The Kingdom is weird.

The last time we saw Carol, she was in a sketchy situation and had to be saved by Morgan and two armored men (who we later discover are from The Kingdom). Carol had to be transported at he back of a horse cart because she was injured. On the journey, they get attacked by walkers and Carol is delirious – either that or she’s some kind of walker messiah who can see what they the walkers were like before they were zombified.

They get to the kingdom alright and Carol is out for two days. She wakes up in the hospital to find Morgan by her side and he says the leader of the group wants to see her. Carol meets the leader (King Ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva) and she plays the part of the sweet old lady. She addresses the king as “your royal majesty” and described everything as “amazing”. But the minute she leaves Ezekiel’s presence she tells Morgan that she’s getting the hell out of there and there’s nothing he can do to stop her.

A lot of things seem off about The Kingdom – on the surface, everyone is working happily and living the dream but it looks like the kind of place that may be secretly into cannibalism. Their leader King Ezekiel is a dramatic man who talks like he fell out of a classic drama – making grand gesticulations and saying words like “my realm”, “matters of import” and “member of my court”. Also there’s the King’s guard Jerry who says “deuces”, the supposedly-inspiring-but-creepy words on the wall like “drink from the well, replenish the well” signed "K.E" and the choir whose singing makes you think of people’s vital organs being cut off in the middle of the night.

Weird.
Gene Page/AMC

Morgan quickly becomes a trusted member of Ezekiel’s “court” as he goes hunting with them and discovers that not only is The Kingdom under Negan’s thumb (without the people’s knowledge) but they are rearing pigs who feed on walkers. That part’s not weird, its just sick but the pigs are for the Saviors so its fitting. When Morgan proves his expertise with the staff by knocking out a walker with it, Ezekiel asks him to teach one of the young men Benjamin the ways of the staff as the boy is terrible with other weapons.

While Morgan is training young Benjamin, Carol is charming people of The Kingdom and stealing from them. She attempts stealing apples from a garden but finds that she is not alone when Ezekiel lights the fire around. He calls her out on her sweet girl bullshit and she calls him and The Kingdom “a joke”. Ezekiel (after dismissing Jerry) tells Carol a little about him - pre zombie apocalypse. He was a zookeeper who occasionally played in the community theatre (that last part explains a lot about his “kingliness”). He had saved Shiva when she was wounded and bleeding to death. The people (mostly because of his tiger) had made him a folk hero of sorts so he “faked it till he made it” –  because people need someone to follow. He’s not all phony though – his name truly is Ezekiel.

After all these, Carol is still pretty bent on leaving so he tells her to “embrace the contradictions”, to “go and not go”. Carol takes his advice and moves out of the Kingdom (with Morgan as her escort). She takes the house right opposite the Kingdom gate – going and not going I guess. While she is cleaning her new home, she gets two visitors – His Royal Majesty King Ezekiel and Shiva.

Looks like these three are about to become a happy family – till someone dies that is.

Despite Ezekiel’s exaggerated effort of playing the role of King, he’s actually a pretty likable character with a very odd sense of humor.

What did you think about The Kingdom?