The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3 recap “People Are a Resource”

While Negan and Maggie make new allies in the hopes of killing The Croat and saving Hershel, Ginny arrives to New York City determined to find Negan. The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 3, also dives more into the warped mind of The Croat and Perlie’s fate.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3 recap – Ginny and her dinosaur

The episode begins with a flashback to silent Ginny, searching the forest for her lost green dinosaur. After nearly bumping into a walker, impaled to a tree, cowboy hat wearing Negan finds her.

He’s livid by the fact that Ginny continues to remain silent, a habit, albeit uncontrollable one, that could get her killed. Turns out the walker was one of many bad guys that got his.

Negan swipes his bag and decides to help Ginny search for her missing dinosaur. We are not told the significance of the dinosaur, but we can assume it must have been given to her by her father before he died.

As present day Ginny travels to the Hudson, successfully crosses the river and arrives to the city, she is constantly reminded of her time with Negan. Since getting her to talk wasn’t working, even while using tough love, Negan decides to agree on a whistle.

It’s a simple, two note, whistle that his deceased wife Lucille used whenever she needed him. It’s not the iconic Savior whistle but its close enough, (and may have been the catalyst for it).

While present day Ginny is trying to avoid walkers at every turn, she accidentally drops her dinosaur. She debates grabbing it as it is too close to a walker.

Unfortunately for her, a stranger takes it with them. Ginny decides to follow this stranger, remembering how when she and Negan last searched for it, the dinosaur wound up being in the impaled walkers bag the entire time.

It was ripped but with a little help from Negan, it gets neatly wrapped up.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3 recap – Negan and Maggie’s struggles

What Ginny doesn’t realize is that the stranger is a woman and member of Amaia and Tomasso’s group. They, along with Negan, Maggie and several others find shelter, while watching how The Croat’s group has been rallying walkers into a stadium by blasting noise from moving vehicles.

Amaia and Tomasso, who apparently are together as the subject of kids comes up eventually, explain how when things went south in the city. They had hoped the military would save them but instead, hoping to contain the outbreak, destroyed the bridges and tunnels.

Amaia and Tomasso along with several others managed to survive with most seeking The Croat for help. This is but one of many instances in the episode where we learn how The Croat takes what he learned from Negan but warps it in unimaginable ways.

The more Maggie hears of the similarities between The Croat and Negan, the more upset she becomes. Negan isn’t stupid and knows how this is all affecting her.

She admits that the last conversation she had with Hershel was an argument. When The Croat arrived, Hershel wanted to fight back, take action, and Maggie, terrified he’d be killed, tried to stop him.

Negan decides to be vulnerable himself and explains how Annie and his son Joshua were living outside of New Babylon. Annie went into town for supplies, didn’t return home.

When Negan found her, she had been beaten and assumably raped. Considering Negan’s feelings on the subject, let alone it happening to his wife, he found the men and killed them.

This is why he is a wanted man. Knowing he now had a target on his back, he sent Annie and Joshua to Missouri but didn’t follow them.

He worries about them constantly. The group who are willing to help Negan and Maggie know of only one way in and out of the stadium as Tomasso himself successfully escaped.

Although Negan’s connection to The Croat should be seen as an advantage, some don’t like the idea. Overall, the plan is to go into the stadium, kill The Croat, rescue Hershel, get out alive.

Things are falling into place until the stranger who swiped the dinosaur returns to the group. Maggie recognizes the dinosaur but refuses to tell Negan about it.

In fact, by the end of the episode she is debating setting it on fire rather than tell Negan, worried that either something happened to Ginny or that she’s somewhere in the dangerous city. Maggie doesn’t notice Ginny watching nearby, as she had followed the stranger who took her dinosaur.

The secrets only mount when the group member Luther confronts Negan about his wanted poster. Negan, refusing to start trouble, gets into a scuffle with Luther accidentally dying.

Yikes.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3 recap – The turning point for Perlie

As for Perlie, he is sent to the stadium where he formally meets The Croat. As Perlie remains handcuffed, we see firsthand more of The Croat’s unhinged behavior.

He brutally murders a man for accidentally serving him rotten meat, after forcing him to swallow the key to Perlie’s handcuffs. The Croat, is also frightening intelligent, having figured out a way to use the dead bodies to produce methane, which is then used to power the stadium.

He wishes to know Perlie better but the New Babylon Marshal refuses to speak. His life and death stay with The Croat gets worse when he’s thrown into a cage fighting arena, high from the methane and handcuffed to a pole.

He kills the walker man who swallowed the key, cuts him open to retrieve it, frees himself, then proceeds to kill two more walkers with his boots. The Croat is impressed but still annoyed by the fact Perlie won’t tell him anything.

This is even after The Croat tells Perlie how he lost his wife and children to walkers before finding Negan (although doesn’t outright say his name). What finally gets Perlie to act is when The Croat swipes a letter Perlie keeps in his boot.

He begins to read it but stops when Perlie begs him to. He finally confesses that he’s in New York City to find Negan.

Oh boy…

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3 review

Am I to believe that The Croat was a normal citizen of society before his family was killed? Sorry, I don’t buy it.

I think he, like The Governor from The Walking Dead, had these evil and horrific tendencies before the world fell. The apocalypse just put those tendencies into overdrive.

Was Perlie’s letter from his brother, begging for help? The same brother we saw last episode who took his own life?

Or is it from someone else we have to learn about? Now that the elephant in the room, Negan, has been addressed, how will this affect The Croat and Perlie’s situation?

Speaking of Negan and Maggie for that matter, both of them have just caused major problems for themselves this episode. The biggest issue about the two is that even if they are moving past the literal past, they still struggle to trust each other.

Negan is unaware that Ginny followed them into the city. Did Maggie refuse to tell him worrying he’d abandon her and her mission to save Hershel to instead search for Ginny?

Is she refusing to tell him in the hopes of preventing him from collapsing at the idea Ginny could be dead? Maggie is unaware of Luther’s accidental death, which could become a huge issue for Negan.

How is he going to avoid getting caught? Is he refusing to say anything worried it will make his situation worse?

I will admit, I wait until these episodes air on Sunday, however I did see one spoiler beforehand: Annie’s whereabouts. I was surprised, to an extent, at the negative response her fate was receiving as Negan’s Number 1 rule has always been no rape.

It’s why he killed David on The Walking Dead from harming Sasha. So, to have this happen to anyone, let alone his own wife, must have truly and utterly destroyed him.

We hope that she and Joshua are living safely in Missouri and that one day Negan can return to them a free man. From what I can gather, filming locations for this episode included Newark, NJ, The Essex House in West Orange, NJ and the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ.

Considering the next episode looks to be an infiltration of the stadium, I’m willing to bet a good handful of extras won’t be surviving. Tomasso might be a casualty as well.

What did you think of The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 3? Let us know in the comments below!

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 4 airs on July 9 on AMC.