‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ 2×05 review: “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir”

And just like that we’ve reached the penultimate episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Last week we got the bittersweet reunion between Daryl and Carol that we’ve all been waiting for, the tragic loss of Isabelle, and the gruesome defeat of Genet using her own walker experiment. With the season wrapping up, the remaining players on the board are nearing an inevitable collision.  

The episode beings with Daryl and Carol continuing their journey to meet up with Ash. Upon reaching the hanger (and Carol hinting to Daryl that Ash doesn’t know the real reason why he flew her to France) they find traps set up and a half dead attacker who revels that Ash fled when he and his men tried to steal the plane. They decide to go to the rooftop hideout for refuge and find Laurent and the rest of the survivors of the Nest invasion. Among them is a very remorseful Codron who’s new mission seems to be repenting for his previous actions by protecting Laurent. 

After some discussion, Daryl and Carol decide to head to Demimonde, the nightclub from the first season, to get some intel on the whereabouts of Ash. The club is now run by Anna, the girlfriend of Quinn (also Isabelle’s ex-boyfriend), who is more than willing to assist Daryl on his mission. They learn that Ash is trapped in a car surrounded by walkers, and they devise a plan to take out enough walkers to get to him and then use the walker serum to take out more of them while inside the car. They are able to get Ash out and return to the hanger where he and Carol have the uncomfortable conversation about her lie that made Ash fly her to France. 

While this is going on, Codron and Laurent are reconnecting at the rooftop hideout when suddenly Losang and his men barge in looking for Laurent. While the survivors distract Losang and stand up to him, Codron gets Laurent out safely and they manage to find their way to Demimonde where they find Daryl. They explain to Daryl what happened at the hideout, but soon enough Losang picked up their trail and walks into Demimonde. This leads to a climactic fight in the catacomb tunnels below the club in which Daryl is able to brutally kill Losang and Codron (thinks he) defeats Losang’s second in command. Dary, Carol and Laurent return to the hanger where the episode ends on a serious dilemma: they can’t all fit on the plane.

While the previous two episodes ramped up the action and plot development in big ways, this episode slowed things down. The highlights were the multiple character-centric moments throughout. Codron got the chance to explain his journey, Daryl and Laurent talked about what the future looked like and the fears they both have, and Carol and Ash had the conversation we all knew would come eventually about her true intentions. Well written and emotional, these scenes brought much needed depth to this episode. The climactic action sequence at the end of the episode was fun, but a bit predictable and not as thought out as previous ones. 

The rest of the episode felt like the showrunner ran out of ideas, too focused on tomorrow’s finale. The sets seem recycled from last season; fine, but the creative use of France’s picturesque environment makes it excellent. The plot of the episode overall was boring compared to the rest of the season. Daryl and Carol were still trying to find Laurent, Losang is still mindlessly following his trail as well, and Daryl is still conflicted about leaving with Carol. It all just felt more like it should’ve been in last week’s episode and not its own episode.

Based on the teaser for the The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale tomorrow, it looks like we’re in for one final fight between Daryl, Carol and Losang’s remaining forces. Who will get on the plane and fly to America? Who will sacrifice themselves to save the others? And, since we already know there’s going to be a third season, where will this next episode leave Daryl and Carol? I guess we’ll find out in next week’s (hopefully a little better) episode!

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Images courtesy of Emmanuel Guimier/AMC