‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ Recap: ‘La Gentillesse des Étrangers’

9/30/2024

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier in Episode 201 of ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ – ‘La Gentillesse des Étrangers’. (Photo Courtesy of Emmanuel Guimier/AMC.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Two Premiere of ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’. To revisit the Season One Finale, click here.

Stories that feature the outright end of the world, tend to focus on one thing, and one thing alone, the end. Because staying in that segment of an apocalypse allows for us to go on a horrifying thrill ride. One where we can see what people become as civilization collapses around humanity and what it would take for modern people to survive it and potentially hunker down to prepare for tomorrow, and that really is it, and we genuinely enjoy this. For it is escapist storytelling at its finest and takes us on a scary and unrelenting ride. But what’s fascinating about going that route, is how much story is left on the table. Because eventually… the chaos ends, the monsters win, and humanity would be forced to think about tomorrow. But few stories in this vein, have taken the time to ponder upon such concepts, but they should.

Because that’s an opportunity to deeply explore the human condition like never before and ask some hard questions about our modern world and the trappings of it we do not like. Because it’s safe to say that eventually mankind would come back together in community and make some hard choices. Such as, do we worry about popularity anymore? Politics? Or do we forge a simpler path. Not to mention, what do we need to hold onto? Should we process our emotions differently now that we know what lie ahead? For that matter… is there a place in our new world for faith and the like now that we’ve seen a God ignore us in our time of need? Which are powerful questions that in reality, only one franchise has taken the time to ponder upon.

For The Walking Dead Universe has explored such matters in the later seasons of its flagship series and across its many incredible spinoffs. Since the survivors of this apocalypse are indeed putting the world back together again and that is why it should come as no surprise that the new season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol is eager to explore such matters in great detail. For ‘La Gentillesse des Étrangers’ pondered some of those questions, with Daryl’s journey in France taking charge of that question regarding religion. For when we caught up with Daryl in this tale, he was back at the Nest with Laurent and Isabelle after choosing to stick around for a good while and was pondering upon home and those he left behind, and he and Laurent were growing closer and closer as a surrogate father and son. For Daryl was working to teach him how to live in the land of the dead, and that was… a problem. Because Losang had a great deal of concerns about Daryl’s violent ways.

For he truly believed that the new world that lie ahead, needed to be violence free, and that its Messiah should only know love and nothing more. Which brought about conflict since Daryl understood that this new world, might not have room for faith in this manner and such beliefs. For hungry walking corpses take precedent over prayer time. But Losang heard little of Daryl’s thoughts and was eager to let him help with a rescue mission involving Fallou. Since it got Daryl away from the Nest and of course… let him do what he does best. Since he did save lives and bring people home, despite failing to end this for all time. But what mattered more here, was that the story explored that yes, some would believe that religion would be a necessity. Since clearly, the next generation of religion is here, and it is as aggressive as the old and it will be interesting to see the show explore its role in a world where faith faltered, because its basic tenants were turned upside down.

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in Episode 201 of ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ – ‘La Gentillesse des Étrangers’. (Photo Courtesy of Emmanuel Guimier/AMC.)

However, while that made for a lovely exploration regarding faith in such a situation and set the stage for all kinds of juicy storytelling… we would be remiss to not point out that episode featured the official return to Carol Peletier to the TWD Universe and at first… it seemed as though her journey would not have a ton of depth. For the beginning of her story picked up shortly after the season one finale, wherein she took Daryl’s bike back to the troubling place he found in season one. Where they betrayed him and sent him to France. All because she was hell bent on finding her best friend. But any information she received was a waste of time and led her to nothing but sorrow and an understanding that being alone on this journey was awakening something in her very soul.

What exactly, she had no clue of, but being able to spot a plane and follow it to the compound it was stored at, began an exploration regarding something we don’t see explored all that often in horror, especially zombie themed fiction… the power of grief. A move that spoke to how, we would not be able to alter how we process emotion but would instead have to deal with them at some point. But at first, it seemed as though some old TWD plot concepts were about to come to life instead. For she was treated with kindness by the man who lived at the complex, named Ash. Who while kind, was clearly hiding some kind of secret. For his greenhouse was kept under supreme lock and key, and the glass was purposefully not cleaned to keep it all a secret. Which gave off those ‘hidden evil/sense of doom’ vibes we endured at Terminus or in learning of the Wolves and the Saviors.

But Carol’s curiosity exposed that Ash, was dealing with grief. For this place was nothing more than a memorial for his fallen son and that… informed Carol that she has some grief of her own to deal with. Because we learned here that she has not gotten over the heavy losses she’s suffered in this story, especially when it comes to her daughter, Sophia. Who showed up in her mind often here. And that she is convinced at this point, the only way she can heal that grief, is by saving the one person that she consideres to be family. So, in true Carol fashion, she sold a whopper of a lie and told Ash that her daughter was alive and well in France and that she would give anything to go there and find her. A move that pulled at Ash’s own unresolved grief and resulted… in a trip toward Europe, to bring best friends together again under the guise of a lie.

All of which set the stage for an epic season to come, one that is clearly going to be grounded in very different and intimate concepts and explore things that zombie fiction rarely does, and that’s just fine. Because questioning the role of religion in the modern world and dealing with grief are timely topics for a world that is looking toward tomorrow and is still trying to reconcile a costly pandemic and a shift in people’s attitudes politically, and that makes this, a brilliant premiere. One that was unique and refreshing and once again takes this franchise in a bold new direction. But above all, let’s be honest, it’s the return of Carol that we are all excited about here. For Melissa McBride has not missed a beat in playing the character, and she’s adding new depth and power to her, and all of these elements have us excited for the reunion we all desperately want, and to see where these powerful plot threads will take us as season two of this dynamic series continues along. Until next time.

To learn more about season two, visit our interview with cast members: Anne Charrier (Genet), Romain Levi (Codron), Eriq Ebouaney (Fallou) and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi (Laurent).

Watch ‘The Waking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’

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