Is Negan the same old Negan again?
The Walking Dead: Dead City follows Maggie and Negan on a mission to save Maggie’s son, Hershel. The second episode aired on Sunday, and it was definitely a treat for Negan’s fans.
Spoiler alert for Dead City episode 2.
If you’ve seen the episode, you would agree that there’s one particular scene that stands out as particularly memorable. The scene in question involves Negan taking down one of the members of the Croat’s group.
In this episode, we meet two new groups of survivors. The first group initially captures Negan and Maggie, but we soon discover that their intentions were simply to be cautious because of another group called the Burazi. The Burazi, which means “brothers” in Croatian, are a group of raiders led by the Croat.
When the Burazi attack the survivors, they have to flee. They manage to escape to the roof, but one of the Burazi takes Esther hostage and eventually kills her. That’s when the old Negan wakes up.
First, Negan gives the guy a good beating, and then he casually drags him back inside the building. Right in front of other members of Burazi, Negan, in his charismatic and playful manner, brutally slashes the guy’s throat and guts, and drops the poor guy right on top of the other members of the Croat’s gang.
What Negan didn’t know is that Maggie was standing behind him all along. When he turns around, you can see that he almost felt embarrassed for what he just did.
On the one hand, we get to see Negan being his old self, doing some seriously messed up stuff. But on the other hand, it’s clear that he’s trying to hide this side of him from Maggie.
He knows deep down that if she witnesses this, it’ll instantly bring back memories of how he brutally took the life of her husband. And that is a clear indication of character development.
However, what might be the intention of this whole sequence is to show that Negan is still Negan. No matter how good his intentions are, he is still a sadist who once took the life of one of the most beloved characters. Neither viewers nor Maggie should forget about it.