Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol | S2 E3- "L'invisible" | Recap & Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you've followed our coverage of the Walking Dead over the years (yes, we know it's been spotty but we're working on it.) then you know we, I or us are suckers for flashbacks. This episode was almost all a flashback of a very different perspective of another person's point of view at the beginning of the "outbreak". We are following Genet and her beginnings of a cleaning lady at the Louvre. Now the episode doesn't really show how she rose to the power she has now, but she does lose her husband and her and a group of [unidentified] people are stuck there until further notice. Except for Sabine (featured in photo), we sort of knw her and seems to be Genet's right-hand person.

What's been "wrong" with these flashbacks is that they never show "patient 0" or the origin of that particular person's point of view's starting point when they just have walkers flow into the scene. Eventually as Genet has given up trying to leave work to greet her husband, he gets torn apart from walkers coming from...somewhere? WHERE IS THAT SOMEHWERE?! Obviously, and somehow, being stuck in the Louvre with historic paintings depicting all different things from the Mona Lisa to what seems to be an artist's portrayal of a family being torn apart...see the connection...made Genet strong and eventually become a leader. How? We don't know and are unsure.

The interactions between Carol and Genet were also a strong aspect of this episode. It's been a while since we've seen two strong, leading women in the same scenes in TWD universe since maybe Carol and Maggie were paired up. Suppose you can also throw Rosita in those conversations as well. It was hard to tell if Genet really was believing Carol when she said she was there from America to kill Daryl. Why else would Genet just let Carol wonder around with really no supervision, because Carol could "hold her own" or "put up a fight" or was "feisty"? Also, Carol stumbled upon an experiment of these people injecting the dead with "super serum" which makes walkers like the zombies from World War Z. Genet could probably slice right through Carol's BS, or because they have the same goal in mind, she's going to test Carol and keep an eye on her herself. Genet also probably realizes Carol is a strong person, enough so to get to this point in the world. But as the old saying goes- you can't BS a BSer. The one line that stood out and was awesome was when Carol asked Genet how did she know it was the real painting of the Mona Lisa, and Genet's response was, "Because I took it off the fuck!ng wall."

Not sure if you can say the Carol-Genet adventures through the apocalypse was the "A" storyline, or the one where Daryl and Isabelle are trying to get to Laurent before this horribly dumb prophecy rounds into shape. That prophecy being that Losang and the crew believe so much that Laurent is so "special" that even a walker bite will not turn him. The folks at the Nest put up banners and what seems like a celebration would ultimately turn into death and devastation. And not only that, you just killed an innocent kid. It also just so happened that Sylvie had to die just to get a walker to perform the ceremony. But of course, and like always, Daryl and the gang show up right in the nick of time to save the day. Obviously, shooting a gun in a crowd will and always cause a panic (and is not recommended for anyone), so as people scramble each and every way, Daryl and co. get separated. Daryl tells Laurent to meet at their secret spot and he and Isabelle will meet them there. Eventually (and of course and always), Daryl- along with Isabelle, get captured and are held against their will as Losang spits out prophecy to Daryl and Isabelle- who maybe like all of us, don't really want to hear it/care. A walker will turn and probably kill Laurent if bitten. Side note- Isabelle tells Daryl she loves him. Awe.

The grading section for this episode is tough. Sure it had the flashback(s) that we all love, but again, it still seemed like they left some stuff out or skipped some steps in that process- intentionally or not. I think this episode deserves a strong C+. The reason for this is because we are still waiting for the Daryl-Carol reunion, but the longer the wait, the sweeter the moment, right? Also, it was sort of predictable that Daryl would show up and save the day when Laurent's name day was happening. The twists and turns, character pairing and the flashback is what put the + in C+.