Dead City’ Ending Twist Just Completely Radicalized the Series in the Best Way

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 7 of The Walking Dead: Dead City.

One of the most shocking deaths in The Walking Dead: Dead City so far was that of the Dama (Lisa Emery), a major antagonist who puppeteered most of the action in the show. At the time, at the end of Season 2, Episode 5, this was a bold and exciting decision from Dead City, tapping back into the franchise’s brutality and notion of “no one’s safe” as we certainly didn’t expect such a huge villain to die so soon. What made it more gripping was the fact that it was the Dama’s ardent disciple, the Croat (Željko Ivanek), who directly dealt out her brutal, fiery fate — even if Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) had a discreet hand in it.

However, afterward, we didn’t expect to feel her loss so sorely, especially since her apparent absence started dragging the pace of the show. More egregiously, it transformed one of Dead City‘s most compelling villains into a meandering, whining mess, significantly reducing the excitement of the episodes. But at the end of Season 2, Episode 7, the Dama makes a shocking return, revealing that she survived the fire while barraging us with a plethora of implications. After the lost and slow atmosphere of Dead City during the last two episodes, her return is highly welcome and builds anticipation for the season finale.

The Dama Returns in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2, Episode 7

The episode sees Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and the Croat temporarily team up as the Croat guides her to a safe house where they believe Hershel (Logan Kim) is. As they make the treacherous journey, there is a turning point where the Croat reveals how he lost his mother and turned the Dama into a surrogate one, where the latter recognized the gaping hole in him and used it to her advantage. He also admits he wanted Maggie to kill him during this trip, unable to face his followers and go through with their grand plans after the Dama’s death.

After this painful confession, the Croat and Maggie end up parting ways, as Maggie sees a light in a building, which turns out to be from Hershel. All seems well when Maggie and Hershel reunite, but alarm bells ring when he mysteriously says that “she” will help them. The closing scenes of the episode see the Dama, burned but alive, emerge from the darkness and knock Maggie out, revealing that she had never died in the first place.

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Completely Wasted the Croat

Before the shattering news of her return, the Dama’s absence was sorely felt by the show, mainly because it started wasting its best villain: the Croat. During Season 1, the Croat was the main antagonist, who was the face of all the violence and obstacles Negan and Maggie faced, with the Dama only appearing in background scenes. His characterization of being a ruthless torturer who didn’t even draw the line for children was chilling, making him a formidable and terrifying opponent, one that we rarely see in Episodes 6 and 7 of Season 2. He was deeply affected by guilt, grief and loss after the Dama was lost to the fiery inferno after their fight, blaming himself for the loss of his maternal figure, who was someone he relied on for his identity and purpose. Without her, he was the embodiment of purposelessness.

As such, these episodes were filled with long, whining tirades of yearning for his homeland, essentially another aspect of his identity to replace the hole the Dama left, and eventually, the suicide-via-Maggie attempt in the latest episode. It reduced him to this pitiful state and wasted all the groundwork Dead City put into making the Croat so feared, especially on the heels of him viciously killing an entire Manhattan group after they disrespected him and his cause. While undermining his prior villainy, it also sapped Dead City of its brutal pace, which even Breugel’s (Kim Coates) antics, another new antagonist, could not compensate for. He was slowly finding autonomy from the Dama by challenging her, only to become a shadow of himself. With the Dama’s return, we can hope that the Croat’s previous fire will be ignited again, marking the return of Dead City‘s most compelling villain.

Bringing Back the Dama Is ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2’s Best Move

Aside from the despicable character of the Croat himself, the Dama’s return could also bring back their eerie relationship, one that would be marred by his attempt to murder her. It was initially interesting to see how such a tiny, frail woman was able to cast such a strong, irremovable hold on a fearsome torturer, made even creepier as we became acquainted with the maternal, power-play intimacy of their relationship. But with the Croat’s betrayal, the Dama’s allegiances will shift — likely to Hershel — as he revealed he was working with her just before she appeared in Episode 7. The Dama and the Croat’s new dynamics going into the finale will be exciting to see play out.

Her more overt alliance with Hershel also bodes danger for Maggie and Negan. The Dama is a master at psychological manipulation, and like she did with the Croat, she recognized vulnerability and used it to her advantage with her own agendas, creating another loyal companion in the process. This is how she was able to successfully abduct Maggie, whose guard was down during her reunion with Hershel. In turn, Negan also doesn’t know the Dama is alive, and certainly would not be expecting Hershel and Maggie to potentially go up against him and the community he is now leading. As one of the more interesting villains of Dead City, a woman whose main weapon is psychological in nature, compared to the bloody violence around her, the Dama’s return holds promise for a high-stakes, gripping season finale.