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Published Aug 6, 2026, 11:49 AM EDT
Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Author for Collider. He's watched way too many slasher movies over the decades, which makes him an aficionado on all things Halloween and Friday the 13th. Don't ask him to choose between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees because he can't do it. He grew up in the 90s, when Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and TGIF were his life, and still watches them religiously to this day. Larry David is his spirit animal. His love for entertainment spreads to the written word as well. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch professional wrestling and movies.
Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 Episode 2.
On the surface, AMC's The Walking Dead might be a show about walkers, but anyone who has watched it or its spin-offs knows it's really about the survivors who have made it through the end of the world and now must exist in a place where the acceptance of violence is often the only way to stay alive. While the overall franchise has welcomed many different big bads, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is by far the most infamous. These days, he's leading The Walking Dead: Dead City, which also stars his bitter enemy, Maggie (Lauren Cohan). However, in the New York City-set spin-off, neither of them is the villain. Instead, the role has been fulfilled by a character so lifeless, they brought the rest of the series down. Thankfully, Season 3 has just dealt with that villain permanently while also giving Negan some much-needed direction.
The Dama Is the Walking Dead Franchise's Worst Villain
Negan was such a viciously memorable bad guy in The Walking Dead that what he did with his baseball bat, Lucille, resulted in viewers tuning out in droves. Other villains haven't lasted as long, yet were ultimately compelling to watch due to a surprising level of humanity paired with their ruthlessly violent tactics. David Morrissey did a great job of bringing the Governor to life in horrifying fashion while also unexpectedly tugging at the audience's heartstrings. Behind the bad guy was a man named Phillip Blake, pushed over the edge after his wife and daughter died.
Yet in both the original series and its spin-offs The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: Dead City, big bads have become a narrative crutch, with most seasons following a repetitive plot about our heroes taking on a new antagonist before dispatching them at the end. The Walking Dead: Dead City has introduced several villains since its premiere, including the Croat (Željko Ivanek), a follower of Negan's who goes his own way. He was a decent enough antagonist thanks to Ivanek's performance, but he was also limited in what he could do.
After a poorly received second season, Season 3 killed the Croat off, but it wasn't enough, given that the show's main antagonist has been the Dama (Ozark's Lisa Emery). While the series should be commended for making the villain an older woman, it does her a disservice by giving the audience very little of her backstory — beyond the fact that she was once a mean theater critic — and no real reason to care about her. Her character is capable of manipulating others to do her bidding, yet it's never really emphasized why anyone would ever care what she thinks. By devoting so much focus to the Dama's flat characterization, The Walking Dead: Dead City suffered.
The Dama's Murder in 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' Gives Negan a New Direction
With The Walking Dead: Dead City returning for its third season, something drastic needed to be done with the character who was holding the series back the most. There couldn't be another season devoted to the Dama controlling Maggie's son, Hershel (Logan Kim), which in itself felt farfetched and forced as a storyline. However, the spin-off is now dealing with the outcome of that drama in the best way possible. Hershel has realized that the Dama is wrong and has returned to the mother who truly loves him, resetting the show's most powerful relationship.
Season 3 has also devoted more focus to Maggie and Negan meeting new faces, including brother and sister Luis (Raul Castillo) and Renata (Aimee Garcia). Rather than include a twist of them being villains too, Luis and Renata want to create a better world with help from others. The result is Season 3's theme being all about hope, compared to last season's unending hopelessness. In Episode 2, "Haven," hope takes its biggest swing yet with the death of the Dama, which should have occurred a long time ago.
It's not only the Dama's death that changes the series, but how her death occurs. After she refuses to eat, Maggie slips her a knife, and with it a choice. The Dama can either end her own life, or she can live and change. Negan, however, goes against Maggie's wishes, killing the Dama and telling no one about it. While we don't see the act itself, the lead-up shows him enjoying the moment just like he once used to, only for the episode to later reveal the Dama is now a walker in a cage. In one fell swoop — or swing — The Walking Dead: Dead City has changed course. Gone is the villain holding the series back, and Negan's most uncharacteristic storyline with it. Now, the show is finally moving into new territory, even while the threat of the franchise's greatest baddie returning to his old ways looms over everything.
New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 premiere Sundays on AMC.
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