Daryl, Laurent and Izzy escape from Genet and make it home. But where is home, for Daryl, now?

This episode’s most important moment is silent. His job dispatched and a boat waiting for him to start the long journey home, Daryl walks to the coast. Along the way, he finds himself in a cemetery full of World War II dead. There, he finds his grandfather. Daryl is visibly moved and visibly uncomfortable at being moved. The realization hits him at the same time it does us: everything that’s happened to him, every horror, every tragedy, has brought him here. To the right place at the right time and that’s terrifying.

That fear, not just of horror but of safety, is at the core of everyone’s arc this episode. We find out Izzy faked Laurent’s drawing of Daryl to convince him the boy had powers. Quinn’s death, one of two missteps this episode, is accepted by the season’s most fun character because he’s afraid of what he’d become to his son if he lived. Laurent overcomes his fear of killing to end his undead father’s life and save his adoptive mother. Genet, and Anne Charrier is a force of nature this week, is so driven by fear that she’s created an entire culture based on it. It’s an old chestnut for sure, but the crowd at the opening death match going from chanting for Daryl’s death to chanting for Daryl is a very powerful moment. Fear is a powerful motivator but a terrible foundation. Genet realizes that to her cost in the opening scene. Daryl realizes it to his at the halfway point.

Writers Jason Richman & Laura Snow make gutsy choice after gutsy choice this episode and they pretty much all pay off. The biggest fall in the second half, starting with Codron finding a line he can’t cross. Romain Levi has been one of the cast members given least to do and this episode more than makes up for it. He wins, definitively and absolutely. There is nothing that can save Daryl and Izzy and Laurent and that is the moment Codron realizes what he’s becoming – a man who executes children for the greater good. His refusal to do so, and Gallic stoicism when he’s caught, are two of the highlights of an episode full of them and I’m really excited to see what his plot does in season 2.

The flip side to that is Adam Nagaitis as Quinn who at least gets to go out with a bang. The opening fight is directed with brutal flamboyance by Daniel Percival and Adam Nagaitis and Norman Reedus and the stunt team have a blast. Daryl and Quinn are chained together, assume they’re there to kill each other and when it becomes apparent that isn’t the case, work together seamlessly. That tells us Quinn can be redeemed and that Daryl has some darkness in him and the pair bounce off each other in such a fun way I’m truly sorry Nagaitis won’t be back next year. I hope this show catapults him further into the public eye and like I say, he may go out here but Quinn goes out with a bang.

But it’s the second half that’s haunting. Arriving at The Nest, stunning real life location Mont Saint-Michel, Daryl and his adoptive family relax for the first time. Reedus and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi have some really sweet moments here and the show does a great job of showing us how far Daryl’s come before he quite realizes it himself. It was an incredible nice surprise too to see Joel de la Fuente show up as Losang, one of the heads of The Nest. De la Fuente has been a favourite since his scene stealing turn as Lt. Paul Wang in Space: Above and Beyond a frankly horrific amount of time ago and it’s great to see him getting something of a renaissance this year with roles here and in Hello Tomorrow! and My Adventures with Superman. He’s an inherently reassuring presence and his gentle challenging of Daryl’s assumption he has to go is lovely. In a show that’s flirted with spirituality a lot, Losang feels like a spiritual leader in the best sense; a supporting, nurturing figure who challenges those around him to grow in positive ways. I feel that he and Ezekiel from the original show would get on very well.

All this leads to what’s essentially a pastoral interlude where Daryl is welcome, safe, at home and still feels driven to return to the US. That in turn leads us to the cemetery at Normandy and to the visit to his grandfather’s grave. Mentioned earlier on in the episode, he’s someone Daryl clearly blames for how his life turned out. Daryl and his brother were both abuse survivors, both men who were uniquely equipped to survive the apocalypse by the lifetime of trauma they endured prior to it. Daryl clearly has a tremendous amount of rage at what was done to him and is vastly conflicted about the skills that he has. Seeing his grandfather’s grave, seeing the man who started it all and how casually he lost his life is an incredible burden to bear. But it’s also one that lifts at the same time it settles and because Reedus is so damn good you can see that. You see Daryl’s disgust at what he sees as failure, his grief at the loss of a man he never knew and the horror that he’s fighting in the same place his grandfather did and surviving. This isn’t just Daryl’s link to the past being broken it’s his link to the future being cemented. A future that doesn’t just lie in the US.

That leads us to the one other bum note in the episode. Laurent’s arrival on the beach makes sense and the choice Daryl is faced with is a powerful one; home in the US or home here. But Laurent is, at best, twenty feet away from a crowd of walkers that Daryl only just fought through. He’s completely unconcerned by them too and while he has multiple ways out, it’s an overwrought image in an episode that’s traded off subtlety and kindness. For the first time, the needs of the arc plot outweigh the needs of the episode and the show suffers, just a little, for it.

It’s also disappointing because the actual final scene does the same thing but far better. Melissa McBride’s triumphant on-screen return sees Carol already two steps away from the truth, chasing down the man on Daryl’s motorbike in a muscle car and all set to discover the truth. Season 2 is apparently subtitled The Book of Carol and I can’t wait to see how she gets to France. Genet and her organization don’t stand a chance.

Verdict: This is, slight missteps asides, a very strong end to a very strong debut year for Daryl Dixon. This format really agrees with the show and the tight plotting, big emotional arcs and bigger stakes all pay off here and all help the show evolve for season 2. I can’t wait to see it. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart