On this episode of Dead City, the battle begins, and I am left wondering if it’s possible for enemies to work together for the common good. Let’s find out in this spoiler laden recap.
“Everybody Wins a Prize”
Episode 4 of Dead City begins with a flashback. We get to see Simon (Steven Ogg) complaining to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Apparently, there are lines that even the Saviors won’t cross. I am left to wonder just how evil the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek) was before the apocalypse. He must have had this lust for torture way before the first walker showed up.
Croat is a character study on what this country is experiencing right now with the proud boys, moms for liberty, and the recent Supreme Court decisions. Good people don’t just go full monster overnight unless that seed was always there to begin with. This goes for Negan, too. I know that Negan has been telling Maggie (Lauren Cohan) that he’s changed, which he did for the better, but that secret part of him that made it so easy to bash in Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) and Abraham’s (Michael Cudlitz) skulls was always there.
Negan keeps quiet when Amaia and the others wonder if Luther took off because he disagreed about this insane plan to save Hershel. Maggie is suspicious, and she keeps secret the fact that Ginny is on the island. Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbottom) take the remaining members of their little group and lead Negan and Maggie to Croat’s headquarters at Madison Square Garden. They are unaware that Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) is following them.
Conclusion
No good deed goes unpunished. This is true in real life, and it is definitely true in Dead City. Even though Maggie’s plans to save Hershel were sound, the battle did not go as planned. Team Amaia lost a lot of friends after the Croat used music and explosions to lure walkers into the stadium. When Negan and Maggie find a young walker tied up, it was Negan who checked to see if it was Hershel.
Lauren Cohen has emerged, after all these seasons, to be an amazing actress. Just watching her range of emotions as she stood there waiting to see if the walker was Hershel was truly believable. As was the scene right after where Maggie is about to show Negan the dinosaur until she finds that beeswax in his bag. Ginny is essential in saving Maggie and the remainder of Team Amaia. This kid was trained by the best (Negan)…but where they are headed might be worse than what they encountered in the stadium.
That whistle that haunted us since season six has Negan and Croat playing hide and seek, but when Negan had the chance to kill…he decides to listen to the Croat blab on about them joining forces. Did Croat really believe that Negan would join him if he threw Perlie (Gaius Charles) over the railing? Did Negan really believe that Perlie would be anything but an enemy?
Two more episodes to go, but we did get to see a softer side of Croat, if that is even possible, when he talks to one of his young protégées (Allison Wick) about how he found her and made her part of his sanctuary. Reminds me of that snake from The Jungle Book. I’m not sure if the title was a good fit for this episode. There were no winners. It should have been called “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.”
