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Well, after last week’s narrative jump into an alternate universe predictably split the fandom, it’s down to the season’s penultimate episode to both reestablish momentum and live up to the tragic notion that the only people who can help Maggie and Negan be their best selves are each other. Yep, up until now, the rebuilding of New York and watching characters actually succeed in their goals has proved to be beneficial both for the people within the show and the quality of the show itself. But it’s now time to tear it down in order to really put Maggie’s notions of peace to the test.
While other seasons have seen other communities challenge what our heroes have built from the outside, it seems that New York is about to crumble from within – but with Negan veering back into villain territory and Dillard finally blowing his sanity stack, can this community manage to hold things together when some overdue chaos decides reigns on our parade?
After Negan executed Fabian two episodes ago and we recieved scattered details about Dillard having his face sliced in half after his former friend went berserk, we finally get to witness what actually happened after the former cop entered his bar. It seems that while Dillard was predictably nonplussed about the murder of Fabian, he’s horrified to discover one of his zombie friends, Cockenspiel, has caught a stray bullet to the brain pan. On the edge and unwilling to hurt his friend, Negan proves his point by blowing the brains out of Titicaca instead which unfortunately sends the already unstable Dillard completely off the deep end.
Framing Negan by slicing his own face in half, Dillard goes on to confirm Renata’s fears by claiming that the former villain is on a rampage and must be stopped at all cost. However, while Maggie appeals for calm, knowing that there must be more to things than they first appear, Renata reveals that it was actually Negan who murdered the Dama, and pulls rank to ensure that the man is brought in either dead or alive. However, neither woman is aware that Dillard is manipulating them in order to get revenge for his beloved zombie buddies, and wrangles the Dead Squad together as a posse to take down the guy he used to play XBOX with.
As they surround the bar where their target is cooling his heels, Maggie implores for some time with her notorious frenemy in order to either talk him round or sneak a drug into his drink to diffuse the tension. However, with Negan too smart to fall for Maggie’s tricks and Dillard too far gone to be patient, the peace is finally broken when the lunatic shoots Renata and orders the Dead Squad to lay waste to the bar and everyone in it. With a hostage situation building fast, can Maggie and Negan prove that the city can still hold together despite the fact that Dillard is willing to assassinate as many as it takes in order to get what he wants.
So, while I ultimately decided to support the decision to make last episode a bizarre, multiversal “what if” episode, some of my original concerns have actually been realised. Yes, we got an original side story that helped explain just how deep the connection between Maggie and Negan goes, but despite the good points (strong performances, weird cosmic symmetry), there’s a feeling that “Hourglass” is struggling to regain some equilibrium after performing the televisual equivalent of losing your train of thought. Well, now that we’re back in the room, we find the episode struggling to build up the fact that it lost a significant amount of momentum at arguably its most vital moment. After all, we’ve been watching the cast rebuild New York into a sustainable community for five episodes straight, so now that it’s all hanging in the balance because Negan can’t shit-can his demons and Dillard is crazier than a shithouse rat, we should be on the edge of our seats by now.
Maybe without the distraction of “Genesis”, “Hourglass could have ploughed into it’s siege at top speed, as everything that’s been built is now suddenly put in jeopardy. However, thanks to that narrative time-out, some old issues get a chance to rear their heads, and the main one is that maybe everyone would be better off if someone fed Negan a lead pill to the back of the head. Having both Maggie and Negan sort out their differences was always a tall mountain to climb the very second the wood of Lucille connected to the bone of Glen’s skull all those years ago, and thus far, season 3 has done a fairly good job explaining why Maggie has ditched the corrosive feelings of revenge to the eventual benefit of the show. But now that she’s working so hard to keep Negan alive after she’s discovered that he’s been killing dissenters to her cause, it is getting a little weird that she’d be so balls-out to save his life when he is admittedly back-sliding into his old ways.
Thankfully, while Dillard’s shift into full psychosis may seem a little abrupt (going from being friends with Walkers, to deliberately carving up his own face is quite the jump), it also lights a fire under the season’s ass when it needs it most. Out of nowhere, we not only now have the season’s big bad, but after he assembles the Dead Squad to be his muscle, he earns his villain stripes when he shoots Renata in the chest once she realises that things are going too far. Usually when The Walking Dead tends to rush things, it’s primarily on a huge scale that sees the show hurridly tear everything down for shock value in an orgy of lazy storytelling. However, keeping things small means that there’s still hope that the community – and the momentum – can be saved, even if the decision of the entire Dead Squad to become instantly evil stretches logic like a damn rubber band.
However, while “Hourglass” is certainly flawed, it does what it’s meant to do – provide drama for the final installment within the confines of a single episode. It may be fairly ungainly while it goes about its business, but Renata has a long-overdue epiphany before she’s shot, Dillard gets to embrace his inner maniac, and we get yet more bonding time between Maggie and Negan as they try to mentally out-manuver each other in the bar (an episode high point). But the time the credits roll, our two leads are going full buddy movie thanks to the fact that someone potentially more dangerous than Negan has stepped up to the plate. While the damage to an above-average season has been minimised thus far thanks to a episode that delivers action, tension and shocks, somehow it feels that everything still hinges on that last episode. Can Dead City get the cleanest sweep of any Walking Dead season in years? Or will the undying franchise take a fateful headshot at the final hurdle?
With everyone now in their positions for next week’s finale, Dead City manages to cling onto its quality by its blackened fingertips. While some of the plotting may not be as balanced as the season has previously displayed, it manages to keep the stakes high while keeping the threat local and personalised. Good luck season finale, it’s all on you to bring Dead City home.
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Where to watch The Walking Dead: Dead City – Season 3: Episode 7: Hourglass: