‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’: Logan Kim on Hershel’s Relationship With the Dama, Shooting at [Spoiler]

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2, Episode 3 “Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?”]

Uh oh. Has Hershel Rhee (Logan Kim) been brainwashed into helping the Dama (Lisa Emery) build her brave new world? And what does that mean for his strong-willed mother, Maggie (Lauren Cohan)? By the end of the third episode of The Walking Dead spinoff, it seemed clear that young Hershel had drank the Dama’s Kool-Aid — or maybe eaten too much of her peanut brittle — and has decided to help her bring her twisted vision of a revitalized New York City to life.

Below, we caught up with The Walking Dead: Dead City‘s Logan Kim to talk about what’s going on in Hershel’s mind and what lies ahead.

How would you describe Hershel’s feelings when he first meets the Dama in the flashback seen at the beginning of the episode? What is he thinking?

Logan Kim: Well, I think he’s been tormented so long by the Croat [Željko Ivanek] at that point — he’s just in despair. And so, when somebody comes up and offers him a helping hand, or in this case some peanut brittle, he sees that as a sign of kindness. He’s still obviously a bit distrustful, but he gets more vulnerable [with the Dama] and opens up a little bit more himself.

Later, we see that she’s working to drive a wedge between Hershel and Maggie. Do you think that she is successful in her mission? Or does it just rattle him?

I think he’s got a lot of conflicting emotions. On one hand, the Dama is very convincing and she’s very manipulative. Everything she says sounds really great on paper. But in practice, he realizes he’s hurting his mom [and] the people he does care about. And so, I don’t think he has a side that he necessarily wants to choose over the other [between the Dama and his mother]… eventually, he does [choose], though.

Present day, in this episode, he is trekking into Manhattan with Maggie. I love the scenes between them because they’re always so loaded. There’s always big feelings in the room with these two. How would you describe how he’s feeling about Maggie this season after getting her back?

I think they’ve talked quite a bit and I feel like there’s been some connecting ever since we saw the initial rescue. [But] I think Maggie’s been trying to listen to him more and really hear him out and try to do what he wants. She doesn’t do it perfectly, but, you know, he doesn’t do things perfectly either. I think Hershel sees that she’s trying and they’re in a better place than they were, for sure.

What was it like filming this episode’s scenes where Hershel gets separated from Maggie and the group in the grass?

It was so claustrophobic. [Laughs] We had the set on a creek, or like a marsh, and there were wooden pallets we were standing on. It was so amazing filming and running through the tall grass because it felt like you were really running from zombies. It was a really great time.

Robert Clark/AMC

And that scene, as well as the flashback where the Dama rescues Hershel in the hallway — those were your first major walker moments onscreen since joining TWDU, right?

Those were my big walker encounters, yeah. The very first that I did was those ones with the Dama and I actually got to do a little fight scene. That was my first time killing a walker, and I thought that was so much fun and it really looks great on screen. [The actors playing the walkers are] so convincing, so when they’re in their face, you really want to push ’em away, so it helps. [Laughs]

Let’s talk about the Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) of it all. Hershel is saved by Negan in this episode, but the face that Hershel makes when he sees Negan and it registers that this guy he hates has saved him — Hershel’s just so angry in that moment. Hershel likes to say that he doesn’t care about Negan, that he’s Maggie’s problem, but from seeing that face, it’s clear there’s a lot of unresolved feelings for Hershel, too.

I think that Hershel kind of constantly thinks about Negan, because he knows that he’s the only thing that’s really in between his relationship with Maggie. And [he thinks that] if he was gone, then all these other problems would be somehow resolved. Hershel sees Negan as the biggest threat in his life. He has got this malice towards him — he wants to kill him at all costs, basically.

If Hershel was to see the Dama again, do you think that he might be torn between siding with her or with Maggie? Or do you think that the decision is clear for him?

I think that it’s interesting to bring up. He would definitely be torn, and I think it would be a hard decision, for sure. Maggie’s been [putting] a lot of effort into her relationship with him, and he sees that.

What is it about the Dama that you think he’s drawn to?

She’s so gentle and she really listens to what he has to say. She teaches him things that he never thought about, speaks to him through his artistic forms, and talks about history and all that. And I think he really [puts] a high value on art in his life, and so that really gets to him. But I guess it’s just the way she is with him that’s so alluring.

Related

'The Walking Dead: Dead City': Gaius Charles, Dascha Polanco, Kim Coates Preview Season 2 Battle (Exclusive)

Are you artistic at all? When you have those drawings in front of you on set, are you contributing to them at all, or filling in the lines?

No, I am a horrible artist. I’ve tried, I really did. [And then] I was like, “Man, I suck at this.” [Laughs] I like music though. I play the guitar.

Well, the Dama would probably approve of that, depending on your choice in musicians. 

I’d play metal for the Dama. She’d love some Metallica, I think.

Near the end of the episode, she approaches him and starts asking all these questions, like “what if there was the potential for reinvention?” What do you think this is doing in Hershel’s mind?

I think that he sees the vision that she has, and I think that she’s got a little bit more of a darker side of that vision that he doesn’t realize yet. But he’s drawn to it, and he wants to see something great, and he wants to see the great, big, beautiful city as it once was. And so, that’s very tempting to him. She does definitely manipulate him successfully, and he wants to help her.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Sundays, 9/8c, AMC and AMC+