'The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

[This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol.]

The walking dead viewers don't always get what they want. But more often than not, Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier get what they need.

In the season finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of CarolNorman Reedus and Melissa McBride's OG zombie fighters finally escape France, but not exactly as they hoped. Near the top of the hour, the fan-favorite duo was set to split up, as clutch rescue pilot Ash (Manish Dayal) couldn't fit them both on his plane. Daryl decides to stay, even though Carol wants to take his place in the comedy of sacrifice. In the end, they both manage to stay, thanks to the last gasps of the autocratic French army that shows up right before takeoff.

Outgunned, Daryl briefly appears outnumbered until Carol shows up just in time to save his skin. Ash and the perhaps-messiah Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) manage to take flight, charting a course for the Commonwealth and hoping to alert Daryl and Carol's friends to their current whereabouts in Europe. Whether or not that happens is a question to be resolved in another season – or perhaps even in another spin-off.

From there, the remaining moments of the finale focus on Daryl and Carol's next steps, as they try to find a new way home. Their plan to travel to London via the tunnel initially seems like a safe bet, until they end up in an underground encounter with phosphorescent zombies and hallucinogenic bat poop (you read that right). Having survived a fair amount of shitty situations over the years, Daryl and Carol manage to persevere, defeating their respective demons: Carol having to deal with the traumatic loss of her daughter Sophia many years ago, and Daryl having one last chance to say goodbye to the ghost of Isabel (Clémence Poésy).

The season ends with Daryl and Carol continuing down the tunnel to the tune of “You Can't Always Get What You Want”, recalling the episode's opening scene, in which Laurent and Daryl sing the Rolling Stones song together. But it's also a warning to our heroes, even if they can't hear it through the fourth wall: Daryl and Carol's plan to leave France for London won't go exactly as planned. Production is already underway Daryl Dixon third season, currently filming in Spain. How will Daryl and Carol end up down there? Impossible to say now. But the decision to move these characters to another country required very little second-guessing from those responsible for the show.

“We loved the reinvigoration we experienced going to France, and we wanted to continue doing that,” says showrunner and executive producer David Zabel. The Hollywood journalist on the decision to move the venue of the show. “Story-wise, the characters shouldn't calm down. It should be a road show. They have to keep moving [to return home]. At the end of season two, they're going somewhere. We don't know Exactly where, and it's not a direct line to where they're going next. But the idea is to have the characters continue to struggle and strive to get home and move.

“On another level,” he continues, “we can introduce a whole other culture, history, flavor, color, light and architecture. It will be really exciting to reinvent the show. It seemed like all signs pointed to us keeping moving and getting to the next place. In seasons five and six, it might be a different place. They will keep moving until they get home!”

Another country beyond Spain? What's next for Daryl and Carol's survival tour, a trip to Italy?

«I can't tell you, but I Do have a plan,” says Zabel. “I talked to Norman about it. There is a very interesting plan. But we don't even know if we're making season four yet…” (AMC released a teaser for season three after the finale, teasing Daryl and Carol's long journey home.)

Additionally, future plans involving Daryl and Carol may come down to a wild card factor Daryl Dixon hands of the team: the major's whims The walking dead franchising.

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol final.

Stéphanie Branchu/AMC

“I had free rein,” Zabel says. “I speak with [franchise chief creative officer Scott M. Gimple] all the time and he said, “You have carte blanche, at least for now.” Keep doing what you're doing.” But at some point, I guess some things might be determined by what other characters do and where they are. So, I don't know if Negan is [Jeffrey Dean Morgan] I'll get on a raft on the Hudson and finish [in Europe].”

Whatever the future holds, as long as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon continues, it will depend on the progress of Daryl and Carol's relationship. Zabel says, “There is so much they haven't seen and experienced. They're both characters who are [landlocked Americans]and in that way, they're kind of these classic Americans who never got to travel the world. Both had reasons to stay close to home. That was part of what I thought was exciting from the beginning: taking those characters and exposing them to these things that maybe they've seen once in a book, or maybe they've seen a picture, and now they're in the middle of it.

“From the audience's perspective,” he continues, “it's an opportunity to see what the apocalypse looks like in these other parts of the world, and so hopefully the audience can experience the same thing as these characters. It's like, 'Wow, I've only seen the Eiffel Tower in photos, and now I'm standing next to it… and also, there are walkers standing next to it, too.'”

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The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol is now streaming on AMC+. Follow along with THRhere and keep track of all the spin-offs.

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