The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is a spin-off show based on the original The Walking Dead franchise and stars Daryl and Carol in pivotal roles. The fourth episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, titled The Book of Carol. It served as a mid-season anchor, furthering the story by great lengths and providing the much-anticipated reunion between Daryl and Carol. In true The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon fashion, the reunion occurred amid a high-octane action sequence.
Although Daryl and Carol were separated for a short time as per the universe of The Walking Dead, their reunion comes after a long wait for the show's fans. It also justified Daryl's abrupt exit from the eleventh season of the flagship show. In between themselves, Daryl and Carol are the two oldest characters to have survived to date ever since the inception of the show.
Both characters are fan favorites and share a profound chemistry, which made the mid-reason reunion all the more impactful. They survived the attack on their safe haven called the Nest, with Carol emerging unscathed from a zombie assault orchestrated by Genet and Daryl, successfully evading capture.
Daryl and Carol's reunion on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon details explored
The fourth episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon saw the Nest being attacked by a horde of walkers. The attack was spearheaded by the dictatorial leader of France known as Genet, played by Anne Charrier. Amidst all the chaos and confusion that prevailed, Carol saw herself inside the space and fought her way against oncoming walkers.
Later, Daryl struggled to hold his own against the army of walkers inside a hallway. He was in the thick of battle with the morning star in his hand. Daryl heard gunshots reverberating down the hallway, approaching quickly.
Ultimately, Carol stood before Daryl, and the reunion was complete. The two embraced each other, and that moment was reminiscent of a prior reunion between them back at Terminus during the fifth season of The Walking Dead's flagship show. Carol had stepped into Daryl's life at a critical juncture following the death of Isabelle in the same episode.
Showrunner spills details about The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon reunion
David Zabel is the showrunner of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and he recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the experience of filming the reunion scene and its importance as compared to the overall narrative. He stated:
"“There were many different ideas for how we should do that scene, on the one hand, we wanted to earn that moment, and didn’t want to rush it. We didn’t want it to happen (too early in the season), and plausibility demanded that it couldn’t happen too easily, anyway. So that became the plan: a midseason reunion.”
He added that the team finally decided to make the reunion happen in an action scene. However, the final details were decided upon shortly before filming began.
"The version we filmed was written in about three days before we filmed it, which is unusually late for us. We write in advance, because this show requires a lot of prep. We don’t make big changes on the fly."
Zabel continued:
"We might redo scenes, but you cannot make a show like this without being targeted and without having a plan that’s been worked on for a long time. But this one, it was just so important to get right."
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs exclusively on AMC.