Things aren’t what they seem to be on The Walking Dead: Dead City. In “Stories We Tell Ourselves,” truths and motives come to light as Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) make their way under the city. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tries to convince Perlie (Gaius Charles) that he’s not a bad guy.
Maggie, Ginny, Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbottom) were forced into the sewers to escape the horde of walkers that the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek) set on them. The Croat was busy chasing Negan down. He also tried to kill Perlie as sort of a sacrifice for Negan. Negan saved Perlie and ran to a safe place. Then Perlie pulled a gun on him. And that’s where we are.
Tommaso leads the group through the sewers, warning them about the effects of the methane from the dead bodies. Amaia feels like everything is her fault, but Tommaso tells her not to worry about it.
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At the same time Perlie leads Negan through the streets at harpoon gunpoint. Perlie is determined to take Negan in to face the consequences of his crimes. Negan explains that the men he killed attacked his wife. Perlie hears him but doesn’t react. Negan asks where they are going and Perlie says they are headed for the Chelsea docks. The docks can be disconnected and float. That’s when Negan realizes Perlie is from NYC. Perlie admits to being from Brooklyn and working for the state. Negan reveals he worked for the state too, as a gym teacher.
A large group of walkers starts following them. The two men walk through a hole in a fence and into a courtyard, where walkers start to surround them. They see a door, but it’s locked. There is a refrigerator next to the door. Negan opens it and it leads into the building, so they quickly get it before being overwhelmed by the walkers.
In the sewers, there are piles of dead here and there. Ginny tries to climb one to get back to the street, but the manholes are sealed shut. Maggie stops her, saying she doesn’t know the real Negan. She says he is a monster. If Ginny sticks with Negan long enough she will see it. Ginny climbs down and continues on with Maggie.
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Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee – The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC
Tommaso walks ahead of the group and comes back with two oxygen tanks. He thinks the Barazi left them there for their people. Everyone starts using the oxygen, except for Maggie. While they share the oxygen, Amaia begins to wonder how the Barazi knew they were coming. Tommaso thinks it was Luther who tipped them off and then ran away. Maggie thinks Tommaso tipped them off.
Maggie points out that Tommaso knew how to get out of the arena. He found the oxygen tanks out of nowhere. She suggests he tipped off the Barazi and has been working with them since he escaped. She also thinks he had the oxygen tanks with him the entire time. That was the signal that they were coming.
At first Tommaso accuses Maggie of being paranoid, but Maggie figures it all out. He tries to explain to Amaia that he did it for her to keep her safe. He says it was a fantasy thinking they could take the island back. Amaia starts crying because Tommaso betrayed their people. They keep walking.
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Negan and Perlie find weird art and dead bodies throughout the building. One of the bodies is tied to a chair with an ax in the head. For some reason, Perlie is reminded of his brother. While he thinks about how he found his brother, Negan sees a walker go by the door. He looks out the doorway to see where it goes, but doesn’t tell Perlie. Perlie decides they need to keep going, so Negan follows the walker. When he catches up to it, Negan grabs the walker and throws it on Perlie. Negan runs away while Perlie fights off the walker.
Perlie kills the walker and catches up to Negan. Negan found a doorway that was boarded up. “Do Not Open, Dead Inside” is spray painted on the wood. Negan tries to pull off the boards. That’s when Perlie shoots the harpoon gun into the boards and pulls. The boards come right off.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan – The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC
Negan is frustrated. He says he doesn’t like leaving people behind. He tries to bargain with Perlie. Negan says he will help Perlie, but Perlie has to let them go when they get off the island. Perlie refuses, but his leg is getting worse. Negan gets angry and says Perlie doesn’t know him. He picks up Perlie and they leave the building together.
Tommaso, Amaia, Ginny and Maggie walk up on a large pile of bodies. Tommaso tries to move enough bodies so they can get over the pile. Maggie offers Amaia safety if she will take Ginny back to Hilltop, also known as the Bricks. She leaves them to rest and tries to help Tommaso move the bodies. Maggie gets light headed and stumbles. Tommaso makes her stop and tries to give her oxygen.
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Tommaso tries to explain why he decided to work with the Croat. The Croat offered him safety. He told him about a place with homes that was safe because it was all made out of brick. (Sounds like Maggie’s home.) Tommaso said he had to try for Amaia.
A walker grabs Amaia and she cries out. Tommaso runs back to her but another walker grabs his leg. Ginny is also grabbed. Maggie comes up behind Tommaso, killing the walker who grabbed him, then the walker that grabbed Ginny. There are several walkers on top of Amaia, eating her. More walkers grab onto Tommaso. Maggie kills all of the walkers on top of Amaia, but it’s too late. Amaia is dead. Tommaso was bitten on the neck. He bleeds out and dies too, so Maggie stabs him in the head.
The Croat drives up to a theater and goes inside. There are several people in the theater, singing along with a guy playing the piano on stage. The Croate goes backstage to meet with a lady called The Dama (Lisa Emery). He says his plan was a success. His informants told him that the threat is neutralized. And Negan is on the island. The Dama wants to know where Negan is, but the Croat doesn’t know his whereabouts.
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Lisa Emery as The Dama – The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC
The Dama is really the person in control. And she wants Negan. The Croat gives her the marshal’s badge. He says she was right. There are people out there trying to bring back the old ways. He thinks they will eventually come for everything she built. Which is why she needs Negan. The Croat promises to find Negan.
Ginny and Maggie continue on. Maggie tries to talk Ginny into returning to the Hilltop. She knows Ginny saw the dinosaur in her bag. Maggie says she didn’t tell Negan about it because Negan would leave if he knew Ginny was there. She says she needs Negan. She tells Ginny about the bad man who came and stole all of their grain and food and took her son. Negan is the key to getting her son back. Ginny nods to acknowledge Maggie.
Perlie and Negan find a school bus. The bus has a bed set up in the back. Negan takes the first aid kit and cleans up Perlie’s wound. He tells the marshal to get some rest and then sits in the driver’s seat. Perlie tells Negan about his brother. His brother got heavily into drugs and tried to steal from their parents. Perlie was angry with him, feeling abandoned. His brother wrote him a letter, but he never read it. When the city fell, Perlie and his parents were able to get out of the city, but left his brother behind to die alone. He asks if his brother deserved that. Back then he would have said yes. Now he’s not sure. It’s all gray. It’s just stories we tell ourselves to sleep easier.
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Maggie and Ginny come upon another wall of bodies. Maggie is still light-headed, but they both make it over the pile. Ginny stops in the next room and sees a ladder leading to the street. Maggie acknowledges that this is the way out. She takes a step on top of a body and her foot goes through the body and gets stuck. They hear growling and look around for walkers.
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon as Ginny – The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC
Maggie sees a walker pull itself off the ground. She tells Ginny to go and throws her bag to her. Ginny climbs the ladder, while Maggie tries to get her foot loose. The walker crawls toward her quickly and you can see it has multiple arms. Maggie has a knife and is trying to get loose. The walker stands up and it is four walkers stuck together. The walker falls on top of Maggie.
While Maggie fights off the two walkers, two more heads push through the walker body to bite her. She is able to kill the walker heads and maneuvers around enough to kill the first walker. Maggie pushes the body of walkers off of her and the last walker pops up and Maggie kills it. She pulls her foot out of the walker and crawls away. She climbs the ladder to catch up with Ginny. When she gets to the top, there is a word written above the tunnel in fresh blood, ‘liar.’
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Ginny crawls through the tunnel. She remembers being at the Hilltop/Bricks and watching a resident climb down from a grain silo. Before Ginny left the Hilltop/Bricks, she climbed the silo and looked inside. The silo was full of grain. Maggie lied.
Maggie crawls through the same tunnel and starts to remember the night Hershel (Logan Kim) was taken. The Croat did come to the Hilltop/Bricks, but he only took Hershel. He handed Maggie the wanted poster of Negan and left with Hershel
Maggie climbs out of the manhole and lays on the side, catching her breath. Ginny runs into the city. There’s no one around, so she stops. She looks at the flare gun in her hand and shoots it in the air. Negan and Maggie both see the flare and watch as it flies through the sky.
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News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
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