The Walking Dead: Dead City does Maggie have a deal with The Croat?

The Walking Dead: Dead City is starting as an amazing new story for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The second episode revealed much more about the conditions of things in Manhattan and the evil of The Croat (Željko Ivanek). Has Maggie made a deal with The Croat to secure her son’s release?

This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 2, “Who’s There?” 

It is no secret that no love is lost between Maggie & Negan. The pair have long been at odds since Negan’s brutal bludgeoning of Maggie’s husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), in season 7 of The Walking Dead. Maggie’s mind has been consumed with exacting her revenge on Negan since her return in season 10 of that series. In the final episodes of the main series, Maggie begins to trust Negan, even though she can never forget his actions. He saved her son, an act she would be forever grateful for.

By the end of The Walking Dead, Maggie makes her feelings clear that she can’t forget what Negan has done. This made Negan believe that it was only a matter of time before she would snap and kill him. He took his new wife, Annie (Medina Senghore), and left the communities.

When things pick up in Dead City, Maggie has become very hardened to the world, and she has come against another villain, more evil than Negan. The Croat was a member of Negan’s Saviors; Maggie immediately learned this when he used the telltale whistle she heard right before she first set eyes on Negan. This had to be triggering for her, and now she finds herself in a predicament where The Croat has her son Hershel (Logan Kim), and she needs Negan’s help once again.

The Walking Dead: Dead City episode 2

This episode reveals what exactly when on between Negan and The Croat. Negan tells Maggie how The Croat came to join the Saviors, calling Negan his Buraz (brother). Before meeting Negan, The Croat had been through unimaginable things to the point he was ready to kill himself. Negan took him in and made him feel safe.

Maggie throws out, “It takes a monster to make one, I guess.” But Negan corrects her by informing her that he was only a monster when he needed to put on a show for his followers, but The Croat relishes being evil and was employed as Negan’s torturer. Eventually, he would take things too far, and Negan realized he was a “rabid dog who needed to be put down.” He only had one shot at The Croat and missed, only blowing off his ear. (which messes up my theory that he was “Dwighted”) That was the last time Negan saw The Croat.

Does Maggie have a deal with The Croat?

In episode 1, The Croat obviously had been keeping tabs on Negan. He told Hershel that the man who killed his father had lived among his mother’s people for a long time. Could it be that The Croat made a deal with Maggie that he would release her son if she traded Negan for him?

Another strange thing is that Maggie has stated The Croat and his crew stole all of their grain. But when Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) was at the Bricks she saw a man checking the grain bin. Why would Maggie lie about this?

Only time will tell what Maggie’s ultimate plan is, but one thing is certain, she would move heaven and earth to save her son, no matter who gets hurt in the process.

The Walking Dead: Dead City will air new episodes weekly on AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. AMC+ subscribers can watch new episodes three days early on Thursdays.

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