Finally, after three episodes of set up and measured scores, the rescue attempt to free Herschel from the clutches of former Negan protege, the Croat, is under way. It’s about bloody time too as my patience for Dead City was starting to wear a little thin.
I’ve mentioned before that the new wave of miniseries that are about to decend on us would have been the perfect time to maybe switch up the formula a bit and maybe take the show back to its roots – you know, when the zombies were the Majors threat and not just some wannabe despot with a flamboyant attitude. Alas, Dead City has instead revealed that its content to be a sequel show that happily maintains the status quo – but with the rescue attempt finally getting off the ground I was hoping that things hopefully would be taken up a notch. While we certainly get an upturn in zombies and action, Everybody Wins A Prize still suffers from not fully realising the stakes involved.
After a quick flashback that establishes Negan’s complicated relationship with the torture happy Croat, we find that the straw that broke the camel’s back was indeed the murder of a young girl under questioning. Putting into place that the Saviours have a no harming kids rule (Really? First I’ve heard of it), it’s obvious that the Croat’s time with the group is in jeopardy which subsequently sets everything else in motion.
Back in the present, Negan, after “accidently killing Luther, has rejoined the group and puts on his best “no idea” face when everyone notices that he’s AWOL – however, Maggie, entrusting soul that she is, has her suspicions that he’s hiding something. Actually, she’s hiding a sizable something herself as she hasn’t informed her most hated frenemy about the fact that his young companion, Ginny, has followed him to New York and is watching them from a distance. Still, there’s no time for confessions just yet as it’s time for Maggie, Negan and the raggedy survivors known as the tribespeople to storm Madison Square Garden and liberate any prisoners (including Herschel) that the Croat has waiting to enter his arena of death.
However, after gaining entry and Negan splits from the group in order to draw out the Croat and kill him, the whole deal turns out to be a trap as the villain has moved out all the prisoners and set all the entrances to detonate in order to let swarms of Walkers into the building with the purpose to trap and consume this would-be rescue party.
While Maggie and the tribespeople fight off endless waves of dead people like a Call Of Duty bonus game, Negan faces down the Croat who seems genuinely hurt that his old boss has come to murder him, but while the leader of the Burazi offers up a captive Perlie to sweeten the deal, Maggie, Ginny and the surviving tribespeople make their escape via the most dangerous route imaginable: the New York city sewers…
I’m going to hold my hands up and say, while I sounded rather dismissive about this fourth episode in my opening, Everyone Wins A Prize is a nice improvement of a series that’s still leaning too hard on overused plot lines. In fact, straight off the bat (pun intended when Negan is involved) we get a flashback dwelling cameo from none other than Steven Ogg’s short tempered henchman, Simon. In fact, dropping in this neat little bit of connective tissue that visibly links both Negan and the Croat together does a fair bit of heavy lifting for their relationship despite us already being told about this exact same moment earlier in the series. It also helps to take your mind off the fact that the show flatly refuses to deal with the fallout of Luther’s murder at the hands of Negan, but while this would be something of an irritant, the fact that the epidode skims over it means we can finally get down to the reason everybodies here in the first place – the infiltration of Madison Square Garden.
As Walking Dead action sequences go, it’s not the tank attack on the prison from season four, but its decent enough. Using the space well, seeing torrents of Walkers pour through every single entrance the place has is quite a sight to see and having the dwindling humans have to fall back to the temporary safety of a MMA fighting cage is a neat little wrinkle. Even better is how Maggie goes on to take further advantage of her environment by taking the safety pads off the corners and using them.as makeshift shields to push her moldy attackers aside and it truly has the feel of a vintage set piece that The Walking Dead used to do so well. However, you won’t particularly be on the edge of your seat simply because its painfully obvious that Maggie isn’t going to die and you won’t much care who else survives. In fact Tommaso not only falls beneath a horde of Walkers, but is shown to still be alive barely a scene later – but neither moment manages to elicit an emotional response either way and I’m willing to put a tenner down that he’s hiding a fatal bite.
While Maggie and company are fighting for their lives, Negan’s playing the stealth game as he tries to lure out the Croat with the Saviour’s patented whistle, but it all ends up being one big double cross as I’m assuming he’s been given a head’s up from the captive Perlie. We manage to get a bit more of a handle on the Croat this time round with the flashback merging well with both his happiness and then disapointment with crossing paths with Negan once again; but it’s an earlier scene where he is giving a visibly terrified child member of the Burazi measured words of encouragement that creeps us out the most. Let’s put it this way, the implications are horrifying.
However, while the action is lively, it’s also curiously unaffecting and weirdly enough, the two biggest details of the plot are noticable by their absence. We’ve barely had ten minutes of Logan Kim’s Herschel since the show has began despite him being integral to the story; also, if Perlie’s incorruptible lawman was supposed to be a noticable wild card, why has he been shoved to the side after his capture until now?
Once again leaving illogical story turns and plot holes in its wake (ask Carl Grimes about Negan’s squeamishness about harming kids), Dead City still holds the attention mostly due to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s performance (Lauren Cohen isn’t given much more to do this episode than stab skulls and glare daggers), but if the show doesn’t help us establish an actual connection with what’s going on on-screen, I’m kind of wondering what the point is.
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