With one episode left to go, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon finally reveals details on how Daryl Dixon got to France. He’s imprisoned twice, once in the past and now in the present, which makes for some unpleasant juxtaposition. His journey home is also detoured from the detour. I will need an America-bound ship or a Daryl Dixon season two announcement ASAP. Oh, and there are super-zombies now. I don’t want to talk about it. (Unfortunately, I have to.) Allons-y!
Beginning with how it began, the flashback opens with Daryl en route to the Commonwealth. He has all of his favorite things on him: crossbow, poncho, vest, and motorbike. But what he doesn’t have is fuel, so when a man stops him offering work, Daryl takes him up. He takes him to an abandoned body shop with others trying to get back on the road. The task is simple: Bring back tall, able-bodied zombies in exchange for ethanol. The fresher the zombie, the more you get. No children, elderly, or “shorties†allowed. We later learn that he’s in Maine. You could have fooled me with the various accents on display, but I’ll allow it.
He bonds with a young man named TJ (Martin Martinez), who dreams of running away with “his girl†to California, where he hears things are better. Now if that isn’t the most American thing I’ve ever heard! This kid was ripped from the pages of The Grapes of Wrath. TJ is from a few miles up the road near Freeport, the L.L. Bean Capital of the World, so I’m guessing the body shop is in Portland. But he’s not making it to the Golden State. Another member of the group named Juno murders TJ for fuel. It’s actually a nice little bit of dramatic storytelling. Juno tells TJ he’ll let him tag along on a hunt if he chops more firewood. Daryl teaches TJ how to chop wood more efficiently and that gets him killed. No good deed goes unpunished.
Daryl punches Juno, which leads management to put both men on a freighter ship headed across the Atlantic. (There were very strict rules against fighting, stealing, and “sexual deviancy of any kind.â€) They soon realize that they are not prisoners but actually food for the hoards of zombies on board. The two team up and stage a prison break, but the other man gets bit just as they reach the lifeboats. Daryl jumps, et voila! That’s how he washed up on the shore.
This is more or less what I expected from the three to five words Daryl used to explain how he came to France in previous episodes. But there is one key element of the Maine flashback that I’m leaving out. There’s a radio at Daryl’s new gig, and he’s able to place a call to none other than Carol Peletier, his bestie (special guest star Melissa McBride), who has some interesting information. Someone “came back,†she says before they get cut off. Who came back? Rick and Michonne? Now we know there is some urgency to Daryl’s desire to go home that we weren’t previously aware of.
Back in the present, Daryl makes his way north with Laurent and Azlan on the river towards the Nest. The day or so that passes is probably the most peace that Daryl has had since arriving in France. He teaches Laurent how to fish and tells him about his friends back in America. They talk about faith. “What do you believe in?†Laurent asks. “Pulling my own weight,†Daryl replies, both as an answer and a way to direct the kid’s attention back to his survival lessons. At night, he muses philosophical with Azlan over the campfire. Azlan tells Daryl that when he first arrived at the Nest, the leader Losang gave him a simple task — fixing a broken watch — that brought him out of a depression. One could call that a theme of this spin-off series. How do we keep our demons at bay? A purpose, however big or small.
Things turn sour after zombies attack in the night and Azlan gets bitten. The next morning, Daryl discovers that the kid cut their boat loose. Laurent didn’t want them to reach their destination because that means Daryl goes away. He’s furious and starts screaming. Am I supposed to be worried that he’s emulating his father here? Because I don’t blame him for losing his temper. Even in the zombie apocalypse, there are spoiled kids who haven’t heard “non†once in their life. So he’s in a mood because his aunt and father left him and soon Daryl will too. That’s how the cookie crumbles! They have to take the road now, where Le Guerrier, like … immediately catches up with them. How’d they find them so fast? Back up. Back to Paris.
Isabelle wakes up in a four-poster bed underneath a chandelier. A woman named Marie greets her. She’s in some kind of Parisian palace. Quinn soon appears with forearms out and a tray of food. He’s clearly keeping her here in some kind of Beauty and the Beast fantasy. The difference is that Quinn and Isabelle have a history that makes their situation more complicated. And the fact that she fashions herself a shiv the second he leaves. Isabelle may not be able to kill him, but she’s depressed, not a damsel in distress. She doesn’t sleep with him either, for what it’s worth, despite his attempt to use Monet paintings and the Bible to seduce her.
She almost dies by suicide, sitting in front of a vanity with her makeshift weapon hovering over the scars from a previous attempt. Marie interrupts with fresh eggs and a message from a friend. We don’t see what the note says or who it’s from, but it’s enough for her to agree to go with Quinn to meet with Madame Genet and the Pouvoir de Vivant at a gathering.
Their arrival is interrupted by Anna Valery, the singer at the Demimonde who was with Quinn before Isabelle got coerced back into his life. She’s … jealous, I guess? Or maybe she’s pissed that Quinn would rather court a woman against her will than stay with her. Or maybe she’s the one who messaged Isabelle and betrayed Quinn to help her escape. Either way, she betrayed them to Genet. Like, all of them. Quinn is immediately captured and put in a cell with, you guessed it, Daryl. Laurent is reunited with Isabelle, but Genet explains that she needs the little lad to stand beside her to broker an alliance between the Union de L’Espoir and her people, the Pouvoir de Vivant.
Then things get very, very strange. Madame Genet addresses her people. She talks about a united France free from elitism. Those gathered sing the French national anthem. While this happens, Daryl is led out of his cell and toward a staging area underneath her. He’s clearly getting set up for some kind of zombie fight, but there’s a twist. We finally know what Les Guerrier of the Pouvoir de Vivant has been doing with the undead. They created a substance that gives them rabid and speedy superpowers. Veins popping, the zombie charges at Daryl, who raises an ax like a baseball bat as the episode cuts to black.
While I did get a little tickle out of Les Guerriers shooting a syringe dart into the zombie’s neck from afar, I am not on board with this juiced-up zombie storyline at all. What’s the purpose of this, from a storytelling perspective? Pourquoi?! It’s gross, and I hate it. Plus, The Walking Dead is where I go to escape things like Super-Soldier Serum. Maybe it’s just me. This would not be the first time that the TWD franchise reminds me that it is zombie horror and not just a moody post-apocalyptic character study, to my annoyance.
The episode started with such a beautiful image. We were sailing on the misty water. Everything was quiet, save for the sound of Josephine Baker singing “J’ai Deux Amours†on Azlan’s record player. Why’d it have to end so ugly? It’s as frustrating as Genet’s vague dictator-speak that sounds good while masking the fact that all she’s doing is raising an army of monsters to control the people. She talks of an enemy who wishes to restore the status quo and points at Daryl. My good sœur, he is not the establishment you’re looking to destroy. “Power to the living,†Genet says as she demonstrates her new power to kill. Le sigh. I will never understand the French.
Un Petit Plus
• Loved that little bit of homophobia Daryl witnessed between the Maine guys and TJ about sexual deviancy. Ah, New England. Never change. You think you’ll leave that behind when you cross the Mason-Dixon, but sometimes it’s somehow worse.
• For those of you who didn’t finish The Walking Dead, the friends Daryl listed are a mix of OG and newer characters. You probably know Carol and Judith. RJ is Rick and Michonne’s son. Ezekiel is Carol’s second ex-husband, and Connie is a survivor and FOD (friend of Daryl), played by Lauren Ridloff.
• I hope this series eventually shows the Nest. I’m so curious as to what this haven is like and their plan for Laurent. Azlan, who we learn in this episode is Muslim, said it saved his life — so it’s likely an Interfaith organization. What if Daryl loves it? He might!
• Where is Daryl’s vest now? Anybody got eyes on it? He lost and regained it in the flashback, but I haven’t seen it since.
• Romantics feel free to analyze the lyrics of “J’ai Deux Amours,†or “I Have Two Loves,†the song from which the episode draws its title. I’m too stressed about the super-zombies.