The Walking Dead – Dead City – Season 2 Episode 3 “Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?” 

The Negan and Maggie show, AKA ‘Dead City’ recently returned on AMC and AMC+. Episode 3 of the second season just dropped. Warning spoilers ahead for season 1, as well as the first 2 episodes of season 2.  However, for 3, you’re clear of exploding walkers, burning tires, and spoilers.

Check out the review for Dead City Episode 2 of Season 2: “Another Shitty Lesson” 

Last Seen on Dead City

We saw Maggie reluctantly team up with Negan in season 1, solely to save her very angsty teenage son. Now we see her reluctantly team up with New Babylon as they make cocky mistake after cocky mistake. In episode 2 we saw everything Maggie warned them about come true. However, what Maggie didn’t expect was her own son to be part of why they failed so spectacularly in their ferry cruise to the city.

Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River? 

Season 1 didn’t show us too much about what happened to Hershel when he was being held in the greatest city in the world. So to better understand why he did what he did in the last episode, we kick off with a flashback. Between flashbacks of season 1 Hershel, the current story continues in another classic New York location: Central Park. We’re introduced to some locals in an intense almost Jurassic Park style scene. Only to be left with a similar feeling one may have visiting New York today: what the hell are these people doing?

Overall Grade: 9/10

As we go deeper into this season, we get a better understanding of who everyone is, and what their goals truly are. New York City has always been a place of hopes, dreams, and a melting pot of different people. Dead City is portraying that beautifully in a zombie apocalypse sort of way. You have those who want to go back to the way things were, those who are thriving in this world (probably the same people who think Thanos was right), and those content on just surviving.

However, the most interesting are the kids now becoming adults. We’re seeing this mainly through the eyes of Hershel. He never knew a life before walking corpses and abandoned towns. He’s a teen who has lived in the shadow of a father he never met, who finds himself drawn to a city that has been calling people for centuries. All the while, Negan continues to try to do good in a world in which he thrives in whether he likes it or not.

I’ll be reviewing the episodes each week, so make sure to follow along, and let us know your thoughts below. 

For more from Lauren, check out her article about The Walking Dead at New York Comic Con. You can also find her on Hops ‘GEEK’ News.