Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 1]
L'âme Perdue
Shown 10 Sep 23
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) washes up on the shores of France,
lashed to an upturned lifeboat.
Evidently his journey was not easy,
and if he had any travelling companions
they are not with him any more.
His destination is Marseilles, so he sets off overland.
Daryl discovers the local humans are just like in America -
thieves and killers.
However, the zombies are different -
they can burn him just by touching his skin.
This is a good way of making a previously unkillable character
seem vulnerable enough for the audience to find relatable.
Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) is a nun who operates out of the local convent.
It was built in the middle ages,
and the nuns still have the medieval armoury.
Well, no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
The armoury is like Disneyland for Daryl,
whose gimmick in the later Seasons of the original show
is that he had a new cool weapon at the start of every Season.
Anyway, the nuns have a prophesy that a messenger will come.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 2]
Alouette
Shown 17th September 2023
We get a flashback to the day the outbreak hit Paris.
Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) was a professional pickpocket,
and her boyfriend Quinn (Adam Nagaitis -
Gunpowder Milkshake
) was some kind of gun-toting gangster.
They made an escape attempt,
accompanied by her pregnant sister.
However, the sister was dying and Isabelle had to choose.
The episode needs some action-adventure to keep the pace fast.
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) breaks into a castle to steal some supplies.
The owner is Gaines (Ned Dennehy -
), a Texan who is hoarding supplies.
He is a cardboard villain,
and his fate is both predictable and over-the-top.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 3]
Paris Sera Toujours Paris
Shown 24th September 2023
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) reach Paris.
Quinn (Adam Nagaitis -
Gunpowder Milkshake
), her ex-lover, is running a nightclub
for people with a live-for-the-moment mentality.
The thug from the first episode is back.
He has actually done some good detective work,
tracking Daryl across France
and finding allies that want the American dead.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 4]
La Dame de Fer
Shown 1st October 2023
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) search Paris for the boy, Laurent.
He keeps having near misses with crowds of zombies.
Perhaps it is because he keeps so still and silent
that they lose interest.
Or perhaps he is immune, like the blue man in
Z Nation
.
Quinn (Adam Nagaitis -
Gunpowder Milkshake
), the boy's father, sends a rescue mission.
Rather than thank them,
Daryl decides to murder and torture the rescuers.
Well, the local Militia are patrolling the streets
as if they were a German occupying force
during the Second World War,
so Daryl is meant to be the equivalent of the Resistance.
He organises an attack on Quinn's nightclub,
rather than just be civilised and make a deal.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 5]
Deux Amours
Shown 8th October 2023
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and the boy Laurent continue on their route north.
Daryl has flashbacks to how he got to France.
After he left the Commonwealth,
he rode north-west as far as Maine.
Presumably he avoided Manhattan, as featured in
Dead City
. Anyhow, in Maine he joins some hunters
who are live-capturing zombies for a mysterious group.
The financiers are loading the zombies onto a ship bound for France,
and are experimenting on them to make Fast Zombies.
He has a chat with Carol (
Melissa McBride
), via long-range radio transmitter.
She tells him that someone came back,
although the transmission cuts out before he can get details.
Presumably this is a reference to
Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
, but we will probably hear more in Season 2.
In the main timeframe, Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) has the option of a good life with Quinn (Adam Nagaitis -
Gunpowder Milkshake
). However, she is ungrateful and untrustworthy.
When she realises how well-connected he is with Genet (
Anne Charrier
), she decides to play along and gather some intelligence.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 1, Episode 6]
Coming Home
Shown 15 Oct 23
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and Quinn (Adam Nagaitis -
Gunpowder Milkshake
) are forced to fight together in the arena.
Not necessarily against each other,
but as a team against the zombies.
It turns out that if you get bitten by a fast zombie,
you become a fast zombie.
Once the loose plot threads are tied up,
the team return to their main storyline
of getting the boy to the Nest - AKA Mont St Michel.
Daryl makes himself useful teaching the French to use bolt-action rifles,
so presumably they have spent the last dozen years
without being able to use firearms properly.
He has a moment with Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) that seems reminiscent of Witness,
with her status as a nun being the equivalent of an Amish woman.
Of course, this is for TV so she does not go topless.
We discover that Daryl's grandfather is buried nearby,
after dying heroically on D-Day in 1944.
This is incredibly convenient,
since it is linked into one of the story's themes.
Laurent needs a father figure,
and poor old Quinn is unfairly ruled out for the role.
Daryl complains that his father grew up without a dad,
and passed this fatherless childhood on to Merl and Daryl.
Will Daryl abandon Laurent in his time of need?
The final scene is a clip with Carol (
Melissa McBride
), tracking Daryl's path back in America.
This is a setup for Season 2 ...
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 1]
La Gentillesse Des Étrangers
Shown 29th September 2024
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) is training the young boy to fight zombies.
However, the man running the camp is a Buddhist monk -
he only uses aikido in self defence,
just like Morgan in the original show.
When a couple of their people are captured in Paris,
Daryl is the one who volunteers to lead the rescue mission.
Yes, despite everyone in the group being an expert survivor
it falls on the title character to save the day.
Back in the USA, we pick up where the last Season's cliffhanger ended.
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) gets info on what happened to Daryl,
first by lying and then using violence.
She cannot be bothered to use a boat to cross the Atlantic,
but luckily she sees a plane fly overhead.
Rather than be honest,
she lies with every breath she can muster to manipulate the pilot.
Typically, the regular characters are indestructible ...
except when the plot demands some tension.
Then both Daryl and Carol make silly mistakes
that put them in needless jeopardy.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 2]
Moulin Rouge
Shown 6th October 2024
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) and the pilot crash-land in some mountains.
The bad news is that there are some moss-covered zombies.
The good news is that there are a couple of PhD students nearby,
trapped while spending a three-month period
monitoring glacial erosion.
Luckily they are both women.
After all, we know what would happen
if a couple of men got cabin fever.
Surely women will behave better ...
There is a bit of friction at the Nest.
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) has an undue influence on the boy, Laurent.
That night, two men break into the Nest and steal the boy.
Yes, only two of them - and they knew exactly which window
they would have to climb through.
Even stranger, they spared the guard they overpowered -
not to mention everyone else in the place.
Daryl and Isabelle (
Clémence Poésy
) go after Laurent, and walk into the inevitable ambush.
However, with their predictable take-no-prisoners approach
it will be difficult for them to work out who is behind it.
Luckily there is one recurring character
who is allowed the chance to monologue.
Remember, heroes never monologue -
they do not provide exposition,
they just kill without hesitation or mercy.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 3]
L'Invisible
Shown 13th October 2024
This starts with a flashback to the night of the zombie outbreak.
Genet was an employee at the Louvre in Paris,
locked in for safety while her husband was locked outside.
In the main timeframe, Carol (
Melissa McBride
) gets a job working for Genet.
She sees the experiments to create fast zombies,
and meets the man Genet has tortured for Daryl's location.
For some reason he gives her the info she wants,
even though he has no reason to trust her
and she does not even offer to rescue him from torture.
Instead he needlessly gives her the very secret
that he underwent torture rather than divulge.
There is a religious ceremony at the Nest.
They say the boy is their Messiah,
but a Messiah needs a symbolic crucifixion.
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and his friends gatecrash, wiping out the defenders.
Daryl's job was to train them in self-defence,
but he left them weak enough so he could slaughter them.
Of course, he has main character shields
so he is unkillable.
In-story, this means the defenders to not want to kill him.
Instead, he kills them even though he is not in real danger.
The result is that the Nest's defences are severely weakened
in case they get attacked by a zombie horde
or even by Genet and the real villains.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 4]
La Paradis Pour Toi
Shown 20th October 2024
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) gets used to lead the attack on the Nest.
The good news (for her) is that the front is only secured
by a flimsy wooden gate, and very few guards are left alive
after Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and his friends gatecrashed and wiped out the defenders.
A couple of main characters are written out in this episode.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 5]
Vouloir, C'est Pouvoir
Shown 27th October 2024
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) takes Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) to the airstrip, but the pilot is MIA.
They go looking for him.
The boy Laurent has made it back to Paris,
where there are lots of people eager to shelter him.
A couple of familiar faces turn up looking for him.
One is a villain who became a good guy,
and the other is a villain who used to be a good guy.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 2, Episode 6]
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Shown 3rd November 2024
When the plane is repaired, Carol (
Melissa McBride
) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) argue over who is due to take the boy to America,
since they both volunteer to stay behind and hold off the pursuers.
Yes, everyone left standing is now pulled into the hunt for the boy.
Once the plot threads are all tied up,
the survivors want to go home.
Since everyone in France has been killed by this stage,
the survivors decide to walk though the Channel Tunnel.
Yes, no point in waiting for another boat like last time.
Anyway, the Chunnel is infested with glow-in-the-dark zombies
that are afflicted with a fungus.
The spores cause halucination ...
Which means this is still just a slightly-improved version of
Z Nation
.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 1]
Costa Da Morte
Shown 07 Sep 25
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) have walked the Chunnel.
Now they walk from the white cliffs of Dover
all the way to London.
However, it is uninhabited.
Well, there is one Englishman left in England.
Julian Chamberlain (Stephen Merchant -
JoJo Rabbit
) rescues them and offers them access to a boat.
The trio try to sail across the Atlantic to North America.
If the weather keeps good,
they will be across in seventeen days.
Of course, if that were the case then
the Season would only have one episode.
As the episode title suggests, they end up in Spain.
Daryl is great at living off the land,
but Carol gets injured and it gets infected.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 2]
La Ofrenda
Shown 14 Sep 25
The previous episode's cliffhanger ending is quickly resolved.
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) coerces a couple of locals to take him and Carol (
Melissa McBride
) to their village for help.
The villagers are welcoming, but they have one problem.
They must randomly select a nubile young woman
and deliver her to the local tough guys.
This seems vaguely reminiscent of the setup in
Dragonslayer
, with random girls fed to the dragon.
Carol is not impressed,
whining that the mothers must hate having their daughters married off.
The alternative would be them facing incestuous cousin-marriage,
with all the genetic problems of inbreeding.
Daryl gets recognised as a killer,
and has to bump off the witnesses.
His gimmick of picking up a fancy new melee weapon each Season
allows him to adopt a fancy folding sword!
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 3]
El Sacrificio
Shown 21 Sep 25
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) plans to repair the boat.
He and Roberto the Romeo go looking for a new rudder.
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) befriends Antonio the town's doctor.
Like herself he is widowed.
He keeps a home movie theatre in his shed,
which gives them something to watch together.
Justina discovers that the Mayor, Uncle Fede,
rigged the bride lottery to save her - like in
Dragonslayer
.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 4]
La Justicia Fronteriza
Shown 28 Sep 25
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and Carol (
Melissa McBride
) get their boat's hull patched up,
with the help of Valentina the lighthouse keeper and her boyfriends.
The marauders are on the offensive.
A handful of them attack the boat crew,
while the main group attack the town.
The town has tall medieval walls,
with zombie cages on the outside
and bolt-action rifles on the battlements.
In contrast, the marauders just have medieval melee weapons.
They are like the Wolves in the original TV series.
Still, this allows for a massive battle scene
that takes up most of the episode.
Despite the marauders' insane plan of a full frontal attack in daylight,
they actually have a very good backup plan
that would have made a lot more sense as a main plan.
They have trebuchets on high ground overlooking the village.
Instead of hurling rocks at the target,
the marauders fire a bundle of flaming zombies!
This would have been a great first step as a softening barrage,
combined with a nighttime stealth attack
to catch the defenders by surprise while distracted.
The marauders, who call themselves Los Primitivos,
are anarchists who want to destroy everything.
Mayor Fede leads the defence of his town,
and the weapons the government forces left in trade for the brides
actually turn the balance in the fight.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 5]
Limbo
Shown 05 Oct 25
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) rides through the desert where spaghetti westerns were made.
Some enterprising souls have chained up some zombies
and are using them to pull a train.
Of course, the train is run by the villain of the week.
In true Spaghetti Western style,
Daryl teams up with the local villagers.
They are a leper colony,
living in the ruins of a town that was destroyed
by General Franco during the civil war in the 1930s.
Yes, Daryl kills a bunch of healthy humans
so that the lepers can spread their disease.
After the CoVid epidemic,
Daryl would fit in well with the anti-vaxxers.
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) stays in the small town, preparing the boat.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 6]
Contrabando
Shown 12 Oct 25
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and his lesbian sidekick join a crew of refugees.
Yes, there is a community of lesbians
who escaped a life of luxury in El Alcazar (literally The The Castle).
They did not want to have a career
as a trophy wife or a housemaid,
so they transitioned to have mens careers instead ...
as zombie fighters.
Daryl convinces them to help him ambush the Bride Parade.
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) stays in the small town, preparing the boat.
Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) [Season 3, Episode 7]
Solaz Del Mar
Shown 19 Oct 25
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus -
Blade 2
) and his lesbian sidekick join a work-crew
and infiltrate El Alcazar (literally The The Castle)
disguised as servants.
The Spanish monarchy is conducting a banquet,
with entertainment consisting of a puppet show ...
with zombies as the marionettes.
There is no security, and none of the VIPs have fighting skills.
Daryl knowingly endangers the Spanish King,
knowing that the main villain is next in line to the throne.
The plan seems to be the destruction of government,
removing the only means of security or infrastructure.
Like the Joker in
The Dark Knight
, Daryl just wants to watch the world burn.
After all, he knows he himself will be okay.
Yes, he is the ultimate Libertarian.
Carol (
Melissa McBride
) goes back for her boyfriend, Antonio the town doctor.
Of course, it is a trap.
The overall plan appears to be to tear the town apart.
If the town's militia, the young men of fighting age,
are killed then the town will be defenceless.
