The recent episode saw a familiar face greet Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as he was contemplating the child who reminded him of his own daughter, Judith. Morales (Juan Gabriel Pareja), who returned from beyond, surprised Rick so much that he managed to hold the protagonist at gunpoint during the scene.
In an interview with Yahoo, "The Walking Dead's" executive producer Greg Nicotero revealed that there would be a character coming back to the show. Indeed, Morales came back only to take side with the bad guys during episode 2 of the eighth season of the popular AMC post-apocalyptic series.
Fans can very well remember Morales from the first season; he departed from Rick's group to head to Birmingham to look for other family members. Morales was last seen taking a car with his family, as Rick and the remaining people went to Atlanta to find answers. Since then, the fate of Morales and his family was not heard of, until now.
Sunday's episode titled "The Damned" saw Rick being able to recognize Morales as his face expressed shock and surprise over what had become of a former group member or, possibly, over disbelief that Morales had managed to survive.
"It's over, Rick. I called the Saviors back and they're coming," Morales said to Rick, hinting that the old Morales was gone. What happened to his family, which consisted of wife Miranda (Viviana Chavez) and children Eliza (Maddie Lomax) and Louis (Noah Lomax), is expected to unfold in the following episodes. Whether or not he would be back in the show for good is still unknown as well.
The twist might probably be a good move that can act as a charm to lure in viewers' attention more, as "The Walking Dead" season 8's opener had fallen short on the ratings. The decline in stats was largely attributed to the show's habit of killing fan-favorite characters, including Glenn (Steven Yeun), Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) former man, and Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) on the season 7 premiere.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 airs every Sunday, at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.
