Is Renata dead? ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 3 Episode 7 ending explained as finale nears
‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ returned with the penultimate episode of Season 3 this week. Episode 7, titled ‘Hourglass,’ returns to the present-day timeline after the last episode gave viewers a glimpse of an alternate universe. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is informed that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has maimed Dillard (Jimmi Simpson), but despite Renata's insistence is not keen to believe it. Renata tells her about all the cruelty Negan has committed behind their backs, but Maggie refuses to get on board. It turns out her doubts are justified, as Dillard is soon revealed to be lying. Negan was not the one who hurt Dillard; the bartender did so himself to get revenge. Negan killed two of his walkers, driving Dillard to insanity. Dillard sold Renata (Aimee Garcia) the lie and got her on board to arrest Negan, dead or alive.
Maggie intervenes and asks for a meeting alone with Negan before the authorities follow through with their plans. As Maggie attempts to stop Negan from self-sabotaging, Dillard lays his trap. After realizing that Renata may back out of her decision to arrest Negan, Dillard decides to remove her from the picture. He kills her and brings her brother Luis (Raúl Castillo) to the ground. The former police officer and his crew raid the armory and pantry, disturbing the peace the community has fought so hard to establish. Soon, a gunfight breaks out between Dillard's and Negan's sides. Hershel (Logan Kim) comes to Maggie and Negan's rescue, and the three escape from the bar. However, they are still in danger. Dillard, along with other assailants he befriended over the course of the last few episodes, takes the community hostage. They demand Negan's surrender in exchange for the community's safety.
Maggie is also on Dillard's radar to hurt Negan. "The goal is to make Negan feel pain. Once Negan broke his heart, Renata doesn’t matter. That’s just one more element that Dillard can be like, 'I’ll take that.' I think Dillard had this deep perception on the quality of Maggie and Negan’s actual friendship, even though they’re always like, 'Do I trust you?' He saw that there’s this storied connection that will probably inevitably last forever. And so, it wasn’t anything Maggie did that made Dillard want to kill Maggie. It’s Negan, and he wants to take Maggie away from Negan," Simpson shared with The Collider.
Simpson is excited for the audience to see how his character ends up in next week's season finale. "It’s part of the reason I signed on to do this. I thought it was such a clear articulation of struggle and then homecoming. He would have lived happily ever after in his bar with his walkers. Maybe he would have to change them out as body parts fell. He only has so much tape and glue. It’s this community that accepted him and he finally became part of it. As I spoke to the showrunner about maybe doing the show, it was a pleasure to learn [that his ending] came with a sigh of relief. Truly, the ending is just irreplaceable. It all made sense to me. I was really grateful for that arc to be so thoughtful and complete from the team at Dead City," the actor explained. To find out what happens to Maggie and Negan, tune in to the finale of 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' only on AMC.
