So, as we reach the end of Dead City, something becomes glaringly obvious – this isn’t the end at all. Not even close.
Maybe I was being hopeful – or more accurately, naive – that, after the ending of the main, Walking Dead series, we were going to get closure for a bunch of the stand out franchise characters with this and the two other mini series that’ll focus on Daryl Dixon and Rick and Michone respectively. However, due to the complete and total lack of closure that this season finale, its blindingly obvious that a lot of the issues I’ve had I have with the series in general stems from the fact that it was never intended to be a self contained story.
So, does Doma Smo (French for “we are home”), mixed with the realisation that the plot lines will continue to run make the show retroactively better? Um… not really, but auto pilot Walking Dead still manages to carry a certain amount of charm.
After their respective experiences (former enemies Negan and Perlie have bonded after a heart to heart while Maggie drew the short straw and fought four Walkers molded into one in the sewers), the three adults and mute, adolescent runaway, Ginny, all reunite to take stock of their situation. However, Negan is hardly enthused to find out that the young girl has been trying to protect after her father was brutally murdered has followed him to one of the most dangerous places on earth and in an effort to protect her and get her to leave is to drop the bomb that he was the one who killed her father.
After an understandably traumatised Ginny leaves with Perlie, Maggie and Negan get back to the business of rescuing Hershel from the sinister Croat, but what Ginny was unable inform the former leader of the Saviours is that the whole enterprise is actually a ruse to lure Negan into a trap.
However, this is hardly Negan’s first rodeo and after a brief (and long coming) showdown with Maggie, guesses that he’s been the target all along and voluntarily gives himself up so that Hershel goes free.
However, what Negan is utterly unprepared for the true reasons why the Croat has desired to have his old teacher brought to New York – he’s not there for some sort of grisly revenge, he’s there because this is a recruitment drive and the Croat is bringing him to his boss, the Doma, in order to help them unite the other settlements dotted around the area. Why? Well, the answer to that lies with New Babylon, the settlement that Perlie works for and his story of events has one major detail that make the ears of his superiors prick up – the methane production that runs the Croat’s operations.
War, it seems, is coming. Just – y’know – not yet.
It’s weird when you watch a season finale and it offers a rational explanation for all the things that felt some what off for the previous five episodes, but the whole reason that Dead City has felt like it’s been grinding away in second gear for the entirety of its run is that this is only a fraction of a much bigger story. It forgives a surprising amount of sins that we’ve had to muscle through and even pays off stuff them formally felt like a mistake with the belated inclusion of Logan Kim Hershal who has only appeared in a handful of scenes despite being the whole macguffin that’s lured everyone here in the first place. We already knew he was bitter at his mother for obsessing over the man who killed his father instead of being a present parent, but even though the Croat and the Doma removed one of his toes, he actually was treated oddly well by his captors and even had time to sketch the Doma which tips Maggie off that bigger things are on the horizon.
Elsewhere, the whole inclusion of Perlie suddenly makes sense when we find his handlers are as ruthlessly black and white with their ethics as he used to be as they are practically salivating at the thought of a new source of fuel. But as rewarding as it is to feel all these pieces belatedly snapping into place, it’s so overwhelmingly frustrating that they’ve technically sacrificed a potentially gripping mini series in favour of setting up yet another super complicated, connected universe that will probably rely heavily on FOMO rather than solid plotting to carry it through.
But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, after all, regardless of the issues the series had, Jeffery Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohen brought the goods and while their showdown, like everything else in the season, is all too brief, the image of them knife fighting on a raised platform above a crowd of frenzied Walkers is a hell of an image and is probably worthy of the kind of moment die hard fans were clamouring for.
Another thing the show belatedly got right was the use of Manhattan Island itself that, despite the ominous, misty, glimpse in the first episode and the use of Madison Square garden, it mostly felt like the series could have be set pretty much anywhere, however, this episode finally gives us the breathing space to actually have someone comment on how rotten the Big Apple has truly become. Maggie’s story about always wanted to visit Macy’s in order to meet the “real” Santa as she wistfully stares at the ruined front of the legendary store is something the show needed more of – after all, what’s the point of making a show about a ruined New York if it isn’t a show about a ruined New York? Could you imagine John Carpenter making Escape From New York in New Jersey and just shooting it like a city in Vancouver or Atlanta?
Obviously it’s way too soon to speculate if the ramifications of Dead City will spill over into The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon or The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, or even if the misadventures of Maggie and Negan will get a second season, but its ultimately a little disappointing that the new Walking Dead is already making some of the same mistakes as the old Waking Dead as it recycles familiar plot lines and character tropes but just on a larger scale.
Still, I do have to admit, the cliff hanger that sees Negan essentially being forced back into his old life against his will as a tyrannical ball of fiendish charisma in order to be a possible general in the wars that the Doma is predicting, does sound kinda cool – but let’s be honest: pulling off big set ups hasn’t exactly been one of The Walking Dead’s strength over the last few years with this initial miniseries kind of proving the point.
At the end of the day, Dead City proves to be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 