After three episodes and it finally seems like the second season of Dead City is finally getting to something approaching a point. What first seemed like a simple first season scenario that seemed to suggest that both Maggie and Negan were both on a collision course to address some long standing business, the show suddenly expanded to include other communities and numerous roadblocks that prevented the stripped back, six episode, face-off I naively thought the first season was going to be. Since then, things have only gotten more complex and convoluted, but with Feisty Friendly, it seems that Dead City is finally starting to find its feet and gain momentum.
Of course, when I sat that, I only mean one of the two story threads has managed to gain a foothold, but fuck it – in the world of The Walking Dead, I’ll act exactly like one of the weathered characters featured in the show: I’ll take any hope I can…
With everyone seemingly on the same page, the Dama sets the first major part of her plan in motion to unify the three major gangs of New York into one, New Babylon repelling army by rallying up her troops as cosying up to Bruegel, a foppish thug who has elevated himself up to becoming “new money” by winning a massive museum in a bet from rival gang leader, Christos. However, while Negan, the Croat and the rest of the Dama’s entourage are given a tour of the numerous pieces of art that decorate the place Maggie and Perlie cook up a plan to scout out the enemy while the rest of their people make preparations to leave Central Park and the clan known as the Foragers who live there. Their aim is to try and track down Negan who made himself known the Hershell last episode and manage to pinpoint the location of the Dama’s methane plant which is going to be a potentially thorny issue considering that Perlie already told New Babylon that he was dead.
While the notoriously twitchy Croat sees his temper potentially scupper the union between the Dama and Bruegel, Negan steps in to smooth things out by suggesting a wager. If Bruegel won the museum thanks to his hulking, undead, zombie fighting champion, then Negan hopes to win his loyalty by outwitting him and picking another random zombie to take down the undefeated Walker. However, during the excitement,
Negan runs into Maggie and while the two quickly attempt to negotiate with each other about who could actually help who, the fight gets underway.
However, it seems that the Bruegel is just as slippery as Negan is and as the two Walkers sluggishly attack each other, it seems that the secret to Bruegel’s winning streak is a fiendish as it is simple. With zombies duelling in the ring and their owners matching wits outside, will the Dama manage to secure a major part of her master plan?
While the Negan part of the story has suddenly managed to pick up the pace, the downside is that the Maggie stuff (currently the lesser of the two storylines by far) is still trailing noticably behind. However, while we’re being led around with the villains for a pretty entertaining episode, some at least manage to get some meaty scenes to keep themselves in the game. OK, yes, both Ginny and Narvaez have sweet fuck all to add this week, but we not only have a brief but tense reunion between Maggie and Negan that speaks volumes thanks to what isn’t said, but we also share a quiet moment where Maggie and Perlie reminisce about the pre-zombie days.
The first scene works so well because despite all the differences they have, both in one quick conversation, both of them realise that they are both stuck in the exact same situation by being trapped by the powers that be to move mountains in order to protect their respective families. The second manages to show a generational and moral divide between generations as after all the fond memories about candy bars and advertising jingles, Hershall pipes up with his beliefs that he can’t work out what was so special about the old world as any attempt to return to it causes the same type of mass conflict that occurred when the world was still turning. He has a point, but it’s still obvious that the Dama’s influence making itself known through him, thus making his allegiances as murky as Walker piss.
However, the true high points of the episode come from the conflicts and confrontations that spring up from within the rogues gallery as the bad guy’s arcs still insist on being far more fun. Yes, we’ve seen a Walking Dead villain being obsessed with art before (like, wasnt there just one over in Daryl Dixon’s show?) and we’ve certainly seen people stage gladitorial zombie fighting many times (oh God, have we), but the tangled politics and egos of these guys all being in the same room all suddenly makes the show come alive in a way that I’ve been hoping for.
For a start, Kim Coates’ Bruegel is a fucking gem – a preening, sarcastic cockrell of a man whose flamboyant tastes is only eclipsed by the duplicitous lengths he’ll go to maneuver himself into more power. Exhibit A is the gloriously twisted reveal that his ultimate zombie fighting champion isn’t actually dead at all and is a mentally slow man named Tony, but after Negan manages to figure out Bruegel’s audacious scam, he manages to finese victory out of a potentially explosive situation and score reluctant fealty from the murderous con man. However, even better is that fidgety historian Benjamin Pierce manages to give us a comprehensive origin story for the Dama out of nowhere after recognising her photo from old newspapers he’s been studying from the old world. It seems that the Dama was an extremely influential and powerful critic of the arts back in the day who ran into some trouble after she bit someone in an altercation at a show, but while an artistically obsessed antagonist is hard new, this weirdly seems a lot fresher that it should possibly because the show mercifullyis keeping that speed up and ignoring needless flashbacks that slow everything down. Watching politics be sketched out through equal measures of diplomacy and an eye for weakness in this world is equally fun, be it the “Last Supper” set up of a banquet, or the fact that they’re serving rat for the feast. And the fact that Bruegel’s attempt to use the Croat’s volcanic temper to negotiate a better deal is counteracted by a fast thinking Negan at numerous times means that the Maggie plot really needs to pull it’s socks up before it starts holding the good stuff back.
With the extended set up seemingly starting to show promise, this week’s Dead City may be the best shape the show has been in since it started, but all it takes is one misjudged step to send it tumbling back into no man’s land once again. However, with the Negan stuff delivering gold, it’s about time Maggie, Perlie and Co. pull their weight and bring some standout shit to the table. It’s just good politics after all…
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