by Rich Cross
More of the hidden life of the walker-infested Manhattan is revealed in the second episode of Dead City, as Maggie and Negan try to find a way to reach the lair of The Croat, the city’s feared crime lord and the kidnapper of Maggie’s son Hershel.
In the ruins of the densely populated island, survival means living in high-rise buildings well above ground level and out of reach of the countless shambling undead crowding the city streets. With this episode unfolding during daylight hours, there’s more potential for striking visuals of the decayed city. The best of these involve the zip wires strung by the survivors at the tops of skyscrapers to allow heart-stopping, vertiginous transit between buildings. Negan thinks they’re a hoot, while Maggie has to face down her (very rational) fear of heights as she dangles hundreds of feet in the air.
As with the opening episode Old Acquaintances, showrunner and lead writer Eli Jorné is again joined by director Loren Yaconelli. There’s now ample evidence that they are a very effective pairing, able to blend the required combination of character work and undead action. The episode is punctuated by some impressive combat sequences, but Who’s There? is at its most successful when making time for an incarcerated Negan and Maggie to revisit the most painful moment in their shared history.
Negan’s murder of Glen and Abraham in the opening episode of Season Seven of The Walking Dead still defines the relationship with Maggie that seethes with resentment and unresolved anger. Negan reveals to Maggie the full extent of his dysfunctional relationship with the sadistic Croat, and how the botched attempt to neutralise the threat he posed has left Negan a marked man. Maggie’s fury that Negan has kept this fact from her dissipates in confusion when Negan explains the motivation behind his past recourse to ruthlessness and violence. It’s a form of self-conscious theatrical cruelty motivated by the need to protect others, Negan suggests, by paralysing your enemies with fear through intimidation: even when those enemies are Rick Grimes’ group. It is a revelatory exchange, skillfully played by Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It’s nothing that moves Maggie in the direction of forgiveness, but it does cause her to question her two-dimensional perception of the ‘monstrous’ Negan.
It ought to feel clunky that, within the same episode, Negan steps up to defend the pair’s new proto-allies from death at the hands of a Croat patrol with a similar demonstration of repulsive, visceral violence. But Yaconelli smooths over the incongruity, relying on Jorné’s gleeful inclusion of a Negan ‘knock, knock’ joke, Dean Morgan’s clear relish at the chance to revisit old, bad Negan, and some excess blood and guts.
Other quieter moments in the episode deliver different character insights. In a revealing flashback, it’s made clear that Maggie’s son Hershel had resisted her efforts to mould him into a resilient, self-confident fighter. While much of the backstory of the troubled and introspective Ginny is yet to be explained, her determination to follow her own path leads her to a questionable decision. Unable to continue his pursuit of Negan, Marshal Perlie Armstrong takes time out for a personal mission. Making his way to his brother’s apartment, he makes a poignant discovery about his sibling’s fate. It’s a trip that leads him into a trap and his first encounter with the maniacal Croat and his cronies.
By the close of the episode, Maggie and Negan have moved several steps nearer to the Croat’s base and have won themselves some reluctant allies: a small band of city dwellers who at least acknowledge that they are in the pair’s debt. Neither are yet aware that Armstrong is now in the Croat’s clutches, with the risk for Negan that the crime boss will learn of the proximity of the fugitive that both he and the Marshal would like to settle accounts with. It’s all promising stuff and shaping up well. So far, Dead City crackles with life.
New episodes of THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY premiere on Sundays on AMC in the US
Read our previous reviews of THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY below:
