The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 3 recap and review: "L'Invisible"

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 continues the action and intrigue in episode 3, as Daryl, Isabelle, and Fallou try to save Laurent from certain death and Carol learns more about Genet and her Power to the living military group Pouvoir. Will Carol find Daryl?

Will Laurent be saved? Let's find out!

Rescuing Laurent

Beginning with the rescue mission, Sylvie is revealed to be captured and locked up until Laurent's test is complete. But after she cleverly escapes and tries to warn others that Laurent will be killed, her mission fails when she falls from a high wall and dies.

Meanwhile, Daryl, Isabelle, and Fallou manage to enter the Nest undetected just as Laurent is brought out before the crowd. Unbeknownst to him, Losang drugged his tea, causing Laurent to be sluggish and hardly react when the walker who will bite him to prove his immunity, is Sylvie.

Daryl manages to kill Sylvie and in the process Isabelle and Fallou retrieve Laurent. They all agree to meet in the cave Daryl had been training Laurent in, but it doesn't take long for Daryl to get captured (after killing a lot of Nest soldiers in a continuous and spectacular fight scene). Isabelle is separated from Fallou and Laurent, who make it safely to the cave. Now captured, Daryl is questioned and beaten but he refuses to comply.

Soon after Isabelle is captured and the two are locked up with a wall between them. During their imprisonment, Daryl tells her about the fireflies back home and how wonderful it will be for Isabelle and Laurent to live there with his friends and family. He confesses that he has found something worth staying and fighting for, resulting in Isabelle confessing her love for Daryl. He does not repeat the same three words (at least not that we know of).

Losang returns to speak with Isabelle leaving Daryl behind. In the hopes of saving Isabelle, Daryl is ready to reveal Laurent's location but Losang doesn't seem interested.

Inside Genet's organization Pouvoir

The episode actually begins with Marion Genet's backstory. She worked as an underappreciated custodian at the Louvre Museum in Paris. When her coworker convinces her to join a meeting where all the custodians want to stage a walkout, their cell phones go off simultaneously. Turns out this is the beginning of the apocalypse.

Outside Genet's husband tries to enter the Louvre but both he and Genet are stopped left and right by security. They will not allow anyone in the museum out nor anyone outside in.

When the husband and wife finally meet with a glass wall between them, Genet witnesses her husband get brutally killed by a walker. Returning to the present situation, Genet had swiped the actual Mona Lisa painting. She formally meets Carol for the first time observing the painting. Carol witnesses the control Genet has over her people and how she looks out for those who are as underappreciated as she was.

What horrifies Carol and her French friend is the fact several people are captured just to be killed and used for Genet's ongoing walker experiment. Carol gets assigned kitchen duty and uses the time to ask if anyone knows Daryl.

This leads her to meeting Codron, who tells her where to find him after she pleads and lies that Daryl is her brother. She shares this news with her French friend who refuses to leave as his husband is still there.

She tries to escape via horse that evening but, of course, Genet and her people were waiting because the French friend betrayed her in order to reunite with his husband. Genet agrees to return them to Paris for their help. Carol and Genet speak again where Carol lies (again), claiming she's trying to find Daryl so that she can kill him. Genet believes her and claims she will help Carol get her revenge.

On the way to Mont Saint-Michel, the location of the Nest, they pass the Lourve where Genet tells Carol a little bit about her backstory. It seemed the French government cared more about protecting the art inside the museum than the actual people outside about to get killed by walkers.

When they arrive to the Nest that evening, Carol realizes that Genet's 'army' is a large group of people she will gun down and turn into the violent and powerful walkers she's been experimenting on. Genet throws Carol into the group, claiming she will now have the opportunity to kill Daryl.

At this point everyone but our main group are terrible people

So that might be a stretch but the fact that both Pouvoir, who is experimenting on innocent people, and the Nest, who will kill anyone who interferes with their mission, are both failures of the post-apocalyptic France is rather sad. At this point, no one from the Nest will survive this attack by Genet as Daryl killed nearly every Nest soldier, meanwhile Genet's organization can just keep gaining volunteers to use as her walker army.

As horrific as Genet's past was, it at least made sense as to how she obtained her current position and why her personality is cold and calculated. It's equally sad that she was able to use the apocalypse to retell her story and become someone so powerful but for all of the wrong reasons. Just as it is sad that those who worship God and believe in a higher power are so easily tricked and manipulated by Losang and the Nest. The apocalypse remains as unforgiving now as when it first started.

It's a harsh reality however I find it a little hard to believe that so little hope exists at this point. Even The Walking Dead itself finally had a happy ending for those who survived the show. The Commonwealth became a living, thriving home. Even The Hilltop returned to its former glory.

Perhaps Spain will prove better for Daryl as season 3 has confirmed. I'm still hoping that Laurent is immune so that the world can finally begin to heal and start anew.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 4 airs on Oct. 20, 2024, on AMC. Stay tuned as we'll be recapping the season each week!