I was wondering if this latest episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was going to break my spirit. I’m already dealing with the overtaking of these United States by the Evangelical Taliban…I need my favorite series to give me hope and pick up my spirits. But Carol, Daryl and Isabelle are not in a good place. They are fighting their own version of religious zealots.
La Paradis Pour Toi
I’ll be honest. I think I’m becoming numb to walkers…every week I tune in to watch and review The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (my favorite of the spinoffs) with more than a touch of trepidation. This week, I am happy to say that my spirits were lifted a bit. Did we not expect our Ninja Warrior, Carol (Melissa McBride) to outthink Genet (Anne Charrier)? The French are lovers, even in war. They are not prepared for the “In Your Face” attitude of Americans. Carol not only avoids becoming an experimental walker, but she saves Codron (Romain Levi) in the process.
This was the first time that Melissa McBride and Clemence Poesy met in real life. I would have loved to see how these two women would have worked together as a team, but let’s face it. Team Carol fans wanted Isabelle out of the way, which happens when Genet, her soldiers, and the experimental walkers invade the Nest.
That reunion between Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol…that hug…that sob, was the real deal. Melissa and Norman are close friends in real life, and I am certain that they missed working together on the set. You can’t fake emotions like this.
Daryl’s realization on just how important he is to Carol…is what we loyal fans of The Walking Dead have known for a long time. Carol understood the love between Daryl and Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) but you could see and feel her pain when she saw that Daryl had actually loved Isabelle. A woman doesn’t travel all the way to France if she isn’t in love with a man. There is bond between our two warriors that surpasses love. Carol and Daryl have been together for so many years that they might as well be married.
The Village
Fallow and Laurent are not in the hiding spot, so Carol and Daryl head back to Paris. I love how the director has us looking at France through Carol’s eyes. She is excited to have lived out a childhood dream of traveling the world. Our dynamic duo come upon a village where the walkers were not bitten but had died from old age. The remaining elders in that village, Didi (Marie-Christine Adam) and Theo (Francois-Eric Gendron) offer sanctuary and French cooking to our friends. It is so refreshing to see how Theo greets the walker baker, the walker butcher, and the walker dentist as he drives Daryl to find parts for a car. Theo tells Daryl about the town and the neighbors who still dwell there in a walker paradise.
Theo and Didi understood that their former friends were dead, but the memories of friendship are still alive. As a psychic/medium, I truly understand this. I see the dead all the time and I see them as they were in life. They tell me their stories and share their memories. I think the French have had a good effect on the producers and directors of this series by showing us how different cultures handle life and death during the worst of times. If there ever is an apocalypse…I’m moving to France. If I’m going to die, I might as well do it with a glass of wine in one hand, and a piece of chocolate in the other.
Conclusion and Spoiler
Two more episodes…and 16 days left before we know the fate of these United States. We are fighting our own walkers. Those loyal to a criminal who is supported by religious fanatics. This world is getting very scary. But I have faith that we will survive…
The title of this episode showed us that you can make heaven wherever you are. That you will continue to live. Didi and Theo tried to do that until Genet arrived. Carol gave Genet a death worth waiting for. But when one tyrant falls, another takes their place. Losang (Joel de la Fuente) joined forces with Genet’s soldiers. And we are left to wonder if Daryl and Carol can save the boy and return to the States. Come to think about it…Laurent and Judith are about the same age…What a team they would be!
