Melissa McBride makes her mark in soaring premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — Book of Carol

When it was announced that Melissa McBride was stepping away from The Walking Dead spinoff that she and Norman Reedus (as Daryl Dixon) were scheduled to lead, the reaction was fairly seismic. So when Carol (McBride) appeared in the final episode of season 1 of that spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the collective joy of the fandom was palpable. And the news that she would co-lead season 2, now titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol (try fitting that on a key chain) rejuvenated a flagging fandom.

Thankfully, for all concerned, McBride’s Carol lives up to every expectation the audience put on her small but mighty shoulders. We spend much of the opening episode, "La Gentillesse des Étrangers," in her company as she tries desperately and unflinchingly makes her way to France, the unlikely where she learns Daryl was shipped. Daryl, meanwhile, is metaphorically and physically exactly where we left him.

Review: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol Episode 1, "La Gentillesse des Étrangers"

After making the choice to save would-be savior-of-the-world Laurent — who popped up on the beach surrounded by walkers like a preteen pinata just as Daryl was about to board a boat home to the US — Daryl seems as determined to get home as ever. The misdirect opening (which leads you to believe we are still on that same beach when in fact we’re on the one outside Laurent’s current home at religious base the Nest) seems to be hinting that all won’t be as it seems this season, or at least, in the French segments.

Daryl tells cult leader Losang that he is staying there only as long as he has to wait for another ride home. It has been two weeks since he lost his chance, and Losang is unimpressed that Daryl is using this time to teach Laurent self-defense. When Losang insists Laurent is destined for more important things, Daryl questions, “more important than staying alive?” Losang's reply is a screaming, neon red flag.

Actor Joel de la Fuente does a magnificent job of making that alarming statement glide by as though it's nothing, but you know expert tracker Daryl hasn’t missed that muddy footprint placed on the path that this cult is marching guileless, sweet Laurent down. Though it seems Laurent's aunt Isabelle is still blind to this; she continues to pressure Daryl to be more than a teacher to Laurent, and to stay at the Nest with them permanently.

Daryl, however, seems unconvinced by that destiny, and speaks of his people back home. “I keep thinking about all the people I left behind, wondering if they’re thinking about me.” It seems an odd thing to say when you consider that, according to the showrunners, it’s only been a couple of months since Daryl left the U.S. However, when you consider it in terms of the post-apocalypse, where you can die by stepping on a particularly lumpy bit of grass, it makes more sense. But even more than that, it fits with Daryl’s past.

In season 1, Daryl told Andrea that no one looked for him as a kid when he was lost in the woods, and we know — just like Carol — that he has terrible self-worth. He knows he has left Carol in a comfortable, safe Commonwealth with Judith and RJ, and her ex-husband Ezekiel. It’s not surprising — especially given what happened the last time Daryl left the group for a period of time — that he could imagine Carol settling back in with Zeke as a new family, and all of them moving on from the emotionally repressed, violent man that Losang is reminding Daryl he is.

Carol pulls out all the stops to find Daryl and get to his side

Of course, Carol has not forgotten him, and we cut straight to an absolutely iconic image of her riding Daryl’s bike, determined to find her soulmate, wherever he may be. The Book of Carol leaves us in no doubt who Carol is within her first moments onscreen. Her wily, resourceful ability to get information from the garage where Daryl was last seen encapsulates her perfectly: from faux innocent to lethal weapon to scathing, dry joker. Having Daryl’s bike, and then his crossbow, in her grasp is a realistic and touching breadcrumb trail that comes to a screeching halt when she learns Daryl left on a boat to France, never to be seen again.

Thankfully, into her path flies Ash, a lonely, kind pilot (and frankly, hot bachelor of the apocalypse, warmly and engagingly played by Manish Dayal) who owns a small plane, and the answer to all Carol’s dreams. However, convincing a man you’ve only just met to give up his (albeit empty) life to fly you to France is something of an uphill battle, and so we see Carol reach into her messier bag of tricks.

Ash’s homestead is very reminiscent of Bill’s from The Last of Us. He has a greenhouse for his food needs, traps, and electric fences to protect him from walkers and the outside world. But he has no defence for a woman who can see herself in him, and so knows just how to get him to join her mission. Recognising Ash’s paralysing grief and guilt over the death of his young son some years earlier, Carol uses her own experience to convince him to fly her around by telling him she's trying to find her daughter Sophia.

It’s a painful lie, for the audience and clearly for Carol too, as we see just how much Sophia’s death is simmering just under the surface of Carol’s fragile heart. In a piece of brilliant craftsmanship from director Greg Nicotero, when Ash first invites Carol to sleep in his barn, Carol has a flashback to that devastating moment her reanimated daughter walked out at Hershel's farm. It's effectively done, with the show exactly recreating the scene from season 2 of The Walking Dead and putting current day Carol into the middle of it. The disorienting switch from night to day, the symbolism of how Carol’s world turned dark in that moment, and the (as always) impeccable acting from McBride is Walking Dead heartbreak at its best.

And it is matched in nostalgic feels shortly afterwards when Carol enters Ash’s kitchen and sees a Cherokee Rose in a beer bottle. As she stares thoughtfully at it, emotionally jolted in a different way than she was at the barn, we are treated to a flashback to the scene where Daryl brought her the same flower to give her hope while Sophia was missing. It’s a quick and essential intro into how Daryl and Carol initially connected. It seems as though the evidence is stacking up that the universe wants Carol to know she’s on the right path.

Early in the episode, when Daryl repeats that Losang thinks he’s too violent, Isabelle says to Daryl, “I think you do what’s necessary, even when no one else is willing to do it. Especially then.” It’s a line that’s been said of Carol several times in the past, and it nicely highlights why Carol and Daryl are so in sync and so deeply bonded. Their separate actions in "La Gentillesse des Étrangers" show this core characteristic play out in similar ways; Daryl does what it takes to get the Union of Hope’s prisoners back, whilst Carol does what it takes to get Ash to fly her to France. But it also highlights that there may be a difference growing. While Daryl is losing faith in himself, he has Isabelle and Laurent reinforcing his goodness as a person and how much they want him around. Meanwhile Carol has only a friendship she knows is built on deceit, but is trying desperately to get to the one person who makes her feel loved.

While Carol may be lying to Ash, it’s clear her emotions and motives are very real; without Daryl she felt stuck and she is doing anything she can to get herself out of the mire. The visuals of Carol, and a reassuring Ash, flying into the rising sun make very clear that a new day is dawning for these new friends, and their future awaits on a literal wing and a prayer.

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