‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ episode 5 ‘Stories We Tell Ourselves’ recap/review

Dead City’s previously thrilling narrative has begun to unravel.

July 16, 2023

Last week’s episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City concluded with Negan and Marshal Armstrong managing to escape from the Croat. Unfortunately for Negan, saving the marshal’s life didn’t dissuade Armstrong from placing him under arrest.

Meanwhile, Maggie and the Manhattan crew‘s plan to take down the Croat (and rescue Hershel) goes horribly wrong. So wrong, in fact, that it was almost like the bad guys had advanced knowledge of it. In the meantime, Ginny is now tagging along with Maggie, Amaia, and Tommaso as they flee from Madison Square Garden. She obviously hasn’t said anything yet, you can bet things between her and Maggie (who she saw trashing her stuffed dinosaur) are going to get awkward.

As always, the recap portion of this review will contain plenty of spoilers. The sequence of events has also been streamlined for the sake of clarity.

Enemy Mine

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

The episode opens with Maggie, Amaia, Tommaso, and Ginny walking through the sewers, which are packed with sleeping (?) zombies. There’s also a ton of methane in the air, which Tommasso warns could start causing some neurological health issues. As if that weren’t bad enough, things between the group are pretty tense — especially when Ginny looks at Maggie digging in her bag and sees her stuffed dinosaur (which Maggie apparently decided not to burn after all).

When the group encounters a giant mound of post-human fat, Ginny tries unsuccessfully to climb it back to the surface. This leads Maggie to chastise her for wanting to go back to a horrible person like Negan.

Later, Tommaso conveniently finds a pair of full/functioning oxygen tanks with gas masks. This causes Maggie to state her belief that Tommaso was the one who sold them out — and that he’s been helping the Croat in exchange for his life. Tommaso predictably denies this, but breaks down and confesses after Maggie points out how he took his backpack off before “finding” the oxygen tanks.

*Side Note: Hard to believe that someone who’s been lying to the people he loves for so long would confess such a shameful crime based on a flimsy accusation.

Tommaso tries to justify his actions to Amaia, which enrages/upsets her even more. Despite the emotional fallout from his shocking revelation, the group stays together and keeps moving through the sewer.

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

Elsewhere, the injured Armstrong leads Negan from hiding place to hiding place in an effort to get them off the island — a task that’s sure to be even more difficult due to the marshal’s boat likely being sunk. Along the way, Negan tells him that the magistrate and the four men he killed had assaulted (and nearly murdered) his wife. Armstrong is clearly affected by the claim, but continues channeling Samuel Gerard and keeps Negan under arrest.

After a while, Armstrong finally reveals that they’re heading toward the Chelsea Piers, where they can commander a floating dock. When Negan guesses correctly that the marshal is a New Yorker. Armstrong finally loosens up a bit a reveals that he’s from the Bronx and worked for the state river cleanup crew. Negan replies by telling him he was a Gym teacher.

Unfortunately, the pair’s bonding moment is interrupted by an approaching herd of walkers. They’re eventually forced to flee inside a building where someone created a disturbing art display using baby doll parts. Things become even more unsettling when they find the artist, who killed himself in a horrifically brutal fashion. Seeing the man’s body causes Armstrong to flashback to finding his brother.

While the marshal is zoned out, Negan notices a polite ninja zombie sauntering through the hallway. When the pair leave the suicide room, Negan grabs the walker and shoves it into Armstrong, giving him a chance to escape. Armstrong is able to fight off the zombie and hobble after Negan, shooting his nail gun and pulling out a boarded up doorway moments after Negan reaches it. He then collapses, allowing his prisoner to escape.

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

Fortunately for the marshal, Negan finds himself unable to let Armstrong die.

He leads the man to a school bus, where the pair take shelter and Negan uses the vehicle’s first aid kit to treat the marshal’s wounds. Afterward, Armstrong opens up to him about his brother and how they used to be close before a drug addiction tore them apart. When he tried to reach out for help years later (via the letter he’d never read until the Croat got his hands on it), Armstrong decided to abandon his big brother just like he’d done to him.

Three years later, the zombie apocalypse happened. Armstrong and his parents got out of the city, but his brother obviously didn’t — a fact that has him wracked with understandable pain and guilt. Seeing his brother’s body has now caused Armstrong to question New Babylon‘s black-and-white view of morality and how the world should be ordered.

Who the Heck Is This?

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

During what is now an extremely awkward sewer stroll, Maggie tells Amaia that she can take refuge at her new Hilltop Colony, aka The Bricks. Before Amaia can answer, Maggie hears Tommaso grunting and decides to help him move some sleeping (?) walkers out of their path. The exertion combined with the methane causes her to pass out, allowing us into her fevered mind for a flashback of Negan killing Glenn interspersed with Hershel calling for help.

Despite being responsible for getting a bunch of his friends killed, Tomasso tries to prove he’s a good guy by helping Maggie up and offering her his oxygen (which she refuses). He then attempts to justify his actions on account of the Croat offering him and Amaia a boat to leave the island and head to a nearby community. After he describes the community a bit, Maggie realizes Tomasso is referring to the Bricks.

Their heart-to-heart is interrupted when some of the zombies wake up and begin attacking Amaia. Tommaso and Maggie try to help her, but arrive too late. Tommaso also gets severely bitten, which he absolutely had coming despite Maggie’s bizarre show of grief/sympathy in his final moments.

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

Meanwhile, a very angry and frustrated Croat drives to a theater for a meeting, which we can tell is important because he covers his mangled ear with a hat. After passing through a rowdy performance of the music from Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”, the Croat heads back to one of the dressing rooms.

In case you hadn’t picked up that the Croat isn’t as high up the food chain as Dead City initially made it seem, a large woman comes out and demands he move while calling him a bitch. The Croat enters and complains to a woman (The Dama) about their group communicating with the one associated with the woman in the hallway. He then tries to tell her about how successful his work in Manhattan has been, but the Dama shushes him so she can hear music playing from some nearby speakers.

When he’s finally able to speak again, the Croat reveals that Negan is on the island. The Dama then uses a bunch of narrative metaphors to berate him for not bringing Negan to her. She also says something very important that I’m going to come back to next week:

“…everyone knows the ending is all that matters.”

The Croat then shows her Armstrong’s marshal badge, which means that another community from the mainland may come and try to restore the world to how it once was. The Dama tells him that this makes finding and bringing Negan in even more imperative, which he promises to do. Before he leaves, she wordlessly commands the Croat to bend the knee and kiss her hand.

Fire in the Sky

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

As Ginny and Maggie trudge through the sewers, Maggie tries to justify why the girl’s stuffed dinosaur was in her bag. She then tries to explain why Negan couldn’t know Ginny was on the island. If he’d learned about her presence, he would’ve immediately taken Ginny back the Bricks, thus ruining her best chance of rescuing Hershel from the man who’s been stealing all her people’s grain.

Later, Ginny and a methane-addled Maggie are forced to crawl over a mound of sleeping (?) walkers. Upon reaching the other side, they’re attacked by a bunch of walkers that have been fused together — think the final creature form from John Carpenter’s The Thing, but with a lot more human heads. Maggie throws Ginny her pack and tells her to run before taking on the creature, which she defeats despite her severely weakened state and a last-second jump scare.

Maggie then goes to follow Ginny, who’s scrawled the word “LIAR” in zombie blood over a tunnel entrance. This leads to a flashback of Ginny as she was leaving the Bricks, which reveals that she discovered a silo full of grain on the way out. While this doesn’t prove Maggie was lying (since the residents could’ve been harvesting grain since the Croat left), the dramatic music indicates we’ve been officially bamboozled. This point is further driven home when Maggie has a methane-induced flashback of the Croat arriving at the Bricks, taking Hershel, and giving her Negan’s wanted poster.

Maggie reaches the surface just in time to see a flare Ginny shoots into the sky from the gun that was inside her pack. As the flare lights up the sky, Negan looks up from his seat on the school bus and sees it, too.

The Verdict

The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)

Over halfway through Dead City‘s penultimate episode, we’re introduced to a brand new villain who has apparently been controlling the Croat this entire time. Even if we were watching a “regular” Walking Dead show, this development would feel pretty out of left field. In a limited series, however, it’s downright absurd. Perhaps the final episode will make the Dama’s sudden inclusion feel more organic, but I doubt it.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the episode also did everything it could to make us feel sympathy for Tommaso. It even had Maggie appear somewhat moved by the justification for his awful actions along with his final moments. That really doesn’t track considering how ruthless she’s been since returning in season 10 of The Walking Dead — a fact that was clumsily driven home by the reveal that she’s been lying about why Hershel was kidnapped.

I think we all knew Maggie would betray (or attempt to betray) Negan eventually. It’s pretty convenient that the one person who’s figured it out happens to be mute, but forgivable considering how great Mahina Napoleon has been as Ginny. It’s also frustrating that the revelation occurred during a flashback/extension of a scene we’ve already watched, but that still could’ve been a really cool moment. Instead, the sight of a partially filled grain silo — by a community that is ACTIVELY HARVESTING GRAIN — was presented as a major smoking gun.

It’s also worth noting that three hardened survivors (and one extremely smart little girl) all thought it was a good idea to pop a squat on some dormant zombies in the sewer. Even when you factor in the methane, there’s still no way that people who’ve stayed alive in this world for multiple decades would do something so dumb.

Thank goodness for the scenes between Negan and Armstrong. Their dynamic may be predictable, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Gaius Charles are completely knocking it out of the park. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out how awesome Thing Walker looked. The creature design served as yet another reminder of how incredible Dead City continues to look. Even during the narrative’s weakest moments, it’s impossible not to admire the series’ technical achievements.

Let’s hope next week’s finale can somehow tie up the Dama plot while also doing justice to the long-awaited reckoning between Maggie and Negan. A present timeline appearance by Hershel would be nice to finally see, as well.