by Rich Cross
Doma Smo, the sixth and final episode of the first season of the Dead City spin-off of The Walking Dead, brings matters to a close with a series of startling revelations that together rewrite the relationship between Maggie and Negan on which the entire show pivots. There are action sequences threaded through this finale, but the episode’s real impact comes from those moments in which characters in and around the island enclave of Manhattan challenge and confront each other with uncomfortable – and sometimes devastating – truths.
The long-simmering tensions between Maggie and Negan finally detonate here, as both of them admit the real reason that Maggie was so determined to have Negan accompany her. That combination of denial and betrayal paves the way for an impressively choreographed knife fight on a narrow platform above a mass of clawing walkers. But given that the audience learned of Maggie’s subterfuge in last week’s episode, the more powerful shock comes from the reunion of Ginny and Negan. This determined young girl has risked everything, against all the odds, to reconnect with the one person she feels safe with. Negan’s rejection of her – and his reason for it – is a gut-wrenching moment and played with absolute conviction by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Negan’s disavowal pushes marshal Armstrong into an unexpected kind of custodial role, as he agrees to get Ginny to safety and away from Manhattan. That journey ends with Armstrong’s return to New Babylon and a revealing debrief about his mission by the authorities there, which compels him to decide where his loyalties lie. Perlie has not gone on the character journey that his introduction back in Old Acquaintances suggested was laid out for him: that of the relentless sheriff who always ‘gets his man’. His character’s evolution has traced a much more interesting and conflicted path, even if Perlie has not always secured the screen time he merited.
Flashbacks in earlier episodes had already exposed the long-standing tensions in Maggie’s and Hershel’s mother-son relationship. So while Maggie had no expectation that Hershel’s release would be a moment of maternal joy, she’s taken aback by the accusations spat at her by her angry, petulant child. Lauren Cohan plays Maggie’s bewildered disbelief at Hershel’s charges beautifully. This warrior-mother, who’s prepared to take on a city of the dead and its human tyrants, is emotionally unravelled by her son’s insinuations: allegations that she’s worried might be fully justified.
Most jaw-dropping of all, though, is the meeting between Negan, The Croat, and The Dama. Everything that’s led to this point has been built on the assumption that the motives in play were revenge, retribution, and punishment. That Hershel was the leverage to ensure Maggie would deliver Negan to The Croat’s clutches to be sacrificed. While Negan’s survival, certainly at this point in the lifespan of Dead City, was never seriously in question, the future he’s now confronted by comes as a complete shock, as he realises he’s been played – twice over.
The episode ends on a split-screen close-up of Maggie and Negan that could never be called ‘subtle’. But the visual is a crude metaphor for something more nuanced: that there are many more uncomfortable parallels between the pair’s nature than either character is prepared to admit. Given how much the show rests on the dynamic between these two survivors, ending the story by reinforcing that idea is fair enough, although it’s the least sophisticated moment in Jorné’s otherwise assured script.
The undead remain peripheral to the storyline of Doma Smo, as attention turns to the power battles amongst the dead city’s elite and the life decisions of key characters. This is a season finale shaped by a powerful but understated sense of menace, rather than the more familiar Walking Dead mix of character deaths, walker breaches of long-held defences, or showdowns between human armies.
Showrunner Eli Jorné will have crafted this endpoint in the knowledge that the show was likely to return for a second season. Confirmation of Dead City’s renewal came before this final episode was broadcast, which means that none of these unresolved conflicts, or the newly revealed antagonisms, will be left hanging. While Fear the Walking Dead continues to stumble towards its overstretched conclusion, Dead City sets a new high benchmark against which other upcoming spin-offs from the parent show will inevitably be judged.
New episodes of THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY premiered on Sundays on AMC in the US
Read our previous reviews of THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY below:
Season 1, Episode 1, OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Season 1, Episode 2, WHO’S THERE?
Season 1, Episode 3, PEOPLE ARE A RESOURCE
Season 1, Episode 4, EVERYBODY WINS A PRIZE
Season 1, Episode 5, STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES
