Daryl Dixon Season 2 Episode 1 Recap

What made the first season special? The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (also known as The Walking Dead: Study Abroad) It was so refreshing how it immediately stood out from the previous series. After over a decade of watching an ever-changing group of survivors wander the American South, periodically trying to reboot society while battling zombies and increasingly interchangeable human threats, it felt great to just remember one new place to go, with mostly new characters and new dangers and new story and even a new language.

One of us has need to see how Daryl’s journey continues? No. But he was a surprisingly reliable protagonist, a sort of enigmatic Old West cowboy type who makes friends in a new town and considers giving up his loner life. Watching Daryl bond with characters like Isabelle and her nephew Laurent makes it clear why he would have a hard time returning to America and the Commonwealth. Finally, I I don’t want him there again. I enjoy the change of scenery too much.

But “La gentillesse des étrangers,” which translates to “The Kindness of Strangers,” actually spends more time in America than any other episode of the series to date, including the flashback-heavy episode that showed us how Daryl ended up in France. That’s because we’re no longer just watching The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. We watch the awkwardly titled film The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carolwhich promises to reunite a fan-favorite friendship from the original series. In our brief glimpse of Carol at the end of season one, she had tracked Daryl to Freeport, Maine, where he was initially captured and sold to French sailors as food for the hikers they were transporting. Different than in The ones who livethat reunited Rick and Michonne very quickly, an ocean still separates our two main characters.

So it’s somewhat understandable that Daryl takes a bit of a backseat in this season’s premiere, even though the series is named after him. And there’s still promising material in its few scenes. Two weeks have passed since his group arrived at the nest, and he is still in the same state of mind, torn between caring for his new surrogate family and finding his way back to the old one. In fact, given the mixed signals he receives from Losang, the leader of the Union of Hope, he leans more towards the latter option.

Losang’s conscious decision-making and pragmatism make him a compelling foil for the trigger-happy Daryl, whose intensive walker-killing training program differs from Losang’s more ambitious plans for Laurent’s training. Now, I can’t count how many times in this franchise we’ve seen seemingly benevolent, pragmatic leaders turn out to be evil or completely misguided, so I’m willing to view Losang with some suspicion, especially considering the discussion surrounding it a mysterious ceremony he has planned for the young potential Messiah. But Joel de la Fuente brings a special energy to the role, helped by the context Azlan (RIP) provided last season. Losang’s best attempts at pacifism will inevitably fail, but he clearly has more up his sleeve than just blind faith, so I look forward to seeing how it all plays out.

When the Nest receives news that three of their own, including Fallou and Sylvies Chéri Emile, have been captured by Pouvoir Du Vivant, Daryl immediately insists on taking part in the rescue. He makes no promises when Losang asks him for some tact; When their planned ambush during a prisoner transfer almost fails due to a bomb not going off, Daryl does the predictable and shoots Madame Genet’s driver himself, pushing the plan forward despite the risk. It pays off, though, and he even nearly kills a creepy cackling Genet before she frustratingly manages to scurry away. (Come on, man. You gotta take that shot fast.)

The Carol half of the story takes up a lot more screen time and the two-hander character study is more reminiscent of the original series. But at the moment it works surprisingly well. From the beginning of the episode, Carol’s sole purpose is to find her old friend, starting with her visit to the body shop where Daryl left his bike. However, these days crossing an ocean is a difficult task, and when she sees a Beechcraft flying overhead, it’s like a sign from God.

The plane belongs to Ash (Manish Dayal), a reserved and hyper-vigilant man who has everything he needs in his beautiful, fenced-in compound, complete with tripwires and traps. Like many idiots, he falls for Carol’s “I need help!” routine, even though she doesn’t necessarily intend to murder the guy for his plane. (I don’t doubt she would if she had to, though.) She accepts his offer and spends the night in his barn, leading to one of two direct flashbacks too soon The walking deadwhen Carol relied on Daryl after the disappearance and death of her daughter Sophia. The image of Sophia stepping out of the barn is iconic and powerful enough that I didn’t need to spell it out so clearly here – even the shot of Ash opening the barn doors with Carol’s reaction would have done the trick – but I’ll take it It has been almost 13 years since this episode aired, and some viewers may not know or remember the full context.

Almost every time Daryl or Carol say the word “friend,” you get the sense that they’re thinking of each other, and this premiere really highlights how much Carol longs to be that close to someone again. Surely she makes a stupid mistake as she heads straight for the now unlocked greenhouse when the generator fails and doesn’t stop to make sure there are no walkers in the area, attracted by the sound of Ash’s plane. But she explains that she did it because she wanted to get to know her host better. And while grief and trauma are a constant in this world, the peaceful location of Ash’s son Avi’s grave reveals a lot about the man to Carol.

Ash gradually talks about Avi, who died at the age of seven (five years younger than Sophia). Just a month after his death, Ash found the plane, cementing the philosophy by which he lives his life these days: “If you don’t move forward, you die.” If he hadn’t forced himself to get out of his grief spiral, he would have found nothing to live for, a way to fly to heaven and leave all the horror behind for a while. It’s basically the same lesson that Losang taught Azlan with the pocket watch.

I spent much of this episode preparing for Ash’s death, or at least for Carol to do something terrible like steal the plane that symbolized hope for him after losing a child. But “La gentillesse” takes a different approach – similarly cynical, but less predictable and riskier. Ash supposedly agreed to help Carol with her broken car, but she ends up manipulating him into offering to fly her to Europe by making up a lie that her ex-husband Ed took Sophia to visit his aunt in France to visit right before everything was done shit. Carol plays this quite impressively and begins by deciding not to continue telling her own story of grief after learning about Avi. She doesn’t push Ash when he’s already angry at her for lying, and she doesn’t allow the true nature of those lies to come to light. She assumes that he feels pity for a new friend, a virtual stranger who has experienced similar terrible pain as he has.

It’s disturbing to see Carol make up for her loss just to get what she wants, especially because I remain convinced that this man will be dead by the end of the season, if not the end of the second episode will be. But it’s fertile dramatic territory for the show, and Ash is a solid new friend and scene partner, as is Izzy for Daryl. It should be painful (in a good way) watching this story unfold and waiting for Ash to learn that he gave up his entire life just for a woman in search of her mate. You can already see Carol’s guilt on his face whenever he expresses his excitement and asks questions about today’s Sophia.

Perhaps this premiere is a bit disjointed in terms of the back and forth between the protagonists and lacks the purposeful dynamic of the first season. It is true that, in general, the quicker Carol arrives in France and integrates into the world Daryl Dixon – in contrast to the world of The walking dead – the better. But as a reintroduction of a beloved character and a rich friendship dynamic, “La gentillesse” hits the spot. For an episode so focused on America, this season is off to a pretty good start.

• Bienvenue! I’m your new recapper. How many (most?) Walking dead Fans, I have a very mixed relationship with this franchise, but I think this spin-off is a real breath of fresh air, even if it’s nothing groundbreaking. I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you!

• You might recognize Manish Dayal from him 90210 on The CW or, more recently, his starring role on The resident. For me he will always be Ryan, Joe’s protégé from the third season of Stop and catch fire. If you know it, you know it.

• No sign of Stéphane Codron yet and it remains to be seen whether his quest for revenge against Daryl for his brother’s murder is still active. If so, he really should have done it when he had the chance.

• I love the shot of the walker through the smudged glass in the background as Carol looks at Avi’s grave.

• Apparently my favorite kill of the episode is Carol shoving the runner into a propeller, especially because of that wonderfully disgusting stutter Squelch. Great sound editing.

• The ethanol explosion seems to be a problem, but hopefully it won’t extend the trip too much.