The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Recap: Je T’Aime

By
Ben Rosenstock,
a culture writer and critic who primarily covers TV and film

Photo: Stéphanie Branchu/AMC

Well, so much for a safe haven. When Daryl and company first arrived at the Nest last season, it felt like a potential home — somewhere Daryl could imagine himself settling down, despite his goal of making his way back to his friends stateside. But the first two episodes of this season have quickly exposed the lies and delusion behind the village’s homey façade, revealing the Union de l’Espoir leadership to be nearly as corrupt and violent as the Pouvoir des Vivants regime. (Well, maybe not quite at that level. But they’re pretty bad, especially Jacinta.) And after “L’Invisible,” it’s hard to imagine our main characters ever feeling safe there again.

The episode begins with the accidental killing of Sylvie, who falls from the parapet after escaping captivity and attempting to warn the villagers about the danger to Laurent. It’s an unceremonious and slightly disappointing end for a character I generally liked, though Sylvie never really got the same level of depth as some of the other major characters. I would’ve liked to see her wrestle with her faith following the death of Emile, but the writers don’t seem to see a purpose for her anymore now that he’s gone.

Daryl, Isabelle, and Fallou manage to ascend to the abbey and sneak into the ceremony just as it begins, quickly shutting it down with some well-aimed headshots. In the madness that ensues, Daryl stays behind to fight off endless guards while Isabelle and Fallou shepherd a drugged-out Laurent to a cave hiding spot. It’s fun to watch Daryl go Assassin’s Creed mode with a rapid series of stabbings, though my favorite moment is when he knocks one guard down the stairs by throwing a nearby buoy at him.

So much of Daryl Dixon is spent watching Daryl, Isabelle, and Laurent run around and either escape from their captors or return to captivity, and that pattern has started to get a little old. There are some missed opportunities here; as fun as it is to watch Daryl mow enemies down, it made me wonder about the inner life of all the faceless goons I would’ve considered “good guys” until just the last episode. Are they true believers who just blindly follow Losang’s orders, never thinking twice about the ethics of what they’re doing? Is anyone skeptical of Jacinta’s influence? For that matter, what do the villagers think about all this stuff — are they uniformly naïve and out of the loop? How does Losang’s heel turn affect the fight against Pouvoir des Vivants? Is this now a show about Daryl and Carol simply trying to survive a war between two corrupt factions, equally evil in different ways?

Laurent and Fallou make it to safety, but Daryl and Isabelle aren’t so lucky. Chained up and pressured for information about Laurent’s whereabouts, the two share an intimate moment, with Daryl indirectly confessing that while he didn’t care about anyone else when he left home, something changed when he met Isabelle and Laurent. I’m not sure this is totally true — Daryl clearly still cares about his friends at the Commonwealth — but it’s an effective enough counter to Losang’s inaccurate read of him as selfish.

I do wish Daryl Dixon did a better job at connecting the two halves of its story, which now take place in the same universe but still aren’t directly intertwined. That looks to change next week when Madame Genet will presumably transform a bunch of people (including Carol) into superpowered walkers before turning them loose on the Nest. To tell you the truth, I think the cliffhanger could be a bit stronger here; the idea of Genet closely monitoring Carol to make sure she murders her friend is pretty fun and dangerous, but the episode ends with Carol essentially thrown into a pack of walkers-to-be, and there’s less stakes there because there’s no way Carol is going to die next episode. Still, this is a finale-esque setup, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next three episodes will look like with Daryl and Carol presumably sharing a lot more screen time.

With an attack on the Union de l’Espoir coming up, the Maison Mère is bustling throughout this episode — while Carol works the kitchen and her new pal Rémy the stables, the Guerriers are regularly rounding up villagers to execute via firing squad and turn into juiced-up soldiers for Genet’s army of the dead. (We’re closer than ever to getting actual Nazi zombies.) Carol gleans some helpful information from asking around and learning Daryl’s location from one Mr. Codron, but Rémy rats her out to save his husband before she can manage to escape the compound.

Carol has cycled through several cover stories this season, and even just in this one episode. First she pretends she came to France as a tourist before the outbreak, then she pretends Daryl is her brother and only surviving family. When she’s in Genet’s clutches, she tweaks the story again, telling the truth about her past but lying about her goal in coming here: to kill Daryl Dixon.

Last week I wondered if Carol and Genet would form some type of connection, and in “L’Invisible” we see that play out a bit. Genet’s ramble does offer some insight into her personal distaste for the Union; she views religion as a tool for control, not hope. By that logic, the Union is the oppressive force, and her movement is the real resistance. Now that we know what we know about what’s going on at the Nest, it’s hard to argue with what she says. Then again, this is coming from a woman slaughtering presumably hundreds of people just to be her soldiers, and not everyone signed up for that.

For all the monologues about faith in this show, I still remain a little confused about the role of the Union de l’Espoir. Is it a corrupt institution at every level, or are Losang and Jacinta just bad apples? Are there “good guys” in this battle, and should we be invested in the winners? Or does the war only matter insofar as it concerns the little family at the show’s center, just looking for a safe place to call home? Hopefully next episode will clarify some things.

• Messed up to see Sylvie’s body immediately repurposed as the walker who will bite Laurent during the ceremony, though part of me feels like Isabelle should’ve been the one forced to shoot her.

• “What happens if you’re wrong?” “There would be no point in going on.” Is this all heading toward Losang committing suicide when he realizes he misplaced his faith?

• Isabelle said “je t’aime”! Time for Daryl to say it back.

• Genet and her second-in-command Sabine were both janitors at the Louvre in the before times, and Genet took the Mona Lisa off the wall after watching her amour die right on the other side of the glass doors. Wouldn’t have expected that for her backstory, but it’s interesting — and her cynical anti-strike stance hints at her later political philosophy. From anti-union to anti-Union de l’Espoir, am I right?

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Recap: Je T’Aime