Maggie and Negan try to navigate their complex history and work together in this third episode of The Walking Dead spinoff series Dead City, and she also learns that Negan had a new family and sent them away in the hope that they’d be safer without him.
He was potentially quite right to do so, as his reputation as a violent leader continues to haunt him. Negan may have evolved past viewing people as having worth beyond what they can provide as “a resource,” but his old ways still seek to drag him back into the darkness, and it becomes clear that the battle to redeem himself is far from over, especially in Maggie’s eyes.
“Doma Smo”
Dead City Season 1 Episode 6
Ginny doesn’t want to leave Negan in the season 1 finale of Dead City, so Negan tells her some harsh truths to rebuff her, admitting he killed her father. As Ginny finally departs, Negan is devastated about hurting her so badly, which Maggie notices as the two go to rescue Hershel, Maggie’s son. Once again, it’s obvious that Negan’s instinctive care for children and his desire to protect them make him much more vulnerable than Maggie had imagined, and she feels confident ushering him into a deadly trap in which she trades his life for Hershel’s.
Negan suggests that he expected her betrayal. “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,” he says. But after an argument with Hershel, Maggie realizes that her obsession with Negan has damaged her relationship with her son, and she starts a new chapter in her life.
While this is an important part of Maggie’s journey in The Walking Dead franchise, her trade with the violent Burazi group also forces Negan to confront the reputation he once created for himself as a violent leader, as the group looks to get him back on that diabolical track.
