Who would have thought that a spot of positive thinking was all it would take to get Dead City to turn its questionable fortunes around? As we reach the halfway point of season three, we find that “Found/Lost” gives us our most hopeful installment yet that not only reminds us that the misery the show normally toils in means absolutely nothing if not juxtapositioned alongside the sight of people trying to better themselves and others with selfless acts.
OK, so maybe episode four is arguably the weakest offering from the third season thus far, primarily because injecting these happy feelings takes away a lot of the overarching threats and offers up a slower, more thoughtful showing – but you can’t fault the show for wanting to lighten the mood even further, especially when it’s working. Oh, and brace yourself for a sight you’d never thought you’d see after all these years… Nope, it’s not some grotesquely malformed Walker (although we have some of those too), but the sight of Maggie not just smiling, not just laughing, but dancing? The Walking Dead Happy Hour continues.
After the recent issue with the feuding groups from Belleville and Newark, medical supplies are at an all time low and are in desperate need of replenishment. However, while treating a sprained ankle, Luis learns from a patient about the existence of someone known as the Trader, a person who lives on the mainland and is rumored to be able to get whatever you need for a price. Obviously, Maggie volunteers herself because she’s dead set (no pun intended) on making the Manhattan community work no matter the cost, but both she and Renata are a little concerned when Luis demands that he go too. It certainly makes sense as they’ll need a professional eye to ensure that any medical supplies they get are legit, but Renata is doubly concerned as her brother is the only proper surgeon on the island.
However, once they get to the Trader, they find that their requests carry a huge price, however, Maggie selflessly pays it with the blueprints for the methane making process. The Trader, suitably impressed, goes to find their ambitious shopping list, but in return asks them to stay at her cabin while she’s gone and as a result they meet the kindly Gerald. A simple, religious man, he represents the community known as the Beconites, who live in relative harmony and he invites the pair to join in a regular celebration of life that the people have to give thanks.
But while Maggie and Ruis seem to be fighting the growing feelings that they have for one another, back at Manhattan, pressure is building. First, Renata is trying to get through to Negan and appeal to his more human side after she reveals that she knows he murdered the Dama. Secondly, some of the original members of the community are getting a little peeved about all these outsiders being invited in to drain their resources; but both of these may fall into insignificance, or get worse when a sizable sinkhole opens up right where their food reserves are kept. See? Not everything in Dead City has become exceedingly hopeful.
Once you rake a step back from “Found/Lost”, you find that all of the best things about it come from the things that it doesn’t do, rather than what it does. There’s a whole bunch of new stuff happening here such as the introduction of Folake Olowofoyeku’s purple suited Trader, the discovery of yet another community and the surge in romantic feelings between Maggie and Ruiz; but while an older season would have used these all to set up a succession of devestating revelations and shock events, the twist here is that there actually is no twist. The Trader, despite dressing like Mr. Glass from Unbreakable, proves to be on the up and up and while past seasons might have tried to pull some sort of heinous shit by making the Beconites cannibals or some other, hideous trick, the people prove to be of the kind, caring type, who politely decline the use of the methane machines to preserve the way of life they’ve built. Most of all, you spend the entire episode convinced that The Walking Dead is going to do Raúl Castillo’s Luiz dirty simply because of the romantic stirrings that occur between him and Maggie thanks to a road trip, a secluded cabin and a bona fide party complete with dancing. And yet, while Maggie balks in engaging in some actual lip-locking (although she certainly imagines it), we are stunned when we get to the end of the episode and the writers haven’t killed the guy off in some lazy attempt to be edgy. While some may feel an episode where everything inexplicably goes right may be the enemy of gripping drama, the fact we’re building things from the ground up for our heroes to truly fight for rather than just telling us that it’s important, means that when things go truly to shit, we’ll feel them even more. Once again, we, the show, and Lauren Cohen benefit hugely from the continued use of Maggie as an actual character once more, who can afford to drop the warrior woman act for a bit to reminisce about her childhood on a farm, or even get wistful about the long, lost Glen – but it’s also nice that Luis is getting room to grow as his sister has had plenty of growth already.
Of course, it isn’t all sweetness and light, and while it’s a shame we don’t get more progression when it comes to Dillard’s rather worrying mental issues concerning the dead talking to him and telling him to do things, cracks – both literal and otherwise – are beginning to show back in Manhattan. Firstly, the tension between Negan and Renata get aired as both reveal their suspicions about one another. While she’s willing to accept him fully into the community despite his murderous impulses, he believes its all a ploy to lure him into some sort of trap and what we have here is someone who can’t trust trying to approach someone who can’t be trusted. Elsewhere, socially relevant rumblings are beginning to pick up speed concerning people disgruntled about the island welcoming in newcomers, which puts a strain on things as resources could get thin – but these feel like issues and politics for another day once the finale gives our characters the first, real, disaster of the season and an entire chunk of street suddenly crumbles, creating a mini-earthquake. No doubt, dealing with the immediate ramifications will take up the next week’s offering, and I actually can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in to a good, old fashioned, survival episode – but then that’s mostly because this new, hopeful, tone of the show has now given us something more to fight for than just plain old revenge.
While episode 4 is content to give us a far more relaxed episode than ever before (despite a grotesque, puss-filled Walker leaking everywhere and a literal hole opening up in the middle of town), it’s the final salvo in a bombardment of hope that has finally gotten us invested in the characters and their aims in ways we haven’t felt in years. Could we be looking at the best season of Dead City yet? It’s certainly on the cards. Are we looking at the best season of any one of the spin-offs? I guess anything’s possible if you have hope…
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