The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, aka The Book of Carol, is lightyears more enthralling and emotional than the first season of the AMC series… And that first season, which sent Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) to France was already pretty darn good. All credit goes to adding Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) to the series. Not only does she elevate every scene she appears in, but it proves that when it comes to the world of The Walking Dead, these characters are better together.
In the first season of Daryl Dixon, due to a variety of circumstances, the monosyllabic Daryl ended up trapped in France. He met a kid named Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) who several factions thought was the potential savior of humanity and either wanted to elevate him or destroy him. He also met Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), a nun and protector of Laurent who seemed to strike up a flirtation with Daryl. And in the process, far away from Ohio, the Commonwealth, and all of his friends, Daryl formed a de facto new family.
Despite all that, the first season of the series ended with a choice: leave France on the one boat headed back to America, or save Laurent from a horde of zombies. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say Daryl chose the latter, as he’s still in France this season. It also creates perhaps the most internal conflict we’ve seen Reedus play in a very long time in The Walking Dead franchise, as he wrestles with the complicated feelings of, well, feeling things towards these new people. He spent so long with the main group in TWD, that he now needs to decide whether France, Laurent, and Isabelle are his new home.
It’s a pretty fascinating conflict to watch and gives Reedus the chance to flex his muscles with the best acting we’ve seen from him in possibly a decade. Yes, he gets killer action scenes. A “one-take” scene midway through the season as Daryl takes on a bunch of enemy soldiers is an absolute banger. And there’s still plenty of your classic Daryl grunting. But there are quieter moments where he’s allowed to reflect as well. For years, Daryl has been a feral cat forced to be a housecat in the world of The Walking Dead. So what happens when he has a moment to stop and reflect? What happens when there’s a child he cares for? A woman? Something other than survival?
That conflict extends to Carol, who we last saw searching for Daryl at the end of Season 1. Like Daryl, Carol’s mode we’ve seen the most is non-stop movement and survival. That’s exactly what showrunner David Zabel smartly plays with her… Not just that Carol is searching for Daryl, but why she’s searching for Daryl. This allows McBride to play some of the most complicated, powerful scenes we’ve seen from her in a long time. And it ties back into some deep lore from the history of TWD that will absolutely gut longtime fans.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s also a thrill to have Carol back because McBride is hilarious as the character. The way Carol can throw out lies and sell them with her innocent-looking face and high, chirpy voice is still in full effect here. And she has only gotten more diabolical (complimentary) as the years have gone by. That’s also a major theme of the season: why does Carol lie so easily? And what are the ramifications of her lying to other characters? But it’s also very, very fun to watch. Until it’s not.
The series also continues to utilize the settings in France to the best of its ability. This is an extremely well-shot show that feels different from The Walking Dead simply because of its settings. Mont Saint-Michel, the home base of the Union of Hope, the people who took in Daryl, Laurent, and Isabelle, is a stunning location. Other highlights of France and Paris pop up this season that seem like a flex at the close collaboration between this production and the French government. It’s genuinely impressive to see some of the locations they pulled off. But the rest of the places visited, while not always as scenic, don’t feel like “Daryl Does France” so much as presenting locales with a different flavor and tone than you would get back in Georgia (where most of the previous shows were shot).
The rest of the cast is good, too. Anne Charrier is a stand-out as villain Marion Genet, the sadistic leader of Pouvoir des Vivants, who wants to kill Laurent. She gets to play several different modes throughout the season, as we discover more about her and her backstory, and is an intriguing addition to the mythos of TWD. And Manish Dayal as Ash, a pilot who interacts with Carol early on in the season, is an earnest, sweet addition to the franchise as well.
On a logistical level, though, splitting the running time between Carol and Daryl makes for a faster, more thrilling season. Nothing against the routinely excellent French cast of the series, but having approximately half the episode devoted to Carol, and half to Daryl as the two draw inexorably closer together means there’s not as much time for digressions as there was in Season 1. It’s also not too much of a spoiler to say the two meet up eventually (it was in the trailer, after all), but even then it’s about their individual emotional arcs, and how they intertwine.
After nearly 15 years of playing these characters, you wouldn’t think there would be anything new to say about them individually, or together. Yet by taking these two steadfast friends and making them strangers in a strange land, we discover more about them as people, and as a pair, than we have in a long, long time.
Daryl is great. Carol is great. But TWD lives and dies on the interaction between its characters. It’s true of fellow miniseries The Ones Who Live and Dead City, and it’s true here too with Daryl Dixon. The show is miles better with Carol in Daryl’s life. It’s also better with Daryl is Carol’s life. And it makes for some damn good television in the process. Caryl forever.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiere on Sundays on AMC and AMC+. The episodes premiere at 3 am ET / 12 am PT on AMC+, and 9 pm ET on AMC.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 with premiere dates:
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 1 – “The Book of Carol: La gentillesse des étrangers”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 2 – “The Book of Carol: Moulin Rouge”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 3 – “The Book of Carol: L’Invisible”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 4 – “The Book of Carol: La Paradis Pour Toi”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 5 – “The Book of Carol: Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 6 – “The Book of Carol: Au Revoir Les Enfants” *Season Finale*
