‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ Season 2 Continues A Run Of Fine Form In Episode 5

I honestly think that Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon might be the biggest surprise of 2024 for me. Just what is going on here? From mixed feelings about the premiere all the way to a real uptick in the third episode, Episode 5, “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir”, continues a real run of form with tense action, surprisingly great writing, and the swaggering confidence of a show that knows what it’s doing.

Look, I’m as surprised as you are. But if AMC needed any justification beyond the financial for continuing to milk this franchise until its teats bleed, then this is it. Daryl – who wasn’t even in the comics! – is becoming a real TV icon, and his namesake show, almost behind everyone’s backs, is becoming one of the best things this universe has ever produced.

Despite Genet having been brutally killed in the previous episode, there are problems on two fronts for Daryl and Carol in “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir”. On the one hand, Ash is useless, but he’s also the only local pilot. On the other, Losang and Jacinta have teamed up with Sabine and the rest of the guerriers to continue pursuing Laurent.

Let’s start with the former.

Ash Is Useless

I’ve said this before, but nothing annoys me more than zombie media set at the very beginning of an outbreak. A close second is characters who have somehow survived deep into a zombie apocalypse without developing any essential skills. Ash fits into this bracket, though luckily we don’t spend much time with him while he blunders his way into a car surrounded by hungry walkers.

This does mean, though, that Carol and Daryl need to rescue him. This means that no sooner have they reunited with Laurent and Fallou at L’Union’s rooftop camp, where Codron has also turned up looking for shelter, they have to leave again to find their pilot. After finding Ash’s previous makeshift hideout empty aside from some intruders impaled on traps, they head back to the Demimonde, which is now being run by Anna following Quinn’s death.

I will happily admit that it’s a run of extremely fortuitous circumstances that someone just so happens to be bringing in cans of fuel that Carol recognizes from Maison Mere, and it’s similarly lucky that the car Ash is trapped in happens to be right outside. But I’m long since done moaning about chance in these shows. Yeah, sure, France is a big place, but we’ve got things to do.

The good luck continues when Daryl and Carol fight their way into the car and there happens to be a case full of Genet’s super-walker concoction in the back. And I have no idea how the super-zombies can somehow instantaneously explode the regular ones, especially since we don’t see it happen, only the blood spatters and then the aftermath. But, again, I’m done complaining, since this sequence is well shot and tense and does something new with a run-of-the-mill zombie threat.

Norman Reedus in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon | Image via AMC

Catacomb Showdown

While this is happening, Losang and Jacinta arrive at L’Union HQ looking for Laurent. Luckily, he was chatting with Codron at the time, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. While Fallou causes a distraction, Codron spirits the kid out of there and takes him to Demimonde, where Daryl has returned to request more fuel for Ash’s plane (yes, another coincidence. What of it?)

Losang and Jacinta aren’t far behind, though, leading to a very cool showdown in the catacombs under Paris. This, I think, is where I felt like Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 5 had really hit its stride. I was invested. Watching Daryl and Codron sneak around and take out the Guerriers, unambiguously shot like a horror movie, was tremendous fun.

This all ends with two confrontations: Codron versus Jacinta, and Daryl versus Losang. Codron takes a knife to the shoulder but throws Jacinta into a wall; Daryl beats Losang to death with a skull. Jacinta is alive – she snaps awake at the end of the episode – and Codron probably should have checked that, but whatever. Score one for the heroes.

Laurent Is Leaving

All throughout “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir” Laurent has toyed with the idea of returning to the U.S. with Daryl. News of Isabelle’s death has made him contemplative, and he’s beginning to suspect that everyone he loves dies. It’s easy to remember that he’s just a kid who has been thrust to the forefront of a very adult world.

After illuminating conversations with both Daryl and Codron, which is where the strength of the writing comes through, Laurent finally decides that he will leave for America after all. But there’s a bit of a problem.

The lies Carol told to Ash in the premiere are coming back to bite her. She’s forced to confess that she was never looking for Sophia in the first place – she was always looking for Daryl and cooked up a story that she knew would make Ash do what she wanted. It was a low move at the time, and Ash highlights just how low it was to use the death of his old child to manipulate him. Whatever half-truths there were in Carol’s story – and, to be clear, there were a few – doesn’t really sugar the pill.

But Ash still seems willing to fly them home, at least in part because he needs to get back himself. There’s a further problem, though. The small plane, even with all that fuel, won’t be able to carry all four of them. Someone is going to have to stay behind. And, unluckily for Ash, I don’t think it’s going to be any of the other three.