The Walking Dead: Dead City thrives on tension, existential dread, and the creeping realization that choices—no matter how well-intended—can spiral into devastation. The Bird Always Knows delivers all that and more, weaving treachery, guilt, brutality, and redemption into a grimly elegant tapestry.
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| “The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Logan Kim as Hershel. Photo: Robert Clark/AMC © 2025 AMC Networks Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
At the episode’s heart is Herschel’s (Logan Kim) torment over the fallout of his betrayal. His confession to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is laced with regret as he admits that he signaled the Croat but failed to anticipate the bloodshed that followed. It’s a rare moment of honesty, one that digs into the psychological horror of unintended consequences. His sorrow is palpable—not just for the act itself, but for his failure to understand the stakes until it was far too late. His apology is genuine, yet hollow in the face of the dead who cannot hear it.
Maggie, hardened by her own vendetta, offers absolution—or at least an attempt at it. She tells Herschel to let it go, but her words are tainted by hypocrisy. She has clung to her grudge against Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) with an iron grip, her own soul consumed by an unrelenting thirst for vengeance.
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“The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD |
The irony isn’t lost on Herschel or the audience. Maggie’s credibility, asking Herschel to just let what happened go, is nonexistent. Here, the episode masterfully juxtaposes personal vendettas against the broader horrors of war and betrayal, showing how anger corrodes and how redemption, if it comes, is rarely clean—a lesson Ginny (Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon) learns in this episode.
As the story shifts to the city, its ‘shock and awe’ intensifies. The Dama (Lisa Emery) dispatches Negan to persuade gang leader holdout Christos (Jake Weary) to join her cause against New Babylon. Negan’s discussion starts promisingly. He and Christos find unexpected common ground in their shared goal—protecting their families. It’s a fleeting glimpse of hope, a moment where unity seems possible amid chaos.
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“The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD |
Hope is violently ripped away when The Croat (Željko Ivanek) struts in. Firmly in the grip of his invulnerability complex that twists every slight into an unforgivable challenge, The Croat arrives not just to sabotage Negan’s progress but to obliterate any perception of the Burazi’s weakness. His weakness. His response to Christos’ substation attack isn’t just retaliation—it’s theatrical brutality, a gruesome display meant to reassert his dominance.
Negan—and the viewers—are blindsided by the revelation that the Croat had ensured the gas canister remained on the entire time, silently flooding the room and sealing Christos’ fate before anyone had a chance to fight back. The moment of realization is sickening. Resistance was never an option—just death, delivered with chilling precision. Then comes the true horror: the Burazi descend upon Christos and his men, their bludgeoning a violent exclamation point on the Croat’s calculated cruelty.
The Croat chuckles as he assures Negan that he spared the women and children, as if that concession dims the sheer ruthlessness of the massacre. When Negan asks whether the Dama sanctioned the attack, the Croat’s silence speaks volumes. The weight of The Dama’s unspoken approval—or dangerous ignorance about The Croat’s actions—settles over Negan like a suffocating fog.
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| “The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Dascha Polanco as Narvaez. Photo: Robert Clark/AMC © 2025 AMC Networks Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Meanwhile, Narvaez (Dascha Polanco) raises the stakes at the Forager’s compound, arresting Roksana (Pooya Mohseni) and Armstrong (Gaius Charles) for crimes against the Federation. She forces Maggie into an impossible situation, demanding that she go to the city alone and deliver Negan and The Croat to her, using Herschel as leverage.
Bending is not Maggie’s way. She fights her way back into the compound, only to be betrayed by Herschel—whether out of cowardice or impulse—when his eye movements unintentionally reveal her position. Even still, she seizes control, pressing a knife to Narvaez’s throat, only for the power dynamic to shift again when Ginny trains her gun on Herschel, unmoved by Maggie’s desperate pleas because the little girl is big mad that Maggie didn’t tell her she was going to see Negan when she was in the city. Argh!
The episode does not shy away from the recklessness of youth, portraying Herschel and Ginny as impulsive, easily swayed, and frequently unreliable. The writers emphasize a brutal truth: their decisions lack the anchor of maturity because their brains are simply not developed enough to grasp the full consequences of their actions.
For example, Ginny’s actions allow Narvaez to implement her one solution for defiance—execution. Roksana is led to the gallows. Her people mourn so loudly that their cries stir the undead. Chaos erupts as walkers swarm through the fences, forcing a frenzied shift in the battle for survival.
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| “The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon as Ginny. Photo: Robert Clark/AMC© 2025 AMC Networks Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Ginny, injured in the melee, finally snaps out of her treacherous malaise, saving Maggie from Narvaez’s noose. Then, in delicious irony, the freshly reanimated Roksana tears apart Narvaez’s throat—her violent end a poetic consequence of her own ruthless rule. Hurray!
And just when the tension settles, a knock at the door—a surprise visitor for Maggie and Armstrong as Bruegel (Kim Coates) arrives, casually announcing, “Looks like I’m late to the party.” I don’t know about other viewers, but I was left with a sinking feeling that Maggie’s troubles are far from over. Damn! Can you give our girl one day?
Meanwhile, in the city, Negan plays puppet master, sowing doubt between The Dama and The Croat. By killing the Dama’s beloved pet rat, he plants the seeds of suspicion about the Croat’s motives. Then, by reminding the Croat of how shabbily The Dama treats them both, Negan feeds the Croat’s fear of weakness, setting off an epic confrontation.
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| “The Bird Always Knows” — THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Lisa Emery as The Dama. Photo: Robert Clark/AMC© 2025 AMC Networks Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The Dama and the Croat exchange insults before the Dama sinks her teeth into the Croat’s hand. Too bad, so sad—The Dama ends up swallowed by flames, shrieking “Mile! Mile! Help me!” like the wicked witch melting in The Wizard of Oz. So, awe, the shock.
The episode closes on a macabre note as Negan scrapes smashed rat guts from the bottom of his shoe—a grim reminder that The Dama’s end is only the beginning. One Dama down—The Croat and Bruegel to go. Then, finally, he can leave this cursed city behind him.
While The Bird Always Knows is high-stakes storytelling with betrayals, executions, and unforeseeable twists that unfold with ruthless efficiency, it’s one of those heavy-lifting episodes. The episode sheds actors from the call sheet, not gratuitously, but as a necessary evolution in the story’s pitiless world. The plotting intrigue—from the Burazi’s ‘gas and smash’ slaughter of Christos’ gang to Roksana’s hanging—feels familiar and fitting within the TWDU. After all, none of the casualties were well-known (Roksana, Christos) or particularly likable (The Dama)—so bye-bye. Next!”
One lingering question remains—why does this review omit the conversation between Armstrong and Roksana? Given that the episode’s title is based on this exchange, it seemed positioned as a moment of significance. And yet, its absence from discussion only reinforces its lack of real impact. My appreciation for the episode wouldn’t have changed had it been cut entirely. In fact, it should have been—because it adds little to the main plots.
Now that the New Babylon forces have been decimated, what’s Bruegel’s gambit with Maggie and Armstrong? Let me know in the comments.
