Daryl and team lose a mule and gain some friends. Isabelle’s version of Monument Day reveals some background on her and Laurent.

This show is two episodes old so right now it’s telling us, and itself, what it wants to be. That’s an untidy process and this episode embodies that untidiness for better and worse.

The flashbacks are really nicely executed, especially the way they escalate. We see Isabelle witness something odd at the end of the road, see her go to a metro station. We see passengers climbing over seats to avoid… something as the train keeps moving and some passengers pound their heads on the windows trying to get to the platform. We know what this is. She doesn’t. That makes it even more disturbing and doubly so when we meet Quinn (Adam Nagaitis) and Lily (Faustine Koziel), Isabelle’s pregnant sister. This thread unspools at the same speed society unravels and by the time they arrive at the Abbey you realize just who Lily’s child is: Laurent. This instantly takes the edge off the slightly unsettling religious element and also casts Laurent in a far more interesting, more uncertain light. In one episode, we get context and foundation for the biggest ask the show makes of us. Very nicely played.

The present day plot is less successful, although harmonizes with this nicely. The recurring kind lie that the mule they lose being fine is an element that works well. Louis Puech Scigliuzzi is doing great work here and his hurt and anger that he’s been lied to is painful and realistic. Their capture by a group of children led by Lou (Kim Higelin, who is great throughout) feels, at first, pretty tiresome. ‘Self raising kids’ is a common apocalypse trope and you get a sense, early on, of this being a one-stop episode that’s going to run in place. It does and it doesn’t, and that’s the point.

It does in the sense that the beats you expect are the ones you get. Moof (Durel Nkounkou Loumouamou), is a grumpy kid who’s worried about his brother. Laurent does not find himself welcome with children who haven’t been raised to be the Second Coming. There’s nothing here that’s especially surprising, and several cast members are not well served by what they have to do but what there is, in abundance, is peace. A scene where Daryl and co sit with the kids as a bike-powered projector runs an episode of Mork & Mindy they’ve seen a thousand times is poignant and odd, and zeroes in on how alone Daryl feels and what he does with it. Because Norman Reedus is so good at what he does, you can see him turn that alienation into compassion, realizing the kids are alright. Realizing for once he doesn’t have to save someone. It’s a really nice scene and it ties into a moment of massive personal growth at the end. It’s just unfortunate it also ties into the Tarasque.

The Tarasque is a local thug who has stolen supplies from the kids. In return for getting them back, Daryl gets their mule. The Tarasque is also a loud American, RJ Gaines (Ned Dennehy) and he is by far the weakest element of the show so far. It’s not even entirely Dennehy’s fault. The script he’s been given is a crushingly dull speed run through stereotypes and bad action movie moments that ends with Gaines and Daryl being hurled into Gaines’ Carrion moat and Daryl being rescued. The intention is that Gaines is a loud, brash outsider. He’s everything Daryl isn’t. That should work. Instead we get a crushingly unsubtle stereotype show up for three minutes, be loud and die so an action sequence can be tacked onto the end of a pretty careful, calm episode. It’s a bad move, and not even Daryl being rescued by Lou, who he tried to avoid working with, quite saves it.

Verdict: Like I said, the show is working out what it wants to be. What works here works brilliantly, what doesn’t is painful. But it’s a process and this is an important step for both Daryl the show and Daryl the man. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart