Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for the premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol.
For eleven seasons, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) were two of the best characters on The Walking Dead. This was a surprise, as Daryl isn't even in Robert Kirkman's graphic novels, and Carol was a weak character who didn't make it long in Kirkman's story. In the AMC series, however, no one is stronger than them, no matter what turmoil they may have to endure. For years, fans clamored for them to get together romantically before accepting that they worked better as BFFs.
When The Walking Dead ended in 2022, that could have been the end of seeing Daryl and Carol together, but now with a plethora of spin-offs, the chance to see them reunited increased. Last year, Reedus got his own spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which saw our favorite walker-killing bad boy in France, but sadly it was without Carol by his side. This year, though, we get an additional title to the series, The Book of Carol, because McBride is back and on the hunt for her soulmate in the apocalypse. Here's everything that went down in the premiere, "La gentillesse des étrangers," which was directed by famed makeup guru and longtime member of The Walking Dead family, Greg Nicotero.
Daryl Dixon Leads a Group to Rescue Union Hostages in 'The Book of Carol's Premiere
The episode begins with Daryl teaching the young Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), the boy deemed to be a new Messiah by the Union of Hope, how to kill walkers. Laurent tells Daryl he'll never be as good as him, but his teacher is quick to remind him that their training has only been going on for two weeks. Laurent might not be much of a fighter, but he likes his new island home because "home is wherever the people you love are." Meanwhile, Losang (Joel de la Fuente), the Union leader, tells his people that three of their own were captured in a camp in Paris by Marion Genet's (Anne Charrier) people. It's not believed that the hostages know where they are hiding, but Losang and Daryl can't agree on what to do next. Losang wants to wait and be patient, but knowing that the hostages will be killed, Daryl wants to strike.
Daryl agrees to stay with Losang's people until they can find him a ride out, but in the meantime, the leader wants Dixon to stop training Laurent, as he sees it as a distraction from his true purpose, which is an empathetic, non-violent path. Daryl takes this news to the nun Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), confessing that he doesn't know if this is the place for him. Isabelle disagrees, but Daryl's mind is still on the people he left behind in America. Are they still thinking about him?
Later, the Union has learned that Genet's hostages are going to be transported in a few days. Some of Losang's people are going to intercept them, and Daryl insists that he's coming along. Losang doesn't want to use violence to do it, telling Daryl to bring everyone back safely. When the day of the transport arrives, the Union sets a trap which doesn't work, so Daryl takes it upon himself to shoot the truck drivers, bringing them to a stop and saving the hostages, which includes a man named Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney). An injured Genet appears from behind a truck, and despite having been shot in the shoulder, she laughs. Daryl reloads his gun to finish her off, but before he can, she escapes.
Carol Goes Looking for Daryl Dixon in the Season 2 Premiere
Carol has never stopped thinking about Daryl. The first time we see her, she's on a motorcycle scoping out an automobile repair shop. She goes up to the employees, questioning them about Daryl's whereabouts, because they know about getting the motorcycle. Carol pretends to be looking for him to fix it, but they claim to not know where he is. This doesn't stop Carol from taking one of their crossbows and shooting one of them in the leg. She begins questioning the men again and fending off their attacks. One finally confesses that Daryl was taken away on a boat to France when some Frenchmen came to shore looking to buy American walkers.
Carol is given instructions to the boat ramp before stealing one of their cars. As she drives away, she lets them know that she has another of their friends tied up in a car trunk down the road. It's been a minute since we've seen Carol but nothing has changed. She's still not one to mess with. At the boat ramp overlooking the ocean, she finds some decaying boats but no way to get to Daryl. How will she reach him all the way across the Atlantic?
That answer might come quickly. Driving down a highway, Carol spots a small plane flying overhead. Distracted, she crashes her car. She follows the sounds of the plane circling overhead until she comes across a fenced-in compound in the night, which contains one man walking around a cabin and a greenhouse requiring keycard access, which is all hooked up to a generator. After pretending to be caught in one of the traps set out for the walkers, the man approaches and tells Carol to be quiet. Carol asks for help, but she's playing with the man's emotions, telling him what he wants to hear, that he sounds like a nice person. He agrees to fix her up before sending her on her way.
Carol Discovers What Ash Is Hiding in His Greenhouse in 'Daryl Dixon' Season 2's Premiere
The man's name is Ash (Manish Dayal). He tells Carol she can spend the night in the barn, but as he leads her to it, she stops, frozen, flashing back to the horrible moment when her turned daughter walked out of the barn on The Walking Dead. Ash grabs Carol's hand and asks if she's okay, and we know we can trust this man. In the barn sits the airplane Carol saw. Ash says he flies it around every day just to get above what's happening on the ground. In the morning, Carol asks for help fixing her car. Ash agrees to go look for car parts later, and when he leaves for the greenhouse, an intrigued Carol looks on, wondering what he's hiding.
Later, when Ash goes up in his plane, Carol takes it upon herself to break into the greenhouse, not noticing that several walkers have also entered the perimeter. Inside she finds a grave around a tree for a boy. The toys around the grave make her cry, but hearing the plane coming back, Carol gets ready to leave, only to find her path out of the greenhouse blocked by walkers who break through the glass and surround her. She manages to escape but is caught by Ash, who is livid at her for breaking into the place where the boy, his young son, is buried. Carol cleans up the mess she made before leaving as Ash requested. She confesses to Ash that she was curious about him because she missed having a friend. Ash, a single father, opens up about his son, Avi, who died at age 7. Ash sits with his son every morning and apologizes to him for not being able to save him. Because Avi liked planes, Ash took finding the plane as a sign, so he put it back together so he could fly around and pretend the world below was still the same.
Ash invites Carol in for dinner in his cabin. She opens up about her horrible marriage and her daughter, Sophia. It's then, however, that Carol lies. When Ash asks where Sophia is, Carol says her husband took Sophia to France right before the outbreak, but then, when the world fell apart, she was stuck there and Carol couldn't reach her. Ash then figures out that Carol wants him to fly her to France to find Sophia. Because Ash has lost a child, she's using his emotions against him to try to persuade this man to help her find Daryl.
Ash Agrees to Fly Carol to France in 'Daryl Dixon's Season 2 Premiere
It looks like it doesn't work, but as Carol walks away in the morning, Ash tracks her down in his truck. He asks if Carol would do the same to find someone's lost child if the roles were reversed. She says she would. Carol says she needs to find her daughter now because she's stuck and needs to move forward. This is exactly what Ash is feeling. He tells her to hop in because "we have work to do."
Back at his compound, they go over a map and form their plan, which will involve taking several containers of ethanol on board to make it to France. They gather food in Ash's garden to take with them, and this broken man admits that he admires Carol's hope that her daughter could still be alive. It makes her turn away in shame. Feeling guilty, she asks if he wants to back out, but he tells her, "If you're not moving forward, then you're dying." Carol and Ash plan to leave the next morning, but a late-night storm knocks out the generator, letting in a big group of walkers. They can't wait and have to leave now. As the episode comes to an end, the plane takes off into the rising sun. There's no turning back.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol will be available to watch with new episodes every Sunday at 10 PM ET on AMC and AMC+.
WATCH ON AMC+
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