Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 premiere.
After a nearly two-year wait, The Walking Dead: Dead City is finally back for a second season. In the first season, with Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) son, Hershel (Logan Kim), kidnapped by the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek), she had to ask for help from Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the man who caused her so much pain after killing her husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), in a moment we’d all like to forget. Dead City had Maggie and Negan together in the ruins of New York City, but at the end Maggie revealed that she had brought Negan along to exchange for her child. While he stays behind in a rotting Manhattan with the Croat and the Dama (Lisa Emery), who saw in Negan a man who could bring people to her side, Maggie and a traumatized Hershel get to go home. However, mother and son aren’t getting a happy ending just yet, because in Season 2 of Dead City, Maggie has to go back to the Big Apple.
Maggie Is Forced to Return to New York City
The episode begins with the upbeat “New York Groove” by Ace Frehley playing as men in an armored garbage truck collect dead walkers and take them back to a church. Inside, we see a network of vats, with the walkers being dumped into them. As they decompose, methane is sucked into tubes and boom, the lights of Radio City Hall come back on. Is New York City back in business? We then cut to Maggie trying to teach Hershel how to hunt as Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) follows close behind. Back home, Maggie catches Hershel staring at his foot, now partially mangled due to the Dama cutting off one of his pinky toes. Mother and son might be back together again, but there is a quiet sadness between them. Maggie speaks about Hershel catching lightning bugs when he was a child. That makes them smile briefly, at least.
Later, at the community, a group of military trucks arrive, with one pulling along a running man tied to the back. Among the group is Charlie Byrd (Jasmin Walker), the governor of New Babylon. With her is Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles), who has been lying about bringing Negan to justice. He gives a speech to the residents about how great New York City used to be, but New Babylon wants to bring it back to inspire and spread hope. They have been going from town to town drafting soldiers to explore Manhattan. The community members begin to grumble, so the tied-up man is brought forward by Major Lucia Narvaez (Dascha Polanco). He fled being drafted, so he is made an example of by being hung in front of everyone.
New Babylon has a historian named Benjamin Pierce (Keir Gilchrist) who raves about NYC, but Hershel laughs at the “total bullshit.” He’s seen how bad the city really is. He draws a picture of the New York he knows for Pierce. He’s fascinated, but an observant Maggie looks worried. She then speaks to Armstrong about his lie about killing Negan, who admits that he did it to protect him. Armstrong tells Maggie she is being drafted into New Babylon’s army. They badly need the methane operation on the island so that others can live. Maggie agrees to return to New York, but only if no one else is drafted against their will. And now we have a way to put Maggie back in Manhattan again.
Can the Croat and the Dama Bring Back the Old Negan?
We’re then introduced to Negan, sitting in a cell and being guarded by a man who treats him kindly and gives him food. With no one else around, he pulls out a violin and plays for Negan, who sits back and closes his eyes, taking in the music. However, that only lasts a few seconds, as the Croat shows up, telling Negan that he needs to listen to him. He wants to know where Hershel is, but Negan says he is safe and to reach him, he’d have to go through Maggie, who would rip his throat out. This is not the answer the Croat wanted, who says that things will have to escalate.
The Croat and a few of his men take Negan back to the Dama at the church where she lives. They know that New Babylon is coming, so they want Negan to help get three New York groups to form an alliance to fight the invaders. There is going to be a meeting that night, and Dama needs Negan to manipulate or get them to fear him so much that they’ll join. He has said no to her before and says no again. The Dama was expecting this, so she tells Negan that his wife and child have been taken captive and are now being brought to the island. With this development, Negan will have to help them to save his family.
Related
Every ‘Walking Dead’ Spin-Off Show, Ranked From Worst to Best
The Walking Dead franchise has had its hits and misses.
To try to cheer Negan up, the Croat brings him a bat wrapped in barbed wire “just like the original Lucille.” It has been improved, though, as we’ll later see. Negan doesn’t appreciate the gift, but he has to go with Croat and his men anyway to meet Bruegel (Kim Coates), who is running a type of walker fight club, with the winning walker being an absolute behemoth.
The Dama Builds Her Forces Against New Babylon
Armstrong speaks to Byrd and Narvaez about how important it is to bring someone as talented as Maggie along willingly. They want her to prove her worth, so in front of everyone, Maggie is forced to fight a group of walkers in a fenced-in area. Anyone else intending to enlist is asked to step up. Only Ginny does, despite Maggie’s pleas. The two fight together, and although there are some close calls, they are victorious. Because Maggie lived, she has saved everyone else.
It’s also showtime for Negan, who is brought out at the meeting of the three groups in Dama’s church, almost like it’s a stage, to put on his old act. He’s cocky, which Bruegel and the Croat love, as he speaks about New Babylon, now heading to New York to enforce laws on everyone. He is interrupted by the leader of one group named Christos (Jake Weary), who isn’t interested in joining and bending the knee. The other groups agree with him, so the Croat tosses the new Lucille to Negan. The bat seems to energize him. He tells Christos that everyone will fight with him because he says so. He points Lucille at Christos and shows off the bat’s new trick, as it electrocutes the man, temporarily knocking him out.
Meanwhile, unable to dissuade Ginny, Hershel says she’s going with them back to New York, but Maggie tells him no. Hershel is angry about how she holds on to Negan, and she can’t understand why he’d want to go back to a city that hurt him. She asks if the city has a hold on him and pulls out a drawing of the Dama, wanting to know who this woman is. Maggie cries as she tells Hershel that being with him and getting better has meant so much to her, but she now has to go so he doesn’t have to. As the episode ends, both Negan and Maggie are being controlled by others in an effort to save those they love. Will it work? With Hershel smiling as he stares at his drawings of New York City, there might be other things to worry about, too.
Negan and Maggie are forced to fight against their will in new, contrived storylines.
- Release Date
-
June 18, 2023
- Network
-
AMC
- The aesthetic of a rotting New York City is still shocking.
- It’s chilling to see Negan with a new version of Lucille.
- Hershel’s character development is taking him down a potentially interesting dark path.
- Negan feels tired and phoning it in.
- Keeping Negan and Maggie apart robs Dead City of its best relationship.
- Maggie’s storyline reason for going back feels forced.
