Note: There are spoilers for “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol” Episode 4 below
If you’ve ever wanted to see zombies storm a castle, “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol” just made that dream come true with “La Paradis Pour Toi.” The fourth episode of “Daryl Dixon’s” second season also brought about a long-awaited moment for fans of “The Walking Dead”: Daryl and Carol’s first reunion since their lakeside farewell at the end of the mothership series.
Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s pairing consists of two of the very few characters still surviving from the first season of “The Walking Dead,” and their unshakeable friendship has become an emotional backbone of the franchise in the near-15 years since it launched. Naturally, their reunion was as sweet and emotional as you would hope for two best friends who have been through it all — though, of course, surrounded by bloodshed and horror, as is the “Walking Dead” way.
The third episode ended in dire circumstances, with Daryl imprisoned as Genet’s (Anne Charrier) forces descended on The Hive. The upside? Genet brought Carol along, setting the stage for the long-awaited Daryl/Carol reunion.
“That scene, the reunion, we rewrote that, and writers and director, everyone got together and kept massaging that to a place that we felt was great,” Reedus told TheWrap.
It wasn’t the first scene Reedus and McBride filmed together on the spinoff series — they had previously shot a walk-and-talk due to making the most of locations, but for audiences, this was the big moment. And for Daryl, Carol arrived in his utmost hour of need.
“Daryl’s locked up. He’s made a promise to Isabel. He’s going to take care of this kid. He’s been trying to do all these right things, and get everything done, and fight his way through it, and fight for everybody but himself, really,” Reedus explained. “He’s trapped in a jail cell, and he hears the screams and the cries and the fires and the explosions and the screams of pain and like, he’s failed. Like, he’s at his lowest, lowest point. Everything he’s been working towards, he’s lost, and he gets one second chance, and he’s like, hell-bent, and then boom.”
It’s a pure, heartfelt moment of relief and awe for the character, who rushes into Carol’s arms without hesitation, despite the horrors surrounding them at the Nest.
“It had to be like that,” the actor continued. “It had to be him at his lowest point, and it had to be the one person that he needed to see, that is an impossible situation. He sees it and he’s fighting his way, and he sees her and like, the sound goes off. The world just starts spinning on mute and the only thing that matters is those two people right there.”
The cast and creatives were all acutely aware of the anticipation for the big reunion moment, too, according to Reedus. “People have been waiting for that and talking about it, and we hear all of that, you know, and we just had to — it had to live up to that. It couldn’t just be like, ‘Hey, do you guys know each other?’”
“It had to earn that, because those those two have earned their relationship,” he added. “We’ve watched them over a long period of time earn that relationship. And so when you see them on camera, you know they’ve earned that time on screen together. They’ve earned that conversation. It had to be that good.”
New episodes of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol” debut Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
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