Watch Negan and Maggie Meet in an Alternate Reality NYC in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’

The long-running adversarial dynamic between survivor Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the backbone of AMC’s spinoff The Walking Dead: Dead City. But what happens when you take these two characters and remove their tragic history with each other? If Negan hadn’t killed Maggie’s husband Glenn (Steven Yeun), would they feel differently about each other now? And what about if they never had a zombie apocalypse to contend with? Who would they be as people? To each other?

It’s an interesting thought experiment, and the concept behind Season 3’s sixth episode, “Genesis.” Set in an alternate reality of present-day New York City, in a world where the zombie outbreak never occurred, Maggie and Negan don’t know each other — yet. But could there be a friendship forming between them? We’re about to find out, as you can see in TV Insider’s exclusive sneak peek of the August 30 episode.

In last week’s episode, “Imperialis,” Maggie and Negan have a bonding moment at new friend Dillard’s (Jimmi Simpson) bar. “I’ve never seen you cut loose before,” Negan tells her. “Is this what you used to be like before all this s**t went down? I think that we would’ve been friends in another life.”

In the clip above, we see alt-Maggie encounter alt-Negan for the first time in a New York diner as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” plays in the background. She’s just taken a call from someone named Danny, who she doesn’t sound thrilled to be hearing from (a scorned lover, perhaps?), and Negan strikes up a conversation with her. “Georgia?” he asks, later telling her, “I spent some time there a few years ago. Loved it. One of my all-time favorite places and accents.”

Is he flirting? They shake hands. He calls her Margaret. Things feel both hauntingly similar and wildly different for the two of them.

Emily Kinney, who played Maggie’s sister Beth Greene is also set to return in this episode, marking her first time back in The Walking Dead Universe since Beth was killed off in Season 5’s 2014 midseason ender.

Check out the exclusive clip above to see the whole Maggie-Negan scene unfold.

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