I appreciate her point of view and her continued celebration of the life of her husband. And, indeed, through Glenn, Rick met up with a group and begin the ascension to leader of that group.

But, the idea of strangers helping each other through the emotional turmoil of this new world, it all started with Morgan.

Morgan brought Rick up to speed with what was going on, as far as he could tell.

We first get emotionally connected to Morgan's facing the spectre of his wife having turned and trying to return home, to the revulsion of what remains of her family having to deal with that.

And that emotional sequence is contrasted with Rick's putting the half-body woman out of her misery. These zombies are not just monsters...they were people, once. Rick got it, when he put down his former cop mate. "I can't leave him like this." And THIS is what demonstrates Rick as a leader. Morgan could not put down his wife, and it would (pun intended) come back to bite him. Granted, the people Rick put down were not particularly close to him (a stranger, and a cop mate he didn't really like anyway). But, eventually, he would put down someone quite close to him. And Carl? Yeah, maybe he was just a kid who didn't fully grasp what was happening, but he most certainly put down someone very close to him. I'd hate to have to experience anything close to this.

And Rick's continued radio call out to Morgan, in the beginning, illuminated his sense of "no one left behind" approach that helped his core group grow. Going back for Daryl's brother was a big part of what kind of leader Rick was, and what kind of group they were going to be.