The Walking Dead: Dead City review, Episode 5, “Stories We Tell Ourselves”

It’s time for the penultimate episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City! We’re now well-acquainted with the terrors of Manhattan…or so we think. This episode goes underground into the sewers, which is much, much more horrifying than anything we’ve seen in the world above. Prepare for what is perhaps the single most disgusting walker to ever grace our screens.

Beware, there are SPOILERS ahead!

Maggie, Ginny, and the others go underground

When we left off in the previous installment, Maggie, Amaia, Tomasso, and Ginny were being held back in the stadium by a huge swarm of walkers. Their only means of escape was to climb down into the sewers. Episode 5 continues exactly where that left off. Down in the depths, their torches shine and rats scurry, but that’s the least of their problems. The sewers are where the Croat dumps bodies after extracting methane from them for his alternative energy.

While in the sewer, Maggie discovers how the Croat knew that our group was planning to attack. He had a man on the inside: Tomasso. He denies it, but it’s pretty obvious. They still go on together; safety in numbers, I suppose.

The set designers did an extremely good job with the sewers. They’re so creepy, from the narrow tunnels to the piles of congealed walkers stacked on top of each other. And with the abundance of methane polluting the air around them, the group is liable to lose their heads through dizziness and delirium.

Being deep underground paves the way for some deep conversations, particularly between Maggie and Tomasso. It sounds like Tomasso felt forced to betray the group to the Croat. He definitely feels regret. He reveals that he gave out their hideouts to save his own skin and to get back to Amaia. Apparently the Croat promised him a boat to sail back to the mainland where he can start a new life.

Naturally, shortly after this the walkers attack and both Tomasso and Amaia are killed. I thought one of them would die, but not both. Tomasso definitely had it coming, but Amaia…that was a huge surprise. Now it’s just Maggie and Ginny.

Throughout the Walking Dead franchise, we’ve seen all kinds of walkers. But nothing compares to the one Maggie has to fight in the sewers. If I have to compare it to anything, I’d say it shares similarities to the Rat King from The Last of Us games. It’s a huge walker with other walkers mangled into its body, about five heads sticking out, and tons of arms flailing about. How on earth Maggie manages to kill the thing, I’ll never know. She doesn’t even get any help from Ginny.

I do wonder whether this huge walker could’ve been in Maggie’s imagination. I mean, her mind was being boggled by all of the methane gas. Perhaps what we’re seeing is a normal walker, and the rest is in her head. Kudos to the team for managing to pull this off. I suppose over a decade of making walkers really culminated for this one!

Once she escapes the sewers, Maggie notices that Ginny has ran off on her own. Out in the open, Ginny sets off a flare, alerting Negan to her whereabouts. How’s Negan gonna react when he learns she’s on the island?

Negan and Perlie

In light of the recent battle, the Croat has put Manhattan into lockdown. This means that every boat off the island has been destroyed. However, Perlie still wants to go to the docks. Despite there being no boats, he knows that Chelsea Piers floats, so theoretically all they have to do is disconnect it and float all the way back to shore.

Obviously, plans get put on hold when walkers attack and they find themselves in a school. I love the eerie atmosphere of these abandoned buildings, it hits so much harder when you imagine just how bustling New York City, the city that never sleeps, was before the outbreak. We see fragments of the past, the chaos left behind: upturned tables, bodies piled high, doorways haphazardly blocked off.

Perlie seems to be reminiscing about the past, which has a lot of grisly ghosts, including a person long since dead stuck in a chair with an axe sticking out of their head. It’s moments like this that give the show substance. Sometimes looking into the past without context is just as scary as what’s shown in the present.

Other than that, Negan and Perlie’s arc in this episode is more about exploring the past than achieving their goal. We get a sense of what’s going on inside their heads. Perlie tells a story about how he got to where he is now. And while we kinda knew it already, we get confirmation that the people Negan killed when saving Annie were part of Perlie’s group.

The Croat deals with the aftermath

The battle in the previous episode ended in something of a stalemate. The Croat certainly didn’t win — Negan remains alive — but he wasn’t defeated. Turns out he’s not even the biggest player in Manhattan. That honor goes to the Dama (Lisa Emery), who hangs out in the bustling King Francis theatre.

The Dama berates the Croat for letting Negan escape. It’s a welcome change to see the Croat being spoken down to. They seem quite paranoid that people from the mainland want to rebuild the world the way it used to be and that their time in charge could be nearing an end.

The Dama doesn’t want Negan dead, but instead to get him on their side to help build out their community, or something. She comes across as a woman with ambitions.

I think the Dama should’ve been introduced into the series earlier. We’re on the penultimate episode now, it feels a bit late to introduce an important new character into the show. Or perhaps they’re making a season 2 and she’ll have a big role in that.

Verdict

I can’t complain too much when an episode gives us one of the greatest walkers we’ve ever seen in the Walking Dead universe. I’m intrigued to see how they’re gonna wrap up all these storylines in one episode. So far in the series, I think they’ve rushed through certain elements as a consequence of only having six episodes. I would’ve liked to have actually seen what happened with Annie,  for instance. That said, this was still a pretty epic episode. Onto the finale!

Episode Grade: B

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