WALKING DEAD Dead City Episode 5 BREAKDOWN and ENDING EXPLAINED
WALKING DEAD Dead City Episode 5 BREAKDOWN and ENDING EXPLAINED
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00:00 Everyone knows the ending is all that matters.
00:03 (upbeat music)
00:06 - Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Aryan.
00:08 These are all the Easter eggs, references,
00:09 and little things you might have missed
00:10 in episode five of The Walking Dead, Dead City.
00:13 Now right off the bat, we get an unusual sense of concern
00:15 coming from Maggie when she asks about Negan.
00:17 - Anyone say what happened to Negan?
00:19 - The look on Maggie's face and the tone of her voice
00:21 seem a little out of place.
00:22 Now I think this is one of the few times
00:24 we've actually heard Maggie utter the name Negan
00:26 without there being a sense of hate or contempt
00:28 in the tone of her voice.
00:29 Now at first I thought that maybe Maggie
00:31 really is desperate to have Negan with her
00:33 because she feels like she can't save Hershel without him.
00:35 But what this is really telling us
00:36 is that Negan is an even more crucial part
00:38 to Maggie's plan to save Hershel
00:40 than we had previously been led to believe,
00:41 but more on that later.
00:42 We hear Tommaso mention that the effects
00:44 that breathing in the methane can have on your mind.
00:46 - And your heart starts pounding,
00:48 feels like there's a jackhammer going off in your head,
00:51 feel like you're gonna puke, that's the methane kicking in.
00:54 - And we've already seen what can happen
00:56 back in episode three when the Marshal
00:58 is forced to breathe in methane gas from a Walker tank.
01:01 Now speaking of the Marshal,
01:04 we see him and Negan held up in a souvenir shop.
01:06 Here we can see Negan holding a small figurine
01:08 of the Statue of Liberty.
01:09 Now of course the Statue of Liberty
01:10 is a New York City icon that you'd expect to find
01:12 at any New York souvenir shop,
01:14 but there are plenty of other iconic buildings
01:16 and tourist spots that they could have chosen,
01:18 so why Lady Liberty specifically?
01:20 Well, the statue itself represents freedom.
01:22 Negan and Maggie are both yearning for a freedom
01:24 that they haven't felt since that gruesome night
01:26 back in season seven of the original series.
01:28 Maggie is unable to let go of her hatred for Negan
01:30 and the death of her late husband, Glenn,
01:31 and Negan is unable to let go of the massive guilt
01:34 he feels for what he took from her.
01:36 - I am so sorry.
01:37 - Both aspire to be free from that awful night
01:39 that has haunted them for years,
01:41 so it's fitting that together
01:42 they've traveled to New York City, home of Lady Liberty,
01:44 a place that can represent new beginnings
01:46 and a fresh start for any who seek it.
01:48 - America.
01:49 - It's also worth mentioning the Statue of Liberty
01:51 was given to us by France.
01:52 In "The Walking Dead," France was the last country
01:54 to fall during the outbreak,
01:56 and France is also where Daryl Dixon's spinoff series
01:58 will be taking place.
01:59 - I went out looking for something,
02:00 and I found this trouble.
02:03 - In this gift shop, we also see a license plate
02:05 that reads, "Number One Mom."
02:06 Now, this could be a reference to Maggie,
02:08 a mother who has given all she has and more
02:10 to protect and provide a better life for her son, Herschel,
02:12 and who has made it clear
02:14 that she'll stop at nothing to get Herschel back.
02:16 But this could also be a reference to Negan's second wife,
02:18 Annie, who is also the mother to Negan's only child
02:21 that we've never actually met.
02:22 When Maggie confronts Jenny about her obsession with Negan,
02:25 an obsession they share, but for different reasons,
02:27 Maggie tells Jenny that Negan isn't wanted
02:29 for something as simple as stealing a loaf of bread,
02:31 and that he isn't the person that Jenny thinks he is.
02:33 This loaf of bread line could be in reference
02:35 to Jean Valjean from "Les Miserables."
02:37 He was wrongfully imprisoned for years
02:39 for stealing a mere loaf of bread to feed his family.
02:41 ♪ Stole a loaf of bread ♪
02:44 While Negan, on the other hand,
02:46 Negan tells the Marshal that he was once a gym teacher.
02:49 Now, this is true both in the original series
02:51 and the comics.
02:52 - Worked for the state, too.
02:54 Gym teacher.
02:55 - Now, on this wall, we can see the word Sunday
02:57 spray painted really big.
02:58 Now, this could be in reference to how "The Walking Dead"
03:00 and all its counterparts have always aired on Sunday nights,
03:02 but this was spelled S-U-N-D-A-E,
03:05 which is the spelling for like a hot fudge sundae.
03:07 So maybe a survivor was just craving some ice cream.
03:10 - Hey, you like ice cream?
03:12 - We have ice cream.
03:13 - Here we see Negan and the Marshal come across
03:15 a really creepy assembly of baby doll parts.
03:17 - Some avant-garde artist from before,
03:20 or someone who lost their mind from AFT?
03:22 - This is foreshadowing the Marauder-style walker
03:24 that we see toward the end of the episode,
03:26 but more on that in just a bit.
03:27 These tanks down in the sewer are filled
03:28 with the liquid methane fuel that we heard
03:30 the Croat mention in episode three.
03:32 - The bodies break down, they produce methane,
03:34 and because the intermolecular forces are weak,
03:37 the gas can be pressurized into a liquid fuel.
03:42 - And then we get an awesome callback
03:44 to "The Walking Dead" pilot.
03:45 As Negan is running away, we see him encounter doors
03:47 that read, "Don't open, dead inside,"
03:49 just like in the pilot, we saw Rick Grimes
03:51 encounter doors that read, "Don't open, dead inside,"
03:53 when he was escaping the hospital.
03:55 Now, I really loved getting to see this callback
03:57 to the first episode and the parallels
03:58 between the characters of Rick and Negan.
04:00 Rick saw these doors when he was taking his first steps
04:03 to transitioning from officer-friendly
04:05 to the axe-wielding, throat-biting badass
04:07 that we all know and love.
04:08 Rick changed a lot as a character from his days
04:10 as a small-town cop and the frightened man
04:12 who read that warning on the door,
04:14 just like we're seeing Negan change a lot
04:15 from the villain he was when we first met him
04:17 to the sympathetic anti-hero that he has become.
04:20 Back in the sewers, Maggie uses an oxygen tank
04:22 to kill a walker, but this isn't the first time
04:24 we've seen a tank of oxygen be used
04:26 to bash in a walker's head.
04:27 Back in season four of "The Walking Dead,"
04:29 during the redemption arc of another past villain,
04:31 the Governor, we saw him use an oxygen tank
04:33 to fight off walkers as well.
04:34 After the death of Tommaso,
04:38 we see Maggie stab him in the head,
04:40 a reminder that in this world, when you die,
04:42 you come back as a walker, unless you kill the brain,
04:44 because we're all infected.
04:46 When we catch up with the Croat,
04:47 we can see that he's quite displeased that he lost Negan.
04:50 (screaming)
04:53 And this is when the plot begins to thicken,
04:55 and we learn that the Croat isn't interested in Negan
04:57 for revenge or an obsession to impress him.
04:59 No, he's working for this lady.
05:01 - Hey, that's that crazy lady from "Ozark"
05:03 that shot off that guy's thingies, Mob Arbor.
05:06 - That's gotta hurt!
05:09 - What does she want with Negan?
05:11 - Well, from what we can tell,
05:11 she seems to be a former stage actress or theater director.
05:14 Her headquarters is within a New York City theater,
05:17 and her office is in a big, fancy dressing room.
05:19 We even hear her describe the events of the series
05:21 as if it's part of a play.
05:23 - You thought you had your hero, but he got away.
05:26 What good is a hero offstage?
05:29 - And it would appear that this is why she wants Negan.
05:32 She wants a man who is capable
05:33 of theatrics and scare tactics.
05:35 She wants the infamous Negan
05:36 the Croat has told her so much about.
05:38 On this bus, we can see a sign that reads 101.
05:41 This is likely a reference
05:42 to the "Walking Dead" comic issue 101,
05:44 follow up to issue 100,
05:45 which featured the introduction of Negan.
05:47 In issue 100, we saw Negan kill Glenn,
05:49 just like in the show.
05:50 And in issue 101, we saw the aftermath of those events
05:53 and how it would affect characters
05:54 such as Maggie going forward.
05:56 In the TV series, we saw a lot of fans drop off
05:58 after the arrival of Negan and the brutal killing of Glenn.
06:01 Now, you could say the "Walking Dead" TV series
06:03 could be split into BN and AN,
06:05 before Negan and after Negan.
06:06 101 in the comics represents the period after his arrival
06:09 and lays the groundwork for the war to come.
06:11 In "Dead City," we're also living in a post-Negan world,
06:13 not only in the sense that it's taking place
06:15 after the arrival of Negan in the "Walking Dead" TV universe,
06:18 but we're also seeing a world
06:19 where that evil version of Negan no longer exists.
06:22 When the Marshal talks about his late brother,
06:24 whose dead body we saw in episode two,
06:25 we hear that his name was Joel.
06:27 - My brother, his name was Joel.
06:30 - Now, I'd like to think this could be a wink and a nod
06:32 to the "Walking Dead's" unofficial successor,
06:34 The Last of Us, whose lead character is named Joel.
06:36 And Joel from "The Last of Us"
06:37 actually has a lot in common with Negan.
06:39 They both did nasty things
06:40 and hurt innocent people just to stay alive.
06:42 And now, much later on into the apocalypse,
06:44 they've changed their ways and want to be good.
06:46 And they've both even taken responsibility
06:48 for caring for an orphaned young girl.
06:50 - People are making apocalypse jokes
06:51 like there's no tomorrow.
06:53 (crunching)
06:54 Too soon? - No, it's topical.
06:56 - As the Marshal talks about his late brother,
06:57 we hear him say that he had a lot of charisma
06:59 but was constantly getting into fights, just like Negan.
07:02 Negan's wanted poster warns of his charisma.
07:04 And in the flashback episode, "Here's Negan,"
07:06 we learn that Negan lost his job as a gym teacher
07:08 because he got into a bar fight
07:10 with one of his students' parents.
07:12 - 'Cause you can't be a gym teacher anymore.
07:13 You have a misdemeanor assault on your record.
07:15 - And then next we see what is without a doubt
07:17 the best and most terrifying walker
07:19 the Walking Dead has ever created.
07:20 I call it the Marauder Walker
07:22 because it looks just like the creature
07:24 we saw in "Evil Dead Rise"
07:25 when we see the possessed mother and her children
07:27 morph together into this disgusting, multi-headed beast.
07:30 Over time, these stacked up walkers
07:32 likely just decomposed into one another
07:34 and became a single being.
07:35 But what's really cool is how this monster crawls
07:37 and each walker limb is being used in tandem with the other.
07:41 It's as if the zombie virus controlling these dead bodies
07:43 is using these multiple bodies as one
07:46 and has coalesced into one consciousness.
07:48 But in order to kill the beast,
07:49 Maggie has to stab each head.
07:51 Which actually is very similar to Hercules' labor
07:57 of killing the Hydra.
07:58 Okay, so the whole plot of this show
08:00 has been that the Croat raided Maggie's group, Savior Style,
08:02 taking all their food and supplies
08:04 and telling them that if they don't have more
08:05 when they come back, bad things will happen.
08:07 When the Croat returned, they didn't have an offering
08:09 and so he took Maggie's son hostage.
08:11 We're then led to believe that Maggie sought out Negan
08:13 for help to save her son because she pieced together
08:15 that Negan knew the Croat.
08:16 - Before he took my son, do you know what he did?
08:20 (whistling)
08:23 - But it turns out that Maggie is a liar.
08:27 We get a flashback showing us Jenny's time at New Hilltop
08:30 or as Maggie now calls it, the bricks.
08:32 Jenny climbs to the top of a silo
08:34 and sees that it is full of grain.
08:36 The Croat never raided Maggie's home.
08:38 He really took Herschel hostage in exchange for Maggie
08:40 bringing Negan to him so that he could bring Negan
08:43 to his boss.
08:44 - Crazy Ozark lady.
08:45 - Yes.
08:46 - What a twist.
08:47 - I mean, yes, it really is.
08:48 I certainly didn't see it coming.
08:49 But after seeing this reveal, the whole plot
08:51 definitely makes a lot more sense now.
08:53 Now we know why the Croat was asking Herschel about Negan
08:56 and it makes even more sense why Maggie was concerned
08:58 about Negan's survival at the top of the episode
09:00 and why she can't risk letting him go to find Jenny.
09:03 But so much for that because we see Jenny use the flare
09:05 that Negan gave her to alert Negan that she's on the island.
09:08 So Negan will likely be abandoning
09:10 the Herschel rescue mission temporarily
09:11 so he can go find her.
09:12 So that's everything we found in this week's episode
09:14 of Dead City.
09:15 Did you find anything that you want us to talk about?
09:16 Let us know in the comments below or at me on Twitter.
09:18 And if it's your first time here,
09:19 please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.
09:20 For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Ary.
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