Every hero needs a good villain, and so far on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon we’ve been led to think that baddie is Marion Genet (Anne Charrier). The leader of the militaristic Pouvoir des Vivants has been chasing after Daryl (Norman Reedus) throughout Season 1 of the series, and trying to track down his young ward Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) for most of Season 2. But with this week’s origin story reveal for Genet, it’s clear that the show is painting her not just as any new bad guy… She’s the new Negan.
Spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 3, “The Book of Carol: L’Invisible” past this point.
In the episode, we start with a flashback and full disclosure: I love those pre-fall flashbacks to a normal world, right before it all goes wrong. Here we discover that Genet was a cleaning woman at The Louvre, mildly obsessed — like the rest of the world — with the Mona Lisa. Shouts to the show for filming in The Louvre, by the way.
The meek, put-upon Marion doesn’t want to make waves. During a discussion with fellow workers about a potential walk-out, she’s the one hold-out. She wants to stay under the radar and feels there’s no real way to make a difference. Pointedly, one of her co-workers tells her she can’t sit on the sidelines forever… Which is when they start getting texts and news alerts that something has gone wrong.
Locked in the museum, Marion cannot reunite with her husband Adrien (David Baïot), who she watches get torn apart by walkers outside the Pyramid du Louvre. Later, she cries looking at the Mona Lisa, alone in the room, her mind breaking and forming into something new. Later still we see her walking through the huddled masses in the Louvre — and though it’s not explicitly stated, she’s made a decision to step up a la what her co-worker suggested… Just perhaps not in the way that woman meant.
So, Why Is Genet The New Negan?
While it’s not a one-to-one, this origin clearly parallels Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) backstory, as presented in The Walking Dead. There’s the pretty normal job — Negan was a high school coach. There’s the focus on the married relationship — for Negan, it was his wife who he was too late to save from pancreatic cancer. And there’s the rise to fascistic leader as a result.
That’s one of the core ideas of the franchise after all: what do you become when the world falls? For Negan and Genet, it’s twisting the world to their world view, instead of figuring out how to live in it. Genet built her whole personality post-apocalypse on the Mona Lisa, which she stole from the Louvre and installed in her new stronghold. She tells Carol (Melissa McBride) in the episode that she sees a secret behind the Mona Lisa’s smile. And of course, the enduring nature of the painting is because we see ourselves in it, not whatever Leonardo da Vinci’s intention was.
There’s also the ending of the episode to think about. Paralleling Negan’s famous lineup, Genet has a number of volunteers lined up to turn into super-zombies and attack Mont-Saint-Michel. Who does she pick for that lineup? Carol. Granted, Carol is not going to die horribly like Glenn (Steven Yeun), since she’s already in Season 3 of the series. But it’s still the same sort of threat.
And not for nothing, but both Genet and Negan have five letters in their names and share three of the same first letters, just switched around. But that’s probably just a coincidence. Maybe.
Time will tell if Genet has the staying power of Negan. She’s certainly amped up the danger for Daryl and Carol considerably in Season 2 and has the army to back it up. But like the Mona Lisa’s smile, the outcome of this particular story is thus far, uncertain.
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*
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