Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol | S2 E1- "La Gentillesse des Etrangers" | Recap & Review

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

It's been about a year since we've seen Daryl kicking ass and taking names in France. But he is back for season two of Daryl Dixon, a spin-off of the original series, The Walking Dead. If you have not seen the first season, I would encourage you to go back and watch it. Season two, and it's obvious addition to the title, will feature a favorite from the OG series, Carol. There was a lot of Walking Dead fatigue as [debatably] the last couple seasons "dragged on". But, so far, the spin-offs have actually been quite the delight, IMO. I am excited to see the dynamic duo of Daryl and Carol teaming up once again.

We saw Daryl in season one, are we still asking somehow? Somehow, make it to France. Obviously the way Daryl goes about things, gets mixed up in some wrong crowds, ends up meeting [a love interest?] in Isabelle, and also a very special young kid, Laurent. Of course Daryl gets tasked with saving the young man every which way while dwelling on the people he left behind in the states. Eventually, his new group makes it to a city, island, whatever you want to call it- community where they have high walls to keep potential threats, out. The season ends with us thinking that Daryl is bound for the boat that's in the distance, or is he? We also see Carol beat up some dude, stuff him in a trunk and steal his motorcycle. Still the same ol' bad ass Carol.

As we enter season two, now, we see Daryl still almost in the exact spot where we left him in season one, but now is training Laurent how to protect himself from walkers. The walkers are tied up to this contraption in which it is easy for Daryl to manipulate and maneuver them. Daryl is eventually told that his methods are too dangerous and too violent.

As we shift back towards Carol, she discovers a motor-pool, so to speak, and sees an opportunity to play the lost, helpless, husband-died housewife in which people she comes across takes her as innocent and non-threatening. Works every time. She manages to injure a couple dudes (who spent a little time with Daryl) and steal a car- oh, and gets Daryl's crossbow back in the process. Best quote of the episode is also in this scene- "Lady are you crazy?" Carol, responds, "Certifiable."

As Carol moves on, she notices a puddle-jumping airplane in the sky. It leads her to a compound-like property where she spots a man with a pretty sophisticated security system. But like Carol does, she assesses the situation and how she manipulate whoever this man is, and once again, play dumb and innocent. We learnt he man's name is Ash (played by Manish Dayal), and is pretty private about his life. Understandably so. There isn't much room for trusting people in this world nowadays. As he invites Carol to stay in his barn, he goes to open the door and Carol has a flashback (I'm a sucker for flashbacks) of way back in season two of the OG series when Shane opened the barn doors on the Greene's farm and a walker-Sophia came walking out. I am already liking the way these new spin-offs are using and tying in the OG series.

We also know Carol to be very, "adventurous" as well. Not necessarily in a good way. She's very curious, and it can lead her into some troubling positions at times. She's very curious as to what's in the greenhouse on Ash's property. When he takes the plane out one day, she of course figures out a way to trip the security system and get inside. But by doing this, she unlocks the front gate and walkers com flodding in. This eventully leads to the greenhous egetting infultrated, but luckily the shrine to Ash's son, Avi, was not touched. As ypu can imagine, Ash is pretty upset by this and Carol senses that she has overstayed her welcome- as if she was really ever welcomes to begin with.

The storylines begin to switch back and forth between Daryl and Carol- Carol's storyline and introduction to the series obviously takes a front seat to Daryl as we only really see him in a few scenes. Carol departs Ash's compound but is eventually brought back by Ask as Carol revelaed to him that she needs a plane to get to France- but not to see Daryl (but really to see Daryl) but she lies to him and makes up a story that her late husband and daughter, Ed and Sophia, are actually alive. Again an example how Carol is juts become cuthroat and willing to do anything- compared to the early seasons flachbacks they're using from the OG series. Ash stops Carol on the road and tells her he has decided to help her- for reasons unknown at this point, maybe just needs a change of scenery as he mentioned when his son died, he didn't leave the house for months, and when he did he found the plane.

The scenes that are switching over to Daryl, he's still struggling to find his place. But the community that he's in now has a mission to rescue some friends from the grips of Madame Genet. The mission is at first a dud, until Daryl takes matters into his own hands with a pistol and what seems like a revolutionary musket- which honestly it could be. The attempt is successful in that their comrades are rescued, but Madame Genet slips away. It seemed, to me, that this mission was just cooked up on a whim and all of a sudden thrown into Daryl's storyline for this episode.

When we shift back to Carol, her and Ash are preparing the plane for the trip to France. Of course, lightning strikes and knocks out the building full of fuel and ethonal and explodes. This of course knocks out the security system and once again, the front door opens and another flood of walkers come puring in. Carol and Ash scramble to get the plane ready for takoff now. The walkers making their way through the forest looked like something right out of horror movie didn't it? Props to whoever set up that shot with the steam or fog or smoke or whatever it was. Props. The episode winds down as Carol and Ash are up in the air and make their way through the storm towards the sunshine.

My overall reaction to this season premeire was- I like it, want to love it. Like I mentioned earlier, I liked how these spin-off series' are using flashbacks from the OG series- as if they had a nother source right? But, the introudction of Carol here in season two was spot on. Maniulative and badass, as Carol can only do it. Also like we mentioned, Daryl wasn't in the episode a whole lot, but he didn't need to be. To be honest, I would not be surprised if Daryl was the second storyline the whole season- as the sub-main title is "The Book of Carol." As far as giving this episode a grade, I think a solid B is pretty fair. I feel like a season premeire has high expectations, but a B isn't bad for this style of premeire becuase heading into a second season of a show, we know the majority of the characters. The only thing I feel like people were waiting for was how they were going to bring Carol into the fold, and like I said, I feel like they very much did her justice.