Hello Multiversity readers, and welcome to AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City coverage. The first one of the spin-off shows after the original TWD wrapped up last November. It’s not quite clear how much time has passed in their world, but it is clear that Maggie and Negan are being forced together for a common mission. Now to find out what that is exactly, let’s jump right into it.
1. Hasn’t Missed A Step
This new show wastes no time showcasing Maggie’s zombie-killing abilities and all-around badassery and has not missed a single beat. The first scene has her doing reconnaissance on Manhattan from across the water when a crawler sneaks up, and she goes agro to kill it. Not only stabbing it in the head to stop it from biting but smashing it to bits, showcasing a hint of what else she’s dealing with for the rest of the episode. Her fighting abilities aren’t limited to zombies; no, that’d be too one-note for the first TWD spin-off. She gets to fight a group of humans trying to send a message about sniffing around their bar. A hidden knife in the boot and still able to hold her own hand-to-hand reminds us never to mess with a Mama Bear.
2. The Mission At Hand
Speaking of Mama Bear, that’s the big, but not surprising, mission at hand. Maggie is on her one-woman hellbent attitude trying to get to Negan because she needs him to help get her son back from a man who goes by Croat. This guy used to roll with Negan back in his heyday and, according to him, was “a crazy son of a bitch.” Which says a whole lot right there coming from him, people. Negan gets in his own little; I’ll help you if you help me the type of deal with a kid named Ginny that he was rolling with; she’d been left alone since her dad had turned, and she had the unfortunate luck of seeing it happen first hand. Thus, if Negan is going to help Maggie, he wants Ginny to get some shelter back at Hilltop or wherever is safe for her to live a better life possibly. It’s a friend-of-a-friend situation where she won’t give Negan the full plan to get back her son, but they’ll have to figure out a way around that with only six episodes in the season.
3. A Wanted Man
Now there can’t be just the mission of “Operation Rescue Hershel.” There must be something extra in the mix, and that is that Negan is a wanted man. According to the New Babylon marshall, he is a wanted man for killing a magistrate and three others. Now who these people are is to be determined later, but we find out from Negan that it’s not exactly what it seemed like. This is the line that every criminal uses when they’ve been found out, but what the audience knows about Negan is that he’s not exactly shy about what he’s done in his past. Not that he boasts about it like when he was on top of the world, but he has gained a strong sense of empathy, so it’s not simply a survival tactic for him to do something like this. There’s some more meat on the bone of this storyline. However, one thing that does come out of it is a new marshall named Perlie Armstrong. A man who follows helps govern the rules of the land, but he doesn’t seem to be afraid to get his hands dirty, but that doesn’t mean too much when it’s filled with zombies. Either way, he seems to be more of an anti-hero vibe than just a straight antagonist, but that is also to be determined.
4. A Glimpse Into This New Place
The fun part of this first spin-off from The Walking Dead is the scenery change. Sure, a few episodes here and there had a big city vibe, but for the most part, they were in a forest or wooded area. Manhattan is the concrete jungle, so it’s all skyscrapers and areas Negan and Maggie aren’t familiar with. Not to mention there’s also the fun fact that Marshall Armstrong casually says that when the virus first struck, they closed off all bridges from Manhattan, so it’s just an island filled with zombies with nowhere else to go. The crew experiences it firsthand when they’re sneaking around, and zombies start coming from the sky and landing all around them. Croat has also blocked streets to make it into his maze, so it will be a wild ride as they try to navigate the streets and find Hershel.
5. An Old Wound Vibe
It’s no secret that Negan and Maggie have a bad relationship, but while this is a spin-off series and for any fan of the TWD, it’s no secret since he was the one who killed her husband, Glenn. However, this opening episode lays it on a little thick and does more than just a reference. They show the clip of Glenn’s final moments before getting beat with Negan’s bat. I think it has to do with trying to help any new people that decided to jump into the zombie universe with this show, so it makes sense. It can feel a little much for any veteran, though, and even Negan acknowledges it when they’re on the boat and asks why she’s treating him like it’s fresh. Then it finally connected to me that without her son Hershel, she is alone in this messed up world, and it’s because of Negan. It’s triggering her into this angry, almost rabid state that could cause some issues, but for now, she’s willing to put it to the side if it means getting back her son.
