Now that was fast, Im not so sure if Im ok with it or is this season want to errase from history how bad season 2 was, I say this because they just put down the main two villains of season 2 in the first two episodes. Moving forwards, this new renasance situation finally got the sense that Dead City remembered why Manhattan matters, instead of being another backdrop for Maggie and Negan trading the same tired jabs. Renata and Maggie spend the hour turning a busted hospital into a real neighborhood, getting the power, medical care, and streets running again, and the show saves us the time of hunting down supplies and jumps straight into installing cameras, microphones, setting everything up creating that feeling of progress and been practical. It also feels good how Maggie has stopped orbiting Glenn and years of grudge holding and started looking forward for once, that entire situation also kept season 2 dragging AF, I think really fits her as a leader better than more that her revenge against Negan or the never ending conflict with her son, she is not some saint about it, yet the path they have her on finally clicks feels like she might be the hero or leader of this series. The Statue of Liberty moment is so cheese but I get it works, some rusted symbol of hope lighting back up, it just works because Maggie and Renata are making a loud public bet, knowing anyone they draw in could just as easily bring danger with them. I would rather watch Maggie deal with that than another one note villain trying to take the island. Maggie wants this city to count for something again and every stranger who shows up could help her build it or tear it back down, finally a fight worth her energy but that is the never ending question of this Walking Dead shows, will any of them be able to restore civilization? on other shows like The Last of Us they do, it feels like a show with more hope but all this Walking Dead shows are the same on that aspect, there is always something or something that turns everything upside down, considering the walkers are not the problem anymore.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18546730/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
This episode also doesnt errase Maggie and Negan history, in fact he keeps it alive more than ever now wanting to die for everything he has done but Maggie leans on him because nobody understands better how a group splinters or how order slips, he lived that from the top down. Negan wants zero part of it at first, hiding out drinking at Dillard;s, trading insults and burning hours on video games, which fits I guess is fine, its like the world took a break for them especially once he says the kids are better off without him and his life feels lighter without them, coming from anyone else that would sound cold, but from Negan it plays like honesty since he recognize who he is and what he has done. Maggie still needs Negan because she needs the experience that only he has and it keeps the two of them comming back at each other and pulling the same direction even when they are on the same block. Negan turns into a kind of oracle I guess, I also think thats just better than spending another half season circling whether Maggie can ever forgive him or not when we already now she cant but somehow needs to get pass it without forgeting because if she doesnt then there is no future for her or even Hershel. Maggie argues that once people stop living in constant fear, most of them turn into better versions of themselves, but Negan pushes back that some people never change and that is exactly why a real society still needs judges, lawyers and wardens. There is truth in what he says even though his own order turned ugly and violent fast and their exchange about how the Saviors used to run things might be the best flashback of the show if you have follow from the OG series, mainly because neither one look completely right.
Then comes the Dama, this is somebody who manipulates people for sport and already has bodies on her hands but the truth is that she has always manipulated those who in some way were weak of mind no matter how brilliant they were, just look at The Croat like how was it possible that she had him eating from her hand all that time been that smart?. They finally lock her down and it was very easy, I thought the series was going to keep her in the back while they preset the new villian or danger but they didnt, agian its like they just ripping off every proof that season 2 existed. Renata makes the obvious point that locking her up just means someone has to babysit whoever is babysitting her. Maggie will not pull the trigger herself, so she leaves a knife with a meal because she is not eating so she might just kill herself, quietly offering the Dama a way out, because she still wants that final call to be hers and nobody elses. Negan refuses that arrangement and sneaks down to grab the blade and use it on her, the show does not show that scene but its just the obvious. Latter on, Maggie walks in to find her turned with the blade still in her chest, but it look like she was not so convience Dama did it, and Negan just quietly owns what he did instead of the show milking it, it was satisfying but not so much. What matters here is that Negan took that final call out of Maggie's hands because he does not trust her judgment, thats going to keep creating more problems down the line between them, maybe the Dama really needed to die, but that hardly makes Negan right about calling the shot, Maggie is trying to build somewhere that does not let one person play judge over who lives and Negan has already taken a shortcut over that before the front gates are even open, so he might do it again if he feels its necessary.
This episode is far from flawless and a few weak spots stick out more now that the show has real momentum as it tries to stear its direction. Dillard is funny bouncing insults off Negan over video games and that keep them both as good budies just having fun, then he starts chatting up walkers like they can understand each other, I wonder if he is really into something or just crazy because it gets irritating fast for Nega, especially once it nearly gets them both killed or at least into a hot watter moment with a couple of walkers. He goes and mention how he spent years undercover in human trafficking investigations explains why he is so skittish, but I still do not buy that he has survived this long being this careless. Hershel comes off stronger this time, picking up medicine under Luis gives him purpose and it just takes him away from that never ending question whether he could take a life gives Maggie a chance to mother him again. Its like the show wants to rush past what the Dama actually did inside his head, and while that part feels like needed more room I think its just better to cut it from the roots. Now I think there is a bigger problem here that this show keeps quietly avoiding, Maggie keeps naming Alexandria, the prison and Hilltop when she talks about her own history running communities, yet nobody explains why she has not lifted a finger to contact anyone from that old life?? makes you wonder if the is the black cloud above each of this communities, or was Hershel in many of them?. New Babylon finally gets Perlie Armstrong back and Maggie hands him the job of spreading word about Manhattan, Maggie is throwing her doors open to strangers before ever giving a though of how they going to keep under control those who they assume they will be able to control, I think this is going to back fire on here somone and its just the obvious because there cant be a happy ending for The Walking Dead. I do not need every old face dragged back onscreen, I just want one solid reason why Manhattan feels so sealed off like is this secure place when clearly its not, it cant be.
So far this might be one of the best episodes of the series, the one that makes sense and reconstruct it since it clears out everything that had this series going in circles and it is the first hour all season that has me leaning forward wanting more. The Dama is dead, Perlie is finally on his way home, Maggie has thrown Manhattan wide open and Negan has fall into an advisory role while already showing that whatever help he gives is going to cost something and could split them up. Together those shifts give the season real momentum without needing a new villain, at least for now, there is also new danger that comes purely from Maggie betting on hope, chasing more people, skills, food and medicine, while Negan already knows fresh faces drag fear, greed and violence and he is ready for it, almost like waiting for the "I told you so" opportunity. Renata mainly wants to protect what she has already scraped together, and Dillard and Hershel both keep certain important side roles that might keep the story interesting and not 110% focus only on Maggie and Negan. Some of those people who are comming into Manhattan are probably just looking for somewhere safe to land, while others might take that beacon as an invitation to grab whatever they can, I get that feeling from the last group of people showing going out of the shadows, either way putting these two to work rebuilding something together its just better than their old grudges. That closing shot, strangers filtering in once the torch flickers back to life, means Maggie is about to face whatever she just set in motion.
Rating: 70/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.