THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY Reveals Why Maggie Returns to Manhattan

The Walking Dead: Dead City is back in the New York groove with its second season. The premiere takes us to a little over one year after the events of the first season. Negan is still under the thumb of the Croat and the Dama, who want to force him to revive his old persona to get the city’s bands of gangs together to fight and protect methane resources. And they want to do that for good reason, considering the New Babylon Federation wants to invade Manhattan and control this valuable resource. The latter is how Maggie Rhee ends up back in NYC in Dead City’s second season. 

In this episode, she’s back at the Bricks, her community located somewhere in the Tri-State area, presumably New Jersey. Maggie is working on building a bond with her son Herschel and Ginny, both of whom are insufferable post-apocalypse teens. (The worst kind of teenagers, tbh.) She notices that moths are gathering on trees, which clues her into something bad happening.

And that’s exactly what happens when the New Babylon Federation rolls up at the Bricks. They have jurisdiction over the community and want to “voluntell” several residents to be a part of an “exploratory” mission in Manhattan. Basically, they are willing to use residents as guinea pigs to gather intel for their ultimate takeover mission.

They position it as their mission to bring life and the old world back to Manhattan, which Maggie and Herschel know is impossible. Not surprisingly, Perlie Armstrong lied to his superiors about Negan, saying he killed him. It earned him a promotion, which somewhat amused Maggie.

She corners Pearlie and says knows that the increase in moths mean they are running out of methane and that’s the real reason they want to go to a literal death island. She says she will volunteer for the mission but only if they don’t force anyone to go from the Bricks. Maggie aims to protect Herschel, Ginny, and the other residents who are not prepared to survive in NYC. However, Ginny and a few others insist on volunteering to go. Herschel stays behind, but he will probably wander off and do something stupid. You gotta love hardheaded youngins. 

This will put her in direct opposition with Negan, who reluctantly agrees to unite the gangs after the Dama informs him that she’s found his family. The Croat’s spies outside of the island know that the New Babylon Federation is coming soon. And, even if they didn’t, it is obvious that they would eventually come to the island.

They believe themselves to be the purveyors of justice and civilization and Pearlie admitted to being a part of the collective before escaping. So, the city of Manhattan’s rogue survivors are preparing to fight the New Babylon Federation. However, Negan doesn’t seem too happy to have his leather jacket and an upgraded Lucille back again.

Will he work with Maggie to take down New Babylon? Which side is the “right” side? We will see what happens as Maggie and Negan’s journeys continue in The Walking Dead: Dead City.