The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon review, Episode 6, “Coming Home”

It’s time for the season finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and it’s a good one. The previous episode left us on a massive cliffhanger: Genet (Anne Charrier) threw Daryl (Norman Reedus) into an arena and let loose a super-walker. How does he survive? Will he ever manage to get home? Let’s get right into it!

Here’s your last SPOILER warning of the season!

The walker arena

In last week’s episode, Genet and her Guerriers held a rally. Daryl, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), Quinn (Adam Nagaitis) and Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) were all present. Daryl was taken prisoner and had a beefed up variant walker set upon him.

Turns out the insanely powerful walker is merely a warm up exercise; Genet has a lot more up her sleeve. Daryl quite easily slays the variant, but then Quinn enters the arena and they are chained together; also, there are four variants surrounding them. There’s no way Daryl could ever survive this… right?

One of the variants quite literally spontaneously combusts. And then the variants start fighting each other, much to Genet’s dismay. Daryl and Quinn only have deal with two of the things. I loved how they kill the final walker: they tie the chain around its neck and behead it! Brutal!

This is Daryl Dixon clad in impenetrable plot armor. There’s never any doubt that he’s gonna make it out alive. It was nice to see Quinn involved, since he was actually in danger. He does suffer a burn across his shoulder — could it be a bite? With all these new kind of walkers, it’s hard to tell nowadays.

After winning all the challenges, Daryl allows himself a little celebration. Normally he’s a quiet, brooding character. It felt a little odd, but I’m not complaining. Before Genet orders more variants in the arena to finish him off, Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney) returns to help break them out of there. After a few gunshots, chaos ensues.

While making an escape, Quinn, who it ends up was bitten, starts to slow Daryl down. For the most part, Quinn has been a pretty insufferable character, what with using Laurent to get closer to Isabelle. In the end, it all catches up to him and he decides to sacrifice himself before turning. He allows Daryl to cut off his wrist to sever their connection — remember they were chained together — and then Quinn distracts the Guerriers. At least he went out honorably.

Later, in the tunnels, Isabelle is attacked by the zombified version of Quinn, and Laurent must kill him. It’s a tough moment for him. We hardly ever see Laurent kill walkers, so for his first to be his father… this show sure knows how to pull on our heartstrings.

Daryl and Isabelle

After escaping the Guerriers, Daryl, Laurent, Isabelle and Sylvie head to The Nest. On their journey, Isabelle and Daryl open up about their pasts. Interestingly, Daryl reveals that his father died in France during the war. And Isabelle admits that she lied to Daryl when they first met. Remember when Laurent drew that picture of Daryl and she said it was a premonition of his arrival? Turns out Isabelle asked Laurent to draw that after Daryl had arrived, so it held no significance after all.

Not long after, Codron (Romain Levi) and his cronies roll up. Again, it appears to be an impossible situation for Daryl to escape from… but strangely, Codron kills all his own people and leaves Daryl, Laurent, Isabelle and Sylvie alive. “Not today, Dixon,” he says. “Next time.” Why such a change of heart?

The Nest

Yes, they finally reach The Nest; the place Laurent was destined to be. The scenery is absolutely spectacular. The Nest is situated in Mont-Saint-Michel, which is one of the most stunning islands in Normandy, and the ideal place to hole up in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Once again, Laurent’s reputation precedes him. As he enters the gates, he is greeted by tons of people. He’s their messiah, after all. All seems well, but Genet is still out there.

The leader of The Nest, Losang, seems like a nice person. Funnily enough, he’s an American too, but he’s lived in France since the 1990s. He comes across as kind, caring and rational, the complete opposite of Genet.

Losang reveals to Daryl that there’s a boat ready to take him home, but he still tries to convince him to stay. Daryl seems to consider the possibility of remaining in France. But in the evening he packs his bags. In true Daryl fashion, he does it quietly and Isabelle has to find him to say her goodbyes.

Genet and Codron

After refusing to kill Laurent, Codron returns to Genet to tell her the bad news. Of course, he doesn’t reveal that he killed his own men and allowed our group to leave. He just says that his group was ambushed and that he had to make an impromptu escape. But Genet isn’t stupid. She knows he’s lying to her. No doubt the location of The Nest will be tortured out of him. This appears to be setting up a battle to come in season 2!

Daryl is out alone again

After leaving The Nest, Daryl travels across the desolate Franch countryside to the ship to take him back to the United States. During his journey he visits a graveyard where he finds the headstone of his grandad. I found this a poignant moment. Daryl has lost all of his family at this point. He’s alone.

…but people still care about him. As he waves down the boat, Laurent appears out of nowhere. It’s this showing of love that ultimately convinces Daryl to remain in France.

Carol returns!

Before season 1 comes to a close, we return to Maine (where Daryl was before he was shipped away to France). There Carol (Melissa McBride) chases down a man on Daryl’s bike. Turns out she’s on a mission to find Daryl. I think this pretty much confirms that Carol will be sailing off to France in season 2. Exciting!

Verdict

This was a perfect ending to a fantastic season. It gives us a satisfying, well-rounded conclusion, but also leaves the door open for season 2, which is officially on the way. I particularly loved the inclusion of variant walkers; they added another element of danger and were very fun to watch. As always, the sets are breathtaking, especially Mont-Saint-Michel. Daryl Dixon goes places the franchise hasn’t been before.

I loved the exploration of Daryl’s history. It’s always been a mystery, but he gets the space to open up around Isabelle. I enjoyed hearing him talk about his father, his grandfather, and even growing up with his brother Merle.

Episode Grade: A

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