Daryl Dixon’s First Season Made Season 2 Messy
AMC originally conceived Daryl Dixon as a Daryl and Carol spinoff before overseas shooting made Melissa McBride’s inclusion “logistically untenable” for her. While a new direction was necessary, season 1 goes a step further by ignoring Daryl’s past almost entirely. Unlike The Ones Who Live, which delves into Rick and Michonne’s feelings about being separated from each other and their family, Daryl Dixon’s first season establishes Daryl’s bond with Laurent and Isabelle in France. Daryl doesn’t do much lamenting about the gang back home. In fact, he barely mentions them. When Laurent asks about the people Daryl left behind, he responds, “There’s Judith. There’s RJ. There’s a lady named Carol.” We all know Daryl’s tight-lipped, but “a lady named Carol” feels like a pretty big brush-off for someone he said “I love you” to just two months prior.
Watching Daryl choose between the people he just met in France and returning to his found family in the US is painful. The Daryl we know wouldn’t hesitate to return home. Yet, the big choice season 1 desperately pushes for doesn’t matter anyway. Once Daryl and Carol reunite, The Book of Carol kills off Isabelle, making Daryl’s “choice” a whole lot easier. Maybe the series didn’t want to steer into soap opera territory, but it sends a bizarre message nonetheless: Why can’t two women occupy space in Daryl’s life at the same time? The write-off feels like an all too convenient way of pushing Carol and Daryl back into the spotlight, but then, what was the point of season 1? Watching Daryl play reluctant guardian once again didn’t do much in terms of character development. Judith and RJ still exist, after all.
The Book of Carol Sends Mixed Messages
The Book of Carol includes plenty of Caryl moments that aren’t just fantasies of hopeful shippers. The fact that Daryl never returns Isabelle’s “I love you” after telling Carol that he loved her in TWD’s finale practically begs audiences to question his feelings for Carol. Strangers compare them to an “old married couple” and hint at the spark between them. When you toss in the playful banter, the hugging, and all those looks, you get something that feels a lot like romantic foreshadowing. If Zabel is so against romance, why bother including these moments at all? Yes, straight men and women friendships lack representation in entertainment, but the solution to that isn’t depicting a relationship wobbling on the edge of romance. That’s not authentic, either. In fact, it’s harmful.
The best will they/won’t they relationships work because, at some point, the “will they” becomes “they want to, they just haven’t.” This is where Carol and Daryl drip with slow burn potential. Taking the romance route suggests feeling realizations are underway. However, following Zabel’s path of friendship, ironically, makes things a lot more complicated if the spinoff keeps dolling out interactions like this.