The Walking Dead: Rockmelons are deadlier than guns and Walkers

The Walking Dead Episode 13 Bury Me Here proves that rockmelons are more deadly than guns, sticks, rockets and even Walkers.

FORGET machetes, guns and even rocket launchers. It seems the most deadly item in The Walking Dead is actually a rockmelon in the wrong hands.

With it, two men died and Morgan nearly lost his mind, while Carol was prepared to wreak havoc once more and Ezekiel was happy to go to war with the Saviors.

Goodness only knows what could happen with an entire fruit salad …

Savior leader Gavin discovers there is one rockmelon missing, to everyone’s horror.

Episode 13 of The Walking Dead gave us an in-depth look at the Kingdom and particularly Richard and Morgan.

Being episode 13, it had to be unlucky for some — and you’d have to say it was unlucky for actually quite a few.

You may remember Richard is the knight who has wanted the Kingdom to whup some Savior ass for a while now.

In this episode we learn he’s haunted by his past (although, really, who isn’t haunted by their past in this show!) because he didn’t intervene when a refugee camp went crazy and consequently lost his wife and daughter. Now he figures he has to provoke the Kingdom into battle or all will be lost.

You may remember his last attempt to do so, by trying to use Daryl to kill Saviors and then frame Carol for it, went bad. It ended with Daryl threatening to slaughter Richard if Carol so much as burned her finger getting some hot cookies from the oven.

Anyway, he decides to come up with another plan, to hide a rockmelon so the Saviors will execute him and an angry Ezekiel will wreak revenge.

Only it doesn’t go well. The Saviors kill poor Benjamin instead. You probably remember Benjamin as the young lad who befriended Morgan. After several episodes walking around with a sign above his head saying “I’m a Zombie Chew Toy Who’s Destined To Die”, predictably it came true.

Also predictably it messed up Morgan, who lost his mind entirely before, when his zombified wife ate their son. That’s not something you forget too quickly.

Lennie James is brilliant as the tortured Morgan in this episode.

In a shocking twist, instead of going along with Richard’s plan to use the death of Benjamin to lull the Saviors into a false sense of security before an attack, Morgan decides to come up with his own plan. Let’s just say that, while it convinces the Saviors, it doesn’t end too well for Richard. Richard ends up buried and Morgan ends up sharpening his staff into a spear — after nearly melting down again.

It’s a huge tribute to actor Lennie James that we care so deeply about this episode. He’s brilliant as the tortured Morgan, who wants to do right and preserve human life but keeps on being dragged down into the mire by this foul world.

Meanwhile, Carol has thrown away the baking gloves and pulled on her arse-kicking boots. The way she is persuaded to take up the fight and how Morgan is messed up is the heart of this episode. The pair of them are on an emotional seesaw, as it were. The slow bringing Carol back into the action has been handled beautifully.

Ezekiel and Gavin argue ... but where is Ezekiel’s dilemma?

The only thing the episode is lacking is more Ezekiel. The decision he must face — go to war and see some, perhaps all of his people killed or barter with the Saviors and see a few of his people killed, is a horrible one. I would have liked some more focus on Ezekiel and his struggle.

Sure, we got the whole metaphor of his garden being diseased and has to be ripped out before it can regrow better but it’s not quite enough.

But, that aside, a big piece of the season seven puzzle clicks into place. Carol is ready to kill, Morgan is ready to kill and the Kingdom is ready for war.

Just three episodes to go …

All on Foxtel’s FX on Mondays at 1.30pm and 7.30pm.