THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Season 1, Episode 5, STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES

Written By:

Rich Cross

THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Season 1, Episode 5, STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES

by Rich Cross

So many hidden secrets are revealed in Stories We Tell Ourselves that the whole premise of The Walking Dead: Dead City is cumulatively reworked across the events of this one episode, ahead of next week’s first season finale. It’s a series of shifts that speak to the confidence of the show’s writers and confirm how effectively they have been able to adopt the rhythms of the mini-series format.

With Maggie’s and the survivors of the tribespeople’s group taking the only option to escape the walker horde at the stadium, they are forced to travel through the sewer system on foot. It’s a grim and forbidding network of pipes and junctions, littered with the decomposing remains of countless walkers. These claustrophobic sequences are lit and shot to edgy effect by director Gandja Monteiro.

The tension rises as the escapees make the unwise decision to stop and rest amidst the sea of cadavers, even as they struggle with the effects of the methane gas that The Croat has been deliberately syphoning off as a fuel source. It is a little odd that these sewers appear to be bone dry, but the sense of danger in dark confinement is well evoked and reminiscent of the early episodes of The Walking Dead’s own final season. It also features an attack on one of the group by an impressively realised ‘combo walker’, the invention of showrunner Eli Jorné (a nightmarish blend of the creature from Alien and a Hellraiser Cenobite – and very bitey with it). Amidst the carnage, a long-buried betrayal is unearthed, which culminates in some characters’ storylines reaching an abrupt and regretful end.

Just as impressive, albeit in a different way, is the development of the relationship between Negan and Marshal Armstrong – who’s also escaped The Croat’s trap. As the pair flee through the city, evading marauding walkers at every turn, the dynamic between Negan and Perlie changes. Along the way, fans who’ve been with the franchise since the first episode of The Walking Dead will enjoy a wry smile at a warning notice painted in alarmed lettering on a locked door.

Accepting that he can no longer act as Negan’s arresting officer, Perlie begins to share his guilt and remorse at his broken relationship with his dysfunctional brother. Negan tries to justify killing the men who assaulted his wife as an act of righteous justice. Even as circumstances force them to confide in one another, both continue to seek advantage and exploit weakness in the other’s armour. After a couple of episodes in which attention has turned away from Armstrong’s storyline, Gaius Charles takes full advantage of the chance to flex his acting muscles as more elements of Perlie’s character (other than those of the squared-jawed lawman) are revealed. Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets to explore more of the moral complexities of Negan’s nature, courtesy of the perceptive dialogue of Brenna Kouf’s taut script.

More unexpected even than the shift in Perlie’s and Negan’s stand-off, is the relationship that’s uncovered between The Croat and the never-before-seen power-broker The Dama (Croatian for ‘lady’ or ‘queen’). Seeming to be the matriarch of Manhattan, she commands The Croat’s deference and treats him as though he were her often-disappointing enforcer. Lisa Emery gives little away as to The Dama’s wider ambitions, but Kouf gives her an intriguing ‘meta’ speech about Negan’s character journey. “The show started out with a bang… But then there was a plot twist,” she explains. “You thought you had your hero, but he got away. What good is a hero offstage?” Viewers can have every confidence that Negan will soon be back in the glare of the spotlight.

Most shocking of all the episode’s upsets is the revelation of a deception born of desperation that will tear apart the fragile triangle connecting Negan, Ginny, and Maggie (about which we’ll keep schtum and spoiler-free for now).

This show takes evident pride in delivering surprising storytelling that’s crafted with a great deal of panache. Unafflicted by the kind of arbitrary flips in the character motivation that continues to plague the closing season of Fear the Walking Dead, Dead City is brought to life by fresh takes on familiar undead ideas. Next week’s finale is a tantalising prospect precisely because the outcome is so hard to predict. And, as The Dama explains to The Croat, “Everyone knows the ending is all that matters.”

New episodes of THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY premiere on Sundays on AMC in the US