| “ | 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]
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"
Maggie, Amaia, Tommaso and Ginny prepare to make their way through the corpse-filled sewers. Tommaso notes that these particular corpses are recent, fresh deposits to the Croat's methane bank, effectively hot-boxing dead people for fuel. Maggie notices that Negan's missing from the group, but neither Amaia or Tommaso have seen him. Amaia asks about Ginny, but Maggie just tells her that Ginny's with her. As Maggie goes through her bag, Ginny spots her dinosaur toy inside which Maggie had chosen not to burn after all with Maggie noticing Ginny's attention on her bag. Maggie simply tells the others that Ginny doesn't talk much or follow orders, and Maggie doesn't have the extra flashlight that she thought that she had. Amaia goes to retrieve one from Tommaso's pack, but he quickly gets it himself instead.
Amaia blames herself for the disastrous attack that had killed their entire tribe despite Tommaso's attempts to dissuade her, pointing out that the Burazi knew that they were coming. Tommaso gets her to focus on getting out of the sewers, warning the others that they need to start running when they feel the effects of the methane kicking in. As they begin moving through the sewers, one of the bodies begins moving, revealing that some of the corpses are actually walkers.
Negan and Perlie make their way through the city with Perlie keeping Negan at the point of his modified Nail Gun. Taking shelter in an abandoned souvenir store as walkers pass by, Negan warns the marshal that his boat has already been sunk by the Croat who has the entire island on lockdown. Negan reminds Perlie that he had saved his life, but Perlie claims that it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Negan and Maggie, although Negan states that Maggie isn't his friend. Perlie tells Negan that saving his life doesn't bring back the magistrate and the four other men with him that Negan had killed. "Those assholes, they damn near killed my wife. If you had seen what she looked like when I found her, well, I guarantee you'd done the same," Negan states. Perlie is visibly surprised by this, apparently having been unaware of what had happened to Negan's wife. Drawing his knife, Negan prepares to leave through the front door, but Perlie takes his knife and forces Negan to leave with him through the back.
In the sewers, Maggie's group experiences breathing difficulties from the methane in the air and Amaia and Tommaso go to investigate a strange pile of corpses covered in a white substance. A disgusted Tommaso thinks that it's fat while Ginny tries to climb a ladder out. However, Maggie tells the young girl that the manholes are sealed shut. Guessing that she's trying to go after Negan, Maggie furiously reminds Ginny that Negan had wanted her to stay at the Bricks, stating that they were so close, and that Ginny doesn't even know Negan. Maggie points out that Negan isn't wanted for some minor crime, and Ginny doesn't know the monster that Maggie knows, but she will if Ginny sticks around long enough.
Continuing through the city, Perlie reveals that they are going to Chelsea Piers, but Negan reminds him that the boats are all sunk. Handing Negan a brochure for Chelsea Piers, the marshal explains that they just need a dock because they float, and all the two men need to do is disconnect it. An impressed Negan realizes that Perlie is actually from New York City and Perlie admits that he's from the Bronx. Perlie explains that had worked for the state doing drift collection boats, picking up debris and keeping the rivers clean. In turn, Negan reveals that he had been a gym teacher before the world ended.
With a herd approaching from both directions down the street, the two men quickly move across the street and through the fence with the herd following after them, only to have more walkers emerge from all directions to corner them. Negan and Perlie manage to make it inside of a building through a barricaded window and find a disturbing effigy inside. The two guess that it was made by either an avant-garde artist from before or someone who had lost their mind afterwards and they search for a way out that's not blocked by walkers.
In the sewers, Amaia guesses that they're in either Hell's Kitchen or Chelsea. Stopping behind a large tank, Tommaso produces two oxygen tanks with masks on them that Tommaso claims must be extras for the Burazi. Although Tommaso calls it crazy lucky and Amaia gives one to Ginny while the adults will share the other, Maggie becomes suspicious, studies the room and refuses use of the oxygen tank. Donning an oxygen tank, Amaia still can't figure out how the Burazi knew that they were coming, and Tommaso suggests that Luther had tipped them off since he had left the tribe and didn't want to go through with the plan, but Amaia is doubtful while Maggie knows that it can't have been Luther since Negan had secretly killed him.
"It was him," Maggie realizes, accusing Tommaso. "You knew exactly how to get out last night. You knew to go to the sewers. You even knew how to get inside with that bullshit nonno story." Tommaso denies this, stating that it was how he got out the first time while he was being tortured. Despite his denials, Maggie deduces that Tommaso had cut a deal with the Croat and gave him the location of the tribe's hideouts so that the Croat could raid them and gave the Croat a signal so that the Burazi knew that they were coming. Having noticed Tommaso take his pack off before he had "found" the oxygen tanks, Maggie challenges him to tell the truth to a horrified Amaia: Tommaso had the tanks in his pack the whole time and taking them likely was the signal to the Croat that they were coming. Maggie accuses Tommaso of being a liar that only cares about himself, and Tommaso finally admits the truth, telling the heartbroken and furious Amaia that taking back their home was a fantasy and it's been gone for a long time. Tommaso insists that his betrayal was the only way and that he did it for Amaia who storms off, followed by Ginny, leaving Maggie looking somewhat regretful.
Passing a torn-apart racoon, Negan and Perlie find a corpse tied to a chair with an empty bottle of alcohol next to it and an axe in its head that had been rigged up as a form of suicide. Realizing that the corpse is that of the artist, Negan comments that Perlie was right and that it was definitely an after situation. Perlie experiences a flashback to finding Joel's corpse in his apartment after his brother's own suicide while a walker moves past the still open door, noticed by Negan.
Continuing on, Negan grabs the walkers and shoves it into Perlie before making his escape. Perlie manages to bash the walker's head in while Negan reaches a stairwell with a door boarded up at the bottom marked "DO NOT OPEN. DEAD OUTSIDE." As Negan struggles to open it, Perlie suddenly rips off the boards with his nail gun, revealing the street outside to be clear, but collapsing from the exertion on his injured leg. Rather than continuing with his escape, Negan stops as he doesn't like to leave people behind to die no matter how big of an asshole that they can be. Negan offers to help Perlie in exchange for him giving up on dragging Negan back to New Babylon, but Perlie refuses the deal. Negan asks if Perlie thinks that he knows him, guaranteeing Perlie that he doesn't and asking why he's doing this. Even though Perlie refuses to answer him, Negan decides to help the marshal regardless and helps him limp outside.
Finding the tunnel blocked with corpses, Tommaso begins moving them out of the way while the others take a break. Maggie tells the devastated Amaia that she doesn't know what she's planning or about Tommaso, but Amaia is free to go to the Bricks where she'll be safe and all Amaia has to do is give them Maggie's name and Ginny knows the way. As Maggie goes to help Tommaso move the corpses, she collapses, disorientated from her methane exposure, and experiences a flashback of Negan killing Glenn and Hershel yelling to her for help as he's kidnapped by the Burazi. Maggie rejects Tommaso's offer of oxygen, and the group takes a break, not noticing that one of the corpses behind Ginny is beginning to move.
Sitting with Maggie, Tommaso explains that "you don't know what it's been like for us. You can't put down roots when all you're doing is running for your life. My nonno's story? That shit was real. I didn't make that shit up. I was this close to getting out, but he followed me and... I gave up our hideouts to stay alive, to get back to Amaia. He said if I brought my people to him, he'd... He said he'd give me a boat. Left the tanks for me, like you said. He told me about this place on the mainland. He said they got homes with kitchens, rooms for your things, a farm, a school for your kids. That shit sounded safe because everything was made of brick. He said that's the kind of place we could get to." A now sympathetic Maggie realizes that the Croat had told Tommaso about the Bricks and Tommaso adds that "I -- I don't know. I didn't mean for it to go down the way it did. I thought at least they'd have a choice. I thought... I thought he'd... I should've... I should've known. But I had to try. For Amaia. For our... our... Like you said. Gotta do whatever it takes to make it safe."
Walkers rise from amongst the corpses and attack Amaia and Ginny. As Maggie and Tommaso rush to their rescue, one grabs Tommaso's leg and trips him and several walkers attack the man while Maggie puts down the walkers attacking Amaia and Ginny and a few of the ones attacking Tommaso who manages to finish off his other attackers with blows from the oxygen tank. However, while Maggie and Ginny are left unharmed, Amaia has been disemboweled by the walkers and Tommaso has been fatally bitten in the side of his neck, leaving him quickly bleeding out from his jugular vein. Maggie tries to comfort the dying man who apologizes to Amaia as it was all his fault. Tommaso dies and Maggie sadly stabs him in the head in order to keep Tommaso from reanimating.
The Croat drives to a theater, running down a walker that he encounters outside. Visibly distressed, the Croat lets out a scream, covers up his missing ear and heads inside. Making his way through the rowdy crowd in the theater and a very rude gang leader, the Croat visits the Dama in her dressing room, less than pleased that they are talking to that particular gang now, but the Dama tells the Croat that it's none of his concern. The Croat announces that his plan was a success beyond expectations, that his informant and delivered and the threat has been neutralized. The Croat reveals that Negan is on the island and that he saw Negan with his own eyes, but acknowledges that he doesn't have Negan. The Dama summarizes that the show started with such a bang that it kept her up all night and the Croat thought that he had his hero, but he got away so, with the hero off-stage, the ending fizzled, "and let's face it, everyone knows, the ending is all that matters."
The Croat pulls out Perlie's badge and tells the Dama that the New Babylon Federation marshals from the mainland are here, although just one so far. Just as the Dama had said, there will be those who try to bring back the old laws and prisons to protect and serve, but in reality, just to punish, steal and feed their fat bellies. The Croat believes that they will now come for what the Burazi have built, and they need to be ready. The Dama believes that they need Negan for that which is why he has fucked up so royally. The Croat insists that he will find Negan and that there's absolutely no way that Negan will be getting off of the island. Before he leaves, the Dama makes the Croat bow, kneel, and kiss her hand.
Maggie and Ginny continue to pass through the sewer with the corpses growing denser and older to the point that some are just skeletons. Ginny rejects Maggie's offer of a canteen that she will need on the way back to the Bricks and Maggie guesses that Ginny saw something in her bag at some point. Maggie explains that she had never showed Ginny's doll to Negan as she didn't know if the girl was still here or where she was, or if Ginny was even still alive. Maggie still can't let Negan know that Ginny's here or it will all fall apart as Negan will leave and take Ginny back. "A very bad man... took all of our grain and all of our food. It took us months to produce. And he's gonna keep on taking it every single harvest until we all starve to death. And worse than that, he has my son. His name's Hershel. And I have to think of Hershel. And... And Negan, Negan is the key to getting him back." Ginny acknowledges that she understands, and they press on.
Negan leads Perlie to an old school bus where he retrieves the bus's First Aid kit in order to treat Perlie's wound. Perlie is surprised that Negan had known about the First Aid kit before he remembers that Negan had used to be a gym teacher. Perlie questions why Negan is helping him, and Negan claims that it's because Perlie's death would probably be pinned on him, and Negan would be wanted twice as bad with someone much worse than Perlie coming after him as Perlie's replacement. As they settle in for the night, Perlie takes out Joel's letter and opens up to Negan, telling him that "my brother. His name was Joel. We were close. Even though I annoyed the ever-living Hell out of him. Would've followed Joel anywhere. So, when he got that job on the docks, I got one too. He was funny. Had this, uh, charisma. But he was restless, too. Got into fights, in and out of jail, had problems we just couldn't see. One night my folks caught him breaking in, lookin' to steal from them. He attacked my mother. So high he didn't know what he was doing. They were too scared to do anything about it. Maybe they hoped it would go away. So, it fell on me, which left me... angry. He was my big brother. He let me down, abandoned me. So, I guess I wanted to abandon him right back. This was the last time I ever heard from Joel. Couldn't bring myself to open it. Three years later the city fell apart. Mom and Dad and I got out just in time, but... it happened so fast, I didn't think... He was left to die all alone, in the worst possible place on the planet. Is that what he deserved? Is it really so black and white? You'd asked me back then, I would've said yes. But now? I don't know. Is it gray? Is it something else? Tranquilitas Ordinis. What if it's just stories we tell ourselves to sleep easier?"
Maggie and Ginny reach a massive pile of corpses covering the passage forward with Maggie continuing to experience blurred vision from the methane that she's breathing in. The two climb over the corpses, but Maggie gets her foot stuck in one as they prepare to move towards a nearby latter leading to a doorway. Maggie and Ginny become alarmed at the sound of walker growls, before a walker begins crawling out of a nearby pile of corpses. Giving Ginny her pack, Maggie sends her on alone while Maggie struggles to free herself. When the walker rises, a horrified Maggie discovers that it's actually not just one walker, but four fused together with two of the heads coming out of its stomach. After a struggle, Maggie manages to stab the fused walker in three of its heads, apparently putting it down. As Maggie relaxes, the fourth part of the fused walker emerges, but Maggie quickly finishes it off. Extracting herself from the corpses, Maggie continues after Ginny who has written "LIAR" in walker blood on the tunnel wall.
Ginny crawls through the tunnel, now just a pipe as, in a flashback to Ginny's departure from the Bricks, she checks out the grain silo and finds it full revealing the truth: Maggie had lied to both Negan and Ginny about the events that had led her to seek out Negan's help. Ginny reaches a ladder leading to an unsealed hatchway leading out of the sewers as Maggie follows her, but struggles from the exertion in the toxic atmosphere without an oxygen tank like Ginny has. In a flashback, Maggie runs after her son as he's abducted by the Burazi, but she's restrained by other Burazi. The Croat hands Negan's Wanted poster to Maggie: he wants Negan in return for Hershel. Maggie manages to make it out of the sewers, and she collapses.
Running into the middle of the street, Ginny fires a Flare Gun into the air which is seen by both Negan and Maggie.
"Doma Smo"
After spotting the flare, Negan and Perlie search a parking lot for Maggie, believing that she had been the one to fire the flare. Ginny draws their attention using the whistle that Negan had taught her, shocking Negan who happily greets the young girl and demands to know how she got to Manhattan. Maggie joins the group looking for Ginny, and she admits that Ginny had turned up at the arena just before the walkers came, guessing that Ginny had just wanted to be with him. A herd begins to approach, drawn by the flare, and Negan insists that Ginny can't be here as he can't protect the young girl and help Maggie at the same time, angrily reminding Ginny that the plan was for him and Maggie to come to Manhattan to get Hershel while Ginny stays safe with Maggie's people. Perlie offers to take Ginny where she needs to go while Negan stays with Maggie to rescue Hershel. Ginny holds on to Negan who tells her to go with Perlie who is good people and can keep her safe. Ginny continues to refuse, so Negan tells her that he can't go with her, and she can't and doesn't want to stay with him. Ginny doesn't know him, and Negan is not who she thinks he is. Speaking for the first time since her father died, Ginny tells Negan "I... want you to...", but Negan interrupts her, annoyed that after months of silence, Ginny finally wants to talk now.
With Ginny refusing to relent, Negan finally admits to Ginny, much to everyone's shock, that "I killed your dad. I'm not wanted for robbing a wagon train. I killed five men. And your daddy, he was one of them. It's why I tracked you down to the farm. Why I let you tag along, 'cause I knew you had no one. You? You're just a debt that I had to pay. That's it." Heartbroken by the revelation and Negan's harsh words, Ginny leaves with Perlie. Once Ginny's gone, Negan becomes visibly upset by what he had to do in order to get Ginny to leave, leaving Maggie visibly sympathetic with him. As the herd approaches, the two quickly leave the parking lot.
Across the river on the mainland, Perlie pulls his and Ginny's makeshift raft ashore, and tells her that it's time to go. With a long glance back at Manhattan, Ginny follows the marshal.
Early the next morning, Negan and Maggie stake out the now-abandoned entrance to Madison Square Garden from the building where Amaia, Tommaso and Luther had previously shown it to them, looking for any sign of the Croat returning to his former base. Noticing how tired and upset Negan is, Maggie offers to keep watch while he sleeps, but Negan refuses her offer. Maggie sympathetically acknowledges that what Negan did with Ginny couldn't have been easy, and wonders if the plan with Perlie is going to work. Negan notes that Perlie had been surprisingly glad to see him, calling it all water under the bridge. While their reunion didn't go off without a hitch, with all of their history and "that brotherly bullshit," Negan thinks that he and the marshal can work something out.
In turn, Maggie shares a story with Negan about how, after her mother got sick, she would tell Maggie stories at night about the real Santa Claus who would sometimes come down from the North Pole to the Macy's store in Manhattan to visit all of the kids. Maggie used to daydream that she'd one day visit Macy's and become best friends with the real Santa who would take all of Maggie's lost or broken toys and find a way to replace them. Pointing out of the window, Maggie sadly notes that Macy's is right across the street from them. Suddenly, the Croat's car drives past Macy's and Maggie and Negan rush to the roof of the building to better follow him. The car heads for a plume of smoke on the horizon - the same one that Maggie had tracked from across the river as a possible clue to the Croat's location and that Esther had warned them against going to.
Maggie and Negan follow the smoke to the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal where the Croat's car is parked. As they head inside, Negan begins to become suspicious that everything is too easy and he asks if Maggie knows what Ginny had been trying to tell him, but Maggie lies that she doesn't. Negan realizes that it's a trap just before Maggie draws a knife and they engage in a brief fight before Negan runs off. Maggie chases Negan outside where he puts down a few walkers and makes his way out onto a series of beams over the walker-infested docks. The two fight with Maggie stabbing Negan in the shoulder and Negan kicking Maggie onto a container below. Negan disarms Maggie of one of her knives and holds it to her throat, forcing her to drop the other one before disarming himself.
"Here's what I'm thinking. The Croat never took your grain, just your kid. For collateral, sure, but he wasn't ever coming back for no harvest. He wanted me. And for what? Who the hell knows. But whatever that crazy son of a bitch wants with me, I sure as shit ain't gonna like it. You and I both know that much. The shit thing is Maggie, we could've done it. We could have saved Hershel. Because you and I together, we make one hell of a badass team. But you know that, don't you? Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way. The fact is, Maggie, it doesn't matter what excuses I give you, or how many apologies I offer, you can't get over it. And you shouldn't," Negan tells her. The Croat arrives with several Burazi and Maggie holds a knife to Negan's throat.
In the back of an old ambulance, as Maggie continues to hold Negan at knife point, the Croat explains that he had first gone to look for Negan at the Sanctuary, only to find it to be a long-abandoned husk which the Croat calls depressing. After searching up and down the mainland for months, the Croat had learned that Negan was wanted by the New Babylon Federation for murdering four men and a magistrate. The Croat then found Jerome whom the Croat implies that he had tortured for information. Jerome told the Croat the story of the Widow - what the Saviors had called Maggie during the war - and the Croat thought that Maggie could help as she was strong, smart and had vulnerabilities that could be exploited. While Maggie had needed a little push, she had her own incentives in the form of revenge upon Negan for her husband's murder. The Croat admits that he had never expected Maggie to pull it off, but she found Negan and brought him home. "Doma smo, eh? You know, for a moment when I saw you on the catwalk, all alone, I thought to myself, lucky me. I get to have Negan and the child." Maggie and Negan are both visibly alarmed by this, but the Croat reassures them that Negan is enough. Maggie continues to look upset as she realizes just what she's leaving Negan to after all that they've gone through together.
The group arrives at the Security One Bank where the Croat has been keeping Hershel locked up in the vault. Negan asks Maggie to look after Ginny for him as the Burazi bring Hershel out who is shocked to see his mother holding a knife to Negan's throat. Maggie and the Croat trade Negan for Hershel with Negan telling the boy that it's good to see him as Negan walks by. Maggie embraces her son for the first time since he was kidnapped, but Hershel barely responds to her.
In Maggie's truck, Hershel brushes off his mother's attempts to talk about his ordeal, stating that all he ever does back home is to wait for the next bad thing to happen and, if anything, Hershel felt safer in Manhattan. The two fight about Hershel's refusal to eat, and Hershel finds the hat that Negan had gotten for him. Maggie tells him that it was a gift and it's like the one that he used to wear, but Hershel just thanks her sarcastically for getting him a souvenir for being kidnapped. Maggie tells Hershel that she's glad to have him back, but Maggie's son accuses her of caring more about revenge. Over Maggie's objections that she came for him and that it's not true, Hershel tells his mother that "it's like you're obsessed with him. With Negan. With what he did. Getting him back. You've always... And I'm right here. But you don't see me. It's like my whole life you've been looking over my shoulder, watching for him, waiting for him. But you never see me. Whatever. It doesn't matter." Maggie finally realizes that her obsession with and anger at Negan has consumed and controlled her to the point that it's badly affected her relationship with Hershel which is something that Maggie had once told Negan that she never wanted to end up happening: allowing her rage at Negan to continue to control her and for her son to see it. As Hershel turns his head away in order to hide his tears, Maggie looks across the water at the badly damaged Statue of Liberty before she drives off.
In the back of the ambulance at night, the Croat fondly recalls the Saviors' second visit to the River People after they refused to comply with Negan's demands from their first visit. Negan had marched right up to their leader with Lucille before offering that bat to the Croat who had only just arrived at the Sanctuary, broken from the brutal loss of his family. Negan saw something in the Croat and what he could become, and he allowed the Croat to have a crack at it. Not knowing what he was doing, the Croat had missed the first time and then hit the man with far too much force the second time to the point that the Croat was lucky that the man was still breathing. However, Negan didn't get upset with him and took his time with the patience to show him how to do it right. Once the man's head was destroyed, the Croat saw what Negan told him that he'd see from the crowd: complete and total submission. "We were untouchable. No one could ever take anything from us again." Negan admits that he remembers that and that it was beautiful when the Croat asks. The Croat admits that it took him years to finally understand what had happened between them and that he shouldn't have killed the girl. Negan told him not to do it and the Croat disobeyed him, causing the Croat to become the threat that needed to be handled. The Croat promises Negan that that will never happen again.
At the Bricks, Maggie puts Ginny's dinosaur toy on the bed next to the sleeping young girl. Maggie visits Hershel and tells him that "I've been um... thinking about what you said. You know, for a long time, for most of my life, I felt like the world kept taking... and kept taking, and, um, I think at some point, I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back. A little piece of it at least. But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't wanna keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan... I'm gonna finish it. So that I can just let it go." Hershel is pleased with Maggie's confession.
At the King Francis Theater, where a number of people are laying passed out around the auditorium, the Croat tells Negan that his battles with the Manhattan Tribespeople were just practice for the war to come. Once the Burazi have full control of the island, the Dama says that a clash of civilizations is inevitable. After the Croat had told the Dama about all of the good that Negan had done and the people that Negan had saved and protected, the Dama had said that Negan is the missing piece. The Croat is excited to introduce Negan and the Dama, comparing it to Mommy and Daddy coming together. However, rather than allowing the Croat to stick around, the Dama dismisses him in order to talk to Negan alone, much to his disappointment.
The Dama offers Negan a drink, telling Negan that she's pleased to finally meet him and to discover that Negan is actually real and not the product of the Croat's insanity. Having heard of Negan's performance at the tribal hideout, the Dama is impressed by Negan's taunting, joking and the extra but absolutely necessary pinch of gruesomeness that created a lot of shock and awe. Negan refuses the drink, and the Dama pulls Perlie's badge out of her purse. The Dama explains that she's worried about the forces behind the marshals coming after the island's natural resources like a pack of hyenas. "The island needs leadership. Now more than ever. Someone with confidence, fearlessness, charisma, that special, shall we say, political talent. For what is politics if not performance?" Realizing that the Dama means him, Negan questions why he would help her. The Dama reveals that there are other settlements as far north as Harlem and, if they can unite all of the settlements under one rule, they will be indomitable, and it can all be Negan's again.
The Dama offers him the keys to the kingdom, but wonders how she can be sure, pointing out that Negan might not be the man that he used to be and maybe he never was which Negan acknowledges. The Dama presents Negan with a small box containing a severed pinky toe. At the Bricks, Hershel, who is missing his right pinky toe, plays his guitar as the Dama explains to Negan that she had a lot of talks with Hershel who told the Dama the story of the man who had murdered his father, not just in front of his mother, but an unborn Hershel as well. The Dama could sense in the rest of Hershel's story what Hershel himself couldn't, that his father's killer might feel remorseful and responsible for the boy whose family he destroyed. Maggie goes through Hershel's drawings which include images of Manhattan, the vault that he was imprisoned in and the Dama. Hershel had only told the Dama this story once he felt safe with her, and here Negan is, having come all of this way to save him. The Dama eventually let Hershel go in exchange for Negan, but she kept a little piece of him "and I can always go back for more. Make it last. We have a lot to discuss. A lot to plan for." Negan finally takes the drink that the Dama had offered him, and Maggie and Negan get the same look on their face at the realization of the threat that the Dama poses to Hershel and the lengths that she's willing to go to.
Season 2
"Power Equals Power"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Another Shitty Lesson"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Feisty Friendly"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"The Bird Always Knows"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Bridge Partners Are Hard to Come by These Days"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"Novi Dan, Novi Početak"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
"If History Were a Conflagration"
Manhattan will appear in this episode.
Inhabitants
- Joel Armstrong
- Many unnamed people
The Burazi
Manhattan Tribespeople
The Scragglers
- Dre
- Many unnamed Scragglers
Silk Stockings
Blood Shirts
- Mila
- Christos' Daughter 1
- Christos' Daughter 2
- Christos
- Many unnamed Blood Shirts
The Foragers
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
- Victor
- Waylen
- Joan (Alive)
- Dan (Alive and Zombified)
- Tony
- Christos
- Roksana (Alive and Zombified)
- Lucia Narvaez (Alive and Zombified)
- The Dama's Rat
- Bruegel
- Ginny (Alive and Zombified)
- Over 1 million unnamed people
- Many unnamed tribespeople
- At least 8 unnamed Burazi
- All unnamed adult male Blood Shirts
- All unnamed Foragers
- Many rats
Notable Locations
- Bellevue Hospital
- Big J Cleaners
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Chelsea
- Chelsea Piers
- Central Park
- Empire State Building
- Express Shoe Repair
- Fallen Skybridge
- Joel's Apartment
- King Francis Theater
- Macy's
- Madison Square Garden
- Manhattan School
- Manhattan Tribespeople's Hideouts
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- New York City Sewer System
- New York City Subway System
- One World Trade Center
- Radio City Music Hall
- Salvatore
- Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal
- St. Patrick's Cathedral
- The New York Times Building
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
- "Power Equals Power"
- "Another Shitty Lesson"
- "Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?"
- "Feisty Friendly"
- "The Bird Always Knows"
- "Bridge Partners Are Hard to Come by These Days"
- "Novi Dan, Novi Početak"
- "If History Were a Conflagration"
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.