Synopsis of 7×13: In a Kingdom-centric episode, Richard does his damnedest to get them committed to the fight against the Saviors. He succeeds, but not in the way he was planning.
Elsewhere, Carol wakes up and enters the kingdom. She confronts Morgan about Daryl finding her and asks about if he was lying about Alexandria and everyone being alright. Morgan doesn’t answer the question directly, but offers to go with her should she ever want to go back. But he insists she got what she wanted in leaving everyone behind and she instead tells him to go to the drop.
A woman comes to talk to Ezekiel, refusing to get too close to Shiva in the process. She brings bad news, that the royal garden is infested and must be burned. He tells her to do what must be done and she tries to make him feel better by reminding him that even after everything is destroyed, it can all grow back.
On their way to meet with the Saviors, they find that the path was blocked by shopping carts and it delays them in getting to the drop on time. They fan out to investigate and find an empty grave with a sign that says, ‘Bury me here’ in front of it. They marvel at it for a moment before getting back to business.
The lead Savior notes that they’re late to the drop and explains that things have been unnecessarily tense lately between the two groups. He has the Kingdom give up their guns before confronting them about a missing melon. Ezekiel is caught off guard, because he counted them himself, and offers up twice the tribute within the hour. Now, it’s a matter of the Kingdom understanding their place and Gavin puts a gun to Richard’s head, but instead of shooting Richard, he shoots Benjamin in the leg.
As Benjamin bleeds out on the ground, the Saviors tell them to settle up tomorrow with one melon and they allow the Kingdom to leave to get Benjamin medical help. Unfortunately, they only make it as far as Carol’s place, bringing Benjamin in and ultimately being unable to help him. He dies on Carol’s table and Morgan storms out angrily.
He ends up back where they were sabotaged earlier and has a mental breakdown, flashing back to ‘Clear’ and his family and contemplating suicide in the already-dug grave. When he kicks over a bin in anger, he finds the one melon and realizes that Richard set them up to fail. When he confronts Richard, he admits that it was supposed to be him.
Richard wanted to give his life so that the Kingdom would finally be forced to move against the Saviors. He tells Morgan about where he was when everything started and resolves to turn Benjamin’s death into motivation for the Kingdom. He thinks they can lure the Saviors into a false sense of security by obeying for now and then crushing them later. Richard thinks he’ll lead the army and tells Morgan that he’ll either need to kill or kill himself in the process. Morgan spends a tense night thinking over Richard’s words.
In the morning, they show the scene again of Ezekiel loading up one single melon and heading to the drop point. When they get there, Morgan asks Richard if he confessed to Ezekiel yet and he says they’ll talk about it later, but even Ezekiel wants to talk about it right now. Morgan sees Benjamin’s blood on the ground alongside both of their sticks and goes to pick them up.
They’re interrupted by the Saviors and the lead one asks how ‘the kid’ is doing. When no one answers him, he realizes the kid has died and angrily sends Gavin walking home before Richard brings them the lone melon.
When Richard turns back around to join the Kingdom, Morgan attacks him and strangles him to death while everyone else just looks on. He reveals Richard’s plans the day before, parroting his words back to the Saviors – that the Kingdom understands, they’ll cooperate without problems from now on – and insists that they get it. Richard was going to spend his whole life making up for Benjamin’s death, but Morgan didn’t let him wait long.
Once the Saviors leave, Ezekiel tries to get Morgan to come back with them, but he refuses. He mixes up Duane and Benjamin’s names and is clearly not doing well, but they do end up leaving him behind. He drags Richard’s body to the grave he’d dug earlier and finds his daughter’s backpack there. Morgan buries them both and then goes on a walker-killing rampage.
He ends up at Carol’s door and she asks him what happened. He candidly explains that he strangled Richard to death and asks her if she wants to know about Alexandria. She says yes, so he lays it out matter-of-factly: Negan killed Glenn and Abraham, Spencer and Olivia, and the Alexandrians do everything for the Saviors now. Rick was at the Kingdom to recruit in order to fight.
This lights a fire in Carol once again, who packs up her things and heads for the Kingdom. When she meets with Ezekiel she tells him that she’ll be here now because they have to get ready for the fight. Ezekiel agrees, but says it’s not an immediate need and has her helping out with the planting instead.
The last shot is of Morgan, sitting on Carol’s old porch, sharpening his stick for battle.
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