| “ | Manhattan was one of the epicenters. Military destroyed all of the bridges and tunnels hoping to contain it. Hoping to contain... them. Once home to a million and a half people. Now...
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Manhattan, New York is a borough of New York City in AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
New York City, New York[]
Prior to the outbreak, Manhattan was the most densely populated of New York City's boroughs with a population of about 1.5 million people. The borough is situated on Manhattan Island and is bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers. Among the world's major commercial, financial, and cultural centers, Manhattan served as the heart of the "Big Apple". Iconic sites and historical landmarks that make up the borough include the Empire State Building, Times Square, and the theaters of Broadway. It also served as the headquarters for the United Nations.
Post-Apocalypse[]
When the outbreak began, the U.S Military destroyed Manhattan's bridges and tunnels in Operation Cobalt in order to contain the outbreak as Manhattan was one of the epicenters. Since then, a herd of one million walkers has accumulated and dominated the streets, leaving only a small civilian population to inhabit the island. The survivors live above the tenth floors of several buildings, where they zipline over the streets as a means of transportation and manage self-sustaining hydroponic farms on rooftops to survive.[1]
Dead City[]
Season 1[]
"Old Acquaintances"[]
Maggie Rhee observes Manhattan through a large monocular, seeing that the buildings have been partially reclaimed by nature and are ruined in places. On the streets is a massive herd of walkers, the sight of which causes Maggie to stop and check a map of Lower Manhattan which has a large dot in one particular spot. Hearing a small herd coming, Maggie quickly hides, but she is surprised by a walker that comes up from behind her. However, Maggie manages to overpower the walker and bash its head in with her monocular, continuing on in a rage even after the walker is dead, utterly destroying the walker's head. Splattered with walker blood, Maggie lets out a scream before catching her breath.
From across the river, Negan observes the large plume of smoke from a fire in Manhattan, and Maggie explains that she camped out for three days watching the city and she saw the smoke show up like that every morning at the same time and then again at night. Negan realizes that Maggie thinks that it's a cooking fire for breakfast and dinner, but he suggests that "sometimes a building on fire is just a building on fire." Before they can leave on a nearby boat, Maggie and Negan hear a vehicle pulling up.
Negan releases Jano and Maggie drives the boat through the walker-infested river towards Manhattan which the fog parts to finally reveal to them. "Fuck me," mutters Negan, looking at the city.
At the dock, Jano notices that the only thing that's around is a few dead bodies and he wonders where all of the walkers are while Negan looks at a destroyed bridge in the distance. Maggie prepares a flare gun in case they get separated and Negan asks her to look after Ginny for him once this is all over which Maggie agrees to since Negan isn't going back to her. The three head into the city streets which are empty aside from some human remains and abandoned vehicles and Jano tries to run, but he is roughly stopped by Negan. Maggie threatens that if Jano tries that again, he's going to wish that Negan had thrown him off of the boat.
As the three head towards the fire, walkers suddenly start falling from the sky, shattering on impact with the vehicles below. Taking cover in a doorway, Negan is annoyed that walkers are falling from the sky now and Maggie guesses that the walkers must've heard them, before being interrupted by a noise. Walkers appear on the other side of the doorway that they're hiding in and start breaking the glass. Maggie, Negan and Jano run for some scaffolding across the street with Negan picking Jano up after he falls. Dodging the literal rain of walkers, they make it under the scaffolding, observed by Esther from a nearby rooftop, and they take shelter until the walkers stop falling. Leaving, Negan tells Jano to get his shit together.
Continuing through the city, they pass a sign reading "DAWN. LINCOLN CENTER. COME KILL WITH US" and Negan stops Maggie from walking into a trap. The three eventually reach a blockade and see a vehicle driving by playing loud music and leading a massive herd of walkers. Maggie, Negan and Jano take cover behind some trash as part of the herd starts heading towards them, but cockroaches from the trash start crawling all over them. Their attempts to dislodge the cockroaches causes a garbage bag to fall, revealing that the cockroaches are coming from a walker corpse on the other side. Deciding not to stay, the three come out of hiding as someone starts shooting the walkers approaching them from behind, causing them to dive for cover. Recognizing the shooters as Perlie and Gritz, Jano calls out to them, but Negan pulls him back to the ground. Spotting a door nearby, Negan leads his companions into Big J Cleaners.
Inside, Maggie, Negan and Jano split up to look for another way out. Perlie and Gritz enter, and they barricade the doors against the walkers. Perlie leaves Gritz behind to guard the doors, instructing him to not let anyone out. Maggie, Negan and Jano hide while Perlie searches for them. Calling out to Maggie while Negan restrains Jano from revealing their position, Perlie identifies himself as a New Babylon marshal, revealing some personal details about himself so as to give Maggie a sense about what kind of a person he is and that he is not her enemy. Perlie describes New Babylon, calling it a capital city that is more of a small town with three-lined streets and families looking out for each other. Perlie has a wife and three daughters who mean everything to him. Perlie recognizes that, while he doesn't know why Maggie is with Negan or has taken Jano hostage, she has her reasons, possibly even good ones. Perlie sincerely offers to hear Maggie out if she reveals herself, but he warns her that he'll be a little less open to hearing her out if Perlie gets to her first and he will get to her.
Unnoticed by Negan and Jano, a walker comes up behind them. Perlie finds a walker covered in a plastic bag and he puts it down with the bayonet on his rifle. As Negan walks away, a distracted Jano is attacked by the walker who has a living creature inside of its mouth as the walker's tongue. Negan puts down the walker and saves Jano, but Perlie accidentally shoots Jano after he stands up, killing him and shocking Perlie. Maggie and Negan run while Perlie is distracted and the herd breaks through the doors and devours Gritz. Negan breaks through the door to the back room and takes care of a walker on the other side while Perlie lines up a shot on him. Maggie sneaks up behind the marshal and they struggle over the gun, but Perlie overpowers Maggie who finally reveals that she needs Negan's help to save her son. Although he hesitates for a moment, Perlie refuses to relent, pushing down on her throat with his gun, but Maggie smacks him in the face with her chain and finally overpowers Perlie and knocks him unconscious with the butt of his own gun. Maggie nearly beats the marshal to death with his rifle, but she hesitates and then changes her mind after seeing Negan. Tossing the rifle aside, Maggie escapes with Negan into a backroom, where Maggie and Negan encounter Esther who blows out Negan's match.
Tied to a chair, Hershel is visited by the Croat who compliments the boy on acting tough like his mother and maybe his father. The Croat questions if Hershel ever met the man who killed his father, telling the boy that Glenn's killer Negan had lived among Maggie's people for years. The Croat asks what Hershel knows about Negan, but Hershel defiantly tells his captor that "you can sit there in the dark trying to freak me out, but I'm not saying shit," amusing the Croat. Going through some nearby drawers, the Croat tells Hershel that he was fascinated by Manhattan as a boy, especially how there was so many people on such a tiny island, noting that ironically the city is much more alive in death than it ever was before the outbreak "because the struggle galvanizes you. Shows you the strength you had inside you all along. You know, I think you're gonna like it here." The Croat menacingly rest a blade on Hershel's leg, apparently about to torture him, before being interrupted by one of his men with the news that someone has gotten away.
On the roof, a shirtless man covered in slashes and other signs of torture desperately looks for an escape route. Telling the man that there's nowhere to go, the Croat asks the man for what he wants to know about his people. The man tries to escape across a zipline to another building, but the Croat cuts the zipline, sending the man falling to his death. The Croat sadistically makes a joke about the man's 20 story fall being a new record, then plainly states "what a pity."
"Who's There?"[]
Walkers try to break into the room where Maggie and Negan are hiding, all of their stuff having been stolen by Esther. The two escape through a hole in the celling and follow Esther to where she's climbing an elevator shaft. A walker falls into a pile at the bottom of the shaft and Negan quips to Maggie that "it's just a ball of fun hangin' out with you, ain't it?" Maggie and Negan climb the ladder after Esther who escapes to another building using a zipline, impressing Negan. Much to their surprise, Esther sends the hook back to them and tells Maggie and Negan to follow her. The two zipline across, Maggie narrowly avoiding the walkers overrunning the building. The same music that they heard before suddenly begins playing and Maggie gets stuck near the other end of the zipline, dangling over the walker-infested streets of Manhattan. Maggie makes it the rest of the way across after rejecting Negan's help and they head inside of the building that they've reached.
Maggie and Negan climb in through a window and find Esther in a large room going through their stuff. Although Maggie protests her actions, Negan lets her keep something and Esther offers them some food in trade. Negan asks the old woman to take them to the building where the smoke is coming from, but she protests in Hebrew which Negan guesses translates into "hell freaking no." Negan tells Maggie that they can either go back or see how things play out with Esther, but if they go back, the only thing waiting for them is a herd and a marshal's bullet. Maggie reluctantly concedes, and Esther beckons them to follow her.
In Big J Cleaners, Perlie awakens and spots his rifle across the floor and walkers wandering the room. Perlie prepares to go after his gun, but a zombified Gritz walks past it, causing Perlie to change his mind. As walkers continue to move around the laundromat, Perlie looks again at the envelope with Joel Armstrong's Manhattan address.
Esther leads Maggie and Negan down some stairs where Amaia and Tommaso aim modified nail guns at them, while Esther tries to defuse the situation. Negan immediately disarms himself followed by Maggie reluctantly while Amaia and Tommaso argue about how the old woman keeps bringing back people for them to take in. "I am guessing they are not with the Croat," comments Maggie which Negan sarcastically agrees with. Negan interrupts the argument, acknowledging that they don't know each other and they might not be friendly, but he doubts that Esther has brought them all of this way to get killed.
Tommaso claims that there's thousands of them and they own this city, but Amaia asks what they're after, pointing out that it's pretty obvious that Maggie and Negan aren't from around here. Maggie claims that they were heading up north to a settlement in Canada when their boat washed them ashore in Manhattan during a storm and they're just here to get supplies and get on their way again. However, Amaia doesn't believe Maggie's story and Esther argues with her as Tommaso disarms the two. Tommaso leads Maggie and Negan through the Manhattan Tribespeople's hideout, has Luther search through Maggie's bag and, much to Negan's annoyance, locks them in an old bathroom.
In the present, Negan points out that they didn't have much of a choice but to surrender as Amaia's people had guns, meaning that they would've been killed if they fought back. While Maggie thinks that they could've taken them and not been locked up, Negan is sure that they're here because of Maggie's obvious lie, suggesting that they should've told them the truth so that both sides would give a little. Negan acknowledges that right or wrong, these people had their reasons for locking Maggie and Negan up which Negan thinks makes them useful for manpower and information. Maggie points out that Negan was supposed to be the source of information, but so far, he's been pretty tight-lipped about the Croat.
An emotional Negan finally explains that "right around the time that the world turned into shit soup, the Croat showed up at my door so to speak. He had been through... well, let's just say he had been through some really bad shit. Worst shit imaginable. So, I took him in. Kept him from brain painting the walls. Pretty soon he was calling me his brother, Buraz. Said that I made him feel safe. I guess at that point everyone was looking for a little sanctuary from the hellfire we'd all been damned to, I mean we'd lost everything. The thing is, I um, I really thought I was helping him." Maggie guesses that it takes a monster to make one, but Negan corrects her that "you see, I was only a monster when I absolutely had to be. When I had to put on a show to protect my people. Anyway, the... the Croat he had a way of uh... reading people. And then toying with them, and pulling them apart. When a threat needed to be handled, it was a skillset that I found very useful." Maggie realizes that the Croat was Negan's torturer, but Negan admits that "he took it too far. It was um... one of our first skirmishes with the Kingdom, before your time. A person had holed up in a car a couple of miles from the Sanctuary. It seemed to me she was a drifter, nothing to do with us or anything we were up to. So, I gave a direct order: let her walk. The Croat, he... he saw it differently. Thought that the... thought that she had beans to spill. And he was right: she was a... a scout. At least that's what she copped to before uh... before he... She was just a kid. So, after that, I knew that he was a rabid dog that needed to be put down. I had one shot. One. I missed. Blew off his ear, the rest of him got away. I haven't seen or heard from him since. Until now, of course." Maggie realizes that this means that the Croat is going to want to kill Negan which he confirms. Maggie is angry that Negan didn't tell her this before, but Negan points out that he does know how the Croat operates.
Perlie makes his way to Joel's Apartment and breaks through the locked door, blocking the hole with a dresser after hearing the growls of walkers nearby. In the kitchen, Perlie finds a lot of empty food cans scattered around, suggesting that Joel had run out of food at some point and drug paraphernalia on the stove. In the dust-covered living room, Perlie finds a picture of himself and Joel who is revealed to be his brother and an empty gun case. Looking at a picture of himself and Joel with their parents, Perlie spots a body in the bedroom behind him in the mirror. Perlie finds Joel dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, having presumably committed suicide after running out of supplies and being left to face starvation. Perlie sadly covers his brother's body with a sheet and lays Joel's rosary beads on top of it. Taking Joel's loaded gun, Perlie goes to leave, but finds walkers trying to get through the door. Perlie climbs out of the window and down a ladder, but he gets caught in a net.
At the hideout, Maggie and Negan hear a lot of panicked shouting and Tommaso grabs them, accusing the two of being responsible. Amaia's people are frantically packing up because the Burazi are coming, and Tommaso believes that Maggie and Negan led them to the hideout, wanting to kill them for it. Negan tries to calm the situation down, telling Amaia that they aren't with the Burazi and arguing Tommaso before holding a sharpened pigeon bone to his throat, threatening to kill Tommaso with it before releasing him and reiterating that he and Maggie are here to help them. As vehicles pull up outside, Amaia returns Maggie and Negan's belongings and weapons. Maggie suggests that they should wait if this is the Croat's people, but Negan knows that it's a bad idea if the Burazi have the jump on them.
Several Burazi, armed with makeshift metal spears, enter the hideout and Maggie and Negan quickly hide. A Buraz comes close to finding them, but he heads off after another survivor that runs past instead. Climbing the stairs, the two find one of Amaia's people dead, a Burazi spear through her chest and Amaia's people fighting a few more, the bodies of another of their people and a dead Buraz lying on the ground. Amaia uses her nail gun, which fires a grappling line, to yank out a piece of a Buraz's chest, severely wounding him, while Luther snaps the neck of another Buraz. Stopping Amaia, Maggie finishes off the wounded Buraz herself with a vicious stomp to his neck.
On the roof, the surviving group members prepare to make their escape, but one Buraz takes Esther hostage. As Negan tries to talk the man down, he keeps muttering "doma smo," before suddenly stabbing Esther in the chest, killing her to everyone's horror, before Negan finally subdues the man by slamming him headfirst into a beam. Cradling Esther's body, Tommaso - who up until this point has seemed to only be a hot-headed angry survivor - breaks down crying, before stabbing Esther in the head in order to keep her from reanimating. Negan instructs everyone else to make their escape across the ziplines while he deals with the captured Buraz. However, Maggie follows Negan back inside.
As more Burazi arrive, Negan slams his captive's head through several glass windows, calling out "knock, knock" and holding a knife to the man's throat over the hideout's second floor balcony. Watched by Maggie, Negan makes fun of one of the Burazi before going into one of his taunting speeches. "Knock, knock. Who's there? Butter. Butter who? Well, you butter get out your umbrellas, 'cause it is about to goddamn rain." Negan slits his captive's throat, splashing the people below with his blood, and then brutally disembowels him, shaking more blood over the Burazi. "Now, I don't know if any of you have checked tonight's forecast, but if I see even one mole hair on one of your ugly ass faces, it won't be just a rainstorm. Hell, it won't be a thunderstorm. It'll be a goddamn hurricane!" Negan flings the body over the balcony, dropping him on the Neckbeard Buraz below. Maggie and Negan exchange a look before they flee from the hideout.
In another building, Negan removes the glass from his hand while Amaia and her people mourn their losses, a devastated Tommaso in particular. Amaia and Tommaso thank Maggie and Negan for their help and Tommaso admits that he was lying about there being thousands of them out there. His voice breaking, Tommaso reveals that "those people we lost... that's it. That's our family. We've been going that way a long time." Amaia states that they'd return the favor, but there's no supplies here for Maggie and Negan's trip to Canada: whatever's left has already been taken by somebody else. Tommaso's sure that it doesn't matter and that their boat has already been sunk and you get on the island, but you don't get off because the Burazi and their psycho leader make sure of that. With a look at Negan, Maggie finally admits the truth, that they're in Manhattan because the Croat has her son. "So you wanna get to the psycho? That we can help you with. You know, if you're looking to die." reveals Amaia.
Perlie continues to struggle in his net as four walkers surround him. The Croat drives up with two Burazi and uses the spikes on his helmet to put down the walkers with headbutts. The Croat has Perlie cut down and, after disarming the marshal, tells him with a laugh "don't worry. You're safe now." As the Croat leaves, the Burazi drag Perlie away.
"People Are a Resource"[]
In the present, Ginny arrives at the shore of the Hudson River where she finds two corpses, one missing a head, surrounded by ransacked equipment, suggesting that they had been murdered for their supplies. Ginny begins paddling her way across the river to Manhattan in the large yellow cooler that's amongst the equipment.
Crouching behind a car with Maggie and Negan, Amaia bangs two sets of antlers together, trying to draw in a nearby deer. As the deer approaches, Tommaso kills it with his modified nail gun.
In a store, Negan bangs on a bell, but it doesn't draw in any walkers. Negan notices Luther applying beeswax to himself, but he refuses to let Negan have any and works on stripping the deer of useable meat. Amaia goes over a map of the city with Maggie and Tommaso with the two tribespeople revealing that most of the streets are too dangerous due to walkers and the Croat's traps. Negan asks how long they've been at this, and Amaia explains that they're native New Yorkers, just kids when the Trials began. "The first few weeks were the... the worst. I mean, it spread so fast. Through the subways, the buildings. Bodies coming up from the ground, falling from the sky. We kept waiting for the Army to show up. Shit, anybody. And when they finally got here, we were dumb enough to think that they'd come to save us. And we watched them blow up the bridges, the tunnels, leaving us in this death trap."
Tommaso adds that they were getting it together little by little until the Croat showed up, asking people to join him, offering protection and creature comforts. The Croat wants to keep them "safe" in his paranoid kill or be killed version of it with Maggie and Negan exchanging looks as they recognize this as a twisted version of what Negan and the Saviors did. However, the tribe were never going to agree to that deal, so the Croat now kills them, steals from them and kidnaps and tortures them so that he can learn how to kill and steal some more. Only one of the tribespeople ever got out alive, but that was just luck. A disturbed Maggie goes to check the alley, and Negan reassures an apologetic Amaia that Maggie's tougher than she looks, "and she looks tough as shit." Maggie takes a moment to collect herself privately before heading outside.
Elsewhere, Ginny reaches Manhattan and heads into the ruined city.
From a window overlooking Madison Square Garden which is surrounded by a massive herd, Tommaso informs Maggie and Negan that, "if you wanna get to the Croat, you just gotta get through that. He's been bringing fleshies in from all over the city." A vehicle drives by playing music and drawing more walkers behind it towards the arena, the same thing that Maggie, Negan and Jano had encountered on their first night in Manhattan. Luther says that there's no way inside of the arena and Amaia shoots down Maggie's idea of the sewers as the Army had shoved in all of the walkers that they killed until they got killed themselves and turned into walkers at which point the sewers were sealed up nice and tight.
Negan recalls that one of the tribespeople had broken out of "Alcatraz," meaning that there's a way back in. Tommaso is revealed to be the one who had managed to escape and Amaia suggests that they show Maggie and Negan, but Luther refuses the idea as it has already been refused. Amaia brings up their recent losses, but Tommaso backs Luther up as there's even less of them than when they had first voted on it and Tommaso's not sure that he can go back there again. "I am, um, getting an old feeling of deja vu. 12, 15 years ago there was a... a fella down south. Showed up outta nowhere, a lot like this guy. Everybody flocked to him because he knew what they needed, what they wanted. Protection. Sanctuary. So, he built a badass fortress. Formed an army out of psychopaths. And he forced people to join. And if they didn't, the hammer came down. Now, soon enough, the people they got fed up with him. So, they got together. And they decided it was time to take that hammer back." Amaia and Tommaso listen with interest, as does Maggie who recognizes the story as that of Negan himself, the Saviors, and his defeat by Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom and Oceanside. Tommaso asks what happened and Maggie and Negan reveal that the revolt worked. After a moment, Tommaso agrees to talk to the others, much to Amaia's delight and Luther's displeasure. As the group watches, three vehicles, including a blood-splattered ambulance, drive into the arena.
Inside, a captive Perlie Armstrong is removed from the back of the ambulance. The Croat welcomes Perlie who is led past where some of the Burazi are loading a body into a fluid filled tank. Handcuffed to a railing in the Croat's office, Perlie watches as some of the Croat's people practice near a large ring in the center of the arena.
In the tribe's new base at an abandoned restaurant, Tommaso draws a map and explains that sometimes the door to the arena would open and the Croat would offer him food or medicine in exchange for telling him about the tribe, specifically how many of them were left and where they were hiding. Tommaso knew that the second he talked, he'd be killed so while the door kept opening, "let's just say there was no more food or medicine," and Negan notices scars on Tommaso's back. When Tommaso was a kid, his grandfather talked about working on the crew that rebuilt Penn Station and that while people assumed that the old station was gone, Tommaso's grandfather knew the spots where they had left the framework hiding behind the walls. One night, when the Burazi cleaned out Tommaso's cell of all of the blood they spilt in there, a walker got in. Tommaso ran as fast as he could, found the framework and followed the New York City Subway System out.
However, while the cells are close, Negan knows that after Tommaso's escape, the Croat would've moved his prisoners as it's what Negan would've done. Maggie admits that Negan and the Croat know each other and they go way back, and Negan knows how the Croat thinks. While they were friends, Negan took a shot at him and blew the Croat's ear off. "He can bait him. Lure him out of the arena. Then we get him to tell me where my son is, and we kill him," declares Maggie. Amaia agrees that the rest of them will get a jump on the Burazi so that the Croat can't follow Maggie, but Luther questions how Negan is going to bait the Croat after blowing his ear off. Negan points out that the Croat will likely want revenge on him for doing it and Maggie insists that it will work, but Luther is doubtful, going so far as to harshly tell Maggie that her son is already dead and he thinks that she knows that. Negan interrupts the argument and a distressed Maggie walks away.
In Perlie’s lavish cell, a Buraz delivers two plates of dinner, a bottle of wine and turns on a record player before standing off to the side. The Croat enters the room and joyfully greets Perlie, turning on a heat lamp and the lights. The Croat invites Perlie to dine with him, reassuring the marshal that "it isn't magic, I promise. Only science. That was my profession. Alternative energy. So naturally, when I first arrived here, I couldn't help asking myself what is the most abundant natural resource on this island? Death. The sewers are full of it. The bodies break down and produce methane and because the intermolecular forces are weak, the gas can be pressurized into a liquid fuel at regular temperature. Amazing, isn't it? What we have built here is a sanctuary. And all are welcome." The Croat pushes a handcuff key across the table towards Perlie, and asks why he is here and who he brought with him. The Croat can't offer Perlie refuge until he no longer poses a threat because, above all in this world, we must stay safe.
The Croat suddenly discovers that the meat on his dish is rotten with larva inside of it and shoves himself away from the table. The Croat is concerned because rotten meat can host all kinds of bacteria and, without the treatment that humanity once had, it can be deadly. The Croat demands to know why the Buraz would serve him rotten meat before interrupting his explanation and forcing him to swallow the handcuff key. The Croat furiously shoves the Buraz's head and neck several times into the railing, breaking the man's neck, killing him, before shoving him over the edge to the arena floor below and leaving.
At the tribe's base, Maggie looks through a box of old photos of her family, Otis and Patricia, a picture of herself and a baby Hershel, an old watch, and a drawing of Glenn. Negan approaches and offers her a Yankees hat that he had found for Hershel, remembering that Hershel had used to wear one a lot like it. Noticing how upset she is, Negan reassures Maggie that Luther is wrong, and her plan is going to work, offering to talk about it or listen if Maggie needs someone to talk to. "When the Croat showed up at our gates... I told Hershel... to get in the root cellar. I tried to make him hide. By then, I could've said left and he'd go right just to spite me. And he went and grabbed a shovel and a brick like that was gonna do anything. And I told him he was stupid. And he told me to get off his damn back for once. That is the last thing that we said to each other. And I screwed up so many ways before then, fumbling through doing it by ourselves. There weren't a lot of people that meant anything to me in this world, but there were enough. And whatever's left of all of them is inside this box," a tearful Maggie admits.
In turn, Negan emotionally reveals to a sympathetic Maggie that "a few years ago, Joshua, Annie and I, we were living in this little cabin outside of New Babylon. One day, Annie decided to go into town to do some trading. When she wasn't home at nightfall, I uh... I knew something had gone wrong. I went looking for her, I found her. And she had been uh... she had been... she'd been robbed, and beaten and, uh... She begged me not to do something stupid, but hell, you know me. I found 'em. All five of 'em, in some shit drinking hole. Honestly, I don't think I even wanted to kill 'em. After that, we were on the run, and it was very hard for Annie. So, I put 'em on a wagon train to Missouri and I said I'd be right behind 'em. I stayed. I think about them every single day. I hope to God they are okay, and maybe I have no right in hoping that. I don't know, Maggie. I mean, what else do we have besides hope?" Joking that she thought that Negan knew how to shut up, Maggie takes his gift of the hat for Hershel.
Ginny runs through the walker-infested streets of Manhattan, having close calls with two different walkers. In the process, Ginny drops her dinosaur toy and a trapped walker reaches towards it.
In the present, Rizza puts down the walker and picks up Ginny's toy before moving on. Ginny quickly begins following the woman.
The tribe sits down to dinner, enacting a ritual of laying down various items including Esther's necklace, items belonging to lost loved ones, and humming in remembrance. After a moment, Maggie holds the drawing of Glenn and joins in the ritual.
At the arena, a cheering crowd chants "doma smo" or "we are home" in Croation and the Croat announces that they are celebrating the Buraz that Negan killed because death is no end, but rather it is their fuel "because people are a resource." Cheering, some of the crowd take hits off of the methane coming from the corpse and the Croat forces Perlie to take one too before shoving him into the ring.
A disorientated Perlie is chained to a post in the ring and the zombified Buraz that the Croat had killed earlier, his head tilted at an angle from his broken neck, is shoved in with him. Dodging the walker a few times, Perlie manages to grab him from behind, wrap his handcuff chains around the walker's throat and, pinning the walker against the post, dig the chain into his neck hard enough to decapitate the man. The disappointed crowd throws bottles into the ring and Perlie grabs a broken one and uses it to cut open the walker's stomach and retrieve the handcuff key, freeing himself. Two more walkers are shoved into the ring with Perlie who searches for a way out. Unable to find one, Perlie removes his right boot, after hesitating over his left boot, and he uses it to bash in the walkers' faces, impressing the Croat.
At the restaurant, Tommaso approaches Maggie and admits that he's scared. Tommaso doesn't know how Maggie manages to keep it together, especially with a kid. "Amaia, she says having a kid in the city wouldn't be safe. I don't know, I just... yeah, she's probably right, you know?" Maggie admits that Amaia's right that it isn't safe, but you have to make it safe somehow and you do whatever it takes. Amaia brings in Rizza who Tommaso happily greets. As the woman pulls out her finds, Maggie is shocked to spot Ginny's dinosaur toy amongst them, only telling the woman that she knows a little girl who likes those kinds of toys, and the woman gives it to Maggie.
In Perlie's cell, the Croat congratulates Perlie on the best show that this place has ever seen in years and offers the marshal a towel to clean himself up. While the Croat claims not to enjoy such barbarism, it had to be done. "When the world became unstable, my family and I found shelter in a post office. We were starving, so I went to look for food. When I got back, I smelled it immediately. My family... my wife Mia, and my daughters Nika and Hana, and my son, Filip, had become a meal for another starving family. And I was too distraught to even think of killing myself. By the time that would've occurred to me, I had already found a man who had become my new family, and teach me how to protect the things that matter, which makes me wonder what it is that you are protecting in that boot." One of the Buraz holds a blade to Perlie's neck while another removes his boot. Inside, the Croat find the envelope with Joel's address on it and reads Joel's letter to his emotional brother begging for Perlie's help after everyone had changed their phone numbers on him. Perlie tearfully begs the Croat to stop, admitting that it's just him as Perlie's two partners are dead. Perlie reveals that they had come to Manhattan to bring a wanted man named Negan home. The Croat is shocked to learn that Negan is in Manhattan.
In the restaurant kitchen, Negan goes through the various pots and pans and utensils before picking up a cheese grater. Luther approaches Negan who explains that he was looking for any weapons that he could pick up for the next day. Negan knows that Luther doesn't like him, but Luther just needs to know that they're on the same side and this plan is going to work. However, Luther tells Negan that he and Maggie are leaving here tonight and pulls out Negan's Wanted poster, having found it amongst Negan's stuff where Negan had kept it after getting the poster from Maggie at the motel. As Negan has people depending on him, he refuses Luther's demand to leave. Stating that people are depending on him as well, Luther also refuses to back down. The two get into a fight with Luther nearly crushing Negan with a bear hug before Negan runs the cheese grater across his forehead. Releasing Negan, Luther stumbles backwards, trips, and accidentally impales the back of his head on a pipe. Kneeling down, Negan pushes Luther's head the rest of the way down onto the pipe, killing him.
In the present, secretly observed by Ginny, Maggie prepares to burn the dinosaur toy in an old trash barrel while Negan walks away from Luther's body. However, staring at her burning match, Maggie hesitates to actually go through with it and holds the match indecisively.
"Everybody Wins a Prize"[]
In the present, Negan is visibly distracted by his memories of the Croat and exchanges a look with Maggie as they prepare for the upcoming attack. Amaia arrives with the news that she has looked everywhere, but she can't find Luther. Tommaso asks if Luther just took off with Rizza noting that she had passed him on her way in the night before. Amaia asks if there was anyone outside the night before who might've seen Luther leave, but Maggie remains silent and two other tribespeople are surprised by the fact that Luther is still missing and ask where he would go. Amaia tells them that she's not saying that Luther went anywhere, she's just trying to figure out what had happened to him. Negan finds it hard to believe that someone like Luther would just be hiding somewhere and reminds her that Luther wasn't very keen on their plan which Tommaso agrees with. Tommaso asks how long they're going to wait as every hour gives the Croat more time to figure out what they're up to, reassuring his girlfriend that Luther can handle himself and, when he gets back and sees what they've accomplished, Luther will be apologizing to Amaia for his doubts. Relieved, Amaia shares a kiss with Tommaso.
Maggie follows Negan into another room where he practices with one of the tribe's modified Nail Guns, but experiences pain from his hand wound which was reopened during Negan's fight with Luther. Negan brushes off Maggie's visible concern for him and continues packing while Maggie becomes upset at the sound of one of the tribespeople playing a harmonica. Negan admits that he's not ready and that it's not because the Croat wants him dead, pointing out that a lot of other people have wanted him dead too. "The closer we get to the Croat... it just begins to feel a bit too goddamn familiar. Like if he starts talkin', it won't be him at all. It's gonna be the echo of some song that I don't wanna hear no more." In turn, Maggie reveals that when Hershel was a baby, there was a man living above them who decided that it was a good time to learn the harmonica while Hershel was having trouble sleeping. When the man still wouldn't stop after Maggie asked him to, she stole the harmonica while he was on a hunting expedition and buried it in the ground. An impressed Negan jokes that Maggie must've lost a couple of Girl Scout badges for that while she guesses that Negan would've buried it somewhere way worse which he silently acknowledges. Negan asks if Maggie has seen his matches, but Maggie lies that she hasn't before she leaves.
After a small herd passes by a subway entrance, Maggie, Negan and the tribespeople emerge from a nearby doorway. A disgusted Maggie notices something bubbling up out of a nearby sewer grate and Tommaso explains that it's methane from the sewers. The group enters the subway with Ginny, watching unnoticed from a nearby storefront, following them inside.
Passing through a subway tunnel, the group finds it filled with corpses, some of which are walkers so decomposed that they can't even move anymore and their ribcages are visible. The group carefully picks their way through the corpses, arriving at Penn Station. Exploring the station, Maggie finds one of the Croat's cells with streaks of blood on the floor outside and a teenager resembling Hershel tied to a chair, his throat slit. Lifting the teenager's head, Negan discovers him to be a walker, but he isn't Hershel, much to Maggie's relief. Negan stabs the boy in the head, putting him down, and he and Maggie leave the room.
In the hallway, Amaia outlines their plan for the tribe to wait for a bit so that they aren't discovered while Maggie steals a car and Negan lures the Croat down to the garage so that they can lead the Croat halfway across the city and get him alone. Once they do that, the tribespeople will start killing the Burazi. "You get your kid. We kill the psycho. Everybody wins a prize," concludes Amaia. Tommaso wonders how they'll know if things go sideways for Maggie and Negan and Negan admits that they won't. Amaia orders the two not to screw it up, and the tribespeople leave. Pulling out Negan's matches, Maggie asks if he has figured out how to bait the Croat yet, and Negan states that he has a thought or two and Negan feels good about this. Negan is sure that their plan is going to work and that they're going to get Hershel back. Maggie decides to tell Negan the truth about finding Ginny's dinosaur, but she notices Luther's beeswax in his bag as she goes to return the matches and Maggie realizes what Negan did to Luther. Negan offers to explain, but Maggie is uninterested in hearing it and she leads Negan away.
In a control center for the arena, the Croat powers up the systems and checks with a young Buraz that she knows how to operate it, giving her instructions just to be sure. The Croat notices that the Buraz seems nervous and realizes that she's afraid of him despite the young woman's claims that she's not. The Croat recalls the day that she joined the Burazi, hiding in a fire station with a group of barbarians and how she was smart enough to lay down her weapon. The Croat states that it's been a joy watching her blossom over the past few years into a strong, faithful, confident protector. She has made the Croat incredibly proud, and she should have no reason to ever be afraid of him. The Croat gives her some candy before they both notice the sound of a whistle echoing through the halls - the distinctive whistle that was used by Negan and the Saviors. With the sound repeating itself, the Croat grabs his jacket and runs off while the Buraz inserts a disc into the player and starts a 5 minute countdown. The Croat excitedly runs off, following the whistle that he realizes is from Negan.
In the garage, Maggie sneaks into an old taxicab and begins trying to hotwire it before she finds the keys in the ignition. Before Maggie can start the car, she hears a noise, and she spots Ginny nearby. After exchanging a look with Maggie, the girl runs off and Maggie follows her. With just three and a half minutes left on the timer, someone lights a fuse. The tribespeople enter the main area of the arena which is empty while the Croat's search for Negan leads him to the garage where Negan hides behind a truck before moving amongst the vehicles to the cab. The Croat begins imitating Negan's whistle in an effort to draw him out, but Negan notices Maggie's screwdriver on the cab's passenger seat. As the timer reaches 1 minute, Maggie finally catches up to Ginny in the main area of the arena where Amaia informs her that the Burazi aren't here. As Negan climbs into the cab and picks up the tool, the Croat continues to try and draw him out while more Burazi rush in behind him.
The timer reaches 0 and all of the arena's entertainment systems turn on, broadcasting music through the main area. The fuse burns to the end in what's revealed to be a barrel fuel set in one of the arena's doorways. Explosions rock the outside of the arena as the doors are blown open, letting in the herd. The Burazi climb into various vehicles and begin making their escape as their trap is sprung on the tribespeople. Negan gets out of the car just in time as one of the Buraz takes the cab for himself. Drawn by the music, walkers flood the main area of the arena from all directions, trapping the tribespeople. The strobe lights turn on as the tribespeople get cornered by the massive herd against the ring. The Croat orders the cab driver to go on without him and has two more Burazi stay with him. When the cab drives away, Negan is gone from behind it, taking cover in the room full of tanks containing dead bodies.
In the main area, Maggie and the tribespeople desperately fight the herd but, severely outnumbered, they are quickly overwhelmed, and the tribespeople fall to the walkers one by one. Much to Maggie and Amaia's horror, Tommaso eventually gets grabbed by a group of walkers and carried away to his apparent death. Once the rest of the Burazi have cleared out, the Croat orders his two remaining men to search for Negan and grabs one of the tribespeople's modified nail guns. Negan takes the opportunity to run which is noticed by the Croat who excitedly chases after him. As the fight continues, Maggie is consumed with flashbacks of Hershel calling out to her for help as the Croat drags him away and she notices that one of the exits is nearly clear of walkers and that Ginny is trapped in the ring in the center of the arena. Rather than escaping and leaving Ginny behind, Maggie leads Amaia and Rizza - the only other survivors - inside of the ring where they barricade themselves in. Maggie and Ginny exchange a look while Negan runs up a stairwell, pausing only briefly to look at his former friend when the Croat calls out to him.
In the ring, Maggie and the others stab the walkers through the chain link fence, but there are far too many for them to take out, even from within cover. Maggie has everyone grab the ring's rubber supports as makeshift shields while the Croat splits up with his men after spotting Negan entering another stairwell after reaching a higher floor. Maggie's group uses their makeshift shields to force their way through the herd towards the exit that Maggie had spotted earlier, but Rizza gets grabbed and devoured by walkers on the way with the others being forced to press on, unable to help her. Amaia nearly suffers the same fate, but she is unexpectedly saved by Tommaso who had somehow managed to fight off the walkers and escape. With too many walkers between them and the no longer clear exit, Tommaso instead leads everyone into the tunnels beneath the arena where they eventually find an unlocked door, but they find themselves caught in a dead end with no other way out of the room as walkers start to bang on the door.
The Croat's search for Negan leads him onto a catwalk over the main area of the arena where he observes the carnage below him with amusement. The Croat calls out that there's nothing for Negan to be afraid of as he's safe and it's only him. Hearing a noise, the Croat turns around to find Negan, also armed with a modified nail gun, standing on a lower catwalk. The Croat delightedly greet his "brother" and notes Negan's new weapon of choice, but Negan doesn't respond to him. The Croat recalls hearing about what had happened at the bank which he knew sounded like Negan's handiwork. The Croat also knows that Negan had assumed that he wanted revenge on Negan for blowing off his ear and found common cause with his new friends, but the Croat actually doesn't care, telling Negan that he has another ear. The Croat asks about Lucille and Negan, speaking to his former friend for the first time since they had parted ways, admits that the bat is gone and the Croat correctly guesses that she broke from too many hits to people's heads.
"No, I... I understand. I saw Jerome on the mainland. He told me about the war with the Hilltop, the Kingdom... Alexandria. I should've been there. I can only imagine the damage Simon caused. He never listened... never really listened to you. It's okay. It's okay you lost the Sanctuary, 'cause I have built a new one! And we'll keep going. We'll build something bigger, stronger! The whole island will become our sanctuary, fueled by the death in its bowels. Okay, business first, then pleasure. I know who you want. He's here with me, now." Negan asks to see him, and the Burazi bring out the captive Perlie Armstrong.
The Croat believes that Negan wants the marshal who has been pursuing him so doggedly, but Negan clarifies that he actually wants Hershel. The Croat already knows because Perlie told him, and he asks what Maggie has promised Negan to get him to help her. Negan simply reiterates his demand for Hershel, but the Croat tells him that it will be difficult and require a conversation and asks Negan to come to him to talk, but Negan just stands his ground instead. Understanding that Negan doesn't trust him, the Croat decides to make a gesture to show him that the Croat only comes in the spirit of friendship and brotherly love. On the Croat's signal, the three men fling Perlie off of the catwalk, but he manages to grab onto the one that Negan is standing on. Much to the Croat's shock, Negan begins pulling Perlie up instead of letting him die. The Croat sends his two men after Negan and Perlie and he shoots the marshal in the leg with his weapon and tries to pull him up with it, but Perlie manages to rip the hook out of his flesh. Pulling Perlie up, Negan flees with the marshal as the Croat watches on in shock that Negan would save the other man's life rather than kill him.
In the basement room, Maggie, Amaia and Tommaso manage to use an old boiler to block the door. Maggie notices a sign warning of a sewer pipeline and she realizes that they can get out through the sewers. As the walkers try to break through the barricaded door, Maggie and Tommaso move some barrels that are in the way, but Amaia objects that it's too dangerous as all of the dead are down there and they can't breathe in the air. Tommaso points out that they don't have any other choice, and Amaia reluctantly concedes.
Having managed to escape from the overrun arena through subway, Negan and Perlie make their way into an abandoned shoe store near the station exit that they used. As Negan checks outside, Perlie grabs his weapon and recites the New Babylon Federation's judicial code about murder which authorizes him to summarily execute Negan for his actions. Annoyed at the marshal's actions in the aftermath of Negan saving his life, Negan raises his hands and tells Perlie that "you're a dick."
Tommaso, Amaia, Ginny and Maggie descend into the sewer system with Maggie moving the barrel back into place before she follows after the others.
"Stories We Tell Ourselves"[]
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Doma Smo"[]
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
Season 2[]
Manhattan will appear in this season.
Inhabitants[]
Deaths[]
- Joel Armstrong
- Jano
- Gritz (Alive)
- Manhattan Survivor 1
- Esther
- Buraz 2
- Buraz 5 (Alive)
- Luther
- Manhattan Survivor 2 (Alive and Zombified)
- Tribeswoman
- Tribesman
- Rizza
- Amaia
- Tommaso
- Over 1 million unnamed people
- Many unnamed tribespeople
- At least 2 unnamed Burazi
Notable Locations[]
- Madison Square Garden
- Lincoln Center
- Joel's Apartment
- Manhattan Tribespeople's Hideouts
- King Francis Theater
- Big J Cleaners
- One World Trade Center
Appearances[]
Dead City[]
Season 1[]
- "Old Acquaintances"
- "Who's There?"
- "People Are a Resource"
- "Everybody Wins a Prize"
- "Stories We Tell Ourselves"
- "Doma Smo"
Season 2[]
- TBA
Trivia[]
- There are a few members of The Walking Dead Television Universe cast and crew that were actually born in Manhattan:
- Gaius Charles, who plays Perlie Armstrong.
- Zach McGowan, who plays Justin.
- Gus Halper, who plays Will.
- Glen Mazzara, showrunner of Season 3 of The Walking Dead.
- Elizabeth Rodriguez, who plays Elizabeth Ortiz.
- Jonathan Goldstein, who plays Alan.