Maggie and Negan find help from an unlikely source and go to war with a new foe.  Perlie goes home and lives to regret it.

We’ve got out feet under us now with this shorter but no less pacy episode. In short order we’re introduced to Esther (Eleanor Reissa), a kind old survivor who shares her food with Maggie and Negan and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham) and Amaia (Karina Ortiz). Tomasso claims they’re members of a thousands-strong survivor group but when they come under attack from the Burazi the status quo shifts again. There’s a surprisingly strong The Last of Us vibe to a lot of this, possibly due to the urban environment and the civil war elements. Higginbotham, Ortiz and Reissa get some fun beats and there’s a sense of community with their characters. It’s almost like they’re on season 12 of The Walking Dead: The Manhattan Tribe and this is a crossover.

What works really well here is how writer Eli Jorné uses their existence to lock in even tighter on the dysfunctional non double act of Maggie and Negan. The wonderful pulp image of the slides between buildings, and Maggie’s refusal to accept Negan’s help, tells us a lot about how literally precarious life on the island is. A later moment where Negan brutally and exuberantly murders a Burazi tells us how close to the surface his old self is. The fact he’s disgusted by that, and Maggie sees that too, tells us a lot more. Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are incredible once again and the script gives them a lot to work with. The background on the Croat, that he was an early recruit for Negan who was too broken and savage even for him, builds him up as a major antagonist and the Burazi drive the point all the way home. Clad in motorbike gear covered in saw blades, their assault on the tribe is brutal and opens the door to Negan’s equal brutal retaliation. They play like a street level version of the CRM from World Beyond. Ruthless, well trained and utterly without empathy. Or perhaps more accurately, they’re the Saviors 2.0.

Gaius Charles also impresses this episode, as Perlie visits his brother’s apartment in the city and discovers that he killed himself. It’s an almost silent plot line and Charles does a great job of showing us the complex emotions Perlie is experiencing. It gives Perlie some much needed humanity and closes with him on the wrong side of everything and in the Croat’s custody. Or is that protection?

Verdict: One third of the way in, Dead City is finding its pace nicely. It’s arguably more of a serial even than season 1 of Daryl Dixon but right now that’s very much a strength. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart