Lisa Emery gives little away as to The Dama’s wider ambitions, but Kouf gives her an intriguing ‘meta’ speech about Negan’s character journey. Seeming to be the matriarch of Manhattan, she commands The Croat’s deference and treats him as though he were her often-disappointing enforcer. More unexpected even than the shift in Perlie’s and Negan’s stand-off, is the relationship that’s uncovered between The Croat and the never-before-seen power-broker The Dama (Croatian for ‘lady’ or ‘queen’). Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets to explore more of the moral complexities of Negan’s nature, courtesy of the perceptive dialogue of Brenna Kouf’s taut script. After a couple of episodes in which attention has turned away from Armstrong’s storyline, Gaius Charles takes full advantage of the chance to flex his acting muscles as more elements of Perlie’s character (other than those of the squared-jawed lawman) are revealed. Even as circumstances force them to confide in one another, both continue to seek advantage and exploit weakness in the other’s armour. Negan tries to justify killing the men who assaulted his wife as an act of righteous justice. Along the way, fans who’ve been with the franchise since the first episode of The Walking Dead will enjoy a wry smile at a warning notice painted in alarmed lettering on a locked door.Īccepting that he can no longer act as Negan’s arresting officer, Perlie begins to share his guilt and remorse at his broken relationship with his dysfunctional brother. As the pair flee through the city, evading marauding walkers at every turn, the dynamic between Negan and Perlie changes. Just as impressive, albeit in a different way, is the development of the relationship between Negan and Marshal Armstrong – who’s also escaped The Croat’s trap. Amidst the carnage, a long-buried betrayal is unearthed, which culminates in some characters’ storylines reaching an abrupt and regretful end. It also features an attack on one of the group by an impressively realised ‘combo walker’, the invention of showrunner Eli Jorné (a nightmarish blend of the creature from Alien and a Hellraiser Cenobite – and very bitey with it). It is a little odd that these sewers appear to be bone dry, but the sense of danger in dark confinement is well evoked and reminiscent of the early episodes of The Walking Dead’s own final season. The tension rises as the escapees make the unwise decision to stop and rest amidst the sea of cadavers, even as they struggle with the effects of the methane gas that The Croat has been deliberately syphoning off as a fuel source. These claustrophobic sequences are lit and shot to edgy effect by director Gandja Monteiro. It’s a grim and forbidding network of pipes and junctions, littered with the decomposing remains of countless walkers. With Maggie’s and the survivors of the tribespeople’s group taking the only option to escape the walker horde at the stadium, they are forced to travel through the sewer system on foot. It’s a series of shifts that speak to the confidence of the show’s writers and confirm how effectively they have been able to adopt the rhythms of the mini-series format. So many hidden secrets are revealed in Stories We Tell Ourselves that the whole premise of The Walking Dead: Dead City is cumulatively reworked across the events of this one episode, ahead of next week’s first season finale.
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