In the series premiere of Dead City, Maggie locates Negan and they travel to Manhattan. Meanwhile, the marshals, led by Armstrong, are on the hunt to find Negan. Keep reading for everything that goes down in “Old Acquaintances.”
Maggie Tracks Down Negan
Maggie is on a mission to find Negan, and she does. He’s hiding out in a motel. He and Ginny, the girl he’s seemingly adopted, try to run from her but she corners them. She needs Negan’s help locating the man who kidnapped Hershel, the Croat. Negan pretends he doesn’t know who he is but one identifiable feature helped her come to the conclusion that he’s lying — he whistled just like Negan used to. Negan fesses up, that if the Croat does have Hershel, it may already be too late. He agrees to help her but he wants a safe haven in Hilltop since he’s being hunted as well. Maggie brings him and Ginny to New Babylon, the relocation of Hilltop after it burned down. Maggie keeps her promise to Negan and gets Ginny to safety as the two of them continue their mission.
Here Come the Marshals
After Maggie and Negan are gone, the Marshals walk into the bar, but not before they can hide all their weapons. Armstrong tells them he’s looking for a man named Negan, telling them the story of Glenn’s death, which clearly rocks the bar owner. He notices this and singles her out to get more information but she won’t give it up. After taking her outside to face the Walkers surrounding them, she tells them Negan was in the bar — but he wasn’t alone. He came with a woman who they have never seen before. Although he’s glad he got this information, she was still aiding and abetting a fugitive, so by Marshal law, she must die. He pushes her into the fence and the Walkers start eating at her as she screams in agony.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a … Walker Falling From the Sky?
On the way to Manhattan, The marshals catch up with Maggie and Negan. Maggie kidnaps Jano, the deputy, and brings him on their boat as collateral. The other Marshals follow but Negan wants to send him overboard to swim back. Maggie cuts in to tell him they need him whether he agrees or not. Once they arrive on the island they come across Walkers falling from the sky which perplexes them. They continue on and Negan saves Maggie from falling victim to a trap set but soon after a swarm of Walkers catch sight and scent of them and begin to follow them.
They hide behind a pile of trash but a bunch of bugs engulf them and they flee. Just then, a rapid succession of gunshots is heard in the distance as Walkers begin falling to the ground. This gives Jano, Maggie, and Negan the opportunity to run, when they find themselves in some kind of factory. The Marshals corner them and Armstrong starts talking directly to Maggie; he tells her about his family, that he has three kids and a wife. He doesn’t know why she kidnapped Jano and why she is with Negan, but she must have a good reason. He’s willing to hear her out but if he gets to her first it won’t be a good thing.
As he says this, the Walkers break the glass to the door and swarm the other Marshal and one sneaks up behind Negan and Jano. Negan tries to drag Jano with him, telling him to follow him, but he gets trapped by the Walker instead. He starts screaming as its long, pointy tongue sticks out and black goo seeps out of its mouth. Negan kills it and tells him next time he tells him to follow him, to listen. Armstrong fires his gun and hits Jano, spooking Negan who starts running. He breaks into a room and kills a Walker but finds himself basically cornered. Maggie sneaks up behind Armstrong with her knife but he catches her and they briefly fight. She tells him she needs him to save her son but at this point he doesn’t care. She lodges a knife out of the toe of her boot but it’s no use. Desperate, she grabs at her necklace and slashes Armstrong’s neck with it, breaking her free. She gets hold of his gun and hits him across the back of the head, knocking him out. She momentarily thinks about killing him before remembering what he said so she just leaves him instead. The two of them get out, but at what cost?
Croat’s Lair
The episode cuts to Hershel who is tied up in a chair with Croat looming over him with a hook of sorts. He wants information on Negan, information Hershel isn’t going to give him. Croat drags the hook across Hershel’s leg and tells him he thinks Hershel is going to like it there. One of Croat’s men walks into the room and tells him that somebody got away, saving Hershel for the time being. Croat and his men find the man, covered in wounds and dried blood, trying to escape off the roof of the building. With seemingly no way out, he looks off into the distance and pretends he sees someone or something coming which makes Croat and his men get distracted. The man runs and hooks himself to a zip line to get away but as soon as he’s far enough, Croat cuts the line and the man drops to his death.
New episodes of Dead City premiere every Sunday on AMC. For AMC+ subscribers, episodes stream early every Thursday.
