I’d be lying if I said that the antagonists weren’t one of the major reasons I stuck around and finished The Walking Dead. Considering I still very much remember The Governor and Negan’s menace, the franchise has always been quite adept at writing antagonists whose dark aura would linger long after the show ended. And as far as that legacy is concerned, I’d say that Daryl Dixon has done the flagship show proud. A whole different geopolitical landscape demanded unique motives for those standing in the way of Daryl, Carol, Isabelle, and Laurent fulfilling their purposes. And while Genet and Losang are far less bold than the complete psychopaths that terrorized people in the mother series, being caught between the two sides in the 4th episode of Daryl Dixon season 2 made for a pretty terrible experience for the good guys.
Spoiler Alert
Genet attacks the Nest
What did I tell ya? It wouldn’t have been very The Book of Carol if they killed Carol off. I gotta admit though, it was a pretty far-fetched escape Carol pulled off. Genet came prepared. A horde of sacrificial people were shot to death so they could be injected with Genet’s experimental serum and rise up to be her army of the undead. Even if I’m to buy that Carol somehow avoided getting shot and pretended to be dead, it’s not very convincing how she got that syringe off her back without someone noticing. A tied up Codron was going to end up like those who were now the superfast zombies Genet was about to let loose on the Nest. But the car he was tied up to happened to be the only ride available to Carol in that life and death situation. Genet blowing up the Nest’s gate with cannon fire made for an easy entrance for Carol and Codron. Losang’s devotees didn’t know what hit them when the runner zombies and the guerriers ravaged the Nest. What could they have done anyway? They didn’t even see the attack coming.
Losang kills Isabelle
Somewhere along the line, Codron had switched sides. Once a rabid hound working under Genet’s command, Codron now believed in everything that Laurent represented. I think that’s why he’d let Daryl go in the last season. He’d done it for the little boy. So while he tackled the Walkers and the guerriers, Carol went looking for her friend. Daryl’s reputation as a warrior came in handy. A frightened boy saw the savior in Daryl and let him go. Slicing, bashing, and stabbing their way to each other–it was a fitting reunion for the two friends after all this time. Carol couldn’t have come in at a better time. But even though he got his friend back, luck was hardly on Daryl’s side on that night. Isabelle had spoken a bit too much truth to someone as unstable as Losang. He wasn’t ready to let his fantasies about a supernatural savior go. So Isabelle’s lecture about the mortality of human saviors did nothing but aggravate him further. And when Isabelle sliced his face open, Losang quickly ditched his pacifist views and jammed a knife into her. Even without knowing who she was and how much she meant to Daryl, Carol tried to save Isabelle. But her wound was fatal, and I guess there really was no happiness on the horizon for Daryl. He watched their shared dream of a life in America shatter as Isabelle took her last breath. The look on Daryl’s face was enough for Carol to know that he’d just lost someone who was important to him. But while she wanted to be there for her friend, something tells me Carol felt a little insecure.
Didi and Theo’s little abode
Carol didn’t know what she was getting into when she landed in France looking for Daryl. And even though she wouldn’t have changed her mind even if she could foresee the imminent battles, what you have to remember is that none of this is Carol’s fight. She was there for her friend. And despite knowing nothing about this boy everyone was looking for for some reason, she chose to tag along with Daryl on his search for Laurent just because Daryl cared about that boy. The escalating tension had gotten Fallou and Laurent to ditch their designated spot. That obviously compelled Daryl and Carol to go out on a very risky search for them. Luckily, that landed them in the house of allies they didn’t know they had. Frankly, I don’t think Didi and Theo had known much about who Laurent was and why he was on the run. They were just a sweet old couple who’d taken a liking to the boy and had listened to the stories he had to tell about Daryl and Isabelle. Carol didn’t correct them when they mistook her for the nun that Laurent couldn’t stop talking about. Remember how I said Carol seemed a little insecure about Daryl’s attachment to these people? That was pretty glaring on her face when Didi implied that Daryl was in love with Isabelle. No, I don’t think Carol has that sort of feelings for Daryl, although that’s mostly because I think that’d make for a terrible character arc. It seems to me that Carol was a little hurt by the fact that Daryl left so many loved ones behind and loved new people he’d spent so little time with. Carol and Daryl’s time with Didi and Theo opened their eyes to perspectives they didn’t think could exist in such a world. Didi was the kind of person who could make a conscious choice to be happy even after enduring some of the most crushing losses. That felt like hope to Carol. She was nowhere close to moving on from the death of her daughter. But Didi was a reminder that there was still time for her to heal.
Is Genet dead?
It’s kind of awful how each time Carol’s felt like trusting someone, they proved that trust is a luxury no one should dream of in a post-apocalyptic world. Daryl and Carol almost got caught by the guerriers who followed the same sign as them to reach Didi and Theo’s place. It was hard for them to lay low and watch the bullies take supplies from two old people and drive away. Daryl and Carol had their car ready and everything, but how could they turn Theo down when even after everything, he was asking them to stay for a plate of truffle eggs? For a minute there, Carol forgot the “information is commodity” part of the survival rules in France. So it genuinely took them by shock when Genet and her men surrounded the house. Theo’d put the wellbeing of Didi over two nice strangers they’d befriended. His decision to side with what he thought was the winning team underlined how his lineage had survived through the wars in history. But Theo’d thought wrong. Genet was terrible, there’s no questioning that. But neither she nor her man were as savvy with weapons as Daryl and Carol. Their biggest strength was their lack of fear in the face of death. They’d been running from it long enough to be desensitized to the terror. So instead of capturing them, Genet was the one who ended up dying a poetic death. The poison she had her scientist develop in the labs and tortured people with was now burning her from within as it flowed through her veins.
Genet dying certainly made the road ahead less rocky for Daryl and Carol. They still needed to find Laurent, which would be an uphill task. But since it’d sort of become Daryl and Carol’s thing to reach an emotional resolution after an overwhelming experience, they acknowledged their truths before leaving to search for Laurent in the thick of the night. Daryl admitted his feelings about Isabelle to Carol. He also shed his fears about losing someone he cared about and decided to bring Laurent home with them. Since Carol herself was someone Daryl cared about and learned to live with the fear of losing, there was no reason Laurent couldn’t take a place in his heart too. But their journey ahead won’t be completely without turmoil. In the ending of the 4th episode, Losang’s still alive, although he’s hardly thriving. But it looks like he’ll soon get his mojo back. With Genet dead, her crew needs a leader. Losang’s religious nuttiness combined with the guerriers’ political extremism will be an explosive mix in the episodes to come. Genet made it way harder than it needed to be for Daryl, Carol, and Laurent by not killing Losang before driving to her own death.
