AMC's 'The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023)' An Eventful Beginning (Episode 1 Recap)
Now that AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ is in full swing, we can’t help but want more.
In the first episode titled “Old Acquaintances”, we’re immediately met with the bloodshed we’ve been anticipating. The opening scene is shot through the lens of Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) monocular and pans over a post-apocalyptic New York City that is now dilapidated and overrun with shrubbery and hoards of walkers. Maggie is startled by the sound of walkers coming from behind her and hides underneath an abandoned overpass, only to be caught off guard by one of them. She ultimately kills it by bashing its head in with her monocular and some curb-stomping action. Absolutely brutal.
Maggie is in search of her son Hershel (Logan Kim) who was kidnapped by a ruthless psychopathic killer, The Croat (Željko Ivanek.) In any attempt possible to get her son back, she seeks out help from Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who has a bit of history with The Croat. Although, he definitely wasn’t her first choice. Maggie tracks down Negan to a saloon where he was supposedly working, only to get herself caught up in what could have been a bloody situation. She finally gets to Negan in the back of the saloon and to her surprise he has a young girl named Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) that has been tagging along with him. Negan tells Maggie that Ginny doesn’t speak ever since she saw her father murdered right before her eyes. Things seem more tense than usual between the two, as Maggie pulls out a WANTED poster with Negan’s face on it.
Maggie fiercely tells Negan that The Croat kidnapped her son Hershel as collateral after raiding Hilltop 2.0. He is curious as to why she wants his help, as soon as Maggie says “Because you owe me” Negan says in sarcastic synchronization “Because I owe you.” He reluctantly agrees to help her, as long as they can take Ginny to a safe haven where the people of Hilltop 2.0 reside. They arrive at the drop-off point and Negan tells Ginny that she will be safe and is with good people.
Back at the saloon, the Marshalls of New Babylon have infiltrated the establishment in search of Negan. They question the bar proprietor as she denies ever seeing him. They take her to the back of the saloon and pin her up against the fence face-to-face with the walkers in an attempt to get her to talk. She finally tells them that Negan left with a woman in a blue truck, the Marshall deviously states that she was still “aiding and abetting” and throws her to the walkers to be ripped apart. Once they leave, he tells the other Marshalls that “what I did back there, wasn’t because I wanted to. It had to be done.” As they look down, they find a map with the Manhattan page ripped out from it. One step closer to Negan and Maggie.
Maggie and Negan recollect themselves and discuss the plan. They head to the water to hop on a boat so that they could cross over to Manhattan, but before doing so, they kidnap the “junior Marshall” after they caught on that they were being followed. An argument ensues in which Negan wants to throw the junior Marshall overboard, but Maggie says they need him as “insurance.” Negan is angered by Maggie and states that she clearly hasn’t let go of their past grudges and is still playing him out to be the bad guy. He asks “How many husbands and fathers have you killed?” She pauses and implies that what he did can never be forgotten.
The three make it to shore, in shock by what has become of the city of Manhattan. The junior Marshall tries to run off and Maggie tells him if he tries that again, he’s dead. They make it into the city, but little do they know the other Marshalls have followed behind them. As they are wandering through the city, bodies of walkers plummet from the tops of the skyscrapers and they seek shelter. Maggie nearly avoids a trap that was set by the rebels, thanks to Negan’s keen eye. A truck passes by in the distance playing an eerie tune as hundreds of walkers follow behind. As they hide behind a heap of trash bags, gunfire ensues and the junior Marshall runs out to try and let the other Marshalls know that he’s there. Bad idea on his part. Maggie, Negan, and the junior Marshall hide out in what seems to be an abandoned laundromat building. The Marshalls follow suit.
The identity of one of the Marshalls is revealed to be Perlie Armstrong, as he tries to coarse Maggie out of hiding. He clearly states that he doesn’t know why she would be teaming up with a man like Negan, but that she must have a good reason. Perlie says that he is open to hearing the reason, but that she needs to come to him before he finds her first; and “he will find her.” The walkers that have been posted outside the building have finally broke in and kill the other Marshall. Maggie comes face to face with Marshall Perlie in a heated battle and escapes his grip as she proceeds to hit him over the back of the head with the barrel of his gun. She contemplates killing him, but he stated before that he has a wife and three kids so she empathetically left him on the ground unconscious.
Finally, in the last scene of the episode, we meet The Croat and Hershel who is being interrogated by him. He asks if he knows who killed his father, and that he was once close with his mother and those around him. That man is Negan. We change trajectory and it is now known that one of the prisoners of The Croat has escaped. We’re taken to the top of a skyscraper where a bloody and battered man is being chased down by The Croat and his guards. He makes it to the top of a zipline where he nervously perils down in hopes of escaping. Almost to the other end, The Croat cuts the zipline and the man falls to his death as The Croat laughs and says “20 stories! A new record, no?”
Well, that was a whole lot to unpack and there’s only more to come. Stay tuned for our recap on episode two and make sure to tune in to AMC Sunday, June 25th, for the third episode premiere.
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