The Walking Dead: Dead City – Old Acquaintances

By starrymag | June 25, 2023

By: Dawn Inchaurregui-Miller

 

 

We find Maggie (Lauren Cohan) crouched under a bridge on the filthy coastal edge, overlooking Manhattan. She turns and watches out of sight as a small herd passes her by, but is startled when one grabs at her foot, dragging her from the shelter. She attempts to fight it off, clutching at her telescope and eventually gets the better of him. She unleashes a rage she seems to have been struggling to keep in check and begins to utterly smash the walker’s skull exposing the rotting brains within. A silent scream in slow motion, let out by a distraught mother unable to find her son and a sideways glance at the city across the water leads us into the opening credits.

 

Pulling up to a motel Maggie approaches the functional bar, the first hint that this must be years into the future after “The Walking Dead” has ended. The last we saw was the crumbling of The Commonwealth with most of the communities wishing to start again and certainly not at a point where towns exist and strangers are welcome. Maggie plays the damsel distress who has left her cabin to the roamers that have overrun it (the Hilltop and Alexandria communities call them walkers, so by avoiding this term she also hopes to go unnoticed). The bartender lets her know that they have a man who can deal with that kind of situation and would be able to help her clear them. This seems to be the information she was hoping to hear, but the motel owner (Michelle Hurd) interrupts the conversation, telling him he needs to check the generator so that he stops talking.

 

Pretending to visit the ladies room, Maggie takes the opportunity to sneak around to the back of the motel. She walks past several rooms before trying one in which she hears running water. Entering the motel room she sees a man’s clothes on one of the beds and the next one neatly made, with dolls and other young girls belongings by the pillow. As she nears the bathroom she takes the knife that has been placed on the dressing table. Perhaps to make sure that she is the only one armed in the room or maybe because she herself has no weapons left (which would make sense, as she had previously needed to use a telescope to defend herself against a walker). Maggie nears the bathroom with the knife in hand and cautiously pushes the door open. We see a man inside the shower box, leaning forward with his head resting on his arms as the water runs over him. As she slowly moves to enter, she is grabbed from behind and dragged out of the room. Attempting to struggle free, Maggie is thrown backwards onto a table and held down as the motel owner informs her that she had had a bad feeling about her. She assumes Maggie was sent by someone called “Vasquez” who wanted her to be a set of eyes, though who this person is Maggie gives no indication of knowing let alone if she works for them. With the blade of a flick knife now deployed, she tells Maggie she has a message for Vasquez and asks the men to hold her down, but a leg free was all Maggie needed to kick the back of her heel and release a blade of her own from the bottom of her boot. She uses this to drive into the back of her would-be mutilator, the impact of which causes her to slip and send the blade of her flick knife through her own hand, giving Maggie enough of a distraction to fight the others off. There is a momentary pause when we see who Maggie was there for as he briefly steps into the room before she trips and he flees with a girl behind him. Her enemy from many years before, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), runs out into the carpark as Maggie rushes to her van to head him off. Maggie drops her map after one of his co-workers attempts to pull her from the van. She drives past Negan and the girl, making a u-turn and circles back at them head on, causing them to fall to the floor. She hastily disembarks the van as Negan rushes at her, attempting to hit her with a crowbar, but she easily fights him back and puts his own knife to his throat. She tells him she thought he was better on his feet as they say their awkward hellos.

 

Negan holds a poster in his hand with a drawing of himself in an old western style wanted poster. In true Negan style, he remarks on his own good looks, reading aloud the words “New Babylon Marshals” and asks proudly if he can keep the poster. Maggie throws him a first aid kit for his leg as he folds the poster, placing it inside his pocket before calling over Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), the young girl with whom he had fled. She begins to patch up his leg as Maggie asks where his wife Annie and their child are at the moment. He changes the subject, introducing Maggie to Ginny as an old acquaintance. After cheekily remarking that she is either there not to kill him or has gotten rusty, she looks off to the side as she recounts what happened to Hilltop several weeks before, leading to her being there looking for him. They were raided by a group who overpowered them, stole their grain and would return every month for more. When she mentions the word “collateral” Negan realizes that they have taken her son. This was her child who had been fathered by Glenn, whom he had never gotten to meet as Negan had brutally murdered him years before in front of Maggie and her group. This is what triggered a war and a grudge that she has never been able to let go of. She had attempted to follow the group but had watched them for days after they crossed the water into the city of Manhattan. Negan sends Ginny away and asks Maggie what his role in this story is, to which she responds that the man who took him was named “The Croat.” Negan shrugs but Maggie knows he is familiar with the name, just as she was familiar with the whistle they used – one she had heard years before used by him and The Saviors. Negan asks her what she expects him to do, give her information about him or sweet talk him into releasing her son, before going on to explain that The Croat isn’t just one of the psycho’s from his old crew. It seems The Croat stood out as being the worst. He knows the reason why when he asks why he should help her and says “because I owe you,’” at the same time as her, but she lets him know that he is the last person whose help she ever wanted. She goes on to point out that with the Marshals on his tail and with how easy it was for her to find him he doesn’t seem to have many other choices left. Negan asks if Hilltop still has a school and other kids, leading to Maggie agreeing to take in Ginny but that they will see when it comes to him.

 

On the road Maggie sits in the driving seat while Negan sits in the back portion, separated by a window, alongside a sleeping Ginny. He takes his shirt off when he realizes she is cold and places it over her. The sound of Negan as an empathetic human is almost too much for her and she slides the window in the partition, cutting the two of them off from her. As she pulls up to make a left turn she slows, glancing across at two walkers hanging from nooses on a structure that seems to have been specifically designed for this particular activity. As she turns the van a sign is revealed stating they are entering New Babylon.

 

The car has stopped on a part of the road covered by trees, where Maggie lets off a flare, signalling to the people of Hilltop to meet her. Negan questions why they are in a new location and states that this is not what they agreed, but Maggie, ever passive aggressive, replies that they had to relocate due to it being burned down – to which he had leant a hand. Ginny, though still silent, has extremely telling eyes and throws a sympathetic smile to Negan before sideways glancing across at Maggie in annoyance. Nagan pours Ginny and himself some water while Maggie, sitting meters away sits on the back of the jeep trying not to observe the parental bond between the two of them.

 

Later in the day Ginny is asleep in the back of the jeep while Negan tells Maggie her backstory and how he became her guardian. She had been living with her father at a farm before Negan had arrived when one night she had awoken to find him missing. When she went looking for him she found him turned but from the state of him she could tell he had been murdered. As a result she hasn’t spoken a word since. A silence falls when he concludes the story until it is interrupted by the arrival of one of Maggie’s people, finally there to meet them to take Ginny.

 

Back at the motel the marshals have arrived searching for Negan. The bartenders, owner and patrons hide the alcohol and signs of gambling for fear of punishment and awkwardly wait to let them speak, knowing the likely reason for their visit. Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) steps to the front holding the very same wanted poster that Maggie had given to Negan. As he tells them they are there looking for him, he begins to relay his numerous previous crimes, including the backstory between him and Maggie and that he has murdered a magistrate and four other people. He reels off a coding system for the New Babylon law and goes on to explain that not only will he be executed but the gruesome nature of how it will be done – hung upside down and sawed in half. Everyone inside the bar looks terrified by his words as he approaches the bar owner and asks her if she has seen him. Attempting to keep her composure she looks at the poster and responds that no, she has not seen him, but the marshal knows better and pulls her outside. As he twists her arm behind her back, he tells her that under section nine she could be executed for the alcohol, drugs and gambling within her establishment and pushes her up against a fence as walkers slowly make their way toward the noise. When faced with this life or death situation, she finally offers the information he was looking for – that Negan worked there but had left that morning with a woman she had never seen inside a blue truck. The marshal releases her momentarily saying that the truth was all he needed, before announcing that she broke the law for aiding and abetting a known criminal and pushes her back againt the fence leaving everyone to watch in horror as she is bitten and torn apart by the walkers who have now made it through the fence.

 

Still under the trees but now sat in darkness, Negan tells Ginny that he will come back for her as Maggie grows impatient for the passing time. Ginny hugs him before leaving with Maggie’s friend. Negan inquires as to whether she will be taken care of, but she evades the question by pointing instead to the back of the van so that she doesn’t have him up front by her side.

 

Walking back out to their cars a rookie among the marshals (Charlie Solis) asks if the woman that took Negan is the same one they keep hearing about, leaving people injured everywhere she goes. Perlie interrupts him to say that what he just did to the woman with the fence was because he had to, not because he wanted to, though the new marshal does not appear to be too sure whether or not this is true. As he walks away Perlie bends down and picks a map up from the floor with a page missing. Using the index he figures out that the page was for Manhattan and now has an idea as to where both Negan and Maggie are.

 

While Maggie dreams she relives traumatic events from her past in a haunting and violent montage – Negan with his bat and mocking smile beating the life from her husband as she and their found family watch helpless from the sidelines. This mixes in with images of their son, screaming for her as she is once again unable to help, leaving her distraught and utterly powerless. She awakes with a jump, half saying her son’s name aloud. Negan coughs behind her, letting her know he is awake and begins to tell a story of how when he was young his father promised a trip to New York to see The Statue Of Liberty. He goes on to explain that, much like every other trip he would promise to take, it was cancelled as something had “come up.” This then leads into him inquiring what the plan is, but Maggie is reluctant to give the details and he correctly states that she doesn’t trust him and that he wouldn’t either. He tells her he got what he wanted, Ginny is safe and he could just kill her, causing her to respond that she would kill him first. However, it seems that all he wants to hear is that she needs him. Instead, she reminds him that the marshals are after him so it cuts both ways. Negan looks down at a bracelet in his hands as he tells her that what the marshals are claiming he has done is not correct and he believes himself to have paid for his actions.

 

Standing on the shore looking over at Manhattan, Negan watches a building sending plumes of smoke up into the night sky from a front facing building on the other side. Maggie tells him that while watching for three days and nights she observed this happening the same time every morning and every night. Negan dismisses it stating that sometimes a building on fire means nothing more than exactly what it is. As they go to load the boat a car approaches nearby, carrying the two previously introduced marshals and a third. The rookie asks about Manhattan, wanting to know more about it. The two older marshals go on to explain that it was one of the epicentres during the outbreaks and that the military had destroyed bridges and tunnels just to specifically isolate and contain the dead inside the city populated with one and a half million people. The younger marshal exits the car to urinate before doing a sweep for Negan when Maggie sneaks up behind him and takes him hostage. By the time the other two hear a boat and rush over to the water edge they are travelling through the water, using him to cover them from gunfire.

 

On the boat Maggie tells the marshal to empty his pockets and hand over his gun. He states they aren’t allowed to carry a gun for the first three months after becoming a marshal and shows that what is in his pocket is medication for his sick grandmother. Negan, having no patience for his story, grabs him and wants to throw him overboard, stating that he can swim as it isn’t that far. Maggie stops him, saying that he is insurance. However, Negan insists he is a liability. Negan raises his voice at her saying he understands how her son Hershel being taken has stirred up memories from a very similar past and that it has rekindled a grudge against him that she had previously put to bed, but that he isn’t the bad guy. He tells her no one is anymore or everyone is. He asks how many husbands and fathers has she has killed. She quietly seethes with rage as she responds that you don’t ever put to bed something like what he did.

Maggie turns her back on both of them, starts the engine on and begins moving the boat towards the shore as the fog parts, the dark and derelict city is revealed and the camera turns to Maggie’s stern face as her mission finally begins.

 

As they bring their belongings up from the boat the rookie marshal asks why there are no chompers. They ignore him and instead turn their attention to the remnants of a crumbling bridge in the background, somehow beautiful under the moonlight though it has been long destroyed and neglected. Before moving on Negan insistently asks Maggie to watch over Ginny when they are through and she assumes this is because he has no intention to go back.

 

Entering the dark streets of the city Negan intercepts the young marshal as he attempts to escape and Maggie threatens him before Negan drags him to his feet. The cars they pass are long passed useful and have clearly sat still for many, many years as they are covered with mulch and dirt. It isn’t long before the illusion of emptiness is shattered as a walker drops down from above them, smashing onto the roof of a car. Then falls another and another, as though it were raining walkers. They assume the walkers had heard them struggling with the marshall and seek refuge in a doorway, but an abrupt and unusual sound of metal scraping or dragging cuts into their conversation. As they silently listen they are startled when a large group of walkers slam up against the glass that separates them on the other side of the door. They rush to the other side of the street to take cover under the scaffolding still attached to an old building, as more walkers fall from all sides, crashing down onto the concrete streets. Leaning out from one of the sky scrapers a head of tangled white hair can be seen observing the three of them before going back inside. When the walkers stop falling like rain letting up, Negan and Maggie drag the marshal and continue on with their journey.

 

Further into the city something catches Negan’s eyes and he stops Maggie, realising she was about to step into a booby trap. Moments later they round a corner and find themselves at a dead end filled with rubbish bags, but they barely have time to think on this as the sound of music cuts through the silence and a vehicle passes behind them. Seconds later, from the street that they had just turned, a huge herd of walkers following the noise from the vehicle begins to round the corner as though it had been intentionally made to follow them. The three of them hide behind the rubbish bags but begin to notice bugs crawling over them. They try to stay quiet until they not only realize they are being swarmed by cockroaches, but that the roaches are feeding on dead bodies within the bags. They hastily rush away, trying to find somewhere else to hide when the sound of gunfire  echoes out across the city and the walkers begin to fall. Assuming hopefully, the young marshal tries to call out the names of the other marshalls to tell them that he is there, but Negan drags him back down. They make their way through a door into a nearby building that looks to have been used as a laundrette or warehouse for clothing. They split up, attempting to find a way out of the building, when the two marshals burst in from the other side with the herd of walkers on their heels. The senior marshall, Perlie, tells the other to guard the door as he begins to creep through along the walkways between the clothes. He talks aloud, hoping to get Maggie to trust him, explaining that he has three daughters and a wife who mean more to him than anything. He tells her he will listen to her reason for taking Negan, which is probably a good one, so long as she comes out before he finds her, or there will then be consequences. From one side of the room, Maggie listens and on the other, Negan prevents the trainee marshall from giving away his location. From outside the crowd of walkers continues to build, pressing against the glass. While Perlie talks, he moves clothing bags aside with his gun, uncovering a walker with a bag over its head, as Negan also has one wandering up behind him. The marshal uses the knife on the end of his gun to kill the walker in front of him, but Negan and the rookie haven’t noticed the one behind them until they go to move and it is suddenly upon them. The young marshal falls to his back holding the walker mere inches from his own face, where to make matters worse, a rat’s tail hangs above him from its mouth. Negan puts a knife through its head, saving the younger man before helping him up just in time for Perlie, the experienced marshal, to shoot him accidentally through the head as Negan looks on in shock. Moments later, the walkers burst through the door, bringing the other marshal to his knees and begin ripping him apart. Perlie creeps up on Negan as he begins bashing through a door for him and Maggie to escape, not realising at first that Maggie is also creeping up behind him. She raises her knife to bring down on him, but at the last second he spins round, though Maggie is fast enough to stop him from turning his gun to use on her. They both begin to fight for the gun, with Maggie eventually being pushed down to the ground with the gun on her neck. The marshal struggles to hold her down and Maggie attempts to use the hidden knife under her boot, but he knees down onto her legs. Eventually Maggie says aloud that she needs Negan to save her son, but the marshal has a face of mixed emotions, perhaps questioning whether to believe her, or questioning whether it matters. Maggie reaches for the necklace around her neck with her wedding ring and brings it hard across the marshal’s face, helping her get the upper hand and giving her a chance to knock him unconscious with his own gun. She raises the gun again to kill him, but pauses, Negan’s words only a few hours before seeming to have stayed with her, as this was a father, a husband and she instead opts to leave him, as Negan looks on. They both take off through the door Negan had opened and the camera pans around to show that the marshal has gone, leaving only his hat behind.

 

Through the door Maggie and Negan find themselves in a darkened room. Lighting a match, they enter the room which is filled with mannequins and filthy junk, but also signs of someone recently staying  there. As they circle the match they come face to face with an old woman with white hair who blows out the match.

 

Somewhere within the city Maggie’s son Hershel (Logan Kim)  sits strapped to a chair. The Croat (Željko Ivanek) enters and begins rolling up his sleeves, addressing Hershel as acting tough and questions whether he ever met his fathers murderer. Hershel stays in silence as The Croat goes on to reference that Negan lived for years among his mothers people, asking what Hershel knows about him. He bravely looks at The Croat and tells him that he can continue sitting in the dark trying to freak him out, but he wont talk. The Croat then stands and walks to a unit off to the side, presumably having done this kind of thing many times before. He begins pulling out tools as he tells Hershel he was fascinated by New York as a child. He makes sure to show him various knives as he talks about the island being a struggle that shows you the strength that was always inside you. He brings a long rounded blade (somewhere between a knife, a hook and an axe), which he turns upside down and lowers menacingly towards Hershels body as his breathing quickens from fear. “You know, I think you’re going to like it here,” The Croat says to him as a man rushes in behind him, letting him know a prisoner has gotten away. A shirtless man covered in his own blood from cuts along his body frantically runs along a rooftop looking for a way down. The Croat and several of his men slowly walk out onto the roof as the man continues to helplessly escape. The Croat tells the man just to tell him about his people and to put an end to the hysteria and it will all be fine, but the man sees an opportunity for escape above them via a zip line. He rushes to it and quickly begins the descent down from the rooftop. The Croat waits until he is halfway down before taking a set of clippers and cutting the wire, shouting joyfully that it was twenty stories and a new record, as though this is a game he regularly enjoys.

The episode ends with The Croat leaning over the edge and shrugging over the death of the prisoner as though he were no more than a fallen stone.