The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 2, “Moulin Rouge,” which debuted Sunday, Oct. 6 on AMC.
There’s a word in French that doesn’t have an exact English translation, but essentially describes a change of scenery: “dépaysant.” Isabelle embodies this word in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 2, when everything she worked for during the outbreak crashes and burns. “Dépaysant” is the silver lining in a now hopeless situation for Daryl Dixon and Isabelle, but it also could be the reason half of Daryl Dixon‘s viewers tap out of the series.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon only attracts two types of viewers: Dedicated Walking Dead fans who want a new environment and fresh take on the zombie apocalypse in this world, or advocates of a potential romance between Daryl and Carol Peletier. Some fans may fall into both categories, but the distinction is still valid. Some people just want a new story, others want a fan-service solution to a decade-long fantasy. “Moulin Rouge” doesn’t necessarily ruin their vision of Daryl and Carol, but the episode giving another female character the spot may burn some bridges. As much of a picnic as it is for “Moulin Rouge” to have a side quest with quirky environmentalists and a climactic betrayal, the defining plot point is a Daryl Dixon romance. And after a decade of Daryl being around, it’s getting mundane for his character and his female counterparts to revolve around his romantic life.
Carol and Ash Embark on a Fun Side Quest
Carol and Ash’s Pit Stop in Greenland Delivers a Short, but Sweet Look at New Survivors
Before getting into the kiss to end all ships, let’s talk about the real fun of the episode: the Greenland kidnapping incident. When Carol and Ash make a pit stop in Greenland, they come across two initially nice environmentalists named Hanna and Eun… who actually want to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Carol and use Ash as a sperm donor. The storyline on paper is legitimately perverse, but the abrupt transition between overly friendly strangers to murderous agents is truthfully amusing. Hanna and Eun’s characterizations as peculiar environmentalists make it hard to take them seriously. But that’s the brilliance of their characters: anyone can be unbalanced and turn on a dime.
Carol and Ash’s side quest has some wrinkles in its execution. Carol is supposed to be this experienced survivor, whose background as a formerly abused wife keeps her two steps ahead. When Hanna slowly takes the crossbow away from her to eventually hold her at “crosspoint,” Carol morphs into this bumbling mess who is shocked by this betrayal. Is this because Carol laid her guard down from staying at the Commonwealth for too long? That’s what people said about Joel in The Last of Us Part II, and players know how that turned out for him. It’s understandable that the writers need to put their protagonists in a situation where they’re caught off guard and need to strategically figure their way out. But if said protagonist’s in a situation that they characteristically should’ve avoided, it’s time to wise up or wrap up this “perfect” character.
Another hitch about the Greenlandic environmentalists is that there simply isn’t enough of them. The storyline is swiftly wrapped up to whisk Carol and Ash off to France, in order to push up a Daryl and Carol reunion. One-episode supporting characters are a staple for The Walking Dead spinoffs. They’re written to fill up time and allow the main characters a heroic minute to show off how hardcore they are. But the environmentalists have an actual story to tell, compared to Dead City‘s one-dimensional supporting characters like Amaia and Tommaso. This would be a job for Tales of the Walking Dead, but that spinoff appears to have bitten the dust like Hanna and Eun.
TWD: Daryl Dixon Blurs the Line Between Hero and Villain
The Union of Hope Shows Their True Colors
Daryl’s storyline continues to be wrapped up in his ongoing passive-aggressive feud with Losang, which is beginning to lose its passiveness. Losang and Daryl are co-workers fighting over the last donut in the break room, but only let out their frustrations to other people in the office, instead of confronting each other like real adults. Their dispute over Laurent’s priorities has evolved into the Battle of the Father Figures, and this isn’t a clean war to fight.Losang gets his hands dirty by hiding Laurent and framing it as a kidnapping by the Power of the Living, ultimately trapping Daryl, Isabelle and Fallou in a Red Wedding massacre.
Of course, this is The Walking Dead, far from its prime state — so this ambush doesn’t have the same fatal results as the Red Wedding did for Game of Thrones‘ good guys. Yet however tough the plot armor is, the backstabbing pulls the mask off Losang and his companions. The Union of Hope are the visionary leaders of France’s future. Their name is softer, but ironically more positively powerful than The Power of the Living. But the Union of Hope is also living off the lie that Laurent is immune. Fables and fairytales are funnels for imagination as 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, but as adults, they’re a gateway to harm and bigotry if not practiced with pragmatism. Religion was a guide for hope throughout the first season of Daryl Dixon. Now “Moulin Rouge” explores the evilness that can happen when its followers teeter on the edge of obsession.
Daryl Dixon Makes a Controversial Choice
A New Romance Shifts Characters In the Wrong Direction
The Union of Hope’s changing of colors is the coup de grâce for Isabelle — the one person who balances realism and religion. But instead of navigating Isabelle’s skepticism when her life’s work is corrupted by egotism, “Moulin Rouge” manifests her pain in a kiss with Daryl. This isn’t a kiss that’s out of the blue, since Daryl Dixon has been planting the seeds for a while, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right storytelling decision for this character.
Let it be known that a Daryl and Isabelle romance isn’t a bad choice. There’s something feverishly forbidden about a French nun and a stereotypical American atheist falling for each other. Someone has probably written a steamy novel about this with the most inappropriate book cover of all time. The issue isn’t the idea of the couple, but the man of the couple. Daryl has never been seen as a guy who has a 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual interest in people, even Carol. It became such a universal non-canon fact within the franchise that fans assumed he was a𝓈ℯ𝓍ual. That’s not to say he isn’t — he’s never had a 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scene and there’s never been any reference to him having 𝓈ℯ𝓍, even with his former partner Leah. But he’s such a super-awkward guy who revolts against any type of affection that the kiss between Daryl and Isabelle feels more like checking off a box of things to do with a stale character, and not a natural progression in his journey of opening up to people.
Isabelle Carriere: There’s a word in French: ‘dépaysant.’ It’s hard to translate. It’s like a nice change of scenery. It makes you look at things a different way.
The kiss also doesn’t serve Isabelle as the now-second leading female character in the series. Isabelle’s arc as a thief with addiction turned religious nun was better than any progress Daryl made in the first season. The story is fueled by her motivation to fulfill Laurent’s destiny, and her journey through France not only widens her perspective, but forces her to grow a thick skin to protect Laurent from those who want to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 him or take advantage of him. In any other show that didn’t rely on a legacy hero, Isabelle would unanimously be the main character. But this isn’t any other show. On Daryl Dixon, she has one purpose: to serve whatever Daryl needs to make him more appealing to the audience.
Daryl Dixon is stepping into precarious territory, in both good and bad ways. The story is no longer strictly good guys vs. bad guys, and Daryl and Carol being thrown in the middle becomes a battle for pure survival. But now that there’s a romantic subplot in the mix, are the remaining episodes going to be a battle of the ships? That would overshadow anything exceptional coming out of the series, like Stéphane Codron being tortured by Genet in a gob-smacking bloody job in this episode. Daryl Dixon is a great show that gave The Walking Dead franchise a shiny makeover with religious tension and gorgeous environments. It’s a shame that it’s now “the show where Daryl kisses a nun,” no matter how awesome the nun is.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on AMC and AMC+.
