Lauren Cohan & Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Alt-Reality Episode of ‘Dead City’: Are They Flirting? (Exclusive)

If you haven’t seen The Walking Dead: Dead City‘s August 30 episode “Genesis,” there’s no turning back now. Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 Episode 6!

Season 3 of the New York-based Dead spinoff has explored the relationship — dare we say, friendship? — between survivors Maggie and Negan (Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) all season long. The series, in general, has always tested the boundaries between these two once-enemies, who seemingly always need each other, but rarely ever get along. In last week’s episode, Negan even told Maggie that “in another life,” he thinks they would have been friends.

With “Genesis,” we get a glimpse of what that could look like. TV Insider welcomed Cohan and Morgan into our studio to talk about shooting the episode where Maggie and Negan…flirt. When showrunner Seth Hoffman pitched this episode, recalls Cohan, he told them, “Every episode of The Walking Dead has to have horror, and this one will be horrifying,” noting the will-they won’t-they feeling throughout the installment.

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“Negan’s flirty, I think that’s kind of his deal,” admits Morgan. “Although [Maggie] was receptive to the flirting.”

“When you do a show for however many years we’ve done it, and to do something completely out of the norm, that’s never been done on this show before, was really fun,” Morgan continues. “It’s a long, arduous season. When we did this, we actually came to New York [the series primarily films in New Jersey and Massachusetts], which was really fun to shoot exterior New York stuff. And it was just a blast.”

“It was so much fun to shoot this episode with you,” adds Cohan, to Morgan. “When you’re locked in with how you need to see someone, as Maggie has been towards [Negan]…you close off your mind to so many colors, and both as actors and as characters, it was like [mimics mind being blown], ‘OK, you’re living fully.’”

And live they did! Alt Maggie and Negan went to a fancy restaurant, ate street nuts, visited a fortune teller, and even went to batting cages. That last one was particularly fun for the duo, and Morgan was “really good,” Cohan says.

Morgan adds with a laugh: “I was a little pissed that we edited it in a way that you couldn’t tell that I hit every f**king ball out of the park.” All that time with Lucille must’ve paid off.

This episode also welcomed back Emily Kinney as Maggie’s little sister, Beth, who died in the flagship’s fifth season. (Kinney also spoke to us about her participation in the episode and returning to the world of Dead.)

With only two episodes left in Season 3, we’re also looking forward to returning back to Dead City‘s reality and seeing what comes next, especially now that Renata (Aimee Garcia) is gunning to take down Negan for murdering Fabian (Michael Emery). “I’ll say this, Negan doesn’t trust Renata. From the jump, he knows who should be in charge,” Morgan says, pointing to Cohan, “and he tells her multiple times. He’s not real good at being subtle.” No kidding.

Check out TV Insider’s video interview above for more on “Genesis” and what’s to come.

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