Two weeks after choosing to stay in France, Daryl is training Laurent. Meanwhile, in Maine, Carol starts her search and makes a new friend,.

The first season of Daryl Dixon did a great job of collapsing the increasingly vast cast of The Walking Dead down into a character study of Daryl, using him as a lens to expand the world and add in a new cast. This season changes pace drastically, and this opening episode splits itself pretty evenly between Daryl in France and Carol starting her search for him.

The Daryl plot picks up almost exactly where the first season left off. In fact there’s a cheeky gag that suggests we’re right back at where the season ended that’s pretty fun. Now settled in at the Nest, Daryl is struggling with his newfound comfort and the wildly different approaches he and Losang have. Joel de La Fuente is great here and the chemistry he and Norman Reedus have is really good fun. There’s a hint that these two men are much closer in approach than either thinks. There’s another that Losang may become an antagonist. I honestly hope not because de la Fuente is such fun and honestly, Daryl needs another buddy or two.

The Carol plot actually does pick up right after we last saw her and takes some interesting turns. The most interesting is reminding us of just how great Melissa McBride is in the role. She shifts effortlessly from charming to slightly feeble to dead eyed killer and back again and it’s great to see her play the hits. Where the episode excels is in the new dimensions it gives her and the new toys it gives McBride to play with. This Carol is deeply troubled, not in the way she’s been in the past but in the fact she’s survived to see that past. There’s a flashback to a pivotal season 2 moment here that’s something we’ve never seen before. She screws up here, and feels it, and admits to it and it’s a fascinating beat to give a character who has in the past been the embodiment of ruthless competency. Most interesting still is the story she tells newcomer Ash (Manish Dayal) which is either false or true enough to cover her real motives. It works, and she hates that and Carol realising that is a type of growth you can only see in a character who has been around this long. Dayal is very good by the way, and Ash is a great addition to the show. He’s faced similar trauma to Carol, dealt with it very differently and, like her, realises that has to change. Two loners realising they don’t want or need to be alone, coming together at the best and worst time. It’s heady, powerful stuff and it’s written, directed and played very well.

The one downside to the episode is the point where it stops being a story and starts being a serial. Carol and Ash’s reason for leaving the US feels intensely forced, especially after the heart to heart they have a couple of scenes earlier. It adds urgency, and gore, to an episode which has enough of both. That and the slightly uneven pacing are both problems, but neither are insurmountable.

Verdict: Even with them, this is a tight, fun return and one that sets up the season to come in some very exciting ways. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart