‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Does Maggie Finally Kill Negan?
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Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 finale.
The end of Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City has arrived. After a pretty solid first season, the second has had a long list of ups and downs. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) returning to New York City might make you shake your head in disbelief, and Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) scene after scene of quiet despair has been frustrating, but there have also been many intriguing moments. Negan has shown flashes of his old self, playing his enemies against each other, and putting his life on the line in an attempt to save Ginny (Mahina Napoleon). As for Hershel (Logan Kim), he has crept closer to villainy, having abandoned his mother, after being corrupted by the evil Dama (Lisa Emery). The Dama herself, seemingly having been killed in a fire, was shown at the end of the last episode to be very much alive, as she knocked Maggie unconscious just moments after she found her son. Now, in the season finale, “If History Were a Configuration,” there’s a real chance that neither Negan nor Maggie will make it out alive.
Negan and Bruegel Go to War in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Finale
Image via AMC- Image via AMC
- Image via AMC
- Image via AMC
- Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Poor Maggie keeps going unconscious in this show, only to wake up and find herself in a bad situation. This time is no different, as she comes to and finds herself tied up in an abandoned office. The Dama walks in, glad that they’re finally meeting. She goes with the nice, calm act, offering Maggie food, who is secretly cutting through her restraints. The Dama reveals that the burnt body left behind in her supposed demise was a walker. She sees so much too, quickly noticing that Maggie is trying to escape. When she threatens to punish Hershel, Maggie stops. She can’t fight back when her child is so vulnerable.
Bruegel (Kim Coates) tells Perlie (Gaius Charles) that Negan has agreed to meet. Perlie wants to know where Ginny went, but Bruegel doesn’t care. Perlie cares too much about her to ignore this, so he puts a knife to Bruegel’s throat, demanding to know where she is. Bruegel admits that she told him she wanted to kill Negan, and now he can play them against each other. He pulls his own knife, excited about the emotional advantage he has.
Negan stands over Ginny’s bed, watching over the still-unconscious girl. Benjamin Pierce (Keir Gilchrist) lets him know that he’s wanted upstairs. Negan tells him that shit’s about to start. Pierce says he’s with Negan, but he also knows he’s not a fighter, so he won’t be joining in on the violence. At the church, Negan and Bruegel’s groups come together. Bruegel has a gift in the form of a statue, and Negan shows off a large dinner that he’s prepared for his guests. Bruegel isn’t stupid, though, as he demands that Negan eat it first to show that it hasn’t been poisoned. At the same time, Perlie sees that gas has been poured on the pews, but he says nothing. Negan and his men eat the food for a moment before turning the tables, literally, revealing that walkers are hidden underneath. With the doors now locked, the men unleash the undead on Bruegel’s forces and set the church on fire at the same time.
Maggie Agrees To Kill Negan for Hershel in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Finale
The Dama talks to Maggie, admitting that she’s using Hershel because he has never known the flaws of the old world, which means he can help build a better new one. She’d hoped that Negan could help too, but he failed her, so she can use Maggie to kill him. She can get her son back, too, in the process by setting herself free. Hershel later walks in, apologizing to his mother because he didn’t know that the Dama would attack her. She admits that she’s not over what Negan did, but that it’s time to let it go. Her son tells her that he wants to move on and be a family, but that can’t happen until she kills the man who killed his father. A broken Maggie agrees and is set free. When Negan is dead, she’ll come back for Hershel.
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Bruegel’s soldiers are quickly overrun, but they didn’t come unprepared. Their statue is a Trojan horse filled with weapons that they use to easily slaughter the walkers. A worried Negan and his forces bring out their own weapons, and our antihero starts going to town with Lucille. When Bruegel gets his hands on a flamethrower, however, he is forced to flee. This turns out to be a trap, as Bruegel is surrounded by Negan and his men in the basement. He tries to talk his way out of what’s coming next as Maggie, armed with a knife, watches from behind the corner of a wall. Negan demands that Bruegel, along with Perlie, get on their knees. The smile returns, and swinging his bat, he plays “Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Moe”. The old Negan, in this moment, is back. Lucille settles on Perlie, but fuck it, Negan wants to kill Bruegel first. Bruegel keeps talking about wanting to share the methane. Sick of hearing about it, he fills Bruegel’s mouth with methane, followed by a torch, burning his throat until he falls over dead. Lucille then comes down, splattering his head.
Maggie and Negan Agree To Fight Together in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Episode 8
Perlie runs off and Negan lets him, wanting the fun of the chase. Maggie won’t stand for it, and she starts killing the soldiers, allowing Perlie to attack Negan. He’s easily taken down though, but before he can swing Lucille, Maggie stabs Negan in the back. He runs away, and she takes up his bat, following him until he collapses. He keeps crawling and Maggie is ready to finish him off, but she sees where he’s headed. He’s trying to make it back to Ginny’s cell, but it’s too late. She has died and turned, leaving only a walker behind. The shock of it brings Maggie back as Negan cries out in pain. He weeps, repeating her name, and seeing his humanity, Maggie hands him the knife, giving him the chance to put Ginny out of her misery.
She still can’t kill Negan, so Maggie and Perlie carry him to another room, where the knife is finally pulled out of his pack. He’s seriously injured, but he’ll survive. Negan mourns, heartbroken that Ginny died alone. Maggie says there’s something she has to do. She leaves, returning to Hershel, who can tell by the look on his mother’s face that she didn’t do what she said. He’s angry. Nothing will ever change. Calmly, Maggie tells Hershel that killing Negan will only make things worse, but he is filled with a rage that she can understand. “Just know that I’ll always be here for you. I won’t leave the city.” Maggie knows she has to let him go for now, and Hershel walks away. So that’s how you get a third season of Dead City.
Maggie, Perlie, and Negan see a second wave of New Babylon marching through the city. Perlie speaks about approaching a fork in the road, one which heads to the past, and another to an unknown future. A voiceover from Maggie and Negan tells us that the past is too painful, but the future is hopeless too if you don’t have the past with you. The only way forward is to “work through what was to get to what will be.” It will be hard, but they can get there. As the Dama and Hershel watch the soldiers march from a rooftop, a series of images show Maggie and Negan fighting together in the past. These two, despite everything, need each other, and by fighting as one, they will get to where they’re going.
