Two vital questions underpin The Walking Dead: Dead City – why Hershel Rhee has been taken, and why Maggie thinks Negan is necessary for saving him. One of several upcoming The Walking Dead spinoffs, The Walking Dead: Dead City brings back Lauren Cohan as Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. Switching the franchise’s traditional rural backdrops for the sprawling urban gray of New York, The Walking Dead: Dead City begins with Maggie’s son, Hershel, being taken by a mysterious group of villains. This tragic event forces old enemies Maggie and Negan to resume their effective-but-awkward partnership from The Walking Dead season 11. Maggie and Negan’s The Walking Dead spinoff raises two huge questions. The first is why Hershel has been taken. The second mystery is why Maggie deems Negan necessary for her son’s retrieval. These two questions form the foundation of The Walking Dead: Dead City, and although the answers may seem predictable, digging a little deeper into the spinoff’s narrative bedrock suggests something stranger is afoot in the zombie apocalypse.Related: Why Glenn Had To Die On The Walking Dead
Why Has Hershel Been Taken In The Walking Dead: Dead City?
![Why Is Hershel Taken In TWD: Dead City (& Why Can Only Negan Save Him?)](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/lauren-cohan-as-maggie-in-walking-dead.jpg)
Trailers for The Walking Dead: Dead City show a screaming Hershel, now noticeably older, being dragged away kicking and screaming, while Maggie watches helplessly. While territorial squabbles and fights over resources require no explanation in The Walking Dead‘s world, abducting a child is a much stranger offense. Hershel has been kidnaped before, of course, but usually by villainous entities his mother has upset, such as the Commonwealth. Considering The Walking Dead: Dead City takes place in NYC, far, far away from Maggie’s Hilltop community, it seems unlikely that Hershel gets taken because of an existing feud.
Alternatively, Hershel could get swiped by a community desperate to save humanity by bringing as many youngsters as possible under its wing. While that would explain The Walking Dead: Dead City‘s plot, the idea has already been used – twice. Fear The Walking Dead‘s PADRE kidnaped Morgan’s daughter and numerous other children, while the CRM subtly brings together the brightest young minds from outside communities to help devise solutions to the zombie outbreak. As such, Hershel’s captors are unlikely to be stealing kids for a philosophical reason. Of course, the villains keeping Hershel captured might actually be connected to PADRE or the CRM.
The most likely explanation, therefore, is that Hershel’s abductors have a personal connection to Maggie, but are not part of The Walking Dead‘s current landscape. Potentially bridging that gap could be Georgie – the character Maggie worked with while Lauren Cohan took a break from The Walking Dead in season 9. Georgie’s fate has never been properly explained, but if she fell afoul of some baddies in New York, it is possible that Hershel was targeted in order to provoke Maggie personally.
Another potential clue to explain Hershel’s disappearance in The Walking Dead: Dead City can be found at the end of The Walking Dead season 11. After her allies assumed control of the Commonwealth, Maggie decided to learn more about the wider geographical situation, even sending Daryl on a scouting mission. Assuming Maggie did not pin her hopes exclusively upon Daryl Dixon, one of her scouting parties may have upset the locals in New York, prompting them to seize Hershel in revenge – and to ensure any unwanted visitors tread carefully.
Why Is Negan The “Key” To Saving Hershel In The Walking Dead: Dead City?
![Maggie and Negan in The Walking Dead Dead City](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/maggie-and-negan-in-the-walking-dead-dead-city-1.jpg)
Heaping further curiosity onto the matter of Hershel being taken in The Walking Dead: Dead City is the importance of Negan. In a promo trailer for the spinoff, Maggie is heard saying, “You’re the key to getting him back.” Maggie describing Negan as the “key” to Hershel’s rescue implies something far deeper than just needing an extra pair of hands, suggesting the former Walking Dead Savior leader is actually the only person capable of helping Maggie bring her son back alive. The obvious explanation is that Negan’s former experience as a bad guy gives him a unique insight into the psychology of other bad guys.
Unfortunately, The Walking Dead has employed this idea previously no less than three separate times, with Negan using his expertise to help combat the Whisperers, Reapers and Commonwealth. If Maggie turns to Negan because of his villainous past, The Walking Dead would be repeating itself and highlighting exactly why multiple sequel spinoffs were not warranted. There may, however, be a larger reason Maggie relies on Negan’s help. Perhaps Hershel’s kidnapers are disgruntled ex-Saviors, or a group the Saviors previously fought. Negan would, therefore, know them personally, making him invaluable. This might also explain Hershel being grabbed in the first place, with the enemies mistaking him as someone Negan cares about.
The Walking Dead hints toward another potential reason Maggie turns toward Negan for help, rather than Gabriel, Carol, or any of the many survivors she trusts infinitely more. In The Walking Dead season 11, a remorseful Negan promised to let Hershel take revenge for Glenn sometime in the future. Maggie’s mission to rescue her son may be so dangerous, she refuses to ask friends to risk accompanying her. Instead, she asks Negan to lay down his life, as he promised he would, to repay her and Hershel for Glenn’s death. This would certainly explain the unexpected partnership in The Walking Dead: Dead City.