From episode leaks strewn across the Internet to questionable writing, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol has been rocky, to say the least. Still, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s chemistry endures, giving longtime fans of the franchise a reason to keep tuning in. For those of us rooting for a Carol and Daryl romance, hope is still there.
Episode 4 concludes with Daryl telling Carol, “I never, ever stopped trying to get home to you.” Unfortunately, what could’ve been a swoon-worthy shipping moment falls victim to messy writing.
The Book of Carol Makes Shipping Complicated
After Carol and Daryl reunite, The Book of Carol kills off Isabelle. It’s the first mistake, but not the last. While tracking down Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), Carol and Dary stumble across Didi and Theo, who had previously hosted the boy and Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney). The older couple invites Daryl and Carol to stay with them, but there’s one problem: They both think Carol is Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), and for whatever reason, neither Carol nor Daryl bother correcting them. The next morning, Didi recaps her conversation with Laurent to Carol while the two prepare food. Unsurprisingly, Laurent is gaga for Daryl, but Didi follows that up with,
“And the way he talked about the two of you. Hm. Sometimes children see things we are afraid to look at.”
Interesting, right? Well, Didi goes on to drop an even bigger bombshell, saying, “Laurent thinks that Daryl loves you but won’t say it because if he says it, he won’t be able to leave.”
Um. Whoa! Okay, Didi. Upon first hearing, it feels acceptable to jump on the couch and start screaming. But then you realize that Didi thinks Carol is Isabelle, and you want to scream for an entirely different reason. In true The Book of Carol fashion, the interaction opens itself to interpretation, so let’s interpret it.
Does Daryl actually love Isabelle, or does Laurent’s belief stem from the POV of a hopeful child looking for a surrogate father of sorts? Then there’s Didi. Yes, she thinks Carol is Isabelle, but she’s also seen Carol and Daryl interact. The love she senses between them might be misguided in name but not in observation.
There is also Carol’s response to consider: “Hm. It’s a little more complicated than that.”
Like many fans, Carol is shocked by how close Daryl has become with the people in France. The guilt about staying or leaving has kept him rooted in place until Carol appeared. So, yeah, “complicated” is an understatement.
However, if you’re willing to take the Caryl dive, then maybe… just maybe… she’s referencing their relationship. Lest we not forget that Daryl told Carol he loved her in the Season 11 finale of The Walking Dead. Whether that “I love you” was platonic or not, hearing that Daryl might have fallen in love with another woman just a few months later rightfully surprises her.
It’s hard not to suspect romance when Daryl stares intently at Carol and tells her he “never, ever stopped trying to get home to [her].” However, the sparks fizzle when he adds, “The longer I stayed here, the harder it got.” The fact Daryl formed such a tight-knit bond with strangers after only a few months felt out of character in Season 1. But then, the spinoff rips it all away anyway.
TBOC Struggles to Integrate Carol into Daryl’s New Life
Many fans were taken aback when Daryl and Isabelle kissed. There were even more outcries when Norman Reedus described it as “an experiment” to Entertainment Weekly. Reedus’ comments imply Daryl used the kiss to figure out if he was missing out on “finding someone” and “settling down.” Once again, The Book of Carol wants Daryl to grapple with concepts like fatherhood and family despite already exploring them in The Walking Dead.
One of The Book of Carol‘s biggest issues is treating Daryl like he has no past, except for when it’s relevant to the plot. It’s almost like Daryl forgets about his found family until Carol shows up and is like, “Hi, remember me. Remember us.” Then, the series switches gears, abandoning Daryl’s internal wrestle to leave France by killing off Isabelle because, apparently, two women can’t occupy such an important part of Daryl’s life at the same time.
Now, it’s just Daryl and Carol, and so far, the two have done very little talking. However, The Walking Dead’s notoriously tight-lipped duo communicates best with actions. Daryl never returned the “I love you” that Isabelle tossed his way, but he did tell Carol he loved her in The Walking Dead’s series finale. That alone speaks volumes.
For the first time, a Carol and Daryl romance looks like a real possibility. However, it’s a premise that warrants more care. Any relationship between Daryl and Carol should be a choice, not a matter of convenience. The foundation is there: Carol has crossed an ocean for Daryl, and he has kept his “I love you’s” just for her. Why TBOC feels the need to shoehorn in romances and step on other characters in the process is a mystery.
I didn’t realize they thought Carol was Isabelle. Way to ruin that line for me 🙂
I am just gonna go with, she saw them together and came to that conclusion and call it a miserable night.
Watching the Book of Carol stuff, I honestly feel like most of the first 2 season’s were written like Carol didn’t exist because they didn’t think Melissa would be part of it. They wanted it separate because they were trying to sell the fans Daryl’s new life. And they need the #Caryl fans to be on the back burner so they can get the Daryl fans on board with him moving on. With no chance of Melissa getting on board, I guess I get that, but it was like they almost didn’t want her around. That’s why they filmed somewhere she wouldn’t go.
I have recently discovered that there are Daryl fans who hate Carol. Carol fans who hate Daryl, and then us #Caryl fans. There is also a select group of fans who think the new series has ruined Daryl and if he’s going to stay the way he was, they might as well end it now.
There was a TV show in the 80s called Spencer for hire. They took one of those characters (Hawk) and gave him his own spinoff, yet they took all the things people loved about the character, and made him this, unwatchable, bore. It was cancelled pretty quickly. You cannot ruin a character like that. You ruin the entire thing when you do that.
Ask Veronica Mars how is feared when it used us fans for ratings and then killed off the reason we watched. The show Veronica Mars was nothing special. It was the L.O.V.E fans that kept the love for a show with bad ratings alive, and Kristen Bell and the producers, wasted it all by killing Logan. You can’t mess with the majority or you won’t string them along for long. That’s what happened to the Daryl and Carol fans and this new series. Not all fans. I’m still watching because I never watched the first season of, Daryl Dixon because without both of them, I have no interest.
For the new show, I only watched the episodes with Carol and my memory is of them fighting like an old married couple when he was fixing the car, and the scene they reunited. I have relied on mostly Twitter for any other revelation and my eyes have been opened to just how much damage they have done to the character of Daryl. The front runner is a known BFF instead of lovers, and he is going to lose the rest of us if he keeps that up.
Gotta go, the lights are flickering I think I’m about to lose power.