People Are a Resource

Ginny recalls the day that she lost her stuffed dinosaur and Negan helped her to retrieve it. She arrives at the Hudson River and crosses it in a large cooler to reach Manhattan shore and look for Negan. Maggie, Negan, Amaia and Tommaso hunt down a deer to feed their friends, and then Luther cooks the animal. Negan and Luther have a friction because of a beeswax that Negan asked to heal his hand. Maggie wants that Tommaso helps her to retrieve Hershel telling her how to reach The Croat arena, since he is the only man that has successfully escaped from the sadistic leader. Negan has a moment with Maggie, when he opens his heart and tells what has happened to Annie and Joshua. Meanwhile, Armstrong is brought to the arena in an ambulance and is tested in a sadistic way by The Croat. He learns that The Croat worked with alternative energy before The Fall and used the walkers to generate power to his followers.

"People Are a Resource" is the third episode of "The Walking Dead: Dead City" with a reasonable episode. The saga of Ginny is silly and stupid and certainly will be a source of preoccupation for Negan. Armstrong is a mystery in the series, and it is difficult to know what role he will have in the next episodes. The most interesting part is the idea of generating energy using the methane in the corpse of the walkers. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "People Are a Resource"

The Walking Dead: Dead City begins a couple of years after the ending of The Walking Dead, it's a new showrunner and he impresses me with his writing, Keith Staskiewicz wrote the third episode titled "People Are a Resource". It was directed by Kevin Dowling who is familiar with TWD as he directed two episodes of Season Eleven. For this episode, both the writing and direction is quite great, mostly the direction and acting. I'm so happy the writing and dialogue haven't changed since the first episode, consistent writing and great writing at that. The whole production is impressive and I'm glad AMC brought them the budget needed, everything looks great, even the VFX. Sound design and the musical score was great, which brought suspense and tension to every scene. This episode was beautifully shot, great cinematography! The editing deserves some praise too, especially the pacing which is perfect. The production design is incredible, just look at that arena and how they made that, impressive!

Dark instincts reveal themselves as Maggie and Negan form a strategy; Armstrong is tested; Ginny embarks on a daring journey.

We are now on episode three and half way through of the six episode season, a length which was splendid in The Walking Dead, and judging from this episode and the others I can finally say TWD: Dead City is as focused as the first season of The Walking Dead. The direction in this episode is truly terrific, Kevin Dowling is super talented and has worked on countless projects on television. The episode shows off much more of The Croat's base of operations and it's nice to see, having it be based in Madison Square Garden just works so well, with Perlie Armstrong having been captured in the previous episode we have all the main cast and supporting cast either inside or will be. Gaius Charles is even better in this episode and might have given the episode's best performances, and fits into the story well after many like me wondered what place he has in the story, I like his arc. We get to see much more of Zeljko Ivanek as "The Croat", he plays the part of a villain so well! The scenes with Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are again some of the episode's highlights. I also liked the flashback scenes with Jeffrey and Mahina Napoleon as Ginny. Though I really like this episode, I think the previous two were better, but honestly though, this episode is all about building up to the final three. It has great drama and action, plenty of performances you want to see, and of course moving the story forward.

Rating: 10/10

The latest episode of "The Walking Dead: Dead City" was a post-apocalyptic masterpiece. From the captivating storytelling to the exceptional cinematography, this episode excelled in every aspect. The tension, character development, and action sequences were flawlessly executed, immersing viewers in a world of survival like never before. It's a must-watch for any fan of the series. Visually, this episode is a feast for the eyes. The hauntingly beautiful set designs and attention to detail in the devastated cityscape create an atmosphere that is both chilling and mesmerizing. The cinematography expertly captures the desperation and desolation, immersing you in a world where survival is the ultimate goal.

This show is, so far, much better than Fear - a low bar, but one this clears quite easily.

I like Maggie and Negan both more in this than I did in the later seasons of the OG Walking Dead. Their uneasy alliance is actually playing out quite nicely thus far. I like that Maggie still doesn't trust Negan and keeps him at arms length at all times, while Negan clearly is trying to find some kind of redemption for himself in her eyes.

They seem to be heavily foreshadowing Negan's eventual sacrifice to save Maggie and Hershel - with Maggie likely going on to adopt Ginny. I hope this isn't the direction it takes though because it would be extremely cliche and predictable.

Anyway, this episode is not without its problems. The issue here is that they just go too far trying to explain various things that don't need explaining - and everything just ends up being silly as a result.

1. The girl, Ginny, would have *never* been able to use an insulated camper cooler as a makeshift boat to row herself across the Hudson River to Manhattan. She would have probably immediately sunk, and if she somehow didn't then she would have easily capsized because her center of gravity would have been above the water line and the cooler itself wasn't wide enough to prevent capsizing. That's not even the most ridiculous part of her little journey though - the idea that she rode a dirt bike all the way to Manhattan, or that she was somehow able to stumble upon Negan's group in a city that size, that's crawling with walkers, is just absurd.

2. The Croat explains that he's generating power by capturing the methane released from the decomposing human bodies in the sewers and compressing it into a liquid form (which would take more energy to do than he would be able to extract - but let's not worry about that detail). This is comically ridiculous. Capturing that methane would be astoundingly difficult without proper equipment and facilities to do so - a sewer, which is not air tight and not even possible to make air tight - would not be the "perfect conditions" he describes in this episode. The show tries to explain that he could do this by showing all these vats with decomposing bodies in them - don't try to think about how he acquired all that equipment though or you'll get a headache - especially considering it's stated that he didn't even come to NYC until many years after the apocalypse. Did he just bring all that equipment with him?

3. Furthermore, even if you could capture that methane a decomposing body produces only a very small amount of methane (about 0.38 grams on average but we'll call it 0.5 grams to be generous and make the math easy here). Assuming you're able to capture 100% of that methane (no chance of that - but I'm being generous here) that's about 25 KJ of energy per decomposing human body. 25 KJ is about 0.007 kWh per decomposing human body. It takes 0.42 kWh to power a 60 watt light bulb for 1 hour - meaning it would take you 60 decomposing human bodies per 60 W lightbulb per hour. There are a whole lot of walkers in Manhattan but not enough to power even a fraction of what we see the Croat with. To make matters worse, methane is released over time as a body decomposes - but new methane is not produced - so all those walkers would be half-dead "batteries" at best when he finally tried to harvest them.

4. The maggots in the Croat's meat are still alive - even after being cooked. I could understand maggots being in the meat if it were rotten, but there's no way they would have survived the cooking process.

In flashbacks, Negan bonds with Ginny as they search for her missing toy. In the present, Ginny makes her way to Manhattan. The Croat holds Perlie prisoner in the revamped Madison Square Garden where he tests the marshal's abilities in a ring fight against walkers and questions his motives. Perlie eventually reveals that he's in Manhattan hunting for Negan, much to the Croat's shock who in turn reveals that he had lost his family to cannibals near the start of the apocalypse. The tribespeople tell Maggie and Negan about the Burazi's operation which they recognize as a twisted version of the Saviors and, using the story of Negan's defeat by the Militia, inspire the tribespeople to help them. Tommaso reveals that he had been captured and tortured, but he had managed to escape using the old framework of Penn Station and the subway system which they can use to get in. Maggie opens up to Negan about the loss of Hershel and her family and Negan in turn reveals that he had sent Annie and his son Joshua to safety in Missouri after killing five men who had robbed, beaten and raped Annie in revenge, which is why he's a wanted man. Luther discovers Negan's wanted poster, leading to a fight in which Negan gives in to his darker instincts and kills Luther. After finding Ginny's toy, Maggie contemplates burning it, secretly observed by Ginny.

The episode begins with flashbacks of Negan and Ginny that extend throughout the chapter, being of great value for the development of their relationship and giving Negan a reason to fight. The series uses an interesting resource to strengthen their relationship, the stuffed dinosaur, a very symbolic element for the character. The way they communicate through whistling is also a creative shortcut of the script, since Ginny does not speak due to the trauma she suffered when she lost her father. It is almost certain that this resource introduced here must be used again, since Ginny will probably face some dangerous situation in Manhattan and will need Negan's help.

The episode's script, written by Keith Staskiewicz, gives greater importance and development time to Tomasso and Amaia's group, showing and explaining some of their moments on the island, especially Tomasso's traumas fleeing from the Croata through the sewers. Even though they don't have much screen time, it's noticeable that the group is creating bonds with the protagonists and, from what we were used to with the main series, some of the group members may die in the upcoming episodes. This becomes more likely when the characters put the plan to attack the stadium into action. Speaking of the stadium, another highlight is the Croata, the series' antagonist. His insanity and sadism are high points here, and it is clear how Negan's worldview has influenced the character, who is trying to build a kind of Sanctuary where any survivor can join. This embeds the issue of protecting people and lives up to the episode's title "people are a resource." After a long time trapped in Alexandria, Negan's perception of the world and people has changed, and an ideological conflict between the two characters will be sensational when this encounter occurs.

The test the Croata performs on Armstrong is very reminiscent of the sick spectacle that was done in Woodbury, which was the group's entertainment. Here, the series clearly references the sadistic spectacles that the Governor promoted in the third season of the main series. Despite introducing new elements, in each episode the writers bet on references to remind us that The Walking Dead will always be alive. After winning the confrontation against the walker, Armstrong finally reveals that the reason he is there is to kill Negan. Thus, the Croata now discovers that he is in Manhattan and will do everything to have his revenge.

Fortunately, Kevin Dowling's direction is very efficient and different from anything shown in the franchise so far, with less expository dialogue and more focus on the characters' drama to move the story forward. The way the two co-protagonists are written in the episode is interesting, especially in the dialogue where they share their latest traumatic experiences. The fact that Maggie argued with Hershel moments before he was kidnapped makes the character feel a guilt that we didn't know about until then and adds an extra element for her to save her son. On the other hand, Negan finally reveals that he taught a lesson to those responsible for attacking his wife, and this is why he is being sought by the Marshals - for committing this crime.

The highlight of the episode is the confrontation between Negan and Luther, which has been built since the beginning of the episode and ends here. Luther discovers that Negan is being sought and prefers to expel him to defend his group. In contrast, Negan seems to want to resolve the situation peacefully, but shows that when necessary, he unleashes his inner monster mercilessly to get rid of the situation. The old Negan needs to return in risky situations, but it is clear that the character is progressing and his development built before Dead City was not thrown away. It is clear that the story could increase the volume of madness a la Mad Max and Carpenter, but I doubt that will happen, as it is a shame how the plot has been moving at a glacial pace in the last two episodes, with more dragging than necessary with Ginny's flashback insertions, still disconnected in the story and without much purpose beyond humanizing Negan, and also the core of the group found by Maggie and Negan that is doing overtime. It will be interesting, however, how the survivors' relationship with Negan will be after Luther's death at the end of the episode.

This third episode of Dead City creates new elements for the plot and sets up the board for the final three episodes that promise to be explosive. The relationship between Negan and Maggie gains new elements in each episode, which are softening the conflicting situation between them. Many resources presented so far are increasing the scale of The Walking Dead Universe, both in settings and in deep dialogues, which have not been explored much in the last seasons of the main series. I feel that many innovations will still be introduced in this spin-off and I can hardly wait for the next episodes.