Twigs - The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode 4

The first mission goes awry.

[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for all of The Walking Dead and up through The Walking Dead: Dead City episode 4.]

This was the best episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City so far, because events were finally set in motion.

Continuing with the video game allegories from previous reviews, Dead City episode 4 acts as the first mission in the series. Maggie, Negan, and the assortment of rebels they’ve allied themselves with decide to attack The Croat’s arena the night after Negan killed Luther. Negan tries to keep this under wraps as the team prepares their assault. Meanwhile, Ginny continues to follow the team as she tries to regroup with Negan. However, in the middle of the episode, everything goes awry, as it’s revealed The Croat somehow knew Maggie, Negan, and the rebels would be coming to attack the arena. What results is a fast-paced ambush on Maggie and the rebels while Negan finally comes face-to-face with The Croat for the first time since their days as Saviors.

I think one of the most standout parts of the episode was its willingness to utilize different storytelling techniques to make this particular episode feel different from the previous ones. It started at the very beginning of the episode, which featured a short flashback to the Savior compound, likely around the time The Walking Dead season 6 was happening. At least, some time before Negan met Maggie and killed Glenn. The flashback, which sees Steven Ogg reprise his role as Simon, shows the brutality of The Croat’s methods of obtaining information from enemies. His torture methods are also clarified, as the audience sees that he was, indeed, torturing a child for information. While I wish we had seen this very short scene in an earlier episode to better establish right away how few boundaries The Croat has, it was still an improvement over the many bouts of exposition that defined the first half of the season.

In fact, exposition is graciously thrown to the wayside here in favor of telling the story as it’s happening. This includes Maggie and Negan trying to find common ground in the mission, but ultimately failing once Maggie realizes Negan likely killed Luther. Of course, it’s not something Maggie wants to tell the rest of the rebels, as she doesn’t want to jeopardize the mission to find Hershel. But she also pauses in her attempt to tell Negan that Ginny is somewhere in the city, once more unwilling to put the mission in harm’s way. It was interesting to see that, for just a moment, Maggie almost trusted Negan enough to tell him about Ginny, only for that trust to be shattered when she sees evidence of him slipping back into his old ways. It feels like their relationship is still stuck in a rut, but at least Dead City episode 4 provided different, more interesting ways of approaching said rut.

Maggie also shined in her own way when the group is ambushed by The Croat. Somehow, it seems The Croat knew they were coming, implying he has eyes on them that are either inside or outside they can’t see. If it was a spy on the inside, though, it seems they’re no longer around. Everyone in the rebel group is slowly eaten by Walkers over the course of the episode, with only Tommaso and Amaia—the group’s leaders—surviving alongside Maggie and a recently-found Ginny. The ambush, while interesting as a plot element, feels a little thin when the group has a resource they could use, but refuse to utilize until half the rebels have been eaten. In the middle of the arena is a wrestling cage, which the group could have used to protect themselves from the zombie horde. Stabbing them through the fence, the bodies building a defense around them. If they’d thought of it prior to almost everyone dying, perhaps they would all be alive. But, unfortunately, it seems the show neglected obvious solutions seasoned survivors would think of in favor of increasing the body count.

While there were some weak points with the ambush on Maggie’s side, Negan’s part of the episode stood out as the best portion. He finally comes face-to-face with The Croat, over ten years after blowing his ear off and driving him away from the Saviors. While hashing out their history, it becomes clear how different the pair are. While The Croat is more akin to the bloodthirsty Negan of old, Negan himself truly has changed. Even though he’s employed parts of his old self to survive in the last few episodes, Negan shows his true, new colors when The Croat throws a captured Perlie Armstrong off a balcony. Despite the Marshal being after Negan—even saying his crimes are punishable by death—Negan still decides to save him, much to the shock of The Croat. Negan’s willingness to rescue Perlie underscores how, despite seeming like he’s slipping back into his old ways, he’s truly only doing it to survive. And while Maggie may be angry at him for embracing his old self when necessary, Negan has truly changed.

I think this is further illustrated with a small moment between Negan and Perlie near the end of the episode. Despite saving Perlie’s life, Perlie is still adamant about punishing Negan for what he did to the five New Babylonian men—something Perlie doesn’t know was in retaliation for what they did to Annie. Negan puts his hands up, seemingly surprised. However, the tone of his voice betrays a level of boredom, which I believe to be intentional. It’s as if he understands what Perlie is doing, but is unhappy with the fact that he’s willing to go through with killing him. As if feeling like all his attempts at changing are amounting to nothing, likely because he can’t help but go back to his old ways when his survival seemingly demands it. It feels like a commentary on how Negan can change, or what he can do to better become the person he wants to be. While he’s on that path, it’s not something he can easily convince others is true. Especially when he himself keeps flipping back and forth between who he was and who he wants to become.

While not everything about Dead City Episode 4 was perfect, this was the strongest episode of the show so far. We got great character moments with Negan and some excitement from Maggie. There was more nuance showcased in the relationship between the pair which will no doubt have repercussions in the final two episodes. Given a few flaws, I’m still wary of where this spinoff will end up quality-wise. One good episode out of four doesn’t spell good things for the final two. But if this is the level of momentum kept with the rest of the season, then it’s possible the show will keep up the good work for the back half of Season 1.

However, only time will tell.

***

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