Having sold fans on it being the "Negan and Maggie Show" in season 1, The Walking Dead: Dead City sees Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan take a bit of a backseat in season 2, as it deepens its dive into the New Babylon Federation and the slippery team-up between The Croat and Dama, and hones in on an unexpected character stepping up to bat: Hershel Rhee.
Any longtime fan of the franchise will be quick to tell you that Negan and Maggie's tension has been stretched thinner than a walker's decomposing skin clinging desperately to its exposed ribcage, so it's a smart move for showrunner Eli Jorne to keep them as separate as he does here. Instead, it concerns itself more with how Maggie's intense nostalgia, feelings towards the man who killed her husband, and grief has affected her son. At what point do you let go, and what happens if you don't? The lad never even knew his dad after all, so his emotions surrounding his murder are complicated and confusing. It's a refreshing, logical ripple set in motion by Glenn's death almost 10 years ago now, and makes for some genuinely eye-watering scenes between an always-excellent Cohan and competent young actor Logan Kim. All of which are gorgeously scored by returning composer Ian Hultquist.
