Summary
Daryl Dixon’s second season is far from perfect and raises some worrying questions, but the depth of Carol’s character at this point could still yield great results down the line.
Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is subtitled The Book of Carol. I don’t like that for several reasons – “Book Of” sounds silly, “Carol” is far too normal a name for anyone to want a book about it, etc. – but I do like its implications. The first season kept Carol’s minimal involvement something of a surprise, but Episode 1 of this new outing, “La Gentillesse des Étrangers” (which translates to “The Kindness of Strangers”), makes it clear that she’s back for more than just a cameo.
On the one hand, that’s good. Daryl and Carol’s relationship is one of the best in The Walking Dead’s storied and wavering history, and it’ll be nice to continue to develop it in new surroundings. But on the other hand, it’s my job to complain about things, and this premiere did leave me with some reservations.
I’m Not So Sure About Carol
It is no secret that Carol’s arc in this show is about dealing with unresolved trauma, a lot of it seemingly relating to the death of her daughter, Sophia, which occurred way back in Season 2 of the main show in the all-timer episode, “Pretty Much Dead Already” (otherwise known as “Shane Opens the Barn”.)
Sophia’s death was sad and formative, but it happened in the second season of a show that ran for eleven. Since then, Carol has had plenty of time to be reminded of it. She has raised several children across multiple communities, suffered even more losses, and lived in the closest approximation of normality that anyone managed to build in the post-apocalypse. She has grieved and, to some extent, healed. So why are we doing this again?
Look, I’m not trying to be too negative out of the gate, but making this all about Sophia, and having Carol be randomly reminded of her death so far removed from it, just strikes me as a little odd. It feels like an excuse to justify Carol being here rather than a logical outgrowth of her story as we left it at the end of Season 11.
Leadership Dispute
Speaking of the stories we left behind, Episode 1 of Daryl Dixon Season 2 picks up from the first season finale, which saw Daryl abandon his mission of returning home in favor of looking after Laurent, training him to better be able to fulfill his rather nebulous destiny as the prophesized savior of mankind.
Daryl and Laurent are hiding out in the Nest, but the inaction of its pacifistic leader, Losang, is making Daryl restless. Genet is still on their tail, and in a bid to find the Nest she has snatched up Fallou, Emile, and some other members of L’Union in Paris. Daryl’s used to a certain way of doing things, and one of those things would be rescuing his captured comrades posthaste. Losang, though, is happy to sit on his hands and worries about whether the self-defense training Daryl is giving Laurent might be detrimental to the boy’s sense of empathy.
The nitpick train is coming into the station again, but I hate leaders like this in post-apocalyptic shows. Idealism never gets anyone far, and Losang’s being disingenuous about his intentions. This makes it doubly galling when Daryl starts to fall for it, especially when his off-brand hesitancy allows Genet to avoid being killed.
‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ | Image via AMC
Rescue Mission
Losang’s reticence does annoyingly give Daryl and co. an advantage. Losang’s people discover that Genet is due to transport three of the L’Union captives from one base to another, and catching her in transit is the best chance to free Fallou and Emile.
Daryl insists on going along, of course, and his expertise are useful in a crisis, which the rescue effort turns out to be. But the chance he gets to take out Genet isn’t seized, which is pretty irritating.
The minor annoyances do seem to be mounting up in this show.
Splitting the Difference
Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 1 is divided up somewhat unevenly between Daryl and Carol, with the latter still retracing his steps through the U.S. Her journey takes her to a bunch of goons, one of whom she shoots with Daryl’s crossbow, and eventually to a man she spots who, fortuitously, has a working plane just when she needs to get to France.
This man’s name is Ash, and his story is a mirror of Carol’s own, in a way. He lost his son and has built a shrine around his grave, which Carol discovers when she goes poking around in the dude’s greenhouse. He’s an example of what happens when you sit in your grief and let it consume you instead of trying to move on from it. He is, in a way, part of the reason why Carol’s pangs of longing for Sophia fall a bit flat. She experienced this stage of the grieving process and moved on from it already.
Carol relates to Ash. The most interesting aspect of this premiere is that she lies to him, though. She cooks up a story about why she needs to go to France that doesn’t mention Daryl but instead pulls on Ash’s heartstrings. She claims Sophia is potentially still alive, having been taken to France by her father to visit a relative. It’s a deeply malicious lie given Ash’s predicament, a way to manipulate him into abandoning the resting place of his child so that she can pretend to save hers. This kind of thing is why Carol resonates as a character. She’s borderline awful.
But Ash falls for it, and Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 1 ends with Carol and Ash setting out on a trip to France in a homemade plane, with several stops necessary along the way for refueling, since the reserves don’t survive the escape. It’s clear that Daryl and Carol won’t be reuniting just yet – perhaps not until the end of the season, setting up a third – but it remains to be seen how the show will capitalize on Carol’s more pronounced involvement.
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