The Walking Dead: Daryl and Leah’s relationship felt “rushed”

Norman Reedus has portrayed Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead for over a decade at this point. He’s had the opportunity to tell a ton of different stories with this character, but it wasn’t until season 10 when he met Leah (Lynn Collins) that the plot finally explored what a romantic relationship with Daryl would look like. In Reedus’ opinion, Daryl’s relationship with Leah felt “a little rushed,” especially with it being filmed in the midst of the pandemic.

Daryl first met Leah in season 10 episode 18, “Find Me” — one of the six additional episodes added onto the season, bringing the total count up to a record 24. In “Find Me,” Daryl searches for Rick Grimes’ body for closure about his death but instead stumbles across a cabin in the woods where he meets Leah. Over the course of the episode, Daryl spends more and more time with her, and they begin to form a relationship. However, when she gives him the ultimatum to choose between her or his family, he picks the latter, and Leah disappears.

Speaking to Insider, Norman Reedus gave his verdict on the relationship, explaining why it didn’t work out as well as it could have been. “The relationship with Leah was kind of thrown at us during those COVID episodes,” he said. “That relationship was kind of crammed together in a way that fit with our shooting schedule and storyline for those two people.”

The episode in question had six time-jumps in it, each one chronicling a different stage of Daryl’s relationship with Leah. That in itself was pretty jarring for fans. Not to mention that it felt rather out-of-character for Daryl. As a result, Reedus admits that the episode comes across pretty rushed:

"I’ve had so many conversations about what kind of boyfriend Daryl would be and it’s gone up and down and back and forth and, you know, I’ve always said the same thing. I don’t think he would jump — not to be crass — I don’t think he would jump in the sack that quick. I don’t think he has those skills. I felt like that was a little, a little rushed."

Of course, we should consider ourselves lucky to at least have gotten some new Walking Dead content at the time, given how many areas were under strict restrictions thanks to the pandemic. “Everyone’s got nine layers of plastic on their face and we were all kind of very hesitant to get too close to anyone,” Reedus added. “Maybe if it wasn’t in COVID times, we could have explored that in other ways instead of just a timeline written on the bottom of the screen.”

Daryl’s love life has been a topic of conversation on the show for many years now. Upon entering the final season, many viewers theorize that he may end up with Carol (Melissa McBride) or Connie (Lauren Ridloff).

Alpha is set to return in Tales of The Walking Dead!

The Walking Dead may be ending, but the franchise is far from over. We still have Fear The Walking Dead going strong, some mysterious movies featuring Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), and later this year, we can add anthology spinoff Tales of The Walking Dead to the list.

So far, the spinoff has cast some big names, but nobody we know from the wider franchise. That said, recently we’ve gotten wind that Samantha Morton, who portrayed Alpha in seasons 9 and 10, may have signed on for an episode of her own. This means we’ll probably get a prequel story for Alpha, giving an explanation to how she became a zombie mask-wearing whisperer.

The Walking Dead returns for its next batch of eight episodes on February 20. Alternatively, you can watch episodes one week early if you’re an AMC+ subscriber.