Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol | S2 E2- "Moulin Rouge" | Recap & Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD!

Once again, episode two features the storyline of Daryl and Carol. Daryl still- sort of- living at the Nest, and Carol [and Ash] making their way to France. It's only the second episode and it seemed like Carol managed to get to France pretty quick- and easy. And not necessarily because of her badass nature. Daryl on the other hand, along with Isabelle and co. get played and we are getting closer and closer to the reunion we are assuming this spin-off will give us.

Let's start with Carol and Ash already making pretty good headway overseas. As forecasted, the plane [obviously] needs fuel to make it to their ultimate destination. To be honest, them even making it to Greenland is pretty remarkable in a plane like that. But they get the plane landed, Carol tells Ash that she can go find her daughter aka Daryl by herself. Minutes later, she is attacked by walkers with grass overgrown on them and popping up from the ground. Ash comes to Carol's aid and all is good...until a clean headshot through a walker from long distance startles them. Ash seems delighted by seeing people, Carol knows deep down it won't lead to anything good.

New character(s) alert! Carol and Ash are saved by two roommates, Eun and Hannah- although Carol and Ash were probably going to be okay. Eun yells from the distance, "Welcome to Greenland" as a façade that they are welcoming, and to their credit, they are- at first. As the group is talking, it almost seemed like a plane being there was an afterthought. The two ladies were more concerned about the plan they have with visitors. Eun and Hannah walk Carol and Ash to their little hut? House? Living residence right on the border of a lake? Pond? Body of water. Ash and Eun grab some supplies for the plane and Carol and Hannah stay behind. Eun then has a crazy story about how Hannah is going to kill Carol, and she and Ash will begin repopulating the world- not the craziest idea we've heard in the apocalypse. But back at their home, Hannah is struggling with holding up her end of the deal as- Carol willingly gave Hannah the crossbow- Eun returns to find them still talking to each other. Of course, like Carol does, finds a way out of the situation. Carol returns to Ash at the plane, and two leave for France- again, seemingly pretty easy. Also, a very short cup of coffee for our two "new" characters.

As the two land in Paris- not seen of course- Carol tells Ash if she's not back in two weeks, go ahead and peace out. Not sure if it's a nod to when Rick was on the horse riding up to Atlanta, but Carol walking through and empty and desolate Paris was pretty telling. And a shoutout to the showrunners/writers if it was a callback. Carol eventually finds her way through the streets of Paris- again and of course- unseen- until she sees a truck carrying food and follows it to a swap-meet type area. This is where being slick doesn't pay off for her as she's thrown in a truck to whereabouts unknown. But she did meet a friend on the truck.

As we switch over to Daryl's storyline, he and some people from the Nest go on a wild-goose chase to try and find the wonderboy Laurent- but spoilers, he was never kidnapped from the Nest but rather hidden. Some of the dudes who went with Daryl [and Isabelle] eventually turn on them and of course try and kill them. Daryl, Isabelle & Fallou are able to take out all of their betrayers, and they [obviously] figure out pretty quick that they were set up.

Before they get back to the Nest, the obviously have to come with some type of plan to either sneak Laurent out, or go out guns-a-blazing. Isabelle would probably want to settle for the latter. As Daryl and Isabelle are sort-of discussing the plans, she has- an almost sudden change of heart- stating that she in fact does want to leave to wherever Daryl is heading to next- presumably the states. In the midst of this moment, the two share a passionate kiss. I know what you are thinking, either we all thought Carol was the one true love for Daryl, Daryl wasn't into the ladies or he had just given up completely at the thought of romance all together. This moment is pretty rare for us OG series watchers and especially Daryl- the badass, if he dies we riot- fans. So it will be interesting to see if the show grows their relationship. It's also interesting that this is the first, pretty much only relationship, we've seen Daryl in (on screen) and it comes on the presuppose of Carol traveling miles upon miles to see him. But hey, Paris is the romance capitol of the world, right?

As we come to the "grading" portion for this episode, we all might be able to agree that this is a high "C" trending towards a low "B" type of episode? The reason for this is just the easiness and ease that Carol and Ash really run into no trouble making (flying) their way to France. Besides the little bit of trouble Eun and Hannah gave them in Greenland- Carol probably could have handled them on her own, and she basically did. But maybe the plane as a character itself is destined for more glory this season. The couple reasons why this episode is trending higher than a "C" would be of the ol' trickeroo that Losang and the majority of the Nest inhabitants play on Daryl and co. That was a decent twist. Also, the Daryl-Isabelle kiss that maybe no one (even Daryl himself) was expecting. Plus, the impending reunion between Carol and Daryl still looms large and will pull at a lot of heart strings when it does happen.