walker and living people, he comes across. Rick tries to put a bubble around his son, in order to protect him- but that choice could kill Carl, by not being able to defend himself or others...pretending that everything is okie-dokie at the prison.

 

Yes. Morgan is imprisoned by his past. He could not get away from his history.

I think the symbolism for Morgan walking out of the jail gate = accepting his past and finally come to peace, while Morgan climbing out/escaping via the window = continuing to deny his past.

Fortunately, he chose to go out of the jail (his past) by the gate.
Of course, this rehab is a process and takes a long period of time. It just cannot be like flipping a light switch and everything changes.

We can see that even though Morgan had walked out of the jail, there are moments that he lapsed back. For instance, when he saw the approaching walker (ie the young man he strangled to death), he froze. That was a momentary relapse. (Oddly, the 'recap' given in this site says it was Morgan's flimsy Aikido skill). Another momentary relapse was when the Alpha wolf said he was going to kill everyone in the community, including children, just like Eastman's children, Morgan stepped forward a little, acting as if to strike him with the staff.

 

I sort of cringed when he did that (the wolf). Considering you and your friends have just gotten your ass kicked for a 2nd time by a guy who ties one hand behind his back, you might not want to tip off the zen master with your evil intentions.

 

Morgan was trying to escape through the window. I took it not that Morgan felt he needed to be there, but rather that he wanted to be free [from himself] but didn't know how to do it. He was going about it the hard way, and Eastman had to show them there was an easier route, all along.

 

P.S. I don't think Morgan could have made so much progress with just a zipper tool in such a short time. Probably Wilton had been working on the window exit, too.

 

Eastman later in the episode said he had thrown the key in the river some time ago, didn't he? I took it to mean he wasn't going to lock anyone in, and it had nothing to do with Morgan per se. I did think it was a neat thing about Morgan's psyche at the time that he didn't even try the door. I'd think most people on waking up in a prison would try shaking the door (once the jailer was out of sight).