The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 Finale Delivers the Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For
Those of you who have been following a certain behind-the-scenes saga can probably guess the moment to which the headline refers. As for the rest of you, let’s review the big twists of plot in the Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon before we get to that eagerly anticipated, if thoroughly spoiled, reveal.
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‘I AIN’T GONNA DIE IN HERE’ | Picking up where the penultimate episode left off (read the recap here), “Coming Home” starts with Daryl defeating the hyperactive walker that Genet intended to kill him. Next, she has “the American” chained to Quinn to fight not one but five coked-up walkers. Oops, make that four. One’s head explodes as soon as it is shot full of uppers. No, on second thought, make that three. Another walker has its head ripped open by its undead teammate. “There is still work to be done,” Genet’s scientist nervously remarks. No kidding. In the end, Daryl and Quinn emerge victorious, with the former playing to the crowd by holding up a severed walker head.
Fed up, Genet orders Daryl and Quinn executed on the spot. Luckily, Fallou, Sylvie and Emile are able to intervene and save them. On the run in Maison Mére, Daryl discovers that Quinn has been bitten. He can still help Isabelle and Laurent, though, Daryl tells him. How? By letting Daryl hack off Quinn’s arm, thereby unchaining them from each other, and attacking the guards that are giving pursuit. Painful as it is, the plan works, and Daryl is able to locate Isabelle and Laurent… just in time for a reanimated Quinn to attack. Faced with the option of killing his newfound father or letting Isabelle die, Laurent dispatches Quinn.
‘SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS’ | Finally, Daryl, Isabelle, Laurent and Sylvie take off for the Nest. (Though Sylvie has fallen for Emile, she leaves him behind to go where she’s most needed.) When the group’s jeep breaks down, Codron catches up to them. “God loves you,” Laurent tells the Guerrier. And whad’ya know? He finds himself unable to shoot the kid. Instead, he guns down all of the other Guerriers. He doesn’t even exact his revenge on Daryl. “Next time,” Codron warns.
Once the foursome reaches the Nest — and what a spectacular piece of real estate it is, too — it becomes pretty clear that Daryl and Isabelle have come down with “feelings.” Neither cops to them, however. At most, Isa challenges Daryl about the fact that he cares for Laurent and it scares him — so much so that he leaves Episode 1’s Rubik’s cube for the boy while he’s sleeping and takes off to catch the first ship bound for Newfoundland. Mind you, every step of the way, Daryl is clearly torn. By the time Laurent reveals that he’s followed Daryl, just as the ship is nearing shore, it’s pretty clear that he’s not going anywhere.
‘I LEARNED WHICH EYES TELL THE TRUTH AND WHICH LIE’ | Returning to Genet having failed to “execute” her orders, Cordon weaves a tall tale that she doesn’t buy for an instant. After confessing that he couldn’t kill the child, Codron lies that he has no idea where the Nest is. (Cue the torture in three, two… ) Finally, outside of Freeport, Maine, a ruffian tooling around on Daryl’s bike makes the mistake of underestimating Carol — yes, Carol, in the flesh! Before he knows what’s hit him, he’s locked in her car trunk, and she’s off to investigate the guys with whom he supposedly traded for Daryl’s bike.
So, what did you think of Carol’s return? The Season 1 finale? The season as a whole? Assign grades in the polls below, then read what EP David Zabel has to say about Season 2 here.
