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The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – L’âme Perdue
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By: Kelly Kearney
“The Walking Dead” franchise continues as it follows one of the original series’ most beloved characters – Daryl Dixon. The Highly anticipated spinoff manages to stand out amongst the pack of new offerings – The New York City adventure “Dead City,” the long-running “Fear the Walking Dead,” and the teen angsty drama, “World Beyond,” by keeping zombie fans engaged with a more multidimensional and dynamic version of the broody archer fans have grown to love. Capturing the darker and more desperate mood of the earlier seasons of the original series run, showrunner David Zabel and lead actor Norman Reedus, reignite our interest in the long-running drama when Daryl is thrust into a foreign land and forced to navigate a new landscape, language challenges, and an evolved crop of the dead that he never faced back in Atlanta or the Commonwealth of Virginia. With new friends and old loyalties tying the traveler in knots, we finally get a chance to peel back the layers of one of television’s most famous survivors. So, let’s dive in and see what Daryl Dixon has been up to ever since he hopped on his motorcycle looking for survivors and his missing best friend, Rick Grimes.
My name is Daryl Dixon…
When we last saw Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) he was telling his best friend and soulmate, Carol (Melissa McBride), that he loved her, while also promising a teary-eyed and repeatedly orphaned niece, Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), that he would be back soon. He was on a mission for Maggie to find other survivors outside of Virginia, and he hoped one of them could lead him to the whereabouts of his missing best friend and group leader, Rick Grimes. On his search across the barren lands of an apocalyptic hellscape, Daryl fell into the wrong crowd of survivors and somehow he ended up on a ship used for experiments on walkers. Whatever Daryl saw in that ship prompted a fight and when the mutiny broke out the crew dumped him overboard. Somehow he ended up tied to a boat that left him buoying across the choppy waters towards a destination unknown. When the episode opens we watch as his seemingly lifeless body bobs in the ocean and the waters as we see he’s thinking about Carol and hears the last line Judith Grimes ever spoke on The Walking Dead. She was saying goodbye to her uncle and being the observant child she was, could see how torn Daryl was about leaving her and Carol behind. We hear her voice piped into his water-logged brain with “You deserve happiness too.” It’s a theme that will carry on throughout the season as Daryl faces a choice between new responsibilities and the ones that tie him to home.
When he eventually washes up on shore, the bleary-eyed and dehydrated floater can tell something is very different about this beach he landed on. All signs point to a language barrier–one that leads him to believe he has somehow floated to the south of France. If you’re wondering how one man tied to a dinghy can cross the ocean from The Commonwealth of Virginia to Marsaiiles and not sink like a mini-Titanic, so is Daryl but we can assume that ship of baddies did the bulk of the journey. With a handheld radio, he sends a message out into the universe hoping anyone back home is listening, “If I don’t make it back I want them to know I tried.” Daryl is no quitter, and no French detour can change that. After a mostly silent opening few minutes, Daryl introduces himself to the new viewers who might not have spent the last decade getting to know him.
Mutiny to Marseilles
Once the introductions are out of the way, Daryl digs into his early Atlanta days and scavenges for supplies–mostly water, food, and anything that can help him figure out his exact location. After coming across an abandoned boat, Daryl uncovers a map and an audio recording documenting the spread of the virus that predictably has wiped out most of Europe– according to the long-dead travelers who were kind enough to leave the beleaguered Dixon early some water and a spot to take a rest and get his bearings. He also finds a French-to-English dictionary, which will come in handy later now that he knows he’s standing in the Gulf of Lion near Marseilles and hundreds of miles away from the coast. He needs to get to the coast to find a way back home and that comes with all sorts of complications for Daryl. Besides the language barrier making even signs hard to read, the walkers are different too. Their skin and blood act like acid and burn through anything they touch. Daryl finds this out when he stumbles upon an abandoned market where a group of walkers groans to life. He’s forced to take them on with a spear he finds on the docks and he’s doing pretty good until one of the walkers grabs his arm in a tussle. The searing grip leaves behind a smoking handprint and a stunned Daryl has to adapt to a new killing technique on the fly. It’s touch and go for a few minutes but our boy is a pro and sufficiently disarms them until their blood sizzles through the floor. Fans might remember the post-credits scene of the World Beyond finale Where we learned the zombie virus might’ve originated in France. Dr. Jenner–from season 1 of The Walking Dead, was seen in a video corresponding with an abandoned lab in France about, “Variant Cohorts,” that he hasn’t seen anywhere in the United States. All of this says that Daryl–who left on a fact-finding mission, might’ve washed up on the right beach to get answers. Maggie said she wanted to know more about the variant walkers they ran into at the end of the original series. and this might be ground zero for all she was hoping for.
With a map in hand, Daryl pinpoints the distance between his location and the Western coast and hits the road for a very long trip back home. We watch as he crosses over Roman archways and some of the most cinematic scenery this franchise has ever given us. With his dictionary in hand, he scoffs at the religious signs he passes along the way because Daryl and religion just don’t mix. We also notice in the distance a woman following him and It’s a good thing too, because it isn’t long before he finds himself in trouble again.
Isabelle and Laurent
Daryl is almost to the town of Lourdes when he comes across a young woman – Maribelle (Carmen Kassovitz) and her injured and blind grandfather, Gullaume (Bernard Bloch). The two are willing to trade him some of their food for whatever medical supplies the American might have. A very hungry Daryl agrees, but the whole friendly encounter winds up being a trap. After the three trade goods, they have a deadly run-in with a group of soldiers who might be linked to the boat Daryl escaped from. He manages to save Maribelle from an attack just in time for her keen-eyed gramps to bop him over the head with a cane so the two can rob him. So much for gratitude, now Daryl is injured from the three fights he’s gotten into and our hero is not looking good. Luckily for him, the woman hot on his trail steps in to help before walkers make a meal out of him. She takes the dazed Daryl to her convent and now we have a good idea of who is responsible for all those “God Saves” signs. We learn the woman’s name is Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), and after she cauterizes Daryl’s burn wounds to stop the virus from spreading she explains that these Burno zombies are only one type of variant, there are many types of “hungry ones.”
Next up, a bizarrely charged scene between the holy celibate Isabelle and a naked and filthy Daryl. It’s sponge bath time and that opens the door to a very surprising admission about Daryl’s scars. The two trade war stories and talk about their backgrounds– with Daryl mentioning his father’s abuse and Isabelle admitting the scars on her wrists are from a suicide attempt. She also explains that the convent has been around for about twelve years and it acts as a home base for various groups of survivors known as Union of Hope. She doesn’t reveal much about them other than they have bases all over France and are led by a man we haven’t met yet. Daryl is intrigued and feels safe enough with Isabelle to mention his brother Merle and his home in Virginia. I’m not too sure what happened to Daryl on that boat, but for a guy who spent 12 years grunting and keeping his cards close to his leather-vested chest, he sure is chatty with this woman. The two seem to hit it off without any of the typical Daryl gruffness but I guess when you leave your “I love yous” on the other side of the ocean you have nobody else to play googly eyes with but the attractive nun.
The Messenger and The Messiah
After his bath, Isabelle takes Daryl to the convent’s arsenal room where the nuns keep an impressive cache of weapons but he is more interested in the CB radio. He wants to contact home and the nun agrees but then strangely locks the door and never tells him it doesn’t work. It seems like a stalling tactic and once again, Daryl has walked into another trap. He wants answers–forcing Isabelle to come clean and admit she’s been waiting for him–“The Messenger,” for three weeks. His arrival was predicted by their kid Messiah A.K.A. the cure and hope for humanity, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi). She thinks God sent Daryl to them to protect and deliver Laurent to another Union of Hope’s base camp in the Northern region of France. There, the special child will start his training to be the new leader of all mankind. The road to the North is dangerous and Laurent needs protecting, The problem is, Daryl isn’t a believer so he isn’t buying this second coming of Christ idea she is selling. He refuses to be this boy’s mule and instead packs his bags to leave. Isabelle tries to stop him by offering to guide him to the coast if he helps Laurent. He is going to need someone who speaks French if he has any hope of making it to the port she says is rumored to have ships. That gives him pause and so does the cute encounter he has with Laurent. After a fun little game of monkey see, monkey do, the young boy asks if he is married with kids and Daryl takes a pause and responds with, “No. Nothing like that.” Laurent is extremely empathetic and strangely perceptive in an indescribable way, so he picks up on Daryl’s sadness and confusion and mimics Judith’s last words, “You deserve a happy ending too.” It’s hard to say no to this kid but he isn’t enough of a reason to delay Daryl’s mission to get back home. After all, Daryl has two cute Grimes kids already waiting for him to make good on his promise, so he doesn’t have time for a nun and a savior child he just met. We also find out that everyone in the convent thinks Laurent has resurrection powers when Daryl spots the boy reading poetry to a caged and very dead Father Jean (Hugo Dillon). The man raised the boy after his mother died in childbirth and now everyone thinks this wunderkind can raise the dead. Daryl has seen enough and flees the convent and that “creepy kid” just as we catch back up with Maribel outside of town. The woman is confronted by the leader of the soldiers, Cordon (Romain Levi) she and Daryl tangled with earlier. She even killed one and now the warlord wants vengeance for the brother he lost. Rather than admit the truth that she killed the man, Maribel tells the homicidal baddie that the American traveler did it. Shockingly he spares her but kills her grandfather and then heads out to find the American. After spotting those same God Saves signs, he checks the convent to see if the wanted man is hiding out there.
A Deal is Struck
Daryl sees Codron and his men descend on the convent and he can’t help himself–his hero mode kicks in and he heads back to the convent. As the men search for Daryl they stumble upon Father Jean and threaten to put the man down unless they give up the American. This cruelty sends Laurent into a panic. Codron can’t handle the kid’s tantrum so he orders his men to grab Laurent and take him to their leader, Genet–who we meet in the final moments of the episode. The moment it looks like Laurent’s life is in danger, Daryl swoops in to save him and all Hell breaks out. Daryl and the killer nuns put up a good fight as they drive Codron and his men out of the convent to regroup, but they did take some major hits. Mother Superior (Laïka Blanc-Francard) is shot and barely holding onto life as she tells Laurent he “is the cure for a sick world.”
After Daryl helps bury the dead nuns he agrees to Isabelle’s offer if she agrees to escort him to Le Havre–the port she mentioned with the rumored ship. The deal is made and as the convent survivors rest for the night we realize that not only is Le Havre where the boats are, but it is also where the boat Daryl escaped is docked. According to the Captain (Gregory Kristoforoff) filling in their leader Genet (Anne Charrier), the boat took on a lot of damage thanks to an American prisoner who jumped overboard. The stone-cold woman orders her men to find this Daryl Dixon and something tells me it’s not for a friendly chat. With Genet’s orders on top of Codron’s vengeance, this trek up North is a dangerous one. Let’s hope Daryl can deliver the Jesus kid to the camp and hop on a ship undetected before all of continental Europe hunts him down. Daryl has his work cut out for him! Viva La Dixon!
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