The Walking Dead: Dead City – “Trillium” – Review: An Emotionally Dissonant Premiere

A Premiere That Tries to Turn the Titanic on a Dime

“Trillium” opens with Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) cursing so aggressively you’d think AMC was trying to prove it still has a pulse. I’ve never heard “sh*t” used as punctuation before, but here we are. Maggie begging Negan to stab her in the back — literally — is one of the most unnecessary, juvenile beats the show has ever attempted.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Lauren Cohan as Maggie, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

It’s edgy the way middle schoolers feel edgy sneaking forbidden words into conversation just to see if anyone reacts.

But the real problem is structural: the show insists on picking up the story the very next day after Season 2 and then tries to pivot every major emotional arc as if years of trauma can be reversed overnight. Maggie and Negan’s rivalry has been the backbone of this series; fast tracking their détente feels like watching someone try to yank the wheel of the Titanic after it’s already scraping the iceberg. The emotional mass is too big, the momentum too heavy, and the turn simply isn’t believable.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Logan Kim as Hershel Rhee. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Hershel: From Would Be Assassin to… Something Else Entirely

Hershel’s (Logan Kim) redemption arc is rushed enough to cause altitude sickness. One minute he’s being groomed by the Dama (Lisa Emery) to kill his own mother, and the next he’s apologizing, self reflecting, and “seeing the truth.”

As a Glenn and Maggie loyalist, I appreciate the attempt to bring Hershel back to sanity — but the timing is off, the beats are unearned, and the emotional payoff feels forced.

And let’s be clear: no one is encouraging Hershel to pursue medicine. He’s simply starved for a functional male role model, and Negan — for obvious reasons — is not the guy. So, Hershel gravitates toward Luis, a former ER doctor, because competence and stability are apparently rarer than methane in Dead City. It’s not a calling; it’s survival by proximity.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Aimee Garcia as Renata, Raul Castillo as Luis. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Luis and Renata: Kidnappers, Saviors, and Convenient Plot Devices

Luis (Raul Castillo) and Renata’s (Aimee Garcia) attempted kidnapping of Maggie and Negan is framed like a major plot engine, but the storytelling is so muddled it’s hard to tell what anyone’s actual plan was. We get a wanted poster with their names on it — presumably issued by New Babylon — but the show never connects the dots. Were they trying to capture Negan because he was the Croat’s (Zeljko Ivanek) number two? Deliver him to New Babylon? Act out of desperation? The episode shrugs.

Instead, we get a kidnapping attempt that feels like the writers needed Luis and Renata in the story immediately and chose the fastest, clumsiest method available. It’s the narrative equivalent of shoving puzzle pieces together because you’re tired of looking at the box.

The Croat’s Swan Song

The Croat’s return isn’t a redemption arc — it’s a narrative manipulation. He staggers back into the story bitten, desperate, and suddenly surrounded by people who are supposed to care whether he lives or dies. But the Croat was never redeemable. 

The flashback proves it. Just before murdering Renata and Luis’s brother and uncle, he proudly quotes Negan: “Kill the right person at the right time.” He delivers it with zeal, not conflict, not remorse, but devotion. 

So, when Renata saves him, invoking her Saint Jude necklace (hope, mercy, choosing the light), it feels symbolic but not believable. The Croat isn’t a “desperate cause.” He’s a lost one.

Negan holding the Croat as he dies is the real emotional beat — not because the Croat deserves sympathy, but because Negan is watching the last vestige of his old, monstrous self die in his arms. It’s symbolic, powerful, and just a bit too engineered.

Mason the Bartending Urban Farmer

Mason Dillard (Jimmie Simpson) is the best addition to the cast in ages — funny, grounded, and pleasant, which is practically unheard of in TWDU. His explanation of the building’s grotesque three-tiered food chain (dead bodies → maggots → frogs → turkeys) is the smartest world building in the episode.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Jimmi Simpson as Mason. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

And yes, this is where the “Trillium” title actually lands: a triadic ecosystem mirroring the trillium flower’s three-part structure. It’s clever, understated, and the only metaphor in the episode that isn’t spelled out in dialogue.

Renata and Maggie: A Meeting of the Matriarchs

One of the episode’s strongest beats is the mutual recognition between Maggie and Renata — two capable, battle tested women acknowledging each other’s leadership without territorial posturing. It’s refreshing.

But Maggie dangling the Bricks in front of Renata like a realtor pitching a fixer upper? Please. Maggie is not leaving New York. She’s already emotionally rooted in the city, and she seems far too pleased to tell Negan she and Hershel “won’t be going far” after he says, “If you ever need me, you know where to find me.”

Yuk! The semi romantic undertones need to be buried deeper than the Croat.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Maggie and Negan: The Show’s Most Uncomfortable Almost Something

The writers keep nudging Maggie and Negan toward emotional intimacy like they’re trying to manifest a ship no one asked for. Maggie’s “I need you” and Negan’s admission that this is why he stayed are the kind of beats that make longtime fans tilt their heads and squint.

Look — burying the naked hate between Maggie and Negan is fine. They’ve earned a détente. They’ve earned a ceasefire. They’ve even earned a grudging respect. But making them friends? That’s foreign. Implausible. And a betrayal of the emotional architecture the show spent years building.

They can bury hate, but they can’t bury history.

A 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score? Let’s Not Get Carried Away

“Trillium” has moments of genuine promise — Mason’s twisted food chain metaphor, Renata and Maggie’s matriarch to matriarch recognition, and the symbolic death of “Old Negan.” But overall, this premiere feels more like filler than thriller. The pacing is rushed, the emotional beats are mistimed, and several character choices feel engineered rather than earned.

Rotten Tomatoes may be handing out 100% scores, but “Trillium” plays more like a narrative reset than a season launch. Its real purpose is clearing the board so the Dama can step fully into her role as the season’s central villain. Her final line — “Every empire starts with the broken. Our work is just beginning.” — is the clearest signal of where the story is headed.

“Trillium” – THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, Pictured: Lauren Cohan as Maggie, Aimee Garcia as Renata. Photo Credit: Robert Clark/AMC © 2026 AMC Global Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

A shaky start, but with Renata, Luis, and Mason — three genuinely nice, peaceful, funny people (a TWDU rarity so extreme it feels like stumbling on a walker who apologizes for the inconvenience) there’s hope this season might find its footing.

Overall Score: 7/10

Do you agree that there’s hope? Do Maggie and Negan have a future in New York — and what does that future even look like? Let me know in the comments.