Dead City’ Season 2 Ending, Explained

The Walking Dead: Dead City has concluded its second season after eight episodes, and the final episode brought everything to a head. The season focused on two colliding factions: Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in Manhattan being forced to help The Dama (Lisa Emery) unite all the groups on the island to fight together, and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and the New Babylon Federation in New York and their quest to get hold of the methane The Croat (Željko Ivanek) had devised using walker bodies.

These two worlds met in a big way by the end, and both Negan and Maggie became forever changed in different ways. Whether good or bad depends on how viewers perceive it.

Negan Meets a Formidable Enemy in Bruegel

Bruegel (Kim Coates) was quirky and eccentric, but also disturbed. He was dangerous and unhinged, unstable, and unpredictable. Negan knew this, so he was prepared for his meeting with Bruegel, knowing that it would not go off without a hitch.

Bruegel arrives with an oversized statue from his museum as a gift, while Negan has prepared a feast for Bruegel and his people. In the most awkward dinner party greeting ever, the pair play a cunning game of chicken. Negan insists that they sit down and eat while Bruegel declares they aren’t hungry, but Negan and his people should eat while they watch. He thinks the food is poisoned and wants Negan to prove it, but he won’t admit that. It would be unbecoming of a dinner party guest to do so, after all.

As Negan and the others dive in, Bruegel looks confused that they are still alive and well. But Negan has a plan. He and his people flip the table over, and there are dozens of walkers hiding underneath. He then lights the church pews on fire, which had already been doused with gasoline. He grabs an apple, chomps away, and sits back and watches the mayhem unfold.

But Bruegel is no fool. He orders Perlie (Gaius Charles) to push over the statue, where an arsenal of weapons is hidden (in true Trojan horse style). As the others fight, Bruegel and Negan end up in a one-on-one battle that leads them to the basement where Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) is being kept on oxygen, Negan desperately trying to save her life.

Maggie Makes a Promise, Negan Says a Rhyme

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Over with Maggie, she has finally found Hershel, with some help from The Croat. But she also discovered in the penultimate episode, as did fans, that The Dama is actually still alive. The Dama somehow, some way, got out of the fire with nothing more than a few minor burns and half her hair singed off. She planted a female walker body in her place and off she went. She found a way to connect with Hershel (Logan Kim) and has a hold over him once again.

The Dama wants something from Maggie, however, that she promises will make everything right. She wants her to kill Negan, which she suggests will free both Maggie and Hershel from their trauma and allow them to move on. Maggie sets out to kill Negan, but what she finds is a terrifying, shocking sight. She arrives in the basement just as Negan, Bruegel, and Perlie have come face to face. With Negan’s men behind him, Bruegel knows he’s outnumbered. He tries to place the blame on Perlie, revealing that he was only working with Perlie and the New Babylon Federation, and it’s all Perlie’s fault that this happened.

Negan tells them both to get on their knees, then proceeds with that famous nursery rhyme he loves so much and says “eenie, meenie, miney, moe” as he moves his bat back and forth in front of each one. He lands on Perlie but decides that he would enjoy killing Bruegel much more. Bruegel pleads with Negan for his life, talking about how they could work so well together and rule the market with the methane. Negan tells him that if he wants the methane so bad, he can have it. He forces Bruegel to swallow from a tank of methane and lights his mouth on fire, then finishes him off by bashing his head in, of course.

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Perlie runs off, and Negan chases after him. But Maggie charges at Negan before the bat can come crashing down, plunging a knife into his back. It seems like he’s a goner, and as he crawls along the floor towards the room where Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) is, Maggie follows to make sure her job is done. But just then, a small hand comes reaching out from the cage, and they stop in their tracks.

In all the mess and the fighting and the desire to protect Ginny, they all seemingly forgot about Ginny and the fact that her life was hanging by a thread. She has died and turned, and Negan is beside himself with guilt and grief, an emotional wreck. Maggie observes Negan’s genuine reaction, his regretful tears that suggest he felt true love for the young girl, as if she were his own daughter. She hands him her knife so he can put Ginny out of her misery. He continues to weep, and for the first time, Maggie understands. Negan is not the same man he once was.

The Fork in the Road

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Now, Negan, Maggie, and Perlie, three individuals who all sit on different sides of a fight, are left to figure out what to do next. Maggie realizes she can’t win Hershel back. At least not right now. He’s too far gone. She goes back to him, and he instantly knows that she didn’t go through with the plan. Maggie tells her son to do what he needs to do and that she’ll effectively give him his space. The Dama is taken aback by this revelation. She has won, but has she really?

As the trio sits together and ponders next steps, they hear people outside. Perlie, who helped Negan dress his wound and stop the bleeding, reveals that it’s the second wave from New Babylon. It was the plan all along for them to arrive as back-up. Negan realizes it’s the end of the fight. New Babylon will get the methane, and it will all be over. “So, where do we go from here?” Maggie asks.

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Negan and Maggie wax poetic about the ups and downs, the strides they make, only for something to happen that puts them right back where they started once again. “We move on,” Negan concludes. “Together,” adds Maggie. “And we get there,” they both say in unison. Could this symbolize a ceasefire, a truce between these two, where Maggie finally lets go of her hatred for Negan, for what he did in a past life, and Negan forgives Maggie for her attempt at retaliation?

They can’t survive without one another, and now, they have new enemies to face, including New Babylon, any of Bruegel’s surviving men, The Croat, The Dama, and maybe even Hershel. The former foes are so intrinsically linked now, both in the crosshairs of enemies and in a sense of duty to protect Hershel from what he could become. The once sworn enemies may have no choice but to see one another as the only person left they can truly trust. Oh, how far they’ve come.

Stream The Walking Dead: Dead City on AMC+.

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