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Saturday, July 22, 2023

Stories We Tell Ourselves |1x05| The Walking Dead: Dead City

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Clinical narcissism isn't self obsession; it's the reliance we have on an image we've constructed of ourselves that we show the world and believe in. It's what we all do, to varying degrees, to get by. What can happens when someone shows us our own self-image is false?
Since this was a 🔴LIVESTREAM, there is no unedited episode recording available; however, TIP US at Ko-fi.com/SQUAWKINGDEAD to show your support and/or consider joining a Membership Tier (for as little as $1 /month) on either Ko-fi or Patreon.com/SQUAWKINGDEAD!

David Cameo:
Rachael Burt:
Sherrandy Swift:
Bridget Mason-Gray:

  • This episode contains theater elements and has some comparisons to Les Misérables, which pairs very well with Negan (a la Jean Valjean) saving Marshal Pearlie Armstrong in the last episode (though it's not as though his crime was stealing a loaf of bread).

  • We hesitate expressing annoyance with Maggie Rhee's actions during this episode, less for questioning her lies to Ginny and more over not taking the oxygen after Tommaso and Amaia tragically pass. And as much as Ginny's actions (being a stupid kid) annoy us, at least we completely understand where she's coming from. Rachael had low expectations for the series but is truly impressed, this far in. Speaking of expectations, of course some of the characters we've grown to love have all died (mostly because of our protagonists?).

  • Sherrandy was especially annoyed with Maggie's refusal to take oxygen. It could be seen as penance for planning to turn Negan over to The Croat, but it's hard to believe that Maggie would harm herself and impair her ability to rescue Hershel Rhee.

  • In the previous episode, we explored the possibility of someone tipping off The Croat: finding out Tommaso was The Croat's inside man was a little gratifying. As mad as that makes us, considering how tragically Tommaso's decision plays out, it was interesting to explore the parallel of Tommaso and Maggie both having sacrificed their people to protect their future: on The Walking Dead, Maggie and Glenn Rhee were taken hostage by Phillip "The Governor" Blake and gave up The Prison's location to protect one another from unspeakable acts.

  • Dave empathizes with Maggie's refusal to take oxygen amidst the methane gas filled sewers: she's had a hard time silencing her better angels, unsuccessfully (for the most part) - considering how she's saved Ginny a few times - which goes against her best interests. After all, Jenkem numbs her suffering and is, perhaps, helping her to plow on. Dave is satisfied with everyone else's reasoning, too: Maggie's also not thinking clearly due to Methane exposure.

  • Still, many think it would've been wiser for her to wait until they were out of the sewers before Maggie confronted Tommaso about his betrayal to The Tribespeople and, moreover, Amaia. Dave feels she made a calculated decision since there was no telling what fate lies for her, topside. If The Croat was double-dipping, and considering the state of the world, he could easily break the deal they had since she doesn't even have Negan in tow. Maggie & Ginny weren't even supposed to be with Tommaso and Amaya since there were only two oxygen tanks, so its possible Tommaso would've found a way to get rid of them (regardless of whether he would've been successful). We go back to methane exposure as the source of Maggie's problem.

  • What frames the way Maggie is feeling right now are the examples, out in the world, of people who just didn't make it, like the dweller(s) of the avant-garde artist hideout. Even if a given shelter is physically safe, it doesn't guarantee you'll be mentally strong enough survive the zombie apocalypse, especially on your own. We shift our focus to the refrigerator entrance, which reminded Dave of his visit to Meow Wolf in New Mexico: an immersive art installation experience. On a more personal level, when Dave was in his twenties, travelling back and forth from Brooklyn to The Bronx for work, he used to marvel at a similar style of art that was always changing (sometimes on the same day) located where the FDR Drive meets the Harlem Drive, under both the onramp/exit of the Triboro Bridge (now called the RFK Bridge).
  • Along with Sherrandy mentioning productions that were filmed in her hometown, Dave indicates that the scene where Negan reveals to Pearlie he's a gym teacher and walkers emerge in front of Dan's Hats & Caps is filmed in Newark, right outside his day-job's colocation/datacenter.

  • 🎖️SURVIVORS Tier Member, Takeerah mentions in the chat that Newark is commonly called Brick City and we discover that (what we've been referring to as) New Hilltop is actually called The Bricks. Brick City reminds the North Carolinians of pizza chain Brixx Wood Fired Pizza, which is where we completely lose the thread.

  • What we found fascinating, which we ultimately attribute to poor thinking as a result of methane poisoning, is how Maggie doubles down on the lie she told Ginny about The Croat taking all their food and grain knowing (this episode, for certain) Ginny was at The Brick and could've uncovered the lies Maggie has been telling Negan. On top of this, Maggie is constantly having to access the rage she has inside of herself (suffocating her better angels) in order to commit herself to exchanging Negan for Herschel.

  • Negan is seen playing with a Statue of Liberty souvenir, which is a callback to the story he told Maggie about he and his father in the first episode. This makes us wonder whether the Statue of Liberty is still standing. The French constructed The Statue of Liberty out of copper: not only had it gradually oxidized and turned green after 30 years of exposure to the saltwater air, but has needed continuous maintenance to remain standing. Over the last few hundred years, we wondered how much of its original materials were even left after so much replacement. Though far enough from any shore, an errant explosive might've taken down some or all of it.

  • We turn back to The Croat's actual attack on The Bricks and whether there was even one to begin with. After trying to run some sort of cover for Maggie by ascertaining the timeline of events (maybe their grain was replenished?), we doubt we can: it seems there's some timeline mentions in the first episode that indicate it was soon after their encounter. We witnessed the demolished front gate, so there was clearly a demonstration of power. On the other hand, nothing was stolen other than Hershel. This episode reveals the only thing The Croat wanted (for The Dama) from Maggie was to retrieve Negan.

  • What truly shocked us and freaked Maggie out was whether The Croat would stop with Hershel since he offered The Bricks as a safe haven for Tommaso and Amaia. Will The Bricks be taken over or at least plundered by The Croat/The Dama, afterwards (a la The Saviors)? Dave thinks The Dama has no plans for expansion beyond Manhattan's borders and is even worried New Babylon Federation might encroach on their territory (Tranquillitas Ordinis). She is also reading Frontiers of Historical Imagination by Kerwin Lee Klein, which both critically and sympathetically examines historical analysis of the western expansion of The United States. The irony is that The Dama successfully eliminates the native population, AKA The Tribespeople, and The Croat is constantly reciting Doma Smo (we are home, in Croatian): meanwhile, he and his Burazi are effectively colonists. The story The Croat tells himself - and The Dama - is that he has Negan within his grasp. Negan Smith is compared to John Smith and the girl who survived the Burazi attack on the firehouse (The Croat calling them barbarians) is Pocahontas.



  • Emily mentions that she's a little disappointed that the show doesn't, in her mind, expand The Walking Dead Universe. Bridget mentions how Tales of The Walking Dead attempted to do that, regardless of how it was received by the wider audience. In an even more narrow way than The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Dead City sticking to one corner of the universe and thoroughly exploring a narrative, while dropping small TWDU nuggets along the way, tells an overall better story while connecting to and slightly expanding the greater universe.

  • We turn our focus to The Dama herself and the actress who plays her, Lisa Emery. She and her relationship to The Croat is very similar to Pamela Milton and Lance Hornsby. You may remember Lisa Emery's stellar portrayal of the wildly unpredictable Darlene Snell in Ozark. Having been a stage actress for many years and hailing from Western Pennsylvania, she's most-likely intimate with the kind of overly-entitled, prima donna Broadway actor she's attempting to portray. Our excitement over Lisa's admittance to TWDU is similar to Kevin T. Carroll's, who played Virgil, but we hope she features for quite a while longer. Lastly, Dave expresses his disgust (with all things woo) after learning the woman who exited The Dama's chambers, before we meet her, was receiving a tarot reading. It reminds him of their discussions on mentalism and homeopathy during their breakdown of Shadow Puppets (TWD: World Beyond 1x06).

  • As we enter The Dama's chambers, we're greeted by the sound of Una Fortiva Lagrima by Gaetano Donizetti. The song is about a perceived (from the singer's POV) shared moment of love between two people (perhaps The Croat is under a delusion that he and The Dama love each other?). Everyone thinks what this song represents, The Croat's simpering and pathetic nature, and even The Dama's distaste over his physical deformity is all very disgusting. Another song, played loudly and noisily by a new group's member beforehand, was Anything Goes by Cole Porter. The song's theme explores the erosion of the social mores over time and how every generation, thereafter, seems to engage in increasingly crazy behavior: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. But does this mean we're to expect an incredibly awful death in the next and final episode of the season?

  • Bridget can't help but jokingly mention: because Pearlie doesn't constantly praise New York City, he must not be not a real New Yorker. The ladies are just jealous because he and Dave live in the center of the universe and they can masticate on a satchel of Richards whilst loitering in Lisa Emery's memorial box in King Francis theater.

  • The ladies will never understand a man's desire to touch and sniff gross things the way Tommaso does the wall of rendered human fat. The fatslide looks like all the world's McDonald's burger traps poured into this one spot in the New York City sewer system. Sherrandy's favorite thing was The Walker King. Bridget noted that the episoder insider showed how this feat of horrific brilliance was predominantly comprised of practical effects (with puppeteers and animatronics), much like a Jim Henson's Creature Shop production. The faces bursting through the body of The Walker King were a lot like Freddy Kreuger's chest - bursting with his victim's souls - in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Of course, the Crypt Keeper-esuqe jump-scare of the last walker was a great homage to Tales from the Crypt on HBO. Sherrandy has to mention that this is what a walker orgy must look like (which harkens back to a similar discussion we had at the top of one of our episodes).


  • The pulled-back and excellently framed shot of Maggie observing Ginny's work - the word Liar smeared in blood - was visually striking. Just beforehand, the way the camera angle starts out depicting Ginny and Maggie upside down, then slowly flipping the camera right side up as they pass, created an impressive effect that unmoored the audience and implanted them inside their woozy headspace.

  • Pearlie's line about cutting-off his brother, Joel Armstrong, in in New York City three years before the fall (Dave thought) was the most crucial line in the episode and represented a paradigm shift in Pearlie, "He was left to die alone on the worst possible place on the planet. Is that what he deserved? Is it really so black and white? You'd asked me back then I would've said yes. But now? I don't know. Is it gray? Is it something else? Tranquillitas Ordinis: What if it's storis we tell ourselves to sleep easier?"
    This demonstrates Pearlie's moral absolutism prior to the events of the fall of humanity, but The Walking Dead Universe is an opportunity to be what we were meant to be. What's ironic is that Maggie isn't sleeping any easier, despite the lies she keeps telling herself. The Croat feigns supremacy over Manhattan, yet we bear witness to his pathetic behavior in his boss' presence.

  • Despite her unsettling welcome to TWDU, we're concerned we won't see more of Lisa Emery's incredible acting since the upcoming episode is the season finale, which will undoubtedly leave us with more questions than answers. This insular story has immense potential to go further and grander than where we are at present. New Babylon Federation might, in fact invade as Dave predicted in the first episode (we learn that this is something The Dama fears in this episode), which might ripple outward towards larger threats like The Civic Republic (Military), which we know has at least a base in upstate New York. Might we see Leo Bennett and other characters from TWD World Beyond and will the Rick Grimes and Michonne spin-off cross over into the current storyline?

  • We, too, spin-off into a possible field trip, (funded entirely by...just kidding) guided by Shaunna. Rachael tells us about a special memento - a cane she still has in her posession - from Epcot Center to help her father stand while he was battling cancer.
  • The theme of this episode is self-deception: more specifically, clinical narcissism. This series revolves around Maggie's struggle to maintain a certain image of herself, all the while undermining that image by committing the despicable act of lying and trading Negan's life for Hershel's. Regardless of his intent, Tommaso ends up giving up the lives of all his people (along with, ultimately, his own and his beloved's) in exchange for a better life with he, Amaia, and what was supposed to be his unborn child. The Croat gives up his reign over Manhattan just to be with the woman he loves. Pearlie tries to make the most of his post apocalyptic life by dealing out justice, while a letter from his big brother burrows its way into his soul. All of these folks had to put up an image of themselves to believe that they were doing the right thing in order to get what they wanted and, truth be told, we don't blame anyone for their decisions.

  • The full flashback to when The Croat kidnaps Hershel and strikes a deal with Maggie is revealed, the end of which - her silent scream - is a callback to the very first scene of her scouting the lower west side of the island and having to kill the well-walker-looking zombie. Dave thinks that by virtue of her being there without Negan in that first scene, Maggie was at least initially trying not to have to involve him, whatsoever. The ladies aren't buying this. At the very least, the show does a good job of linking these moments, between these two scenes, together and nothing is wasted.

  • While Emily comments on Maggie's ability to slay, with her outfits, we wonder if Maggie partially blames herself for Tommaso's & Amaia's deaths. Though Luther's death was pretty anti-climactic, what lives on is his (now) righteous objection to allowing his people to be involved in Hershel's rescue. The methane exposure, however, takes the lions share of the blame, especially after they all lose their senses and use the dead bodies surrounding them as couches. Though, in their defense, none of them reanimated in their presence due to their impaired sense of smell, considering their permeating pungent stench. Still, the rest of the characters besides Maggie should've had enough oxygen to make some rational decisions, to the estimation of some. Maggie, herself, was so impaired, she put Ginny's safety above her own, even throwing her the very backpack that contains the dino plushie, flare, and beeswax.

  • For the third time, we mention TikToker, @ClashedPR, who finally released a full-length video on the subject of the lack of Variant Walkers in this series. Although we may have noticed some in the last episode, Bridget also spied some of the horde outside the avant garde art shelter parking lot moving faster and more aggressively than normal. We don't necessarily mind this and prefer it over the full-blown, suddenly appearing variants at the end of The Walking Dead's remaining episodes. This brings to mind the Daryl Dixon spin-off and how the attempt at a cure bred more fast-moving, 28 Days Later-esque variants in France.

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Thursday, July 20, 2023

Everybody Wins A Prize |1x04| The Walking Dead: Dead City

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neGAAAAN! You & Maggie have lossa `splainin to do! The Croat finally encounters his buraz, Negan, and it doesn't go quite the way everyone thinks! Maggie spots Ginny and chooses to stay and fight with she and The Tribespeople over ditching them for Hershel.
Since this was a 🔴LIVESTREAM, there is no unedited episode recording available; however, TIP US at Ko-fi.com/SQUAWKINGDEAD to show your support! Consider also joining a Membership (for as little as $1 /month) on either Ko-fi or Patreon.com/SQUAWKINGDEAD, too!

David Cameo:
Rachael Burt:
Sherrandy Swift:
Bridget Mason-Gray:

🎖SURVIVORS TIER MEMBERS:
Takeerah:

  • Nobody actually wins a prize: the prize is death.

  • Bridget gave away 3 free months of AMC+ on her mediocre YouTube channel to folks who commented on her TWD Supply Drop unboxing video.
  • We're planning a telethon to raise money to fund Robin Overton's cancer treatment, but we need more subscribers on our YouTube channel to increase our reach: for this event, other charity events, and to create the bigger and better content you desire!

  • Have you at least seen our logo and art designs based on our TWD: Dead City discussions? Check them out!


  • Takeerah shares her overall impression of the episode, mentioning the anticipation of intense moments and emotional scenes. Ginny is very mistrustful towards Maggie Rhee throughout the entire episode, up until the moment she heads into the sewers with Tomasso & Amaia. Kera is holding a Connie doll (complete with Virgil's knife, used in the episode titled, On The Inside - TWD 11x06) made by Sherrandy's mom! Get their own custom dolls by DMing Sherrandy on social media or requesting a commission, here:

  • There's a lot of build-up and mystery over whether someone was possibly informing The Croat about The Tribespeople's plans against him. We lost many actual red-shirts, to boot, slimming down the whole of The Tribespeople to just Amaia & Tommaso. Marshal Pearlie Armstrong didn't know the plan but knew Negan was on the island, but The Croat's timing of their arrival seemed too perfect. Is there another group in the mix whom we haven't met yet? The Croat has absorbed or killed those who haven't joined him, afterall, but there may be someone above even him, too. Meanwhile, Tomasso's actual fate hangs in the balance since many think he's been bitten after we lose him for a little while.

  • We turn to the killer flashback, pre-Alexandria Safe-Zone, where we see Simon again, leading Negan to where The Croat tortured a scout from The Kingdom. The look on Negan's face clearly showed how distraught he was that he had tortured the little girl to death for information. Sherrandy interjects that this is the exact reason why Ginny might be a spy: the little girl who was killed looked somewhat like her in age and ethnicity. Another podcast had a theory that one of the men Negan killed, along with New Babylon Federation's magistrate, may have been Ginny's dad and that she may be secretly seeking revenge. Dave thinks her dad might've been mistaken for Negan and, when the NBF's marshals came to their farm in the dead of night, they issued the insanely cruel and unusual punishment that was meant for Negan, the aftermath to which she bore witness and made her go mute.

  • Dave had a terrible thought that doesn't make much sense: Negan had taken Luther's beeswax off of his body, but he might've taken more than just that. A zippo lighter was used to light the candle on the methane drums that would eventually explode to let all the walkers waiting outside Madison Square Garden (aka, The Croat's New Sanctuary) which were meant kill all The Tribespeople. Luther was seen in the last episode clearly holding up a zippo lighter before their meal: a totem to remember someone in his life who had fallen. Of course Negan has to ask Maggie for his matches because no one is supposed to know he has the zippo lighter. Negan's personal end game was already fairly unclear, but if he was the one who lit those candles, it throws us way off. Maybe he wanted to be the one to take credit for rescuing Hershel? It's possible that Negan's family is actually dead or, like Hershel, captured by The Croat. Both Negan and Maggie may be playing each other.

  • We talk about Maggie's decision to protect Ginny, rather than take the clear opening she had to rescue Hershel. Takeerah says she better protect Ginny, but Rachael would've personally gone for Hershel. At the end of the day, Hershel wasn't even on site, which is good for Amaia, Tommaso, and Ginny, since Maggie chose to fight with them. As far as Hershel's actual whereabouts, everyone believes Hershel is still alive and may be with another faction: demonstrating the practice of trading prisoners, similar to Native American tribes, which would make it more difficult to find him. It also makes Negan correct about what The Croat decided to do after Tommaso escaped the first time: take all the prisoners off-site.

  • The irony of Simon criticizing The Croat for not listening to Negan when Simon crossed that same line after killing all the men and boys at The Oceanside not too long after. We find this out in TWD 9x03, Warning Signs after finding out that both Arat & Justin were murdered by Beatrice and co, avenging their brothers', fathers', nephews', and husbands' deaths. Emily is a little dismayed that TWD is attempting to retcon a lot of its history, but Dave believes that it all fits firmly in place: Negan, himself, had to keep doing more and more heinous things to maintain his power, eventually violating the ethics he claimed to hold. Negan may have eventually moved on to killing kids had he been allowed to continue down his path.

  • Why didn't Negan shoot The Croat? Would it have shown his hand or have been too risky? Maybe he was even paralyzed: Negan had told Maggie he was afraid of hearing a song he doesn't want to hear anymore, which might mean a lot of things: perhaps precisely the kinds of escalations we just described earlier - the heinous acts one needs to perform in order to achieve and maintain power.

  • There was a difference in The Croat's behavior towards the girl in the console room. The others found The Croat to be particularly creepy, since the vibe we get from him is that you never really know what crazy thing he might do next (and we have the knowledge that he tortures and kills children), but Dave found him oddly gentle and kind. Dave isn't convinced he's changed, though: just prior to this, Negan & Maggie stumbled across the body of a young man who looked like Hershel, tied to a chair, who was recently executed, indicating he was still capable of extreme barbarism. He's likely gotten worse, over time, without anyone to restrain him.

  • When Negan and Maggie do find that body, Lauren Cohan's acting was extremely incredible. The relief that it's not Hershel is short-lived, as the knowledge that Hershel could still be butchered crashes over her: the notion that she won't even be there when it happens is written all over her face. It reminded us of Glenn Rhee's numerous near-death experiences throughout the original series and how she and we felt throughout all of them.

  • The Croat's reaction to finally seeing Negan again is one of the best lines in the series, thus far. Some say that he's excited to see Negan because he can't wait to torture him, while others (even Executive Producer & Showrunner Eli Jorné) say he is genuinely happy to see him. To The Croat, Negan is more of a father-figure than a Buraz, seeking his approval: he saved him from going down a dark path and made him useful. It's possible that kidnapping Hershel was The Croat's plan to lure Negan to the island all along.

  • We discuss Jerome, a former member of  The Saviors (and perhaps even The Commonwealth? since a character with the same name is found in the comic book series). He seemed to know enough about All Out War to catch-up The Croat, knowing that The Widow (Maggie) was a key player throughout the conflict (Negan, after all, having done the widowing). In the midst of this, we ascertain that both The Hilltop and The Kingdom were under The Saviors' protection at the time, since The Croat seemed to have found one of The Hilltop's hidden weapons caches.

  • Maggie tells Negan the story about Amos, who refused to stop playing his harmonica in the middle of the night while Maggie was trying to get a crying baby Hershel to stay asleep at The Hilltop. Though Maggie had previously told Negan that The Croat was a monster of his own making, the story might've been an attempt to walk back what she had said: you tried to stop him after he didn't listen and whatever happens after that is not on you. Still, Negan is getting closer to a part of himself that he doesn't want to associate with. The ladies think what Maggie was merely trying to tell Negan was to finish the job and bury The Croat in the ground, much like she did Amos' harmonica. They also don't believe for one second that Maggie asked Amos nicely.

  • Lurkers (walkers that hibernate until humans make enough noise or expose open wounds) are present in the subway tunnels, which reminded us of the last few times we really noticed them: Acheron: Part I (TWD 11x01) & One More (TWD 10x19). Rachael wondered whether they could've strategically put them down quietly, but the risk versus reward seemed pretty high. It's not clear whether Ginny followed our gang and had to risk getting by the lurkers the same way Maggie et al had: after all, if she was a spy for The Croat, she'd know an alternate entrance. Sherrandy had also noticed the fencing around the stairs leading to the subway had spikes on top of them, which were probably added on to kill walkers with.

  • Where are all the variant walkers in this series? It seems there haven't been any, so far, with a possible exception in the octagon: while Maggie, Ginny, Amaia, and the scavenger where regrouping, some walkers can be seen reaching upwards and grabbing the links in the chain-link fence in a possible attempt to climb.

  • When it's all said and done, all of The Tribespeople are gone, save for both Amaia & Tommaso. Especially if both find out, somehow, that Negan killed Luther, they could easily turn on Maggie. If you think about it, they all stuck their necks out for Maggie's kid, which makes Luther right all along about not wanting his people to get involved in saving him. Though, Emily enjoys the possibility of Maggie and Amaya becoming girlfriends, prompting everyone else to prefer that #hatebang over the one with Negan and Maggie. Tommaso is pretty easy on the eyes, as well. Seriously, though, we do want Tomasso & Amaia to last (in a universe where love interests often perish).

  • The Croat speaking Croatian (a common language) and the culture he's cultivated binds his people to him. Warrant Officer Anne "Jadis" Stokes believed the same thing, when she revealed to Jennifer "Huck" Mallick that a common language she developed in the heaps quickly bound she and her comrades (revealed on The Walking Dead: World Beyond). This reminded many of The Office (US) where Kevin Mallone says, "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?" Their wardrobe/uniforms are almost mafioso, with their trench coats and spiky biker helmets.

  • Jumping to the aftermath of Negan saving Armstrong, it seems like that doesn't make a difference since Armstrong goes right back to his Marshal schtick, citing codes and wanting to bring him in for punishment. We doubt this will last long, but there may be a painful back-and-forth we'll have to endure in the meantime until Armstrong relents (if only a little?). Either way, this is super frustrating.

  • Do you think Željko Ivanek's portrayal of The Croat is a little over the top? We know that, in a way, he's imitating his big buraz, Negan (imitation being the highest form of flattery). All jokes aside, he's been highly effective in building a fairly well-organized, efficient group. With all the neckbeards and rat-tails flying around, though, Sherrandy expresses frustration with Ginny not putting her wild, long hair up for safety reasons, though the one perfect example we've seen of someone doing so happened to have her hair pulled in that episode: Charlie on Fear The Walking Dead's 2nd episode of Season 6, Welcome to the Club.

  • Sherrandy wanted to know if we caught more of a glimpse of the posters on the wall in what were being used as prison cells. The cells were originally ticket-teller booths at Penn Station for the Long Island Railroad: we are supposed to know this because of the sign just before they enter The Croat's Sanctuary indicating as much (even though the interior was filmed at The Meadowlands Area in New Jersey). She and Dave caught what was probably an NYC Marathon poster and, in the arena, you could see a UFC match was being held between Hugo and Gonzalez.


  • A bit of foreshadowing to The Croat's excitement over Negan's arrival, if you know Croatian: The Croat catches Negan scurrying past his peripheral vision and says "Moj si!" which means you're mine, said playfully. We get the impression he is worse and crazier than Negan, even though he clearly has adopted some Neganisms.

  • The cinematography: Watching Maggie descend into the sewers as the darkness engulfs her and the lighting, sound, camerawork, and visual effects in the arena. The more upbeat version of Proplakat će Zora Dave had mentioned in the last episode was playing in the area, which had a more polka-like, early 70s, not-quite-disco feel.

  • Was The Croat tossing Armstrong off the railing a test for Negan or was he genuinely surprised that Negan assisted him? It's important to keep in mind that Negan's left hand injury was bad enough just holding the harpoon-like hook-shot weapon, at the beginning of the episode. He had to use the same hand to help pull up Armstrong, potentially worsening his injury. Rachael takes a moment to actually express admiration for The Tribespeople's weapons, but also acknowledges that they can still be made fun of (a la toilet snake).

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