The Big Picture
- Daryl and Carol’s friendship in The Walking Dead is heartfelt and dynamic, with moments that capture our hearts.
- In Season 10, Episode 1, Daryl calls Carol his “best friend” and gives her a friendship bracelet, showing their deep bond.
- Daryl’s growing commitment to the communities foreshadows his future leadership role, while their whimsical fantasies hint at their desire for freedom.
With The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon being released this week and the uncertainty around how much of an appearance Carol Peletier will actually make in the show, it is definitely about time we reminisce on our favorite Daryl-and-Carol moments. Their distinct personalities always make for enjoyable interactions; Norman Reedus embodies the emotions of a rock as Daryl, and Melissa McBride switches between playful and deadpan as Carol. From the moment Daryl handed Carol the Cherokee rose in Season 2, this blossoming friendship continued to capture our hearts in a myriad of ways: Carol’s teasing use of “pookie,” Daryl finding Carol barely alive in the prison, their teary reunion after Carol decimated Terminus and each time Daryl holds Carol after she loses a child. Rather than listing these scenes (which could go on for hours), let’s draw our attention to one of the more meaningful and heartwarming Daryl-Carol exchanges in Season 10, Episode 1.
Carol returns from a fishing trip that takes place for months and is immediately greeted by Daryl, resulting in a couple of quips being exchanged that lighten up the mood after the heartbreak of The Walking Dead‘s Season 9 finale. After deciding to go hunting together, they end up sitting around the campfire where Daryl calls Carol his “best friend.” It’s the first time any labels are established on their friendship and as Carol points out, it’s certainly a touching, childlike 10-year-old move. Carol very quickly proceeds to take playful jabs at him until he gifts her a rugged friendship bracelet made of twisted string, which she promptly ties to her wrist. Amid this banter, there’s a somber note from their previous conversation about how they feel as if they are just “surviving from one fight to the next.” They even fantasize about running away together — just jumping onto Daryl’s bike and heading towards New Mexico to find other people “like them.”
Daryl and Carol’s Friendship Is Dynamic on ‘The Walking Dead’
At the beginning of The Walking Dead, Daryl has a more guardian-like role in their growing friendship — of course, that is until Carol had her badass transformation into an assassin-like character and suddenly, they were fighting side-by-side as equals. Like everyone on the show, they’ve both suffered losses and have had their grief manifest in various ways, such as Carol isolating herself after realizing how many people she’s killed or Daryl mercilessly killing Saviors after blaming himself for Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) death. Right before their Season 10 interaction, Daryl had taken a six-year-long hiatus to tirelessly search for Rick (Andrew Lincoln), only re-joining the communities once Carol and Henry (Matthew Lintz) visited. They tend to take turns isolating themselves but also manage to pull each other back from the brink.
In this scene, it was Daryl’s turn to ask Carol, now a self-proclaimed “sea-dog,” to stay anchored to the communities. After the gut-wrenching scene of Carol losing her second child and Daryl repeatedly murmuring “don’t look” as he embraced her like when she had lost Sophia (Madison Lintz), it makes sense for her to detach for a while. However, unlike Daryl, Carol didn’t just leave the communities but also left her position as the Queen of the Kingdom. Although their input and influence over the decision-making in the groups are the same, Daryl has always slightly separated himself from them while Carol was an explicitly established leader. As such, Daryl’s attempt at grounding Carol truly highlights how ingrained he has actually become in the communities. His growing commitment foreshadows how he takes on a more overt leadership position later in the season. It’s also worth mentioning that his developing relationships with Connie (Lauren Ridloff), Judith (Cailey Fleming), and RJ (Antony Azor) compound his interconnectedness and dedication to the groups.
Along with the serious note of fighting for the communities in The Walking Dead universe, the interaction also involves fantasizing about hitting the road and a healthy dose of classic Daryl-Carol banter. Their ability to weave both solemn and frivolous tones into their interactions is what really drew us to them in the first place. Even now, after everything they’ve endured, the childlike aspect of their friendship never ceases to amaze. Being free-spirited yet beholden to their roles provides the perfect juxtaposition that makes their friendship so dynamic. This is especially true considering they constantly switch between being the one that takes flight and the one that reminds the other how much the group needs them.
This ‘Walking Dead’ Scene Hints at ‘Daryl Dixon’s Future
Their desire to be alone is blatantly exhibited in their almost whimsical fantasies of hitting the road together. The scene also reminds us that they lived on the same fight-or-flight instinct even pre-apocalypse. Despite their journeys being vastly different, the cores of their personalities harmonize perfectly together, manifesting in the ideal scenario of leaving their responsibilities behind and feeling the wind of freedom on the back of a motorcycle with no purpose in mind for once. In the Season 10 finale, the idea of running off to New Mexico is revisited, and some fans had theorized that this is where The Walking Dead spin-off show was going to take place. However, Reedus provides a different perspective on this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“I just think they’re sitting on a log, and they’re daydreaming. Life is so hard sometimes, especially on that show for those characters. They say ‘What if we did this?’ They’re kind of daydreaming about stuff. We’re kind of window-shopping opportunities. I think it’s what you would do. You’d be, ‘Meh, I just wish things would be different right now.’ So it’s two friends doing that. Sparking a little openness to them.”
This was only further confirmed in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon trailer, where we see Daryl go on The Last of Us-like adventures in France. However, the “Best Friend” scene coupled with the Season 11 finale does explain why Daryl has the potential to be in France, and how Carol could soon reunite with him. Daryl has always been a nomadic character, constantly traveling between communities and never committing to one. In addition, Carol also became increasingly autonomous as the show progressed, and by this Daryl-and-Carol moment, they’re both on the same level of independence. So when Maggie (Lauren Cohan) chooses someone for her scouting mission, both would have been ideal candidates, if only Carol hadn’t chosen to take over as the Director of Operations at the Commonwealth. It is likely that this wasn’t the original plan for Carol’s storyline, particularly since McBride was once expected to co-lead in the spin-off and the friends’ interactions in Season 10 definitely pointed in that direction too. Even though Carol won’t be able to fulfill her fantasy of taking off and crossing borders, Daryl most certainly did, and little did he know just how far he would go — but perhaps these longtime friends will still find a way to reunite.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres September 10 on AMC.
