Coming Home – As the finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon begins, viewers see dead bodies in a war. Someone begins yelling for “Dixon”. In the present, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) prepares to fight the walker. Stephane Codron (Romain Levi) warns Daryl that he’ll die for his brother today. The crowd boos as Daryl gets the better of the walker. The zombie burns the handle of his weapon causing him to drop it. Above, Isabelle (Clemence Poesy) prays for Daryl while comforting Laurent who says Daryl will win. Daryl grabs a flag and uses it to kill the zombie.
Genet (Anne Charrier) is told that is only the first one. Quinn (Adam Nagaitis) is brought in and handcuffed to Daryl who warns him he isn’t going to die in there. The lights are turned off before they can begin fighting. Then, they find themselves surrounded by zombies. Laurent prays for Daryl. Genet tells the doctor to give the people a show. The walkers are shot with medication. It causes one of the zombie’s heads to explode. Fallou Boukar (Eria Ebouaney) tells his man to go around and he’ll stay. One of the walkers attacks and kills the other. Dr. Lafleur tells Genet there are still two left. The zombie gets on top of Daryl. Quinn hits it in the head, but it has a helmet that protects it.
When the roles are reversed, Daryl uses the chain to choke the zombie in question. With Daryl and Quinn pulling from opposite sides, they manage to break the zombie’s neck. The crowd begins chanting Dixon. Genet says the purpose was to win the people to their cause. Daryl throws the zombie head toward Genet. She orders her man to shoot Daryl. Before he can, Fallou helps him. Once the gate opens, Daryl and Quinn flee. Genet tells her soldier to take Codron and kill the American. Daryl notices a wound on Quinn’s back. Quinn insists it is just a burn and he doesn’t even feel it. Isabelle asks Genet what is going to happen to them. All Genet knows for certain is that God is not coming for them.
Laurent tries to flee but is quickly stopped and put in a cell with Isabelle. When they’re alone, Laurent says he was thinking of what Daryl would do. He wonders if Genet is right and God abandoned them. Isabelle shows him the key and explains she got it using something she learned a long time ago. Quinn sits down and says he has to rest for a minute. Daryl tries to cut the chain. Quinn talks about how he was terrible to Isabelle. He thinks it is too late now. Daryl argues otherwise because Quinn can buy him some time and help save Laurent and Isabelle. Quinn agrees to let Daryl cut off his wrist so he can free himself. He asks Daryl to tell Isabelle what he has done for her.
Once it is done, the guards approach. Quinn goes after them and Daryl runs in the other direction. Isabelle and Laurent try to escape as well. Daryl manages to retrieve a knife before finding a wounded soldier. He runs into Fallou and the others seconds later. The cuff is removed from his wrist. Daryl rushes back inside where he finds Laurent and Isabelle, but there is a locked gate between them. Quinn’s walker arrives and tries to kill Isabelle. Daryl kills another walker before giving his weapon to Laurent and telling him to save her. Daryl tells him that God will forgive him. Laurent saves Isabelle. Outside, Sylvie (Laika Blanc-Francard) says goodbye to Emile who leaves with Fallou.
As they drive away, Daryl assures Sylvie that Fallou won’t let anything happen to him. Isabelle tells Laurent that she always protected him, but he protected her this time. Laurent says it wasn’t Quinn anymore and he was never his father. He thinks God will forgive you when you have to do horrible things. The vehicle nearly stops so Daryl pulls over to check it out. While Laurent and Sylvie sleep, Isabelle tells Daryl that her father tried to teach her how to change a tire once. Daryl’s father used to make them take apart engines. If they didn’t put it back together, they didn’t get dinner. He was hardly around and grew up without a father.
Daryl says history repeats itself if you’re not careful before explaining that his father died there in the war. His family fell apart at home and he never made it off the beach. Isabelle says Laurent has never had that kind of influence so Daryl has changed him a lot. Daryl says Quinn thought about her before he died. Isabelle admits she was afraid of him at first because she could tell that he is dangerous. She confesses she lied about the picture on the beach. She asked Laurent to draw it when they got to the abbey. Isabelle thought it might convince him to help them. Daryl asks for the big wrench, but Isabelle doesn’t answer. Codron hits him with it. They’re told that they’re all going to die today.
Isabelle is stabbed. Codron is given a gun. After Laurent tells Codron that God loves him, Codron shoots the other guards. He tells Dixon that it’ll happen next time before grabbing the pocket watch. He tells them that the nest is about a day’s walk north. Before he leaves, he tells them to burn the truck because it is easy to track. When the sun goes down, Daryl and the others burn the truck. They walk to the nest where people celebrate their arrival. Losang (Joel de la Fuente) welcomes Laurent. They take Isabelle for treatment. Losang tells Daryl that he is from Hoboken and came to Paris as a student in the 90s. Daryl tells him that Azlan didn’t make it.
He believes Genet will be coming for them. Losang says they will be ready. Isabelle wakes up later and finds Daryl teaching some of the locals how to shoot. Losang talks to Laurent about what makes them human. They go about their normal lives for a while. One day, Daryl walks in on Isabelle tending to her wound. She asks for his help since she can’t reach her back. Daryl admits the nest isn’t what he expected. Later, Losang tells Daryl he was skeptical when Pere Jean first sent word of the boy. He stopped at the abbey to meet him and he knew. Losang says they’re grateful to Daryl and Isabelle for getting the boy there. They’ve arranged for Daryl to go home with a fisherman from Dover who will take him to England.
They know boats that can get him as far as Newfoundland. He’ll have to manage from there. Daryl will need to walk to the coast unless he has changed his mind. Losang believes he has people here hoping he’ll stay. He admits they need Daryl there now, but Daryl argues this isn’t his fight. Meanwhile, Codron tells Genet they were too confident. She finds it odd that he returned without a scratch. Codron claims he went after the boy before hearing gunshots. Genet worked in a museum and learned which eyes tell the truth and which eyes lie. She suspects Codron shot her men. Genet says they told him to kill the boy but he couldn’t. Codron isn’t the man Genet thought he was.
She tells him why the union has to be snuffed out so they can build the future. They have to do hard, unspeakable things. Genet wants to know where the nest is, but Codron doesn’t want to tell her. She warns him that it’ll only get worse. Daryl begins packing his stuff. He tells Isabelle that he made a promise to them. She reminds him he left the Commonwealth to see what was out in the world. Isabelle believes he found something. She asks if he is going to abandon Laurent like his father did. She believes he cares about Laurent and that scares him. Isabelle goes on to say he is repeating history by doing this. Daryl says he has his own home to get back to.
Daryl leaves Laurent a gift while he sleeps. Then, he walks out of the nest and heads for the coast. As he continues, he sees an American flag in the distance. When he walks closer, he finds a bunch of gravesites and eventually locates one for his grandfather, William T. Dixon. He sees the boat in the distance. Before the boat arrives, Daryl is surrounded by walkers. After killing some, he hears Laurent calling his name. Daryl sees him standing on the ledge nearby. Then, we see a man on a motorcycle being approached and chased by a car. The motorcyclist stops and shoots the car with a shotgun. He approaches the car and yells for the person to get out.
Carol (Melissa McBride) steps out of the car with her hands up. She tells the man she is looking for Daryl and he is riding his bike. The man says he found the bike. The biker wants to look through her stuff. She knocks him out when he looks in the trunk. Then, she ties him up and puts him in the back. The man claims he traded some stuff for the bike with guys who camp down the road a bit. She tells him she won’t come back if he is lying before riding away on the motorcycle.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Review
At the very least, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon likely ended with its best episode even though there were some hiccups along the way. The showdown with Genet’s zombies was done well enough and adding Quinn to the mix made things more interesting. Daryl isn’t leaving after all and it looks like Carol is going to find him one way or another. Instead, Daryl should return to the nest with Laurent and wait for Genet’s men to attack.
Although this was a decent episode, there were certain aspects that were predictable and some were somewhat silly. The predictable aspects were the fact that Daryl didn’t go home, Quinn died, and Carol is looking for him. At one point, the guards were right behind Laurent and Isabelle as they were trying to escape Genet’s compound. They made it to the gate where there was a big commotion while they killed Quinn as a walker.
It is hard to imagine that the guards wouldn’t have heard them since they were so close to begin with. Secondly, the escape from Genet’s compound was probably too easy until it wasn’t. Daryl has survived this long by being smart, yet he stopped the truck pretty close to the compound and sure enough Codron caught up with him. After Isabelle was stabbed, she didn’t act like it until she finally reached the nest.
Other than that, the episode was fine. In fact, it did a good job of building interest for another season with Carol searching for Daryl and Genet likely planning an attack on the nest. The finale scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.
Discuss this episode and other television shows at the Reel Mockery Forum.
