The Walking Dead: Dead City started off with an intense episode. In “Who’s There?” Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) run into the NYC locals as Ginny tries to adapt to Hilltop.
In the premiere episode, a couple of years have passed and Negan is on the run from the law. Maggie finds him and enlists his help to find a kidnapped Hershel (Logan Kim). Turns out the kidnapper is an old colleague of Negan’s from his Sanctuary days called the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek).
We met some new characters including Perlie (Gaius Charles), the Babylon marshal hunting down Negan. And Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), a teenage girl who doesn’t talk and attached herself to Negan.
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At the end of the premiere episode, Maggie and Negan escaped Perlie and a horde of walkers that followed them into a dry cleaning shop. They encountered a lady in the darkness. Negan was holding a match and the lady blew out the flame. Now she’s running away with Maggie’s bag.
They chase the lady up one building, ziplining across to another building, and into a large room. The lady doesn’t speak English, but she’s friendly. She trades Negan a bag of goodies for pigeon meat. Negan asks her to take them to the building with the smoke, but she refuses. Instead, she takes them to her friends, Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbottom). That’s when we learn the lady’s name is Esther (Eleanor Reissa).
Tommaso doesn’t like the looks of Negan and Maggie. Amaia asks what Maggie and Negan are in the city for. Maggie lies and says they are just passing through to get to Canada. Amaia knows she’s lying and they take the two into custody.
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Last week, Ginny went to the Hilltop at Negan’s insistence. She looked around and saw everything they had to offer. Nina (Pallavi Sastry), Ginny’s host, took her to school and showed her to her room. Ginny eventually smiled at Nina, but still won’t talk. She’s staying in a room similar to where Hershel stayed.
We learned through a flashback that Maggie and Hershel weren’t on the best of terms. She wanted him to learn to fight and take it as seriously as she does. Herschel wanted to be left alone and draw. When Maggie comments on how good his drawings are, he lashes out that they suck and leaves to see his friends.
Their group is staying at a bank. They lock Maggie and Negan in a bathroom until they can go through Maggie’s bag and decide what to do with them. Maggie and Negan talk about the Croat while waiting. Negan says he met the Croat when the world fell. The Croat was in bad shape and Negan took him in. The Croat felt safe with Negan and started to see him as a brother. Negan thought he was helping the guy, but that’s not how it was. Maggie says it takes a monster to create one. Negan rebuts that saying he was only a monster when he needed to put on a show to protect his people.
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The Croat liked to toy with people and pull them apart. Negan said it was useful when dealing with threats. Until the Croat took it too far. Something happened before Alexandria got involved in the conflict between the Kingdom and the Sanctuary. They found a young girl squatting outside of the Sanctuary. The Croat thought she was a threat, but Negan didn’t see it that way. He told the Croat to let her go. Instead, he tortured her into saying she was a scout before he killed her. After that, Negan tried to kill the Croat and missed his shot. He only shot off his ear.
Maggie is disturbed by the story. She asks why Negan didn’t tell her about him in the first place. Now Maggie thinks the Croat will want to kill Negan when he sees him. Negan isn’t too concerned, but Maggie has to think about Hershel and his safety.
They hear a commotion outside and one of their captors lets them out. Everyone is running around, grabbing things and hiding. Tommaso lets them out of the bathroom, saying they lead the baratzi to them. He wants to shoot them, but Negan tries to calm him down. Negan has to get violent and holds a pigeon bone to Tommaso’s neck. He backs off and says they want to help them.
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A car screeches to a halt outside, as Amaia gives Maggie her bag back. They all try to leave, but a group of masked people pour into the building. Maggie and Negan are the last to hide and barely make it out. They find Tommaso, Amaia and a guy named Luther (Michael Anthony) fighting with the baratzi. They all see what kind of gun they carry and how it can tear someone up. It’s like a mini harpoon.
The meet up with the rest of the group on the rooftop, but one of the baratzi shows up and takes Esther hostage. He mumbles as Negan tries to talk him into letting her go. The guy stabs Esther and Negan grabs him, knocking him out. Tommaso holds Esther as she dies. Negan tells everyone to leave and he’ll take care of the killer.
Negan drags the guy back inside. Maggie watches and then follows. The baratzi are standing on the first floor. Negan uses the guy’s head to break some windows and starts performing. The baratzi watch while Negan taunts them and makes fun of how they look. Maggie watches from the doorway to the next room. Negan makes some jokes and then cuts open the throat of his hostage. He moves the guy’s body so that the blood rains down on the rest. He says he doesn’t want to see them again. If he does, it won’t be a rainstorm, it will be a hurricane. He turns and tells Maggie to leave.
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As for Perlie, he escaped the dry cleaning shop. If you recall Perlie carries around an envelope with a NYC address. He goes to that address, as we assume a family member lives or lived there. The place appears to be empty, but there are signs that someone was living there for a little while.
Perlie goes through the closet and finds a box where a gun is supposed to be, but it’s missing. He looks around the other rooms and eventually finds his brother with a gunshot in his head. Pearlie covers the body and puts a rosary on him. He takes the gun and leaves, only to walk into a booby trap set up outside of the building.
Later that night, Tommaso and Amaia lead their people to a quiet place to hide. Negan has a bad cut on his hand and tends to it while Luther watches him closely. Tommaso thanks Negan for his help. Amaia says they don’t have any supplies to help them out. And they’re pretty sure that Maggie’ s boat is sunk. Tomasso says you can get on the island, but the psycho that the baratzi work for will make sure they can’t leave.
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Maggie comes clean and reveals that she knows who’s in charge. The Croat. And he has her son. Amaia assumes she wants to get to him. And that she can help her if she’s looking to die Back at Hilltop, Ginny sneaks out of her room. She distracts the guard at the gate. She starts to get on a scooter, but turns to look at the water tower.
Perlie is still in the booby trap. A group of walkers are below him, reaching for him. The baratzi show up and kill the walkers. They cut Perlie down and the Croat approaches him. He kicks the gun out of Perlie’s hand and smiles. The Croat looks at Perlie and says he’s safe now.
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