We are not only in the heart of Manhattan, surrounded by zombies up and down every street, but now Maggie and Negan have a little crew to help them navigate. Things are heating up in Dead City as the planning stages are commencing to get to the Croat and rescue Herschel. There’s also the case of the marshall caught up by the Burazi. Let’s not waste more time and check out “People Are A Resource.”
1. The Plan
This new crew of people shows Maggie and Negan the parade of “freshies” that roam the city between them and the Croat, using it to his advantage to show that there is nearly no way in or out unless it’s through his say-so. However, the main guy from this new crew, Tommaso, has experience getting out of the Croat’s grip and returning to his people. As it turns out, his grandfather worked on some tunnels or passageways throughout the city that few people knew about. When Tommaso was being held hostage, he saw an opening thanks to a walker sneaking into the area where the cells were, and he used those tunnels to escape. Once Maggie hears this, she knows this is her one way to find her son, and she will take it. Herschel is the only family she has left, and now that she’s got a few more people to help, she won’t take it lightly and think more strategically rather than guns a-blazing.
2. Ginny’s Solo-Venture
As we saw in the previous episode, Ginny wouldn’t find herself in the New Hilltop, so she bounced and went to find Negan in Manhattan. We’ve seen they have a bond in the first two episodes, but this episode goes deeper into their past and shows a flashback of what helped bond the two. One of the first times she went out into the woods, it was in search of a stuffed dinosaur; unsure of the exact meaning, but he tried to explain she didn’t need to talk, but if she was in danger to at least yell. Ginny still wouldn’t budge, so they continued until he found a good time to break it out of his bag to make her smile. Negan then teaches her a familiar whistle that she can use so that only he would recognize it and go to help her wherever she is. This is a great moment for the audience to be reminded that as evil as Negan once was, he always had some good in his heart for those searching for peace.
3. Family Bonding
Negan and Maggie also find a moment to connect after developing their game plan with their newfound crew. Maggie opens up about her last day with teenage Herschel; she’d tried to warn him to stay away from Croat when he came to their city, but being the rebel he is, he attempted to intimidate and got caught. In the previous episode, we’d seen a brief flashback of her talking to him about missing weapons classes, which didn’t seem too big of a deal, but when zombies are a real factor, you must take those classes seriously. Negan uses this information also to mention what happened with his wife and child. She’d been attacked while going into a town to trade goods, and he snapped when he found them, thus throwing a target on all of their backs with whoever was running with them. Negan put her on a train to Missouri and said he’d be right behind her, knowing full well that he had no intention of going with her. Despite his want for love and acceptance, he still doesn’t think that he deserves it and, to keep them safe, keeps himself away.
4.Testing Time
Marshall Armstrong is being held hostage by the Croat, and since he won’t reveal who else is with him, we get to see some of the sadistic games Negan had mentioned. Croat is a man who always has a plan and doesn’t do anything by accident. He tries to offer Armstrong a fresh meal and even sanctuary within his walls but quickly shows how dangerous and ruthless he can be by killing the man who had brought the food into the room after finding a maggot in the meat. It’s shocking to the audience and the waiter, but it was all calculated in hindsight. Croat makes the man eat a key to Armstrong’s handcuffs, then kills him, knowing he’ll turn into a zombie. The next step is to put Armstrong in a UFC-like octagon with the zombie to kill him or show the audience that he has the strength and intelligence to survive. Armstrong survives, but not before accidentally revealing a weakness of his own. There’s a personal letter hidden in his boot that almost gets left behind when he’s fighting off the zombie, but the Croat sees this weakness and grabs onto it to make him join him. Sentimental warfare will always reign supreme for making an enemy into a puppet. Armstrong reveals he is alone; both his men were killed, but he came with a mission to capture Negan. Talk about music to Croat’s ears, one headstrong and the other psychotic. Both against Negan and looking for a form of justice.
5. Old Habits Die Hard
In Negan’s final scene of the episode, he’s confronted by one of the men in this new group that hasn’t been his biggest fan thus far. The man found the wanted poster that Negan had in his stuff because he liked how they drew him on the poster, and now he was going to keep Negan away from everyone to fend for himself. There was good intention in trying to protect his people, much like Negan had done in the past, but backing Negan into a corner is never a good idea. Despite being twice as big and having a ton of strength, Negan used a cheese grater to slice open the man’s face and knock him to the ground to kill him. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, nor was he proud, but when it comes to survival, Negan will always put himself ahead and do whatever it takes. I can’t say I blame him, and hey, as an audience member, it’s always fun to see a little gore when it’s not just killing zombies.
