The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 1 recap and review: A promising start to a new season

Daryl is back and this time Carol will be joining him in The Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol season 2. In the opener, audiences return to The Nest where Daryl is trying to find his way within the community and joins a rescue mission.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, Carol learns Daryl is in France and befriends a pilot in the hopes of using his plane to get to Europe. Will the two reunite by the end of the episode? Let's find out!

Daryl's place at The Nest

Missing his chance to leave France, Daryl stays behind at The Nest where he takes it upon himself to teach Laurent to defend himself. However, this does not bode well with Losang, who wants Laurent to focus on his studies believing Daryl to be a bad influence on him.

Daryl doesn't press matters. He's unsure whether to stay permanently at The Nest or leave upon the next opportunity. As much as he misses his friends and family back home, he is building a similar connection with Laurent and Isabelle. That decision will have to wait as he joins a council meeting regarding three kidnapped allies (two of which are Fallou and Emile).

Daryl believes they need to perform a rescue mission immediately whereas Losang wants to wait before acting. The Nest is more about the defensive than the offensive. The wait isn't long as The Nest winds up receiving word as to the hostages' whereabouts. Daryl offers to go with the team to perform the rescue.

Losang agrees but wants Daryl to tone down on the violence. The rescue mission was supposed to be an easy retrieval but, of course, the one explosive does not go off as intended, leaving Daryl no choice but to barge in and begin an assault. In the process, a majority of soldiers are killed, but Genet, the leader of the Power of the Living, naturally escapes. But at least the three hostages are rescued.

Carol's mission

Meanwhile, back in the United States, Carol gets the information she needs on Daryl's whereabouts, as well as retrieving his signature crossbow. Trouble is when she is guided to the location of where the boats picked up Daryl and the other men for France, all the remaining boats have been destroyed.

With no other option, Carol takes to the road in frustration when she spots a small airplane flying overhead. Not paying attention to the road for an extended period of time, she hits a walker and then proceeds to crash the car.

Now with no vehicle and a small head wound she continues in the direction of the plane and purposely traps herself on the property. She meets Ash, the pilot who lives alone on the well-protected piece of property. Although he distrusts Carol, he allows her to clean up her wound and stay the night. Carol's plan to stay on his good side slowly begins to work.

She convinces Ash to help her repair the damaged car but while he is away in his airplane she decides to snoop his greenhouse, where he seemed anxious to get to that morning. Knowing full well that the generator that keeps his place safe, via electric fences and traps, is faulty, she disregards it and enters the greenhouse.

As if on cue walkers walk in no issue. Carol finds a makeshift shrine of a tree and child's toys before the walkers bust in and wreck the greenhouse. Ash catches Carol and is understandably very upset over her disregard for his hospitality and home. But once more Carol is able to warm up to him.

Ash reveals that the shrine is for his son Avi, whom he lost due to his negligence. He visits this site every morning when his son died, adding to why he doesn't stray far from home. That night at dinner Carol uses her dead abusive husband and deceased daughter Sophia to spin a tale about how they went to France to visit family when the apocalypse began.

Hoping they are still alive she wants to see them. Carol hopes this will convince Ash to help her and after much deliberation he does. As a vicious storm is about to hit, the two escape in his plane as more walkers arrive.

A promising start to a new season

I had seen The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol season 2 opener over the summer during the official premiere in New York City. Although the premiere had a small but decent crowd, it was wonderful having the opportunity to watch the episode on a large screen, complete with appearances by Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride.

The story does pick up right where it left off, with both Daryl and Carol remaining true to themselves, for better and for worse. As loyal and strong as Daryl has always been he remains stubborn.

His stubbornness, at least in this episode, proves beneficial as if he didn't join the rescue mission the three hostages probably would have been killed. Unfortunately, because Genet survives, she knows it was Daryl and The Nest who caused all this havoc.

Will this come back to bite them? And what is Losang hiding? As strong-willed and clever as Carol tends to be, especially in the case of dire situations, she continues to make stupid mistakes. Crashing her car did lead her to Ash, however she continued to throw his trust away at every opportunity.

I am greatly confused as to why she spun such a huge lie that you know will come back to haunt her. Her lie did enable a way to get to France, and although her lie was meant to tug at Ash's heartstrings, she was better off telling the truth. At this point, he forgave her multiple times and still trusts her. She knows all of this so why not just tell him the truth?

By the end of the episode Daryl and Carol are not reunited which is necessary to be believable. But how will they reunite and what trials will they both have gone through in the process?

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 2 airs on October 6, 2024 on AMC. Stay tuned as we'll be recapping the season each week!