The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4 recap “Everybody Wins a Prize”

While both Negan and Maggie keep some pretty dark secrets from each other, The Croat has other plans for them and their new friends. In The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 4, the plan to kill The Croat and save Hershel doesn’t exactly go as planned, with a lot of extras losing their lives to the city walkers.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4 recap – Flashback

In a very surprising but welcoming twist, the episode begins with a flashback of, what we can assume, are the earlier days of The Sanctuary. Now under Negan’s rule, the powerful leader works at his table, Lucille and his red scarf close by, with a plethora of food for him to eat.

From the shadows Simon arrives informing Negan of a serious problem. The two pay The Croat a visit, where we see firsthand his handywork when it comes to dealing with hostages.

The Croat doesn’t flinch at the horrific mess he’d made of the poor, young woman we previously learned of. The way he sees it, they need the information and he’ll get it, one way or another.

Even though Simon states the obvious of not killing kids (practice what you preach), Negan is silent, deeply processing how twisted and cruel The Croat is.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4 recap – The Croat and Negan meet once again

Returning to the present, Maggie can tell Negan is worried about the plan but he’s willing to do anything to save Hershel. As the group ponders what happened to Luther, they continue with their plan and make their way to Madison Square Garden.

Naturally, when Maggie is about to tell Negan about Ginny’s presence and/or possible death in the city, she notices the small can of cream Luther would carry, in Negan’s bag. Immediately she knows Negan killed him and refuses to listen to his side of the story.

Although Maggie is annoyed and probably disappointed in him, she cares more about finding her son. As their plan slowly comes into play, they find the abandoned rooms where Maggie’s people had been captured, tortured and presumably killed.

When they find one final body, slouched over, Maggie immediately fears it’s her son. Negan checks for her and thankfully it is not Hershel.

This means they’ll have to find The Croat, for only he will know Hershel’s whereabouts. As the group separates, Negan whistles his old Savior tune immediately catching The Croat’s attention.

The Croat had been instructing a teenager how to work the sound system, complete with a timer ticking down. Throwing a natural wrench into their plan is Ginny, who has followed Maggie into the stadium.

We don’t know if Maggie burned the dinosaur or not, regardless Ginny looks at Maggie with a cold, angered stare. While the group finds themselves in the very center of the stadium with the fighting ring, Negan finds himself in the car parking garage where several of The Croat’s people are fleeing.

When the timer goes off, explosions can be heard as walkers begin to emerge from every entrance of the stadium. Extras fall faster than the Jedi Masters in Revenge of the Sith, as Maggie, Ginny, Amaia and Pilleuse soon become the final ones left alive.

Even Tomasso, unsurprisingly, gets surrounded by walkers much to Amaia’s lack of emotion outside of maybe one dramatic, “No!”. The four kill walkers before retreating to the fighting ring.

Taking the padding from the four corners, they decide to cover themselves and make a break for the nearest exit. Naturally Pilleuse falls extremely fast, allowing our three main women to continue onward when Tomasso arrives, unscathed, maybe?

Probably not. Meanwhile, Negan has The Croat chasing after him until finally they meet face to face again.

While our gut instinct would be to kill the monster on sight, they still need to know where Hershel is. This means The Croat gets his villain speech, which ironically is rather fitting, doesn’t drag out and sets the tone for the entire scene as a whole.

Negan is less than thrilled to have his past rehashed by the maniac before him. As a gift, The Croat hands him over, whom he thinks he’s there for: Perlie.

Negan bluntly tells The Croat he wants Hershel, and it seems Maggie’s nickname, The Widow has remained with her even all these years later. The Croat refuses to address Hershel’s whereabouts and attempts to kill Perlie by throwing him over the railing as a kind gesture.

Negan saves Perlie, barely escaping with their lives.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4 recap – Retreat

As Negan and Perlie wind up stuck at an abandoned barber shop, (I think)? Maggie, Amaia, Ginny and Tomasso try to find a way out, only to trap themselves in a room with no exit.

Or so they think. Turns out there is an exit, through the sewers which also, most likely, contain walkers.

The group manages to escape into the sewers, leaving the audience watching and wondering what dangers await them and what will become of Negan and Perlie.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4 review

So, it seems Perlie and The Croat won’t be teaming up after all, which isn’t so surprising considering The Croat’s mental instability. Equally unsurprising is Negan and Maggie keeping secrets from each other, however at least Negan admitted to his to a degree.

Maggie has yet to mention Ginny to him and we’re guessing this is going to come into play in the final two episodes. Which speaking of, two episodes?!

This season has been flying by and I’m going to miss it once it’s over. Nothing has been officially confirmed about a season 2 and we don’t know is another season will be warranted until the season 1 finale.

But the show has remained consistent by being a truly scary, interesting and compelling spinoff, which let’s face it, is a rarity when it comes to TWD spinoffs. This gives me hope that the Daryl Dixon and Rick and Michonne spinoff will also be victories for AMC.

But it also means they will have very big shoes to fill. Back to the recap, it looks like the Madison Square Garden scenes were filmed in the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, whereas the city shots could either be Newark, NJ or possibly New York City when brief reshoots occurred.

No surprise to anyone, my favorite part of the entire episode was the flashback. It’s such an amazing feeling to see a rumor turn out to be true!

Although I wanted to see a whole lot more in the flashback, maybe some references to how Negan took control and what the state of The Sanctuary was like at that point, I’ll still take whatever I can get. Maybe that is still a TWD spinoff option for the near future.

The Madison Square Garden scene was very well done, outside of the disappointment in watching extras barely take a swing at a walker before they are overtaken by them. Seriously, you’ve been surviving in a literal city full of walkers for how long and can’t fight?

Overall, the scene really got my blood pumping, as I waited to see what would become of Amaia and Tomasso. There is no doubt Tomasso had to have been bit, which will probably be addressed in the next episode.

Until then I look forward to more surprises and scares in the next episode!

What did you think of The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 4? Let us know in the comments below!

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 5 airs on July 16 on AMC.