The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’s Season 2 Finale Review

Notice! SPOILERS ahead for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 finale.The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol has been a solid continuation of the first season, albeit with a more contrived and sometimes confusing story. Season 2 does a lot in six episodes, making the overall flow feel a little rushed. The big moments, like the reunion of Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), arrive with the emotional weight that such scenes deserve. This is largely due to the performances of McBride and Reedus, who, along with a strong supporting cast, elevate their scenes even when the story stumbles.

The biggest stumbling block for Daryl Dixon the second season were the villains. At first, there is only one bad group, the Pouvoir, led by Madame Genet (Anne Charrier). Then there are two when Losang and L’Union show their true colors. Within the span of two episodes, however, Genet and Losang (Joel de la Fuente) are killed, and what remains of their followers unite under the command of Losang’s second-in-command, Jacinta (Nassima Benchicou). It’s all unnecessarily complicated. As a result, these villains weren’t as compelling as they could have been. Fortunately, the whole Pouvoir/L’Union situation is wrapped up by the end of Season 2.

Titled “Au Revoir les Enfants”, which means “Goodbye Children”, Daryl DixonThe season 2 finale is divided into two parts. The first completes Daryl’s main mission – protecting Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), which is achieved by getting him out of France and as far away from Pouvoir/L’Union as possible. The second half of the episode shows Carol and Daryl finding their way home and finally putting to rest the ghosts that haunt them, setting the stage for where the series will go in Season 3.

Mission Accomplished

Laurent Finally Leaves France as Daryl Dixon Makes Way for Season 3

The first half of the Season 2 finale focuses almost exclusively on getting Laurent out of France. It doesn’t take much convincing, but Daryl manages to get Ash (Manish Dayal) to agree to take Laurent to America, again eliciting his sympathy as a father, but being more sincere about it than Carol. In turn, the initial plan is for Carol to fly back with them, as Daryl, unsurprisingly, chooses to be the one left behind, as the plane can only carry three passengers.

This leads to a lovely scene between Daryl and Laurent where they sing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, highlighting how close they’ve become and explaining a big part of Daryl’s arc. He originally wanted to return home, but what he needed was his relationship with Laurent. Accepting responsibility for Laurent, especially after Isabelle’s (Clémence Poésy) death, forced Daryl to become a father figure in ways he never imagined, even more so than caring for Judith. It’s a good look for him, and a side of Daryl Reedus clearly enjoys playing.

We can only hope that Laurent makes it safely to the Commonwealth because at the last minute, in another completely unsurprising move, Carol leaves the plane to help Daryl hold off the Pouvoir/L’Union forces trying to prevent its takeoff. Now it’s up to Ash to not only take Laurent to America, but also to a settlement he’s never been to, where none of the people will have the slightest idea who they are. It is not clear exactly what Undead The show will someday address this, but presumably, there will be some resolution when Carol and Daryl return to the United States.

As for Carol also staying behind, it seems Daryl Dixon finally becoming the show it was initially advertised to be – an adventure for Daryl and Carol, similar to how the others Undead the spinoffs centered on the pairings of Maggie and Negan and Rick and Michonne. This decision, along with what’s left of Pouvoir/L’Union seemingly resolved during the takeoff scene, has cleared the decks and will allow the show to have a fresh start in season three.

Daryl Dixon says goodbye to (most of) his excellent supporting cast

With the departure of Isabelle and Laurent, the rest of the Parisian cast receives departures

In your continued effort to wipe the slate clean, Daryl Dixon also ships out with most of its Parisian supporting cast in the season 2 finale. Isabelle, unfortunately, was killed off in episode 4, and now with Laurent on his way to America, Daryl’s connection to France has diminished. There are still a few characters that round out the series’ supporting cast, but they are all written off in a way that suggests they won’t be returning, at least not anytime soon.

The most obvious characters who won’t be returning are Lukerya Ilyashenko’s Anna and Benchicou’s Jacinta, as they both die in the end. Anna’s death is a shame because her return in Season 2 was a fun addition, and I wouldn’t have been opposed to her appearing again in Season 3. Jacinta’s death, however, is perfectly fine, as the least of L’Union remains the best. However, her suicide raises questions about what happened to Tatiana Gousseff’s Sabine, Genet’s second-in-command. She is not shown being killed, so she could probably reassemble what was left of Pouvoir/L’Union. (Perish the thought.)

The biggest regret among the departing cast is Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney). Although he was never a major player, his presence in the story was always a comfort, and Ebouaney is immensely charming in the role. It is initially presented as if Fallou will join Daryl and Carol on their next adventure, but plans quickly change when he decides to stay in France with Akila (Soraya Hachoumi), a character who only appears in this finale, but it appears she was present. throughout the season. Hopefully this decision means he will stay alive and perhaps appear again in the future.

There is one supporting cast member who remains: Romain Levi’s Codron. In last week’s episode, he was forgiven by Laurent and appeared to make peace with Daryl. He also joins Carol and Daryl as they begin their journey home, but whether he will remain an ally to them is questioned.

Daryl, Carol and Codron face ghosts from the past

All three struggle with their lingering traumas, some more successfully than others

After their time in France, season 2 ends with Carol and Daryl leaving for England. To do this, they enter the Chunnel, an underwater tunnel that connects England and France, with two Scots as guides. The journey is complicated by the abundance of guano (bat poop) found in the tunnel, which in large quantities can cause hallucinations and psychosis.

After stumbling across a group of British soldiers who have clearly been affected by guano, causing them to attack and kill each other, Daryl and company suffer from the same symptoms. This causes Daryl, Carol and Codron to hallucinate the dead that still haunt them, forcing them to understand what they mean. For Codron, this means seeing his brother, who he believed was killed by Daryl but learned in the previous episode was killed by the woman who tricked Daryl in the first episode of the series.

This knowledge clearly weighs on Codron because his brother’s murder was the reason he began hunting Daryl. Upon hallucinating his brother as a zombie, Codron cannot deal with it and again blames Daryl. The two fight, but eventually Codron escapes, leaving his whereabouts unknown.

This twist is weird because it seemed like everything was fine between Daryl and Codron, but I think the guano-induced hallucination really messed him up. Presumably, Codron still lives and will reappear next season, but it seems like the series just needed a way to remove him for a while and leave just Carol and Daryl together.

Speaking of this titular duo, they deal with their ghosts much better. For Daryl, he sees an apparition of Isabelle who encourages him to continue when he is beaten by the Scottish guides. It’s a sweet farewell to a relationship that was so cruelly cut short. Daryl also hallucinates his grandfather’s ghost, which is a nice callback to him visiting his grave in Normandy. Daryl feared dying in France, just like his grandfather, leaving behind the people who depended on him in his country. This fear is put aside, however, and he emerges even more determined to return home.

Carol arguably has the most visceral ghost showdown with her daughter, Sophia. Twice now, Daryl Dixon Season two made it seem like Carol finally put that trauma aside, but now I believe she actually confronted it. While Sophia hallucinates, she is able to remember what her daughter was like in life, seeing her as she was before she became a zombie. Realizing that she could only remember Sophia as “what came out of the barn” It sent Carol into a spiral of sadness again, but now that she is able to remember her daughter, she can also finally let her go.

Both Carol and Daryl let their children go in this episode, fulfilling the episode title, “Au Revoir les Enfants.” Dealing with fatherhood and its many ups and downs has been a major part of both arcs this season, and McBride and Reedus have delivered compelling and moving performances. McBride, in particular, gives her most moving performance yet in this scene. And for all storytelling questions Daryl Dixon the 2nd season had, it’s for cathartic moments like these that I keep watching.

Daryl Dixon Season 2 Zombie Death of the Week

The penultimate episode delivered the kind of zombie kills we’ve been waiting for all season, but the ending doesn’t disappoint either. The death of the zombies themselves in this episode is nothing to write home about, but the fact that they encounter bioluminescent zombies while in the Chunnel is pretty cool. There’s never an explanation for why these zombies glow other than a mention of how some organisms develop bioluminescence.

Scientific facts aside, glowing zombies create an especially creepy atmosphere that only enhances the scenes where the characters are going crazy. It’s a cool effect and kind of thing Undead I should be doing more. Daryl Dixon It included some interesting variants, with the Burners of France and the Swamp Zombies of Greenland, but after a decade in the apocalypse, it’s fun to be surprised by new designs.

Daryl Dixon Season 2 covered a lot of ground, and not always with great success, but it shows a lot of promise for what’s to come in Season 3. We already know that Season 3 will eventually take Daryl and Carol to Spain, but there’s obviously a detour to England first. It will be interesting to see how these two countries dealt with the apocalypse. After all, that was a big part of the intrigue surrounding the series set in France.

Most importantly, Daryl Dixon season 3 will begin with our two main characters already together. Since the original concept of the series was to send Carol and Daryl on their own adventures, it’s nice to have finally reached this point. Furthermore, with the French narrative more or less wrapped up, there could be a new beginning once they reach England. Daryl DixonThe first season benefited greatly from having little resemblance to the previous ones Undead the shows and season three can hopefully make some sense out of this.