Timeline S3 – SPOILER ALERT
Abandoning the premise hypothesized in the previous season finale, which predicted a massive invasion of Manhattan by New Babylon troops, the third season of the series begins immediately after the end of the previous one, without any time jump.
Having thus averted the danger of a new massive geopolitical war against a large-scale, organized military enemy, we find Maggie and Negan who seem to have buried the hatchet once and for all, forgotten the grudges that have gnawed at them for years, and confident in a brighter and more collaborative future, they decide to forgive each other and move forward together. A repentant Hershel reconnects with his mother, but in the shadows, the Lady is still plotting a new, threatening attack.
Here are the main events of the Third Season of The Walking Dead – Dead City.
PS: the dates of the timeline are approximate but more or less it all happened in those days.
Complete summary table at the bottom of the page.
November 27th, 2025
Maggie is in Central Park burying Ginny when Negan joins her. The two engage in another heated confrontation, but Maggie ultimately apologizes to Negan, begging him to forgive her. They are caught and captured by a pair of siblings, Renata and Luis, who run a hospital in the city.
A huge explosion causes the Croat’s cathedral to collapse, and he is bitten by a walker and dies, while almost all of New Babylon’s troops are wiped out. In the confusion, Hershel, abandoned the Dama and reconsidering his decision, is reunited with his mother.
Meanwhile, Negan befriends a friendly neighbor, Dillard.
December 20th, 2025
Maggie has decided to stay in Manhattan with Hershel, and with the hospital community, she has collaborated on building new defense systems, deploying resources, and establishing a new beginning with the group, while Negan spends his time with Dillard playing video games. Meanwhile, Perlie prepares to leave Manhattan to return to her family in New Babylon. Soon after, the Dama is found and captured.
December 22nd, 2025
Negan kills the Dama, while Maggie and Renata light the torch of the Statue of Liberty to attract new people to the island.
December 23rd, 2025
The next day, hundreds of people arrive on the island, some injured as they belong to two opposing groups that are fighting each other. Maggie, Renata, and Luis welcome all those in need into the hospital, trying to do everything they can to save as many lives as possible but, above all, to heal the rivalry between the two groups.
December 26th, 2025
While the community celebrates the peace reached between the two opposing factions at Dillard’s bar, we discover that he has completely lost his mind. In his head, the dead speak to him as if they were still alive.
January 13th, 2026
In Manhattan, Negan and Renata, with the help of Dillard and Hershel, are busy procuring walkers for fuel, while Maggie and Luis travel outside the city in search of a woman nicknamed the Trader, who is said to possess supplies of all kinds; the reason for this foray off the island is that the hospital is increasingly running low on medicine. Forced to spend a night in the woods, the two meet Gerald, the leader of a religious community based in the forest, who invites them to an evening celebration in honor of the full moon.
January 14th, 2026
The following day, having struck a lucrative deal with the Trader in exchange for the plans for turning walkers into ethanol, Maggie and Luis return to Manhattan with a large supply of medicine. As they reunite with Negan, Renata, and the others, a structural failure in the street causes the building where all the community’s food supplies were stored to collapse. During the breakdown, Maggie loses Glenn’s ring.
January 15th, 2026
After the loss of the food supply, Maggie and Renata hold a meeting to reassure the community and decide to implement a plan to restore and increase electricity availability within hours.
January 17th, 2026
Assembled a team of professionals, the group successfully captures a large group of walkers trapped in the Empire State Building and transports them to the ethanol processing plant. That same day, Negan brutally kills Fabian, who was plotting Maggie’s murder.
Shaken by the elimination of his two “zombified companions,” Dillard completely loses his mind, lashes out at Negan, organizes a team of rebels, and ends up killing Renata. Ultimately, he too is killed and turns into a walker.
Genesis: If the World Had Never Collapsed
The third season of Dead City features an episode structured like a “What If…?” story. For about 50 minutes, the series leaves post-apocalyptic Manhattan behind to plunge the viewer into an alternate reality where the zombie apocalypse never happened.
We are talking about the season’s sixth episode, titled Genesis. It is one of the most unusual, experimental, and moving episodes in the entire The Walking Dead universe, conceived as a genuine narrative departure from the main storyline.
The protagonists lead normal lives, grappling with the everyday problems of modern society. The episode adopts an evocative, almost Christmas-like atmosphere and serves as a narrative device to explore the characters’ deep psychology, showing us who they might have been had the world not collapsed. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that this entire interlude is a mental reflection triggered by a dramatic event in the present (Hershel returning to warn Maggie that Negan has killed Fabian).
The episode’s true major surprise is the return of Emily Kinney as Beth, Maggie’s beloved sister who had tragically died fourteen years earlier in the original series. In this alternate timeline, Beth is alive, in her thirties, and has finally realized her childhood dream: moving to New York to pursue a music career.
In this parallel universe, Glenn Rhee never played a part in Maggie’s life, while her father Hershel and brother Shawn have recently passed away from natural causes.
Maggie’s Dilemma:
Maggie arrives in New York from Georgia, where she is fighting hard to save her family’s historic farm from financial ruin. In addition to her debts, she is going through a painful divorce from a man named Danny. Her struggles are those of an ordinary adult woman: money, paperwork, and the weight of responsibility.
The sisters’ reunion:
Maggie reunites with Beth, who lives in Manhattan and works two jobs to support her music career. Beth welcomes her sister with hot chocolate amidst a stunning, snow-covered New York. During their meeting, Beth tries to convince Maggie to stop sacrificing herself for a farm that no longer has a future, insisting that their father would have wanted her to live her own life. Later, the two sisters meet again at a local venue where Beth is performing.
The chance encounter with Negan:
In this world, Negan is a successful business consultant with a complicated past (having served two years in prison for assaulting a violent man) and a strained relationship with his son, Joshua. Negan runs into Maggie by pure chance before her return flight. Noticing she appears deep in thought about her family situation, he offers her some roasted chestnuts and shares a sincere, lighthearted conversation with her, between complete strangers.
The return to reality:
The episode ends abruptly, shattering the illusion. The door to the alternate reality closes, only to reopen in the present day of the apocalyptic timeline: Hershel enters the room and tells Maggie that Negan has killed Fabian, brutally snapping the narrative back to the tense atmosphere of the post-apocalyptic world.
| Episodes | 8 |
| Days in the Apocalypse | 5596-5647 |
| Key Deceased Characters | Croat, Dama, Renata, Dillard |
Can’t wait for this Sunday morning for s3 ep5 comes out to see what happens next can’t wait for it love it