Another grueling day through the maze-like ruins of a country that once was home to life’s sweetest treats—love, music, and poetry. In episode 3 of AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, we at least get to be a part of an eerie homage to a life long gone, comforted by the hope that all of it might be restored to its original form someday. Little Laurent’s “gifts” manifest in conceivable ways as his foul origins come to the surface. But what’s Daryl’s part in all this? Let’s dive right into it all.
Spoilers Ahead
So, we’re going to Paris after all?
Try as she might to take charge, Daryl’s experience walking, fighting, killing, and surviving through the deadly landscapes of the post-apocalyptic world will always give him an upper hand over Isabel. She may know her country better, but Angers was clearly not the right path for them to pursue. Well, at least being treated to the troop of zombies jamming to Bolero was slightly better than running into a horde. Why can’t Daryl, for once in his godforsaken life, get to be just the muscle behind executing a plan? But since complaining doesn’t fall under the list of things Daryl does when other people’s misjudgment doubles his workload, they get on their jolly way to the city of love. It’s not all bad. Traipsing through the graveyard of not just the dead but a whole lot of cryptic symbolism that validates his undying pursuit of something more than mere survival, all Daryl misses is his home. Paris fights with the “Pouvoir des Vivants” against the wrath of the undead. But what about the wrath of Genet and her trusted horde of guerriers?
Are we any closer to the Nest?
Not that we wouldn’t have liked a few more fight sequences between Daryl and people foolish enough to mess with him, but considering just how wholesome Fallou turns out to be, it’s sort of reassuring knowing that not everyone Daryl has a brush with is going to turn out unfriendly. But none of us—not even Daryl and Isabelle—could’ve foreseen Fallou’s comms guy whipping out a darn pigeon to send the message to the Nest. The savior who was foretold by Father Jean is one step closer to fulfilling his grand destiny. And the flicker of hope you get seeing Laurent comforting a grieving widow is exactly what’s driving Isabelle’s mission. Daryl and Isabelle may not be soulmates, but they sure do work their very best when the pressure mounts and keeping their heads cool becomes paramount. Now that it’s time for Isabelle to take a walk down trauma lane to pay Daryl back for all his help, she’s weirdly comfortable diving into the stash of drugs and stolen riches. Drugs for boats? Not exactly something I’d call wicked, considering the circumstances. But being able to hand Lily’s picture to Laurent, who’s over the moon to see his beautiful mother for the first time in his life, was certainly worth ravaging through an acidic horde.
Is Daryl safe?
If you’re getting a whiff of a bias The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon may have towards France, it’s possible that you’re not taking one thing into account. The frenzied America that you’ve seen in The Walking Dead was set in a timeline that took place long before the one in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. So what if Fallou’s group of 64 survivors has set up a rather impressive community overlooking the Eiffel Tower? There’s no reason to assume that the French had it handed to them. It must’ve been a long, arduous way for them to achieve and sustain the life they’re trying to enrich with the finer things the world has to offer. It takes a group of remarkably hopeful warriors to go through what the entire population of the world has gone through and still have enough strength left to believe in a miracle. And what is Laurent if not a miracle?
Born from “a hungry one” and raised by an army of women whose faith didn’t budge even when it went through the harshest possible tests. We know the unforgiving world of The Walking Dead well enough to not argue the theory of divine intervention. And Laurent couldn’t have found a better mother figure than the warrior of a woman with such stern morals that even in a time of acute crisis, she’d prefer not to be indebted to Daryl. Granted, it’s not an easy task to keep your envy in check when you see the French living it up at a functioning nightclub when the world’s gone to hell. But they’ve paid their dues, too. They paid dearly with the catacomb that achingly bears the memories of the Black Death. The French survive. The well-earned passage through it that leads to the glimmers of the nightclub has Daryl spellbound.
Isabelle, on the other hand, had her fill of this life before turning towards the light. It’s undeniably endearing to see just how much innocence has survived in Laurent, even in a world where it’s a grave liability. Credit goes to his upbringing, of course. It’s hard not to be instantly charmed by the little guy embracing everyone who’s kind enough to look at him with a smile. When he charms his way to getting the Eiffel Tower pendant from the singer, Anna, the recurrent patterns get a bit too obvious, and it won’t be wrong to expect the tower to play a bigger role, even if symbolic, in Laurent’s journey. Will he fix the broken tip that groans in pain when the wind blows?
Stranger things have happened. There is, however, a bigger revelation waiting to crawl its way out of whatever dark pit it’s been hiding in. It turns out that being left to fend for himself by Isabelle didn’t do anything to stop Quinn from not just surviving but also attaining enough power to be a big shot in post-apocalyptic Paris.
There’s no way Daryl’s getting his home-bound boat from them now. While I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming, the severe consequences it will have on Laurent now that he knows that Quinn is his real father are not going to help matters at all. There’s nothing stopping Quinn from joining hands with the ones whom he prefers to steer clear of. If it means he gets to exact his sweet revenge on his addict-turned-nun ex, he can easily throw his own son in harm’s way. And if The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 3’s ending is any indication, the guerriers won’t be the only ones after “The American.”
Freshly employed by the formidable Genet, Codron’s dangerously close to avenging his brother’s death. And however much I squealed seeing a glimpse of the old Daryl as he had the man twice his size in a chokehold, my heart did tremble at the thought of what horror awaits him underneath the cracking surface of the ground he stands on. More zombies? Daryl will be fine. But what if the next horde that he finds himself battling is made of the one Genet and her creepy doctor are running wicked experiments on? God help Daryl!
