They’re not on the same page about this whole “kill ’em all” thing

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is having a spiritual awakening. Since Season 1, The Walking Dead‘s leading man has been morally declining. He kills reflexively. He kills people when he’s not in immediate danger. He does not recognize that people who are not part of his group have a right to live. But after back-to-back shocks this season, he’s reevaluating.

The first was killing a man who he then found out was protecting a baby. The second was encountering Morales (Juan Pareja), who he briefly knew way back at the beginning of the apocalypse, before he became a merciless, reflexive killer. Rick saw himself in the way Morales had changed into a hardened, violent cynic. They’d both lost so many people, but they had both survived this long by learning to be ruthless. And Rick didn’t like what he saw looking back at him in the mirror, figuratively and literally. He tried to tell Morales that if the tables were turned and Rick was holding the gun he wouldn’t kill him, he’d try to find another way. But he sounded feeble. They both knew that Rick would have killed him, but Rick was no longer comfortable with that fact.

Daryl (Norman Reedus), on the other hand, has no qualms about wantonly murdering anyone. He shot an arrow through Morales’ neck before Rick had a chance to talk him out of it. Morales wasn’t about to kill Rick, and Rick wasn’t done talking to him. But Daryl saw a Savior, so he killed him. And then he acted totally nonchalant about it. He even recognized Morales. “I know who that was. Don’t matter. Not one little bit,” he said. “You find them guns?” Rick looked at him like “WTF, bro?”

Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus, The Walking Dead

Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

At the end of the episode, Rick and Daryl encountered another Savior. He fired a shot at them from behind a tree, and Rick realized that he was alone and scared. Instead of shooting back at him, he told him to come out, and if he gave them intel, they would give him a vehicle and let him go. He gave him his word. So the guy did. The Savior gave them accurate information about where the guns they were looking for were sent (to a different outpost, where they were being used to massacre their friends at that very moment). And then Daryl shot him in the head like it was nothing. Daryl didn’t give the guy his word, and he either didn’t realize that Rick was being sincere or didn’t care. Neither is good, and Rick gave him another look.

Trouble will brew between Rick and Daryl if Rick sticks to his newfound sense of mercy (which he probably will). Our favorite boys are no longer on the same page. This kill ’em all/show mercy to those who have surrendered rift is bigger than just the two of them, though. It could splinter the whole coalition, with soft-hearted folks like Rick and Jesus (Tom Payne) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) on one side and cold-blooded killers like Tara (Alanna Masterson) and regressed Morgan (Lennie James) on the other. Dissension in the ranks is brewing.