Well, here we are, the season finale of the most consistent and enjoyable season of The Walking Dead in years. I’d pretty much had written off Dead City as probably the most flimsily constructed spin-off that had risen in the wake of the main series of The Walking Dead ending, but thanks to a regime change that saw Seth Hoffman stepping up as showrunner, it’s ultimately improved no end. With the scale narrowed but the stakes raised, surely the most innovative change was controversially switching the main dynamic between Maggie and Negan from hated enemies to admiring colleagues. Sure, it felt weird to anyone who still flashes back to a pregnant Maggie watching Negan smash the brains in of her husband, Glen, but while it seemed counterintuitive at times, the jump from hate to hope managed to light a fire under the lamented series and make it the most gripping the show has been in years. But can Dead City sustain it in the shadow of a rushed climax?
Dillard’s complete breakdown in the wake of Negan’s shooting of his zombie compadres has led to him murdering community leader Renata and marshaling the Dead Squad into his own, private militia who has taken the rest of the population of New York hostage. His deranged goals are simple, all he wants is Negan so he can kill him – although he’d happily snuff Maggie too if that eventuality enters the bargin. Having narrowly escaped a hail of bullets to plot anew, Maggie, Negan and Hershal try to figure out how to outwit this crazed man who seemingly holds all the cards.
Obviously, because Negan is still stuck in that phase that has him be fiercely loyal to Maggie while simultaneously wanting to give up his own life, he insists that he simply hands himself over, but when Dillard offers up Luis as bait, Maggie figures out that a distraction has to be whipped up that’ll require three people to pull off. While Maggie wrangles a bunch of Walkers to roam the streets and complicate matters for the Dead Squad, Negan goes under cover thanks to a fresh Walker corpse to infiltrate Dillard’s perimeter. While all this is going on, Hershal manages to gain entry to where the hostages are being held with a spot of swashbuckling and manages to prove himself as something of a hero after two seasons of emo angst.
However, this leaves us with the big showdown between Negan and Dillard, but just because the former undercover cop is crazier than a live chicken in a KFC plant, it doesn’t mean that he’s dumb. Getting the drop on his former friend, his indecision about whether to shoot him outright ultimately leads to his undoing; however, he isn’t disarmed (literally) and vanquished until Negan has been forced to follow his demands at gun point and stab Maggie. But what will the aftermath mean for Manhattan as a whole? Will it still be able to thrive, or has all that hard work been lost thanks to the whim of a madman?
The Walking Dead has always had something of a habit of delivering clunky season finales, that take multiple, narrative short cuts to cram the square peg of a plot into the round hole of logic, and I have to say that on the surface, season 3 of Dead City isn’t actually all that different. However, for all it’s lapses in logic and it’s rather small scale resolution, “Tenebrae” manages to deliver enough shocks and quirks to carry us through the more rougher aspects of the plotting. Possibly the most difficult thing that long time Walking Deaders are going to have to swallow is that the long standing blood-feud between Maggie and Negan has officially now become a buddy movie, and while those who will never accept Negan as a redeemable soul after cracking Glen’s melon will no doubt choke on their choice of drink at the scene where Maggie declares them friends out loud, it’s proven to be the smart choice when pulling the show out of its creative slump.
However, even I have to say that Maggie making Negan sheriff of New York after she takes the mantle of leader might be a little sudden considering the former head of the saviours has only just got over his recent killing spree – and stabbed her in the flank. But on the other hand, if you can move on along with the characters, it sounds like a pretty cool dynamic moving forward. However, not moving forward will be the dearly departed Renata and Dillard – and the treatment of the former proves that the show hasn’t lost its knack for treating side characters abysmally. I genuinely believed that Renata was only wounded last episode when Dillard shot her in the chest, but to double-down on the point, we find that not only has she died, but the show isn’t quite done with actress Aimee Garcia yet. It seems that Dillard wants to make her his latest, zombie buddy, and while her reanimated form is strapped to a gurney, the town weirdo is in the midst of pulling out her fingernails and teeth in order to make her “safe”. It’s a genuinely shocking end to a character we’ve spent a fair bit of time getting to know, but on the other hand, it helps truly sell the lack of sanity that Jimmi Simpson’s villain is playing with.
Interestingly, the episode doesn’t suddenly make the guy an unstoppable force of destruction, but just a regular dude who has just snapped at the absolute worst time. Early on in the episode, we get to see exactly the delusions that Dillard have been placing himself in as he imagined his time with Cockenspiel and Titicaca as some sort of goofy sitcom where canned laughter accompanies their comedic arguments. As a result, Dillard’s masterplan has more holes in it than the back wall of a shooting gallery, but it totally fits when you realise that the guy responsible is something of a tormented wreck. However, that doesn’t mean that his sudden reluctance to kill Negan when he has him at his mercy doesn’t smack of contrivance, but it isn’t the first time the franchise has bent over backwards to offer unlikely survival opportunities to its plot armour-clad heroes. However, while we get standard, finale shenanigans, the big difference is that you’re willing to let a lot of it slide primarily because the season has given you a reason for the good guys to prevail. Over the past eight weeks, the much needed injection of hope into the show has been revelatory, revitalising the characters, the scenario and even the random splatter when someone caves in the brain pan of a random Walker. Has season 3 of Dead City been the best thing to happen to The Walking Dead in ages – considering how bland it once was? The answer is surprisingly yes and as a result, my hopes for the final season of Daryl Dixon are now fairly high.
While admittedly guilty of some of the corner-cutting that’s plagued many a Walking Dead finale (Hershal’s big hero moment seems random and unearned – Luis seems underused despite watching his sister’s zombie form be mutilated – Maggie’s stab wound is glossed over), we leave Dead City in the best condition it’s ever been in. Not only am I talking about Maggie’s vision for New York, but Seth Hoffman’s vision for the show too.
Over to you, Daryl.
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