Aahana Swrup
In season 3 of ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City,’ Renata is introduced as Manhattan’s last flicker of hope. The young woman is the leader of a small group of survivors in the city. Despite her hatred toward the Croat, who is responsible for her family’s death and suffering, she decides to give him a second chance for her unborn niece’s future. This instance of goodwill and integrity inspires Maggie to join forces with Renata and work towards founding a new society in Manhattan.
Thus, with the latter as the leader, the two set out to create the Haven. However, as the season nears its end, Renata enters into a feud with Negan over the latter’s decision to execute those he deems dangerous for the community’s future with no judge or jury. This enmity brings the two to the edge of a showdown outside Dillard’s bar. However, as it turns out, Negan isn’t the real threat Renata needs to be wary of. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dillard’s Coup Begins With Renata’s Death
Despite beginning the season as his new best friend, Negan manages to make an enemy out of Dillard by the end. It all begins with the accidental death of ̃Cockenspiel, one of the walkers the bar-owner keeps around as a part of his eccentric social group. While that death had been accidental, the former leader of the Saviors pushes his luck by intentionally shooting Titicaca down in front of Dillard during a fit of rage. Before Negan’s arrival, the ex-cop had no one but these very walkers to keep him company in the end of the world. As a result, their executions end up pushing them off the edge. In the aftermath, he becomes revenge-driven to the point where he slashes his own face in an attempt to frame his new enemy.
Dillard convinces Renata that Negan really is a threat to the newborn society she and Maggie are trying to build. As such, he gets to march the Death Squad up to the doors of the bar with the promise of taking Negan in either dead or alive. However, unfortunately for him, the Haven’s leader ends up changing her mind. So far, Renata has been led by her fear to take up arms against someone she considers to be dangerous. She had let the situation get the best of her, refusing to listen to Maggie and instead paying attention to Dillard, who feeds into her fears. Yet, when she’s facing the reality of executing a man for the supposed law of the land, she realizes that this isn’t the kind of new society she wants to foster.
As such, Renata attempts to call off the attack entirely. Nonetheless, that doesn’t align with Dillard’s agenda. For the same reason, he ends up stabbing the leader to her death so that he can step into the newfound power vacuum. He inspires the members of the Death Squad to abandon ideas of a civilized society and simply plunder the Haven’s resources for themselves. This forces them to share his desire to want Negan and Maggie dead. Thus, it cements Dillard into a position of power, even if it’s only momentary. Afterward, the posse takes Luis hostage, returning to the apartment where they regroup and set a trap for their enemies.
Dillard brings Renata’s dead body with him with one clear goal in mind. Once the zombifying virus sets in, he begins working on turning the former leader’s walking corpse into one of his friendly deadies. He straps Renata down on an operating table and proceeds to defang and declaw her. He also ensures that Luis is a witness to this operation, promising to deliver him to the same fate if Maggie and Negan fail to save his life in time. Eventually, once the duo’s retaliatory attack sets into motion, the doctor returns for his sister’s zombified corpse. In the end, Luis brains Renata, finally putting her body to rest. Once Dillard’s coup has been neutralized and Maggie overtakes the Haven again as the new leader, they paint a mural in Renata’s memory, immortalizing her as the foundation of the community.
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