While The Walking Dead has some of the finest writing on TV, the spin-offs have proved less than satisfactory in that area. After four mostly solid episodes, Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 5, stumbles. Will it fall flat on its face before the finish line? Your guess is as good as mine. However, splitting up our leads with only two episodes left is disappointing. If Carol and Daryl had been slicing and dicing their way through Europe from Season 1, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But Season 3 marks their first true season together, so why tear them apart?
At this point, Daryl Dixon feels like the opposite of fan service. It does the things no one wants while managing to break one of the cardinal sins of writing: Every scene should move the story forward. Having Daryl pitstop at a leper colony is the equivalent of a video game side quest. Labeling it a waste of time feels harsh, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s precisely what it is.
Justina and Roberto Still Offer a Compelling Love Story
The episode kicks off with Daryl, Carol, and Antonio (Eduardo Noriega) catching up to Roberto (Hugo Arbués), who ran off after Justina (Candela Saitta) during the aftermath of the Solaz attack in Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 4. Honestly, out of everybody, Roberto and Justina feel the most consistent. They love each other, and they’ll fight for each other because of it. Like Carol, I want to root for them, and that hasn’t changed. Roberto’s dedication to Justina is admirable, and when he winds up nearly devoured by walkers, it elicits tension.
However, it’s Roberto’s injuries that present a crossroads for the characters. Someone needs to search for Justina, and someone needs to get Roberto help. Carol and Daryl decide to part ways in what can only be described as convenient writing. (Yes, I’ve used that term a lot this season.)
MORE: ‘The Walking Dead’ Fandom Has an Ageism Problem with Carol & Daryl
Okay, What in the Actual F Is Going on With Carol?
As somebody who has watched the entirety of The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon Season 3 marks the first time I felt like Carol is off. “Out of character” feels like too strong of descriptor right now, but it’s leaning that way. Carol hasn’t been herself since the injuries she sustained on the boat. Sometimes she’s better; sometimes she’s not; sometimes Daryl says things like, “You’re not 100%.” At this point, it’s a bit confusing. However, according to Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 5, Carol apparently needs more healing, which I guess explains why she seemed useless during the big attack on Solaz last episode.
Carol’s injuries gave us all those juicy hurt/comfort moments between her and Daryl in Season 3, Episode 1. Come Episode 2, it motivated Daryl to seek help in Solaz and gave them a logical reason to spend a little time there. Now, Carol’s maybe-sort-of injuries seem written solely to keep her out of the action and closer to Antonio. They’re also an excuse for Daryl and Carol to separate.
Daryl Dixon punked me last episode. When Carol suggested going off on her own, I nearly leapt off my chair in applause when Daryl said, “If you’re going, I’m going.” I laughed, thinking, “How could I ever believe they’d separate now that they found each other against impossible odds?” Funny enough, just five minutes into Episode 5, that all changes.
Daryl: “I’m faster on my own.”
Me: “What? Since when?”
Daryl: “They need you. Both of them.”
Me: “Antonio and Roberto? She just met them a few days ago. Surely they can’t already be that dependent on her.”
Despite Carol saying, “Stop telling me what I can and can’t do,” she ultimately concedes to Daryl. Apparently, she isn’t well enough to travel because Daryl decided it for her. Call me crazy, but if I just traveled across the ocean to find my friend in a foreign country during the apocalypse, I certainly wouldn’t want to separate. Yet, that’s precisely what they do, with about as much fanfare and concerned goodbyes as strangers. Carol must know Daryl has plot armor on since they’re both basically like, “Yeah, whatever. See you later… I guess.”
The whole thing feels cold. Friends would never act like this, and, more importantly, neither would Carol and Daryl. (And, sorry, that darkly intense stare he gives her can’t save this interaction.) Do I want to watch the separate adventures of Daryl and Carol at this point? No. Maybe that would work in Season 4, but this is the season TWD fans have been waiting for: Carol and Daryl together. Instead, the majority of the episode becomes another Daryl showcase. (Didn’t we already have two full seasons of that? And didn’t the last episode make Daryl the main star, too?)
MORE: ‘The Walking Dead’ Is Ready for a Carol and Daryl Romance
Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 5, Is Filler
The coolest and creepiest part of Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 5, involves Daryl encountering that poor man in the desert, murmuring about “agua” with his eyes cut out. Disturbing? Absolutely, but in the best kind of way. The scene drips with oodles of potential for a larger mystery brimming with horror. Instead, it culminates with Daryl helping a leper colony steal their water back from some prick on a train who apparently cuts people’s eyes out to feed his pet iguana and bathes in drinking water. For the majority of the episode, Daryl rides his motorcycle, kicks some butt, and takes down another set of antagonists with the help of this new group. All while putting his lips on everyone’s canteen in the leper colony in the process.
Don’t get me wrong. These poor people deserve the help. They treat Daryl with respect and way more kindness than most in Solaz did, but it doesn’t do anything to push the story forward. Maybe you could argue that it harkens to his conversation with Carol in Episode 4 when she asked him why he doesn’t care about helping people. Proof he cares is here. However, that character development feels unnecessary. We already know Daryl cares; that underneath his unwashed clothes and rugged exterior, he is a big softie with a bleeding heart. Regular old The Walking Dead taught us that years ago.
Had Carol been along for the journey, it could have been different. Recently, I saw fans online discussing the missed opportunity for Daryl Dixon to deliver a Supernatural-esque monster-of-the-week format where Carol and Daryl jump from one adventure to the next. Something like this would be perfect for that, but as it is, Daryl’s solo jaunt through the desert feels largely unnecessary, even if Luis Bondia’s performance as Mateo was eerily compelling.
Other Thoughts
- I swear, if Roberto is bitten, I’m going to be devastated.
- Surely Carol and Daryl are not separating.
- Oh, great! They’re SEPARATING! Because, yeah, that makes sense. Let’s lose track of each other in a foreign country.
- What makes Daryl think he can be a one-man army against El Alcaraz without any preparation or even knowing where Barcelona is?
- Carol is supposed to do the lying, Antonio. Shut your mouth.
- Daryl is “outdoorsy” all right. Outdoorsy in the fact that he doesn’t shower.
- This poor man in the desert. This reminds me of a side quest you’d encounter in something like Red Dead Redemption.
- Jeez, Daryl. Slow down on the water.
- Okay, but should Daryl be sharing water with people who have leprosy?
- Honestly, I don’t have much to say other than this whole Daryl side story feels… unnecessary. Remember those kids who lived in the woods in Season 1? Remember how they were interesting but never came back up and added zero to the overarching plot? Yeah, that’s what I’m getting here.
- The iguana lives!!!!
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
Jeanette, this was awesome. I laughed. I cried. We have been telling the 3 stooges for God knows how many years, all we want is Daryl and Carol together. But what do we get? The exact opposite.
Norman Reedus has control of this series with his production company putting up the cash, he hired the Show Runner. It’s time the fandom and world admits that Norman Reedus is the problem. He doesn’t care about Carol and Daryl or Carol at all. And I personally feel like their friendship isn’t what it was back in the day. That is fine, people grow apart but when one of them seems to have full control of the series and Carol is being reduced to background fodder, it’s time to call a spade a spade. Norman is at fault for all of this.