This post contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 episode 3.
Trapped in New York, Maggie and Perlie must decide whether to continue searching for the methane or return home. But what happens when they encounter survivors in Central Park?
In The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 episode 3, "Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?," Negan tries to protect Hershel without catching The Croat's attention. As for Hershel, memories of his time spent with The Dama return. Let's talk about this!
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 episode 3 recap
For Maggie, the answer is clear: Forgo the methane and return home. However, Perlie disagrees, believing if they leave now, it will all be for nothing.
But he does agree that she can start making the calls. Since Perlie is familiar with New York City, he leads the group into Central Park (which, if we recall, is no man's land). Using a map and his memory, he can pinpoint their location, but a field of tallgrass awaits them.
Sure enough people are taken out one by one by walkers (farewell extras, your deaths will not be remembered), leading to Maggie getting separated from Hershel and Ginny. In the process, Ginny loses her bag, which Hershel later retrieves, and gets saved by a silent teenage girl dressed in rags.
Meanwhile, Negan finds himself stuck with The Croat and one of the Burazi (The Croat's group), facing Central Park, where several Burazi members entered in the hopes of finding and killing The New Babylon Federation survivors. While they wait, Negan finally tries to enlighten The Croat, telling him how The Dama doesn't seem to care about him.
The Croat, however, is indebted to her, claiming she saved his life when he washed ashore. The Croat makes a dig at Negan, claiming he's not the same man he once was, and they need to bring him back. Cleverly, Negan suggests that he get his hands dirty by going into Central Park and killing the survivors himself. But The Croat knows better and sends the Burazi member with him.
It doesn't take long for Negan to seek his opportunity, leaving the man for dead, after they move through a vine-covered, walker-infested tunnel. Now all alone, Hershel continues onward, finding a small clearing to rest, taking the moment to go through Ginny's bag finding the gun she stowed away, and begins to draw.
The girl reappears, seemingly amazed by the concept of drawing. The two are interrupted by the Burazi man, who hasn't quite turned yet. He attacks the teenage girl, leaving Hershel to defend himself, but he doesn't know how to use the gun Ginny stole. He's saved by Negan, who he thanks by trying to shoot him. Hershel misses, and Negan vanishes.
What happened between The Dama and Hershel
Throughout the episode Hershel has several flashbacks of his time with The Dama. It started off slow as she pretends to be horrified for the way he was treated, duct taped to a chair in a dark room.
She complies with his requests for paper and a coat, thus begins a sort of Stockholm syndrome/co-dependent relationship. The Dama encourages Hershel with his art, claiming that he is different from others for his point of view of a decaying city.
One day, she purposely leaves his door cracked open, and by evening, Hershel decides to leave. However, he's met with walkers in the hallway, whom he kills with Dama's help.
She then guides him to his new room, which is a refurbished elevator that rises to the top of the building, providing him an view of New York City. During their time together, Dama plants the seed of Maggie's obsession with Negan, shoving out any space for Hershel's needs.
A new group?
The teenage girl belongs to a group that lives in Central Park, seemingly living an off-the-grid lifestyle. They welcome the group, offering to send their people to find Hershel.
The group does not fear the walkers because they were once people they knew and protect them by keeping others out of Central Park. Although Perlie offers for the group to join forces with New Babylon, the group kindly declines.
Lucia sees the group and location as a golden opportunity for New Babylon, complaining that Maggie thinks of no one but herself and Hershel... When group members return with the wounded teen, Maggie and Hershel, Lucia sees this as the perfect time to basically threaten the group to join them.
Perlie, thankfully, puts his foot down, reminding her it's not the time nor the place. The teen unfortunately dies and as per the group's tradition, they cut out her heart for the walkers to eat outside. This explains the walkers Maggie and Hershel noticed with holes in their chests. The teen becomes a walker, joining the horde that protects the group, forever to wander Central Park.
When Maggie asks Hershel what had happened, he confesses to running into Negan but becomes angry when she asks questions about him. Negan returns to The Croat, claiming everyone was dead and that the Burazi he was with had an accident with the walkers. The Croat obviously doesn't believe him.
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 episode 3 review
Let's address the elephant in the room: Boston looks nothing like New York City. Season 1 was filmed in several NJ locations, and somehow the likes of Newark, Paterson, and Weehawken look more like NYC than Boston. With that out of the way, Negan's long game is why he has survived as long as he has. As much as he is about showmanship, he's also about patience.
He's already trying to drive a wedge between The Croat and The Dama, as getting on The Croat's side will make things easier. Unfortunately for Negan, regardless of how poorly she treats The Croat, he owes his life to her. As for Maggie's situation, let's be honest, none of those extras are going to survive until the very end. The problem is Perlie is blinded by what HE thinks the New Babylon Federation is and should stand for.
He knows Lucia is no good yet won't do the smart thing and betray/kill her and bring everyone back home, forgetting the methane altogether. His ideals are admirable but asinine at the same time. What happens when only he, Maggie, Hershel, and Ginny are left? The war for the methane is ending faster than anyone anticipated, but is there more to the story than we're aware of?
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 releases new episodes Sundays on AMC.