What trip to New York is complete without a visit to the superstore responsible for the biggest Thanksgiving Day parade in America? We’re talking, of course, about Macy’s. And in Decider’s exclusive look at the season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City, that’s where Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are headed — only a little less festive, and a little more apocalypse.
In the new look, the duo is headed for a showdown with The Croat (Željko Ivanek), the man who kidnapped Maggie’s son. But in the calm before the storm, Maggie takes a little time to reflect on the world that was before the zombie rising in a monologue that is very reminiscent of one of the classic scenes from 1984’s Gremlins.
“For me, it wasn’t the Statue of Liberty,” Maggie says, staring out a window. “It was Macy’s. When I was little, after my mom got sick, I crawled into bed with her and she’d tell me stories. About Santa. The real Santa. Sometimes he’d come down from the North Pole, to the Macy’s store and he’d visit all the kids. And I used to daydream that I’d go to New York, look into that Macy’s, because best friends with the real Santa. He’d take all my toys that I’d lost, or that had been broken, and he’d find a way to replace them. And there it is.”
Of course, Macy’s is a little worse for the wear. And if Negan and Maggie’s assault on The Croat goes as planned, all of Manhattan may take a fall, too. Before that, though, it’s a powerhouse monologue from the actor, well-written and poignant. Meaning, the sort of thing that you can’t get without actors and writers — both of whom are on strike right now to rightly demand their fair pay and protections, thanks to the double strike from SAG and the WGA.
Back to the show, though. If you want to see how it all goes down in the season finale — and yes, AMC is selling this as a season finale, not a series finale — you can check it out on Sunday, July 23 at 9/8c on AMC, and on Thursday streaming early on AMC+.
Here’s the official synopsis for the episode, and the series:
The Walking Dead: Dead City season finale episode premieres Sunday, July 23 at 9pm ET on AMC. In “Doma Smo” tensions between Maggie and Negan come to a head; Ginny’s search continues; questions arise around Armstrong’s path forward.
ABOUT THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY:
The Walking Dead: Dead City follows the popular Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffery Dean Morgan) characters traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.
The series also stars Gaius Charles and Željko Ivanek, amongst others.Eli Jorné, who has been a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead for multiple seasons serves as showrunner and executive producer on the series, which is overseen by Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe. Cohan and Morgan also serve as executive producers, along with Brian Bockrath.