Twigs - The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode 2

Starting the tutorial.

[Warning: This essay will contain spoilers for The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Dead City through episode 2.]

While I don’t think The Walking Dead: Dead City had the strongest start, Episode 2 felt like it was hinting at what the show wants to be.

Dead City episode 1 ended with Maggie and Negan encountering a mysterious old woman as they were escaping from a group of Walkers in a laundromat. Episode 2 picks up with this, as the old woman leads the pair to a group of people trying to survive while seemingly rebelling against The Croat. It’s not spelled out exactly why The Croat’s people are hunting them. However, it’s clear the group Maggie and Negan have stumbled across are not part of The Croat’s operations. Eventually, the rebels are attacked, with Maggie and Negan helping them in hopes of gathering more intel about The Croat.

However, the story of Maggie and Negan’s rescue mission is accompanied by two other points of view. This includes Ginny, who is enrolled in school at Hilltop 2.0, and who’s been given Hershel’s old room. The other is Perlie Armstrong, who is searching for his brother Joel after losing track of Maggie and Negan. So far, Ginny’s story hasn’t stood out to me that much. I’m still not sure what her purpose is going to be, as all she’s done is show viewers where Hilltop has set up camp now that they’ve relocated to the northern United States (again, for very flimsy reasons). Perlie, on the other hand, seems like the most interesting addition to the Walking Dead universe. The no-dialogue scene in the episode when he finally finds Joel is fantastic, and the kind of creativity we need more of in Dead City.

While Ginny and Perlie got some time in the episode, though, Maggie and Negan were still the stars of the show. It was around halfway through the episode I realized the slow burn of Dead City might be building toward something interesting. While Negan and Maggie are being held in a bathroom for questioning, Negan tells Maggie about how he ousted The Croat from the Saviors during their early days subjugating the Kingdom. His story paints The Croat as a much more vile antagonist than Negan while explaining some elements of the Saviors’ way of life post-Croat. However, many details about The Croat, his intentions, and his past with Negan have sadly been hand-fed to the audience through monologues. While this is a doable way of addressing how Negan and The Croat parted ways, there’s very little creative presentation here, even in the dialogue. While it feels like Dead City knows where it’s going, there always seems to be something that keeps it from reaching the heights it could. There are great ideas here. But something feels missing in the presentation.

This is especially true for the rebel group Maggie and Negan have teamed up with by the end of the episode. The characters feel very one-note, including the old woman, Esther, who is abruptly killed in the middle of the episode. While it leads to the best scene in the episode (more on that later), it feels like Dead City is establishing a pattern with its side characters. Both Jano from Episode 1 and now Esther are presented as interesting characters who could have unique arcs within the series. However, the show kills both of them off, throwing viewers for a loop but doing little else with their deaths. Jano isn’t even mentioned in Episode 2, which made me wonder what the point of his character was other than shock value. While Esther’s death has some payoff immediately after, the current trajectory of the show makes me wonder if it was worth doing.

Even so, the payoff comes in the form of the best scene of the episode. Channeling his old self from when he was leader of the Saviors, Negan threatens The Croat’s people while holding one of them hostage. As he speaks, Maggie, who he told to stay behind with the rebel group, watches him, appalled by his sudden reversion. Negan then proceeds to gut his prisoner, shaking his intestines out and dropping them on top of the horrified villains below. Negan notices Maggie saw what he did, and a look of regret crosses his face. The scene did a good job at illustrating how, despite wanting to change, Negan can’t entirely help becoming his old self when push comes to shove. While the context is different—he’s still reformed, after all—it strikes a nerve with Maggie, showing how she doesn’t want Negan to be his monstrous self, even if he is on her side. It does a good job at demonstrating the psychology of the pair and how it intersects with Maggie’s ability to forgive Negan, and Negan’s capacity for change.

Unfortunately, it still feels like something is missing from Dead City. This episode felt very “video game tutorial,” with the playable character (or in this case characters) finding the rebel group they can help while still vying for the game’s main goal. Even the preview for Episode 3 makes it feel like it will be a 40-minute cutscene before the first mission of the game. Given desires for Dead City to be more than one season, it’s kind of disappointing to know the show won’t be moving at the tighter pace a six-episode season seems to promise on paper. The current pacing of the series makes it seem like Hershel will still be in the clutches of The Croat by the end of the season, as Maggie and Negan become more entrenched in the battle to stop him from controlling Manhattan.

There’s no telling where Dead City will go from here, though. It’s possible that, despite feeling bogged down by additional side characters and a new side-mission that will seemingly be taking up most of Season 1, Dead City could surprise in the end. However, I’m not entirely convinced this will be the case. While there has been one very cool Negan scene that illustrates the dichotomy between him and Maggie, it feels like that will be the last one for quite some time. As it stands, Dead City has felt like more of the same with The Walking Dead’s more lackluster episodes in Seasons 10 and 11, which is unfortunate given how interesting the show’s new setting could be. Maybe these first two episodes have just been growing pains, the franchise trying to adapt to a new setting and presentation. However, this feels like a rather rough start to The Walking Dead universe’s expansion, which is sad given how much potential the idea of spinoffs has.

Hopefully, Dead City can prove me wrong, and improve within the next two thirds of season 1.

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