Twigs - The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode 5

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[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for all of The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Dead City through Episode 5.]

The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode 5 left me speechless.

Despite strong elements of the show’s best parts finally taking center stage in Episode 4, Dead City Episode 5 was perhaps the weakest of the entire series. And probably the worst episode of the franchise in recent memory. Many key story decisions and reveals are made in the blink of an eye, which left me questioning why certain things had been focused on in previous episodes if they were going to end the way they did. The episode also seemingly baited viewers with its preview last week, which teased a major battle between Maggie and a Mega Walker made up of multiple zombies. Only for the battle to fall flat. If anything, this episode drums up dread that next week’s finale isn’t going to be able to live up to the standards of “ushering in a new age of The Walking Dead.” Or even the quality of Episode 4, for that matter.

But that’s not to say the episode didn’t have moments where it shined. The first ten minutes were a tense follow-up to last week, as Maggie, Ginny, Tommaso, and Amaia are forced to flee The Croat’s arena using a sewer system filled with methane-producing Walkers. While the air in the sewers is almost unbreathable, Tommaso manages to find a bag with oxygen masks inside. However, the convenience of the discovery makes Maggie realize it was Tommaso who set up the trap that got every other member of the rebel group killed. Tommaso ends up confessing, saying he believed The Croat was going to let them all live, so long as he helped him kill Maggie. Tommaso’s betrayal sets up an interesting arc for Maggie. One where she would have to wrestle with the notion of good people doing horrific things, even though they believed it was the right thing to do. This could tie into her relationship with Negan and the trust they share, using Tommaso as a way to absorb and wrestle with those feelings in a situation that doesn’t impact her as directly.

Instead, the group is ambushed by Walkers that were playing dead within the pile of corpses littered throughout the sewer. One of the Walkers rips Amaia’s guts out off-screen as Maggie tries to save her. The other bites Tommaso in the throat. He asks Maggie if Amaia is okay before he dies. Maggie is forced to put them both down before either of them can turn. This leaves her and Ginny as the only survivors of the assault on The Croat’s arena. It also means Maggie’s attempt at saving her son got an entire group of rebels killed for no reason.

This development feels incredibly quick and disappointing, as Amaia and Tommaso die about halfway through the episode. Their deaths cement the rebel group as entirely useless, all their battles against The Croat since he took control of Manhattan years ago resulting in nothing. Not only is it a depressing end for the group, but also made me wonder: What was the point, then, of even having them there at all? Their deaths, especially Tommaso’s, felt like wasted potential more than any other characters who have been killed off—seemingly for shock value—throughout the entire show.

Maggie’s storyline continued to take a downturn at the very end of the episode too. While escaping the sewers with Ginny, Maggie comes face-to-face with what I’ve dubbed a “Mega Walker.” The Mega Walker is a zombie comprised of multiple zombies, having six heads in a mushed-together body. The Mega Walker was a key element of promotional material for the series, as well as for this particular episode. However, the Walker is quickly dealt with, as much like normal-sized Walkers before it, the Mega Walker simply falls on top of Maggie and she stabs its individual heads one by one. The scene lacked tension due to Maggie being the only character involved, when it’s clear she will make it out alive. There was also no creativity in how it was killed, and the presentation made it clear it wasn’t a variant Walker we’ll ever be seeing again. The Mega Walker seems to reflect how this entire series has been so far, with incredibly engaging ideas being introduced, only for the presentation to be lackluster.

This is similar for The Croat, who is revealed to be an underling of Lis Emery’s “The Dama” (name unspoken in the episode, sourced from The Walking Dead wiki). It’s revealed The Dama wants Negan so her group can better rule over New York City. Due to Negan’s organizational skills as a leader early in the apocalypse, she wants him to be part of their group subjugating the remaining citizens of Manhattan. However, given that he’s changed, it’s obvious he won’t agree to it. It also calls into question why The Dama would want Negan to join the Burazi if it’s been well over a decade since he was the leader of the Saviors. Has The Croat not told her the information regarding his alliance with the main show’s core survivors? Or did the pair assume Negan was simply playing Maggie and everyone else for fools the whole time? It’s an interesting idea for sure, but it feels like it doesn’t have much merit unless they decide to threaten Ginny’s life or something convenient like that.

Despite the many, many complaints I’ve been airing out these last few paragraphs, Dead City Episode 5 did manage to shine in one aspect: Negan and Perlie running around the city as they make their way to the docks. While the pair don’t end up at the docks, their journey allows for more character moments between the two. The audience can see that, despite some of his brutality since arriving in Manhattan, Negan has genuinely changed for the better. There’s also more character development for Perlie, who talks about his frayed relationship with his brother Joel, as well as how he’s been questioning his own sense of justice since finding Joel dead. The episode did a great job at humanizing Perlie, despite the lack of seeing that inner struggle onscreen. I hope to see how the war he’s been waging within since finding Joel will play into Dead City’s season finale.

Said finale is set up at the end of the episode with a reveal that, honestly, was easy to predict within the first 20 minutes of Episode 1. As it turns out, the reason Maggie dragged Negan to Manhattan with her was so she could trade him for Hershel. The entire ploy was a convoluted way for The Croat to get Negan to join him in Manhattan without hunting him down on his own. Though this opens up many questions. Such as, “Why didn’t The Croat use his Burazi army to locate and capture Negan?” Also, “What was the point of the rebels if Maggie’s whole idea was to give Negan to The Croat? Wouldn’t it have been easier to keep innocents out of harm’s way?”

If anything, this reveal underscores how Maggie and Negan have almost switched places. Despite riding the high horse of wanting to save her son and hating Negan for what he did to Glenn, Maggie’s actions got at least a dozen of her allies killed. Not to mention that, if she goes through with her plan of handing Negan over to The Croat, she’ll be separating him from Ginny, who now has no home to go to since she no longer trusts Maggie or the Hilltop. Negan may have done bad things while in Manhattan, and maybe Maggie will be able to justify handing him over to The Croat because of his recent actions. But those actions were always done in service of Maggie’s very own mission, showing that Negan is doing his best to reform. But Maggie, it seems, has regressed, becoming someone just as morally gray as Negan.

Which, to me, is a great direction for Maggie’s character.

Despite the many questions raised by the reveal that Maggie only brought Negan to Manhattan to trade him for Hershel, I think it did a lot to deepen Maggie’s character. Namely, it brought her hypocrisy to light, always shaming Negan for his past and the innocents he killed, while only one episode ago she caused the deaths of at least a dozen people in her attempt to draw The Croat out. Whether she’d changed her mind about giving Negan to The Croat is unclear. However, what is clear is that her mission has resulted in the death of an entire family of survivors, all of whom were trapped by The Croat, much like Maggie is trapped by him now. While I feel like the reveal was predictable, and made a few parts of Dead City’s story feel rather pointless, it was still an interesting way to further Maggie’s character. I’m just not sure how I feel about Tommaso and Amaia—two characters with tons of potential—dying before the truth was revealed. It’s tragic, but I feel like their reactions would have aided in exploring Maggie’s hypocrisy more closely.

There were many pitfalls in Dead City Episode 5 that made it the weakest episode of the series so far. But, even though I was particularly harsh in my criticisms of this episode, there were still some good ideas despite the flawed execution. Then again, that seems to have defined the series overall. Which doesn’t bode too well for the final episode. With Dead City Season 2 unofficially confirmed prior to Season 1’s premiere, it’s unclear if the season finale will tie up enough loose ends to be satisfying. At best, I hope Episode 6 can establish the first season as a prologue of sorts to when the real action begins. And that, when said action does begin, it feels more fleshed-out than what we’ve been getting so far.

Or maybe they’ll just rescue Hershel and leave Manhattan behind.

***

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