The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5 recap “Stories We Tell Ourselves”

There are several liars in this episode, but can you guess who they are? In The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 5, “Stories We Tell Ourselves”, Maggie, Ginny, Tomasso, and Amaia find themselves maneuvering in the walker-filled tunnel towards escape, while Negan and Perlie can’t seem to escape constant peril.

But perhaps the biggest shocker is that The Croat might not actually be the one in charge. Let’s dive in!

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5 recap – The tunnels

After narrowly escaping the walkers in Madison Square Garden, Maggie, Ginny, Tomasso and Amaia make their way into the tunnels. The tunnels, however, are filled with presumably dead walkers and methane.

They need to hurry before the effects of the gas can take root. It doesn’t take long however, for Maggie to suspect something of Tomasso. When he conveniently finds oxygen tanks for the four to share, Maggie realizes he’s the one who tipped off The Croat of their arrival.

It doesn’t take long for him to confess that its true. He did make a deal with The Croat in the hopes that he and Amaia could have a better life one day.

He never believed they would be able to stop the madman and take back their home. If that wasn’t enough, Maggie tears into Ginny, scolding her for following along and risking Maggie’s chances of finding her son.

She didn’t burn the dinosaur, which she keeps in her bag and admits that she didn’t tell Negan about her presence in the city. Maggie adds more saltiness by telling her how horrible Negan is.

Ginny doesn’t seem moved in the slightest by Maggie’s words. When the methane begins to affect Maggie, she begins to remember Negan killing Glenn and The Croat taking Hershel away.

She refuses oxygen from Tomasso, probably assuming something is wrong with it. As the four of them try to break for a moment to eat and drink, some of the presumed dead walkers come to life.

In the process, both Tomasso and Amaia die. Now it is just Ginny and Maggie.

As they manage to make their way to the end of the tunnel, Maggie’s foot gets stuck in a dead walker chest cavity when the long awaited multi-limbed walker emerges. This walker is one main body with several more walker bodies attached, making it one deadly monster.

Thankfully Ginny escapes unharmed, and Maggie does kill it. But her near death experience is the least of her worries.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5 recap – Negan and Perlie

Even with a wounded leg that has yet to be treated, Perlie and Negan manage to make their way to a city gift shop, to figure out a plan. Although Negan tells Perlie why he killed those marshals for what they did to his wife, Perlie will not budge.

He plans on sending Negan back to New Babylon to face the consequences. The duo manages to evade walkers, just barely, arriving at an art school where they find weird doll art and a dead body that reminds Perlie of his brother.

Negan manages to get the upper hand on Perlie thanks to his wound, but he doesn’t get very far. At one point Perlie is ready to allow Negan to leave, but even Negan knows he can’t leave the injured marshal behind.

The two of them seek shelter inside an abandoned school bus where they finally address Perlie’s wound. Negan admits to Perlie he used to be a gym teacher, while Perlie used to work for the state of New York as a dock worker.

He took the job because his older brother Joel did, whom he both loved and admired. However, his older brother was far from a saint and after an incident where he tried to harm their mother, Perlie couldn’t handle being his keeper anymore.

When the outbreak happened, Perlie got his parents out to safety but never went for his brother. The letter he keeps in his boot was the last time he heard from his brother.

He has since felt guilty for not going after his brother and forgiving him for all of his past actions. Elsewhere in the city, The Croat arrives to a theater, filled with people eating, drinking and essentially having a small party, while a performance takes place on stage.

Moving to the dressing rooms, The Croat seeks The Dama. For the first time all season we see The Croat looking small and scared.

He cautiously tells her that Negan is in New York but his failure to capture and bring him to her doesn’t go unnoticed. The Dama is furious with The Croat, reminding him that they need Negan.

She takes on the theatrical role very well, as every movement and word feels like a performance however, her words are real. It seems The Croat is completely either in love or dedicated to The Dama, but why?

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5 recap – The plot twist

After Maggie escapes the multi-limbed walker to catch up with Ginny, she sees the word LIAR written in blood on a wall. Turns out, before Ginny left to follow Maggie and Negan into the city, she saw that there was plenty of stored grain.

Then why did Maggie say The Croat took it all? But that isn’t the worst part of it.

As Maggie reflects on when Hershel was taken, it is revealed that The Croat gives her Negan’s wanted poster, meaning from the get-go, she has been planning on trading Negan for her son! As Maggie just barely manages to escape and breathe actual air, Ginny shoots an flare gun into the sky.

Maggie, as well as Negan on the school bus, can see the flare. Will this draw walkers and The Croat her way?

Will this mean she’ll be revealing to Negan what Maggie has been up to?

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5 review

I had seen rumors of the real reason behind Maggie seeking Negan out and it turns out, they were true! It is truly something to see how Maggie changed to becoming this person who will do absolutely anything to save her son.

The sad truth of the matter is I don’t blame her, but I do blame her for not being honest with Negan from the beginning. I firmly believe if she would have told him they could have created a more successful plan.

You’d think as the season went on and she got to see and spend more time with the man she once despised, she’d just confess but nope, she’s staying steadfast, even if it means he’ll be harmed. Negan and Perlie’s situation this episode was interesting, but I am a sucker for character backstories, no matter how sad they often tend to be.

It adds depth to the character and helps you to either better understand them or on the flip side, hate them even more. It is interesting that Perlie didn’t mention his wife and daughters at all, especially after his big confession regarding Joel.

You’d think after hearing what Negan revealed about his wife, he’d somehow relate. But amongst all the surprises this episode, The Croat and The Dama were really something else.

Are we to believe The Croat hasn’t been calling the shots the entire season? Who is The Dama, why does she matter and why do they want Negan?

After this brief and confusing interaction, I’m more convinced that before that there is no way this show will conclude in the final episode. There’s either got to be a season 2 or a follow up spinoff that will continue the story.

One of my favorite parts about writing these recaps is figuring out the filming locations. I’ll confess I am no theater major or expert, however I had always assumed that dressing rooms were not that big and spacious.

With that being said, I think the dressing room itself was filmed at The Craig Marsh Mansion located in Plainfield, NJ. I happened to visit the location on what was supposed to be the second day of filming, only to arrive and find out filming that day was canceled as the set didn’t arrive.

So, either no filming took place either day and this site wasn’t used, or they used it for one day. I do believe some of the tunnel scenes were filmed at a location in Cedar Grove, NJ, which also happened to be the last time I saw filming for Dead City as, filming wrapped shortly after.

Keep in mind reshoots did happen in New York for a brief amount of time, so city shots or more specifically the art school, was probably filmed in the city. While the overall episode felt a lot slower than previous ones, especially the tunnel scenes, it did have some amazing moments from both a character development and special effects standpoint.

With only one episode left I am very curious how the season will wrap up and if and when a season 2 will be announced. At this rate, I am really hoping for a season 2, but only time will tell.

What did you think of The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 5? Let us know in the comments below!

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 6 airs on July 23 on AMC.