546: "Coming Home" (TWD: Daryl Dixon S1E6)

[00:00:00] I'm grateful to you both, and I'm sorry to see you go. You kept your word, we've kept ours. Found a vessel to help get you home. Fishermen from Dover. Safe passage to England, they know of boats that can get you as far as Newfoundland.

[00:00:23] They'll have to manage from there. When's he leave? He'll be there in two days. He'll have to walk to the north coast. So, set out at dawn. Unless you've changed your mind. I got family waiting for me back home. You've got people here who hope you'll stay.

[00:00:47] Fuck you. The Walking Dead. Hey Zed Heads, welcome to the podcast. I'm Jason. And I'm Lucy. And this is The Cast of Us, episode 546. On this episode we're covering The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon, season 1, episode 6, Coming Home. Coming Home. Coming Home.

[00:01:35] I wanted to open by asking if you thought you'd ever make it out to San Francisco again any time? I would love to. I'm actively looking for jobs that would give me a reason to go to San Francisco. That would be amazing.

[00:01:47] And when you do, I think you should stay forever. Oh yeah? You would not abandon me, right? Like this place feels like coming to you. Sometimes even a person's promise can get overwhelmed by a connection to other people and a larger cause.

[00:02:00] I would never go home to my loved ones, pets and family. I don't care about where you came from or who's there. And if you were like, you know, can you take Nico to like the north of Canada for no reason

[00:02:13] and just like hang there for a bit? I'd be like, yeah, sure. Why not? Like that makes sense. I don't know if people understood what that was all about, but I think so. If you saw this week's episode.

[00:02:27] But that would be awesome if you came to San Francisco, though. I promise I would not pressure you to stay here forever. I don't know. I'm doubting it now. I'm doubting it now. We have some announcements since it's the finale, you know, before we get started.

[00:02:39] One Boston meetup in a couple of days. We've decided it's going to be Friday, October 20th. We're going to eat at the High Street Place Food Hall, which is in downtown Boston. We'll eat at six. There's a bunch of different places within there.

[00:02:55] And then we'll have drinks afterwards around eight or whenever. There's also bars. So it's a good place. It's open air, kind of, you know, nice, clean and everything. So come for dinner or for drinks or both. I will. It's the website is highstreetplace.com.

[00:03:11] If you want information, I'll put a link in the show notes. They have directions on there. I'll also put up a post in the podcast to Facebook group. And if you're interested in joining that group, by the way, just search Facebook for podcast to go.

[00:03:24] So yeah, I'd hope to see a couple of you guys out there that I haven't met before. That'd be awesome. Kind of related to that, our feedback episode is going to be a week late this time because we're going to Boston.

[00:03:39] I'm going to go and I'm going to Manchester to see Jessica. Oh, that's cool. Nice. Next, say hi to her. I will. I mean, next thing is, well, 10 years ago, Karen and I were invited to go out to Atlanta

[00:03:54] and moderate panels for the first Walker Stalker Con, which led to an amazing years long ride, just moderating panels at these conventions. But that first convention was was awesome. And we moderated panels with Steven Young, Danai Gurira, Irony Singleton, Giancarlo

[00:04:14] Esposito, who played Gus from Breaking Bad and was amazing. Judith O'Day, who's Barbara in Night of the Living Dead. And Melissa Hutchison, who's Clementine in the Walking Dead games and became a friend. That was like the first time I met her and more.

[00:04:31] I think I did 12 panels at that convention. And so I'm bringing this up because it's the 10 year anniversary and on November 4th and 5th, in honor of that, they're going to do a free virtual convention and they're going to replay all those panels.

[00:04:47] They're going to follow the original 2013 schedule. So if anyone wants to see those, I moderated most of them, but there's me and Karen, but there's a few others too. And they're also apparently going to do some kind of photo ops and contests and giveaways and other surprises.

[00:05:05] So it's kind of just a celebration of the 10 year anniversary. And if you're interested in that, it's all on the Walker Stalker Facebook page at facebook.com slash walkerstalkerconvention. And I'll put a link for that in the show notes too. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

[00:05:21] Yeah, I think that's really cool. They're doing that. I mean, so many, there was all that bad stuff at the end and apparently, you know, most people have been refunded. And if you haven't, you can go to the Facebook page and there's some information on there

[00:05:37] about that too. But it's too bad that that colored everything because it was such a great experience overall. Just overwhelmingly. And I think people too, they look back on that fondly, the people who went in, the actors too, you know, I know they say they miss it too.

[00:05:59] And then last a little bit about what's next for this podcast. We are going to start our Walking Dead rewatch. Yes we are. Going back to the beginning. I'm excited. First time I've seen these episodes in many years. You don't rewatch, I forget.

[00:06:14] Whereas I've been back in over the years. I'm like, I'm quite a habitual rewatcher. Yeah. And I remember a lot, but I'm sure there's going to be a lot that come up that I'm like, oh yeah, I totally forgot about that. Especially those early seasons.

[00:06:30] Because that's like over 10 years ago now. Yeah. Yeah, I probably, I must have watched the pilot at least a couple of times since then, but nothing else. So we're going to start with one episode at a time weekly.

[00:06:43] We're going to release every Tuesday and we're going to see how that goes. You know, we might change it up and start doing multiples or something like that. But for the first season, we're at least we're doing single episodes weekly.

[00:06:55] And the first one for The Walking Dead pilot, Days Gone By, that's going to be published on Halloween Tuesday, October 31st. As a nice memento of the first airing of The Walking Dead. That's right. Halloween 2010, 2011. 2010. Yep. Wow.

[00:07:13] But you should get your feedback in early if you want to leave comments because we're actually recording Friday, October 27th. And of course we want feedback as always. You can message at talk at podcastica.com and we'll also put up feedback posts at facebook.com

[00:07:28] slash podcastica and the group too. We want to kind of pace ourselves with this so we won't do separate feedback episodes. And if we end up getting a ton, I don't necessarily anticipate we will, but if we do, then we

[00:07:42] may have to pick and choose and not include everything, but we'll see how it goes. It's like the old days. Yeah. I mean, I used to get so much I couldn't even read it all when it was…Walking Dead was

[00:07:52] getting like 17 million views per episode and we were getting like 30,000 downloads. Took me a good few episodes to get my feedback read out. Not that I hold a grudge. Oh yeah, I remember that.

[00:08:02] I mean, I remember just getting it all and it was like 200 messages and I had like 30 minutes to prepare and I was like, I'll just pick the first 15 and read them. And then last but not least, well, it's last anyway, as Fear the Walking Dead is about

[00:08:21] to wrap up its eighth season run. It is least. Last and least. We've got six more episodes and it's over and we can't stop now. We got to ride this train to the end. We gotta do it. Gotta do it. We'll be doing our Patreon exclusive roundtable rants.

[00:08:38] So if you want to hear those, you have to sign up for my Patreon at patreon.com slash Jason Gabassi. But Lucy and I will actually cover the series finale on the podcast. Some form or another.

[00:08:51] I made the mistake of watching the Comic Con preview and I don't really have words to express it. I didn't even watch it. If I described it to you, you would be like, no, there's no way they've done that. And I'd be like, oh no, no, they have.

[00:09:08] This is a setup that they're going with. So yeah. I don't want to spoil it just in case. I will say there's a returning character and I think it's totally fucking stupid, but I

[00:09:17] have said that I really want this last season just be as bad as you can possibly be. Why not? Yeah. Be as worse as… It'd be so terrible if it became really good now. Yeah, it would just be weird. Don't do that lads. Don't do that.

[00:09:30] Just be worse. But have you seen every episode? No, no, I've not watched anything from this season apart from the one we covered. Yeah, so I'm completely behind the times. I mean, if you still would want to come on and do a rant, I'm telling people because

[00:09:51] they've like, yeah, I might like to, but I haven't watched them all. And I'm like, it's fine. I'm putting as much care into these as the writers do. And yes, and then New York Comic Con just happened.

[00:10:07] It was like going on as we were recording our last episode. And there were a bunch of Walking Dead announcements, but we'll have those in the new segment after we talk about the finale.

[00:10:15] So I logged off and went onto my phone and was like, oh shit, loads of stuff just happened. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I knew that was going to be happening, but what are you going to do? We'll talk about it now.

[00:10:26] So anyway, let's get into The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon, season one, episode six, coming home. What'd you think? Misleading title. Nobody went home. I know. Nobody came home. Nobody went home. It was alright. I don't know how I feel about it, honestly.

[00:10:45] I've got surprises and I've got nitpicks and I've got things I liked and I've got things I didn't. But all in all, it was a tight six episodes. Knowing what we do now, I'm a bit like, why the hell did they bother going up the river?

[00:11:00] But that's fine. I think the overall issue with this episode will be the idea that Daryl wouldn't go back is so dumb. Like it just beggars belief that that is something that they're actually trying to sell us on. But then, you know, I was thinking about Judith.

[00:11:21] I've always think about Judith. She's great. We were watching this episode, was it the scene with…it was some scene or other with the zombies or with Janaye and Peter just sort of leaned over and he was like, Judith would have sorted this out in like two seconds.

[00:11:36] I'm like, I know Judith would be running France by this point. Well, the scene where there's a gate separating Daryl and from Isabelle and Laurent and he gives him the axe and he's like, take care of it Laurent. And Laurent's like, I don't know.

[00:11:53] And he goes, do it. Come on, do it. Like, do it, dude. You need to do it now because she's about to die. And he's still sitting there. And I'm like, man, you're taking your sweet time there, buddy. Yeah, I know. Or Judith would be like, I'm done.

[00:12:07] But Daryl had to say God will forgive you because he knew just like with that fish that he didn't want to eat that that's what you got to say. Well, can I go first this week? Absolutely.

[00:12:19] Yeah, because it's I mean, I thought actually that the episode was quite thrilling to start and beautiful as always. And I liked it. I liked it. I was finding that they reached their destination. But so annoying, all the pressure on Daryl to stay.

[00:12:36] And that's my first item pressuring Daryl to stay. Because a lot of this is about trying to make it make sense. I think that Daryl would even consider staying, you know, various forces pushing him to stay.

[00:12:48] And and when Daryl says I've got family waiting for me back home and Lo Seng says, well, you got people here who hope you'll stay. I'm like, dude, seriously, fuck off with that. Like you, you don't even know.

[00:12:59] You don't have any care at all for what he has else. You're not even curious. You don't even ask. Like what if Daryl had a son with cancer or something? He doesn't even care. Or just like a regular son. Or a regular son. Right.

[00:13:12] A healthy son who needs his dad, which he kind of does. And then Lo Seng says sometimes when a person leaves home, he comes to find he belongs to some place else. Like I just want to punch him in the face when he's saying this shit.

[00:13:29] Like you come off superior and they don't even know anything about where Daryl comes from or how much they need him. Not a thing. Yeah. And we know like it's quiet in the Commonwealth. I think that was the point of Carol saying that.

[00:13:43] And you never have to worry about me. And I mean, presumably someone's watching Judith and RJ because I thought it was Carol, but now she's gone. Those kids man. Yeah. And everyone leaves them. Mostly people die off, but there's like three people who've left intentionally now.

[00:13:59] There's Michonne and then Daryl and now Carol. I know I've said awful about 20 times, but just awful. Like it's just terrible. Like those wee kids who are just such a delight. I mean Judith more than RJ, but RJ's cute too.

[00:14:13] They both must have such attachment and abandonment issues at this point because like, fucking hell man, that's rough, you know? And they're great too. I kind of wanted, it would have been okay for Judith at least to come with Daryl on the show. But she's fun to watch.

[00:14:29] But I mean, it's just another one of those things with The Walking Dead where I think it's things outside of character and story dictating. Like with Carl when he left, that was I think because of background negotiations going bad. Right? Yeah, it was.

[00:14:45] And when Michonne left Judith, that was because Danai Gurira wanted to do movies. And I think the reason like Daryl's away from Judith and RJ is because they wanted to give him a spin off and have him be alone and have adventures.

[00:14:59] Although then they stuck him with another kid, so I don't know. Yeah, I mean what I hate about it is like the show is so…in later years is chicken shit about killing people off.

[00:15:07] And they did it with Carl and in that case I actually think that was a really shitty decision story making wise because it just wrecks Rick's kind of arc there. That's a whole other conversation. They write themselves into a corner.

[00:15:22] But they write themselves into a corner because they want to let people be able to come back and stuff like that. And like, yeah, okay. I mean like for Maggie she did come back and Michonne is going to come back for Rick and Michonne but… Six years later.

[00:15:35] I mean Rick like…anyway sorry. Dead to me. Rick dead to me grind. Rick dead beat dad grind. Well no, he didn't leave on purpose. No, that's true but he's taking his sweet time getting home isn't he?

[00:15:48] If you watch that teaser, because there was a teaser for his show and it's just as contentless as the previous one which is fine but he's saying I tried to get home. I really did. Sorry. While like clubbing at Club Tropicana.

[00:16:03] Yeah, no, I think…completely agree and it's…I don't know because I was thinking…well two things. I thought does the fact Carol's left to look after Daryl mean that someone like Rick or Michonne is back because someone's with Judith and RJ? I don't know.

[00:16:20] And I was like maybe, I doubt it. And the other thing is I'm kind of sad because thinking about the timing, like will we see Judith and RJ again in these shows because Kayleigh Fleming's going to be growing up. Yeah, they'll have to do a time jump.

[00:16:35] Yeah, I hope so because she was so good in that role. I really hope so. So then Isabel says but you also told me you left the Commonwealth to see what was out in the world. Yeah, not France though. I think you found something.

[00:16:49] Yeah, he did that because that's what Maggie said. We need to go find out what's out there so you can bring the information back to your people not so you can disappear. I'm not going to Gap year. Go find yourself Daryl. Go find yourself.

[00:17:00] Yeah, if I see you again, well, you know, we'll find out. But so then there were a lot of…there was this whole thing about Absent Fathers. The first scene was a flashback on Omaha Beach during D-Day, soldiers dead in the mud including Daryl's grandfather William Dixon.

[00:17:23] Willie Dixon. Interesting to include that, you know, the war took Daryl's kin away from him. And I think this show is saying…well, it's saying…I mean, Daryl last week said, you know when a man dies in someone else's war, it's his kids that suffer and that's what

[00:17:39] it's all about is Daryl's father was abusive and told him…put cigarettes out on him and told him that, you know, you have to take apart this engine. If you can't put it back together, you get no dinner.

[00:17:51] And the idea is that Daryl's father suffered because he didn't have his own father. He died in the World War II while his mother was pregnant with Daryl's father. So he became abusive and Isabel is saying, you know, don't abandon Laurent. Terrible. Terrible. What the fuck?

[00:18:10] Yeah, I'm like, dude, there's a lot of people at the nest. Many men, if you think a father figure is important. Lo Seng seems like an upstanding kind of a guy. I mean, except for he's trying to pressure…yeah, I'm glad he wasn't screaming, I'm an American!

[00:18:33] So it's like such a weird…like they're trying to make…I feel like convince us like, yeah, Daryl would be abandoning this kid. But he has RJ at home. He has Judith at home.

[00:18:46] Literally has those kids at home and he's…the whole thing…the Normandy thing I quite liked, but it just emphasized how fucking stupid the ending was. I was like… Yeah. So he finds his grandfather's gravestone and it reminds him, I don't want to be like…I

[00:19:04] don't want to cause that with Laurent and have him be abandoned. Who I've known for approx three weeks. Yeah, maybe two months at most or, you know, however long it takes to get across Paris. Yeah, maybe a month or something. And yeah, it's just…it's fucking ridiculous.

[00:19:20] It really is. Whereas this baby girl who I like held when she was a newborn and have known until she was like 11, 12, gave her a name, looked after her when her fucking dad disappeared. Like… Yeah. And he's like, oh, maybe I'll stay for this loser. Yeah.

[00:19:37] And I don't want to…I really don't mean to put down Laurent. I mean, he's done some dumb things like any kid, but he's a good kid. He's smart. He's caring. But he's not Daryl's kid. Not Daryl's kid.

[00:19:51] There's plenty…if he was…if Daryl was like, oh, only Merle and Negan are here to watch him if I'm not here, then maybe… That kid would be awesome if it was just Merle and Negan. But I do kind of like that Daryl's grandfather was in France.

[00:20:08] It connects Daryl to France a little bit. And yeah, and it's not…and I've got a whole bit about Normandy. It's not unlikely. Like there were a lot of Americans in the Normandy landings. So yeah.

[00:20:18] And this is D-Day when Allied forces invaded Normandy, which began the liberation of France from Nazi occupation, which also kind of connects it to the whole Charles de Gaulle thing. He was working to do that too and who Janais delusionally fashions herself after.

[00:20:32] So it's all a nice little way of making Daryl feel a little bit more a part of this show where people are like, Daryl in France? That doesn't connect at all. There's a little connection there. So yeah. So he heads to this transport.

[00:20:44] He sees the American flag and flags down the boat. And then it was awesome to see the Zeds rise up from the tall grass. That was cool. And it paralleled the bodies on the beach of him. Yes. Because then, yeah, he starts whacking them all with his flail.

[00:21:03] And I'm like, Norman…I mean, Daryl Storm in the beach at Normandy. Norman Storm in Normandy. Storm in Norman. And then you two comes on, takes a second to say goodbye. I thought the beginning of it…it's not a song I'm as familiar with.

[00:21:19] I thought the beginning of it sounded really like Space Junk from the first episode of The Walking Dead. And I liked that. I was like, oh, that's cool. But it's like, where are you going to go now? So he has to face this decision.

[00:21:31] And I wished he would have just looked at Laura and looked at the boat and then be like, come get me! Bye! Bye! Have fun! And of course, the zombies are all converging on Laurent.

[00:21:44] And so he's got to go save him, whether he's going to stay or not. So I think the writers want to make us feel like this is a legitimate choice that Daryl's having to face. And it's hard to take it that way.

[00:22:00] But I think…I mean, I don't know. We have to…I wonder if the writers underestimated how annoying it would be for people to us to see people pressuring him to stay there versus go back to the characters that we all feel connected to.

[00:22:16] And maybe they know and maybe they know we're glad that Carol seems to be going after him. But I think they don't. I think they think…will think it's a legitimate choice. And I think that's why the episode is called Coming Home, because maybe Daryl now considers

[00:22:32] this home. And it's the first episode title in English, so it's signifying that Daryl might feel more comfortable and feel like it's not so foreign to him anymore or something like that. I think with Daryl's choice, I really didn't like that in this episode they went hard on

[00:22:55] some kind of romance between Isabel and Daryl all of a sudden. I was like, oh, you've built this quite nice nuanced relationship with them. But then we've got this kind of longing looks across the room sort of thing. And I'm like, in a way…

[00:23:08] I still don't see it that way. In a way they just make it a romance because then at least it would be a bit more like, oh, he's staying for love. Like he's found someone he's happy with. Like he's found his person. But they're shying away from that.

[00:23:21] And that's cool too for different reasons. But I just feel like there was a bit of sort of middle ground in this episode that I was like, oh no. I mean, when she goes, can you come wash my back? I can't reach it.

[00:23:31] I just heard bump, chika-pow-wow in my head. I still think that's just an echo of she gave him a bath in the very first episode. Yeah. And I think she is a nun now. I think she's devoted herself to God.

[00:23:46] But there were some interesting choices they made with how they shot things and the two of them looking at each other. I just think… I see what I thought. So you see Losang giving a sermon and Daryl's peeling potatoes and she's looking over

[00:24:00] at him with a smile on her face. And I thought what that meant is he's integrating. I love it. You like it here, right? You know, I thought that's what the vibe was about. Not I love you or anything. Or yum, potatoes for dinner. My favorite.

[00:24:14] I really like potatoes. I think she was just happy to see him seeming like he was part of the community, you know, because that's what she wants. I think, yeah, that would be my face if I saw potatoes after zombie apocalypse.

[00:24:27] But yeah, I think I would have hated a proper romance for different reasons, but it would have made feeling torn about staying make more sense. Do you know, like I've fallen in love. Why would I come back kind of thing?

[00:24:41] And I really thought Isabel crossed a line when she said he was being like his dad. Like that was just… It's fucked up. Who in their right mind thinks that that is the case? It's really not. I loved the visuals of Daryl walking to the beach.

[00:24:53] I thought it was shot beautifully. But there was this funny moment where he's like putting his angel wing vest away in his bag and I'm like… It's a sign that like… Putting it aside. Yeah, old Daryl is leaving. I don't know.

[00:25:07] I thought the scene where he was trying to find his grandfather's grave was oddly emotional, like the urgency of it and trying to find that. I didn't mind the backstory for the Dixons actually.

[00:25:18] I thought I would, but I really did enjoy that and it made sense what Daryl was saying about, you know, fathers disappearing in war and inherited generational trauma. But since he does have kids at home that look up to him, then it doesn't really make sense

[00:25:35] for an argument that he should stay with this kid he hasn't known long. It makes more sense for him to get the fuck home as quick as possible. Like great storytelling. I don't think that's what they had in mind.

[00:25:46] Great storytelling on opposite day, like of the opposite thing that you wanted us to think. I liked the story too, but yeah, I think it was mishandled or something. Yeah, it pitched the wrong case because we were all like, yeah, absolutely.

[00:25:58] And then it's like, no, no, he's staying. And we're like, what? I mean, I love him in France. Don't get me wrong. It's a great story, but it's a vacation, not like your new home. At least I don't feel that way yet. You're right.

[00:26:10] Maybe if he'd found a love there, then it would make more sense. Yeah. I learned a bit about Normandy landings because I'd learned about them in school and hadn't really remembered anything about them.

[00:26:19] But there are huge amount of casualties and the cemetery, I can't confirm whether or not that's the actual cemetery that he's in, but the American cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, which was one of the landing beaches of the Normandy invasion and the English Channel.

[00:26:35] I think it is. And it contains 9,388 American military dead. So it might have taken him quite a while to find that one grave. But it's beautiful. I thought it was just a beautiful shot and interesting kind of…

[00:26:51] For Daryl, who's all about the found family, to see him make that link with his own heritage was quite interesting. But I was thinking about how this series was framed and the first thing that we hear in

[00:27:03] the series is a voiceover of Judith saying that Daryl deserves a happy ending too. And I started to think like, well, is Daryl happy in the Commonwealth? Is he living his life or is he doing his duty for other people?

[00:27:18] He's kind of been landed with Judith and RJ, although he's a great dad to them. Did he have a choice in that? Like, I don't know. So I'm like, is there an argument that what we're seeing is Daryl having his own self-defined ending?

[00:27:33] But then I was like, that's shit. I don't like that. I just like that as crap. No. It's interesting. I mean, there's also the thing about whether or not Laurent is some kind of a messiah, which, you know, in real life I could believe that.

[00:27:53] See, I don't believe in like supernatural things, but I do still believe that if a lot of people believed in something like that, it could be very powerful. Like Janaye says, you know, these people believe in fairy tales and they're weak or whatever.

[00:28:09] And I'm like, well, I think you're right that it's fairy tales, but I don't agree that it's weak. It can be very powerful. Fairy tales can be very powerful. And so anyway, what I'm trying to say, even this is also a fictitious show, so he very

[00:28:22] well may be the second coming of Christ, you know, for all we know in the show. So if he is going to be an important figure, then that does factor in somewhat to me if

[00:28:34] Daryl thinks that he can make a difference in like humanity, making it through the zombie apocalypse. So that would be like a purpose for him that he could maybe get something out of that he wouldn't get back home. Would the Daryl Dixon we know and love think that?

[00:28:52] I mean, I also… Once he's gotten there? Coming into the show, I thought, well, Daryl is already a kick-ass character who's grown a lot. So where does he have to go in his arc? And maybe it's even to step up to a higher level of impact, you know?

[00:29:07] But I don't know. Maybe. That's a stretch. We're tying ourselves in knots here trying to make something that just doesn't make sense make sense, you know? You're right though. He already chose to leave Judith and RJ and go out into the world at least for long stretches

[00:29:24] at a time. And so I don't know what would make Daryl happy. Maybe it is France. I don't know. He's a real Francophile. Well, he said his little cheers in French. He's drinking his wee beer and he said, um, santé? Oh yeah, that's right.

[00:29:41] So he's pretty much completely integrated now. Next thing you know, he'll have his beret and his baguette. His baguette! Sorry French people. Sorry. I was actually quoting Flight of the Concords' Fou de Faf out there rather than making a generic French assumption. But yeah, also that. Sorry.

[00:30:04] Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, one of the things I found interesting is that there is a boat coming over from Dover because Dover and France are super close together. You can actually swim from England to France if you are a pretty good swimmer.

[00:30:18] Daryl can do it. Daryl can do it. He can definitely do it in that long coat with his hat on. But they said that lots of ships are leaving from England or like you'll definitely be able to get a ship from there. And that interested me.

[00:30:30] I was like, huh? So stuff's coming in and out of the UK at this point. And they reckon they could get him as far as Newfoundland, which is like, you know, super north. But relatively west. That's part of Canada, right? And it's the northeastern part of Canada.

[00:30:44] Newfoundland itself is an island off the coast, but I guess it's also a part of a province called Newfoundland. At Newfoundland and Labrador. In Labrador. And so that's about 2000 miles away from Ohio where the Commonwealth is, which he could get to no problem because he's Daryl.

[00:31:02] And I just kind of think like, oh, that would be funny if we had next season Canada. Newfoundland. He'll find an annoying French Canadian boy or a London boy. Like just all these little orphaned boys that Daryl will be friends with.

[00:31:21] But to me that would almost be more interesting as he is in a different place every season trying to get back. But for some reason I think we're going to be in. And I mean, when they were like, he's like, Jeanne's gonna come and the guy's like, oh,

[00:31:35] we'll see. And I'm like, she's obviously going to be there like tomorrow. You're not going to live to see. Daryl's teaching them all how to shoot. And I'm like, hmm, really? They didn't know how to shoot at this place?

[00:31:45] I could not comment on the availability of guns in France, but it seems unlikely that if they had guns, they wouldn't know how to shoot them. I mean, I guess. But they had them.

[00:31:58] So yeah, you'd think 12 years in the people who are left kind of would be survivor types. You would think that, but it seems to just be kind of, I don't know, like the YMCA. And like Jeanne's like asking Caudron where, where's the nest?

[00:32:15] And I'm like, how do you know he knows where the nest is? I mean, I don't even believe he saw a watch with Mont Saint-Michel on it and he's like, oh, that's your hideout, right? Because you have a watch that has a picture of a iconic location.

[00:32:28] And so anyway, that location is highly defensible. It's created in the ninth century, I read and was built up over hundreds and hundreds of years, 800 years or something. And in the hundred years war, it wasn't taken over because it's surrounded, you know, it's

[00:32:48] an island that when the tide comes in, it's surrounded by water. And so what was my point in bringing this up? So like you would think that maybe Jeanne and Pouvoir de Vivant would have already actually scouted it out because it's such a defensible location, you know?

[00:33:07] Yeah, absolutely. Like, why would they not know? Also like the name, the nest sounds like, I don't know, a bird nest and it's kind of like a tall, it's famous because the Abbey is up high in Mont Saint-Michel. So I'm a bit like, nobody figured that out.

[00:33:22] Have you been there? I want to go there. No, I really want to go. We were googling how long it would take us to drive there actually. Oh yeah, you're close. Turns out 10 or 11 hours and we were like, might be quite good because I would really

[00:33:31] like to see it. I love, I have a fascination with tidal areas. There's an island off the coast of the northeast of England called Lindisfarne, which is called Holy Island. It's like a tiny, tiny, it's nowhere near as kind of grand as Mont Saint-Michel, but

[00:33:47] it's on the other end of a causeway. And it's pretty cool. I think there's a couple more down the south of England as well, some tidal islands down there that I think is, I think that's kind of fun.

[00:33:58] It's really cool and it does seem like a great place to hole up in the zombie apocalypse. It's beautiful and defensible. Yeah, and according to their tourism website, which I looked at today, the Mont Saint-Michel

[00:34:11] is a real French commune with a mayor, a priest, a postman, municipal policemen and even waste services. So in total there are around 20 Montois residents plus a small community of cats. And I was like, amazing, I'll go and live there. That sounds great. So yeah.

[00:34:27] I'm sure it's got a lot of tourism, right? Yeah, it does. I think that's where most of the income comes from. And it was the inspiration for Minas Tirith in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. It was modeled on Mont Saint-Michel. That's cool.

[00:34:42] You can see I have a, I don't know where it is actually, I have a little model Minas Tirith and yeah, it looks very similar. So I'll talk about Daryl and Quinn in the arena. This one's for Jennifer McGinley. Yeah, hot. Some of the qualities of the Zed.

[00:35:03] So it picks up the episode right after the cliffhanger with Daryl facing off against this amped up uber Zed. Today you die, you tackle my brother. And this Zed I loved. It was awesome.

[00:35:18] It reminded me a little bit of Deadites from the Evil Dead series because it's all frantic and blood splattering. I have a clip here. Here goes. I like how it goes. I like that. It's so good. And it's flailing its arms around and everything. Oh, so, so good.

[00:35:53] I was like, why is Daryl not aiming for the neck though? I mean, honest to God. Spoking it in the stomach so the acid comes out and burns him. Ridiculous. Ludicrous. And so, and it did have acidic blood, which I still, I feel like there's secrets to be

[00:36:09] discovered yet about what's going on with these variant zombies. Did the blow dart injection create the acid blood or was that just to amp it up? And was it already an evolved acid blood variant or something like that? You know, we just don't know.

[00:36:25] I think it's interesting that a series about Daryl Dixon, the furthest thing from a scientist would be where the secrets of the zombies might be revealed and what started it and everything. I, I, the, I went back again and watched the post-credit scene of world beyond.

[00:36:44] The French scientist got shot and about 30, 20 or 30 seconds later she reanimated and started screaming frantically just like this pounding on that door and denting it. So she didn't need a blow dart. So what's up? Maybe they're trying to mimic something they've already seen in nature. I don't know.

[00:37:06] Replicate it. So he grabs the Pouvoir des Vivants flag and uses it, I think kind of like a matador at first waving at the, at a bull. So high camp. I love it. It's like, yeah, and then he spears it in the head with the pointy end.

[00:37:26] And it's been really fun to see Daryl make use of things in the series. Like when he skewered that one acid zombie and used it to melt the vines or when he uses

[00:37:38] the picks up medieval weapons like the flail or this flag or when he attached the cable to his crossbow, like it seems like they're having a lot of fun figuring out inventive ways to…

[00:37:47] It is nice to have it not just be, although, you know, to be fair to the main show, it had gone away from guns quite a lot till we got back to the Commonwealth.

[00:37:57] But yeah, it's really nice to see, especially the kind of ancient weaponry is very cool. I'm enjoying that a lot. Yeah. And I just think they're particularly having a good time figuring out different ways for Daryl to kill zombies.

[00:38:10] Well, here he defeats this Ubrzed, so they bring out Quinn, they chain him and Daryl together. And I was thinking, are they supposed to fight or work together? I would think probably work together. They assumed fight each other.

[00:38:27] But then the lights go out and I'm like, oh, are they supposed to fight in the dark? What's going on here? And then you hear growling in the distance. And then I love this, the showmanship. The lighting design.

[00:38:37] One by one, the lights come on revealing these creepy ass chained up Zeds. The one theatre kid left in the French apocalypse is like, now's my time. And they all looked so cool in there. And Lauren's praying while this is all happening.

[00:38:55] And it's just such a cinematic moment. And then the title music starts. And I really love the opening sequence, by the way. I watch it every time. I don't skip it. Me too. And I can't wait to see what it's like next season.

[00:39:08] So then we go back to the action, more blow darts to amp up all these Zeds. And then one starts going nuts and his head explodes. I told you, I told you that's what they're training them to do. No, that's wrong. I know it's not. I know.

[00:39:21] Oh, okay. I thought you misunderstood. Yeah, it is funny. But J'nai shoots the scientists a dirty look, which is hilarious. And he's like, uh, sorry. I also enjoyed Quinn's face of like, well, that one sorted itself out. Yeah. Good. Okay. Right. That's great.

[00:39:38] And they haven't perfected the formula again. Why did that happen? Because they need more, they need fresher zombies. But, but so then that might mean only the American's heads, zombies heads don't explode. I don't know. It's all about the head explosion.

[00:39:50] So that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Like, yeah, they could use that somehow. And then they let them, the rest go and one immediately rips the jaw off the other one. And the scientist guy gets a second dirty look from J'nai, which is so funny.

[00:40:09] And I was like, well, this is probably good because if we see Daryl and Quinn defeat too many too easily, then maybe they seem like less of a threat. And it's also better in that regard for two guys to be fighting them.

[00:40:19] Because if Daryl could defeat them all, they might seem like less of a threat. But it's also again, dumb on J'nai's part. Let's give our fighter a badass weapon and also a helper. Yeah. And a chain that is heavy and could be used as a weapon. Yeah.

[00:40:32] And then they did like another inventive, they kept clothes lining them and Daryl just lops one of their legs off, which is so cool. And then one's on top of Daryl and Quinn's whacking him, but they gave them these metal helmets.

[00:40:44] I thought the metal helmet was very cool. Like that's a good idea. Like it was, they must have almost Game of Thrones them. Like I can tell if it was like, cause if it was like metal that they poured out, if

[00:40:56] it was like they'd sewn it into their skull, but it was so cool. I was like, yeah, yeah. Good idea. Yeah. Cause that's where, that's the only way to kill them. And then, um, they should have given him like a metal turtleneck too or something.

[00:41:10] And then the legless one grabs Daryl and he can't quite grab his axe cause he's pulling them along. That was so fun to watch. And then, then they, uh, I guess Quinn ended up killing that one that he was whacking at

[00:41:22] and then they end up getting the chain around the last one and both pulling so hard that his head just popped right off. Teamwork. And then Daryl has his Katniss Everdeen moment of like throwing the thing back at the judge That was amazing.

[00:41:35] And it's all still, of course the Zed heads going, yeah, tosses it up there. And the crowd had booed when Daryl defeated the first one. But when he and Quinn beat all the others, they start chanting Dickson, Dickson, which

[00:41:49] totally reminded me of Rocky four when Rocky had to fight Yvonne Drago in Russia and everyone's chanting Rocky at the end. If I can bring all you together, then maybe we can all be a piece or whatever he said. I like it. I'd say fair weather fans.

[00:42:05] I mean, come on. Yeah. Yeah. They're not very reliable, are they? But Jenae's like, this was supposed to win people to our cause, which I'm like, well, don't don't give your enemy such a leg up then.

[00:42:15] Honestly, I would love to run like an enemy consultation, an enemy consultation masterclass for bad guys where I'm like, look, you just have to stop giving them weapons. You have to stop giving the weapons and chances. You're going to get embarrassed. One at a time, small, manageable tasks.

[00:42:33] You had one chance. Like, what are you going to say? Well, you're going to say, OK, everybody come back next weekend because you're not going to believe it this time. I promise. Absolutely. I thought it was a smashing scene. I thought it was really entertaining.

[00:42:48] I was thinking of Jennifer McGinley like 50 percent of the time thinking she's having a great day. Yeah, well, yeah. But then I mean, yeah, because it was so funny when Quinn's like, Darryl's like points to this big old zombie bite oozing and he's like, oh, that's nothing.

[00:43:11] Don't worry about it. Piss off. Piss off. Yeah, it's nothing. I don't even know. And it's just a it's just a nick. And then it reminded me of that's exactly what happened. Spoilers, by the way, to my character on our zombie improv that we did recently, courtesy

[00:43:27] of your character. Yep. That is what happens. Yeah. It was not my fault. Nobody put me down. Nobody put me down. I was making a lot of noise and nobody put me down. So you can blame the others for that.

[00:43:40] So if you want to hear that, go to Patreon.com slash Jason Gabassi. Look for the Welcome to the Apocalypse improv. Amazing. Is it up now? I'll need to have this. Oh, excellent. So and then Daryl, I mean, J'Nai sends Kodron to kill Daryl.

[00:43:58] Oh, we forgot to mention Faloo saved Daryl. Like I'm glad that J'Nai was like, just kill him now because after that, like what? But then Faloo comes in with the classic Walking Dead deus ex machina and causes chaos. So that was the end.

[00:44:15] There were these moments where Daryl was just like looking at the guy that's about to shoot him and I'm like, just go through your head. And you're just like, well, what's going to save me now? Because like, you don't know you have plot armor, but you know. Yeah.

[00:44:26] It's like last week when he was looking at the guy who was about to shoot him and get there too or what was he going to do to him? Oh, take his eye out. Yeah, take his eye out. And then Laurent saved him. Yeah, he did.

[00:44:39] A little twerp. All right. What's next? I'll follow on because I had Quinn's death and escape from Maison Mère. I really liked the zombie arena, but there was this moment where they're like doing, I don't know, all zombie production of Rent with the spotlights.

[00:44:57] And I was like, why aren't they just running off and shooting them before they get unlocked? Benefit of the doubt, it's because they know there's men in the crowds with guns and darts, so they don't want to run to the zombies.

[00:45:07] But another part of me was like, you could just run up and behead them. Like anyway. Yeah, it makes me think they should have started playing Michael Jackson's thriller. I loved seeing the two of them fight together. I thought they were quite well matched. It was quite fun.

[00:45:28] And I have a feeling that it was fun for them to shoot. I don't know. There was something about the scene where I was like, I feel like they're both having fun. I mean, for actors who haven't been on the show previously, like Clémence Posé and

[00:45:42] Adam Nagaitis, I wonder if there is a little bit of like, I'm getting to fight zombies with Daryl Dixon. Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I get that I'm a serious actor, but also like, this is awesome. Look at this.

[00:45:56] I mean, there are actors who have said, can I please come on The Walking Dead? That guy, C. Thomas Howell, I think. Yes! I think. And then Ethan Embry, I think was… Is it Ethan Embry? I can't remember if that's his name or not.

[00:46:11] He was really keen to have a role in it as well. There's been a few. I mean, Garrett Dillahunt was… Oh, was he? Yeah. And then he was like, please let me off of this show. We still love you, Garrett. You're still a hero. Oh, we love Garrett.

[00:46:24] We love you so much that we don't even mind that you were on here for so long. I mean, he was the best thing about it. He was the best thing. Bar none, by far. Best thing.

[00:46:33] I mean, it was a rather horrifying loss, but also good for him. I thought Quinn's attitude to getting bitten was quite funny because he's such a weaselly guy. And he's sort of like, piss off. No, what? Shut up. No, it's not. And then realizing what's happening.

[00:46:46] And I sort of liked that it wasn't this big heroic stance at the end. It was just more like, go on then. Like, yeah, okay. What can I do? I thought it was such good payoff later when Isabel was like, he told you to tell me that,

[00:46:58] didn't he? And Daryl's like, no. When he's like, his last thought was of you. I mean, he didn't really… Quinn said, can you tell her that I sacrificed my life? Not I was thinking of her. Yeah, Daryl sort of screwed the toss there on that one.

[00:47:19] I also thought Quinn was a great zombie. Again, this is something where I'm like, the actors must have so much fun. Like when they get to turn and so few of the actors really get to now.

[00:47:28] The last big one I can think of is Lance Hornsby in the end of season 11. That was clearly Josh Hamilton was having a great time. So I thought Quinn was a very effective, aggressive zombie.

[00:47:40] I can say that I'm not an actor who turned but I got to be a zombie on The Walking Dead and it was a peak experience in my life. It must be so fun. Oh my God. But yeah, I thought Isabel was a bit like…

[00:47:56] And I was like, okay, she's shocked it's her ex lover or whatever but also like… Yeah, do something. Push him off. You never learned to push him off, did you? Yeah, and then Daryl screaming, kill him! Kill your father! That's not what he's saying.

[00:48:10] Obviously he's saying, you know, do it. It would have been awesome if he said that. Kill your father! Kill your new father, Laurent! Kill him! And Laurent's like… Pussy! I know, you little twerp! You little bitch! He's like, no, my father!

[00:48:20] So I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Such a weirdly intense first kill. It's like, oh yeah, I did my first kill. Yeah, it was my estranged father who I didn't actually know existed until like two days

[00:48:36] ago and it turns out he's a bit of a douchebag but I had to kill him anyway. It's like, oh wow, okay. What went a little way towards saving that for me was when Daryl said, God will forgive

[00:48:48] you because, oh yeah, he knows exactly why Laurent is hesitant and it reminds me of that fish but also of course Perjon who they kept locked up and who he was really upset when Kodron killed him. He was.

[00:49:02] I had another note for Jennifer which was when Daryl asked Quinn to take his belt off I was like, there's the start of a fan fiction. I'm just gonna let that one write itself. We only have a few minutes, quick! Yeah.

[00:49:17] We both laughed at the line when Falou says, my uncle worked in a garage because we were like, what does your uncle do? I don't even know. Like, I don't feel that gives you knowledge of the specific situation. I was like, my uncle…

[00:49:31] I had to think, do I have uncles? Yeah. I was like, I think my uncle might be an accountant. And I'm like, does that make you good at taxes? He's like, no. But it was nice that they got out.

[00:49:42] And fun fact, the French police do have Land Rover Defenders. We thought that was a weird choice for a police car but apparently it is a feature of the French police force. Didn't that truck crap out by the way? So maybe Falou's uncle didn't teach him that good.

[00:49:59] It did. And clears throat. This is a massive retcon because it is established in season 6 episode 14 twice as far that Daryl can't drive manual. He can't drive stick. Denise has to help him. Oh really? Oh wow. No recollection of that. Yeah.

[00:50:15] He and Denise have a bonding moment because Denise's brother also can't drive stick and Daryl gets blustered. Well, Leah taught him I think. I'm just kidding. So he's… I mean, that said, that in the timeline is seven years ago so maybe he's been like learning how to drive.

[00:50:31] He's like, I gotta figure that shit out. It will 100% not have been an automatic. It's a French Land Rover. It's not going to be… Right. Yeah. So that bothered me a little bit. But anyway, it's fine. It's a thing where people adapt. I know.

[00:50:44] Every time I go to Europe, which I was going every year for Walker Zucker Kahn, I'd have to quickly relearn how to drive a manual and on the other side of the road in London.

[00:50:56] I just now like when I drive in North America or in Europe we get automatics because I'm like if I drive on the right hand side of the road, I drive automatic. If I drive on the left hand side of the road, it's manual.

[00:51:09] And never the twain shall mate. And that served me well. But yeah, that was it for me with Quinn and escape from Maison Mare. I'm sad that that's the last we'll see of Adam Nogaita. It's not as sad as some of our listeners.

[00:51:22] But you know, Jennifer, if you are going through some stuff, just get in touch. You know, I can share tips with you about how I got through my losses during the time of The Walking Dead, some of which still hurt. I love you Lance. Right.

[00:51:37] Lucky for me, Maggie's still alive. Maggie's still alive. So yeah, I mean, when Quinn like they're trying to get away, he says, I'm fine. And then he's starting to die, you know, and I was like, that's exactly like our improv the other day. Yeah, I'm fine.

[00:51:57] But he's like, you know, I was terrible to her, Izzy. I thought I'd get it right next time around. And I made it worse. I'm like, yeah, dude. Yup. Like, duh. Yeah, I thought it was really charming when I kidnapped my son and used him as leverage

[00:52:13] to hold her against her will. But turns out that was dumb. Who knew? Daryl's like, he's like, I didn't see it like that. And then Daryl suggests that he buy Daryl time to save Isabelle and Laurent by staying back but he'll have to cut his hand off.

[00:52:33] And Quinn says yes, and they do it. And Quinn charges Janaye's soldiers and I'm like, okay, you're a total fucking hero now. That was a hero move. Like, yeah, that really makes up for a lot in my book. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:52:45] Yeah, I think I would just pass out if someone cut my hand off. Even staying conscious to me. I'm like, yeah, props. So I have an item on people acting maybe out of character. Interesting, because I have some notes about this as well. Okay, we can do it.

[00:53:06] I mean, Quinn as a self sacrificing hero who suddenly realized the error of his ways. I was like, really? I don't know about that. I think they played it quite nicely as a more of a fuck it than a kind of, I'm gonna go ahead and swing it.

[00:53:20] Yeah, I guess so. But I take your point. I get yeah, and maybe when he said, oh, I really fucked up. Maybe that's the kind of thing you might think because you know, you're about to die.

[00:53:29] Yeah, I think that's if he hadn't been bitten, I would have been like, what the fuck? The fact he'd been bitten, I guess at that point, you're like, oh, but still, I mean, honestly, I think the actor's great. But Quinn's character, I think is a bit thin.

[00:53:42] He's just obsessed with her and then he's an asshole. And now he's sorry. And now he's dead. And now he's dead. But I did. I like I think this was my favorite. All that said, my favorite episode with him. I really liked him as a teammate with Daryl.

[00:53:58] And I am kind of bummed that they're well matched in the beginning and end of it. It was it was an electric scene. Codron, he shoots all his guys but not Daryl and says, I'm going to get you next time.

[00:54:13] I mean, his whole purpose in life is to kill the guy who killed his brother. And he doesn't take the opportunity. I think he didn't do it because I mean, he says the reason he shot all those guys is because he didn't want to have to kill Laurent.

[00:54:27] So he's not a child killer. And so I guess the reason why he didn't kill Daryl is because he didn't want to do it in front of Laurent. But he's been written as this really harsh brute.

[00:54:38] And I just thought it was kind of dumb and convenient for our character that has plot armor that he didn't just waste him right then. It made me wish that we'd spent maybe half of the river episode with Codron finding out more about him.

[00:54:53] I just feel like, well, that came from nowhere. I'd like to know more about what led to this. I guess it can't be out of character if we don't even know his character.

[00:55:01] Well, that but it did feel like a big left turn of like, oh, yeah, he likes him. But you know, he really likes kids. So everyone's defense for Nekin is he really likes kids. Codron really likes kids. So he's a nice guy.

[00:55:16] I mean, I mean, you laugh, but most people who are even a little decent wouldn't want to shoot a kid in the face. You'd really hope not. You'd really hope not. But I just don't know if I'd believe that he wouldn't kill Daryl.

[00:55:33] And at this point, I might consider if I was Daryl going, you know, I didn't actually kill your brother, but whatever. Yeah. Also, I thought Daryl was really wimpy in that scene. Like he didn't, I don't know. He was very like, no, no, no, don't kill them. Yeah.

[00:55:51] I was just a bit like… But I think that was because Laurent was there. If it had just been him, he wouldn't have been that way. But he wanted to protect Isabelle and Laurent. Yeah, I guess. I guess. But I got, yeah, I felt weird too.

[00:56:03] So that's a little bit out of character. It's also out of character for Daryl to consider staying in France with Laurent. But it's funny because this was after Laurent had like rushed to prison guards and being like, I was doing what I thought Daryl would do.

[00:56:15] And then like two scenes later, Daryl was like, no, don't shoot us. And I'm like, oh, it seems weird. Yep. And then the last one I had here is maybe not out of character, but as a little bit of

[00:56:28] a head scratcher is Emil tells Sylvie they're needed elsewhere and he hopes she can join him at some point. But she was already ready to stay with his group. Yeah. Or right? Yeah. She was ready to stay with his group in Paris.

[00:56:47] And now she's going to the nest. But why not? She's clearly not happy about leaving him. Why doesn't she just go with him? Or maybe she's like, but I was going to go with you. And he's like, oh, I can't hear you. Bye.

[00:56:59] Emil is like, I'm off to do Argentinian dancing with other women. I'll go back soon. I wrote in my notes that I hope Sylvie at least got laid. I presume. To get laid in between because those sexy young folk deserve it, man.

[00:57:16] If you're going to leave the convent. Yeah. If you're going to leave the convent, like leave the convent. You know what I'm saying? I was amazed they both lived. Amazed they both lived. Yeah. None of the main characters died.

[00:57:29] I mean, Aslan's maybe the closest that I can think of. And then some of the nuns early on. But none of the main characters, which is fine with me. I don't care. I really didn't want Falou to die. So I'm really pleased about that.

[00:57:41] And I'm pleased that Emil lived. And yeah, that was in my list of surprises was Emil lived, Codron lived, Falou lived, Sylvie lived, and Daryl is tempted to stay? Question mark. I also didn't like Jeanne's little thing about, I lived a night in the art gallery learning

[00:58:00] which eyes were lying or something. I was like, it's not how it works, mate. That's not how you learn. Yeah. I'm like, how did you learn that? Because you looked at the paintings and what happened next exactly? Oh, the Mona Lisa famously full of shit. Like total liar.

[00:58:18] She just goes on and on. So shifty, so shifty. Can't trust a word she says. Amazing. Okay, I've got some little bits and pieces, but I've also got one bigger point, which is Carol's scene at the end of the episode. Wish they hadn't spoiled her return.

[00:58:37] It was all over the headlines kind of in this last week because of Comic Con. I mean, so I think at this point we can presume that she's going to be in the story going forward, right? That was the beginning.

[00:58:51] They're not going to show that and have nothing. So I will say that I've heard for months now that she's in season two, but I didn't want to say it on the podcast because I didn't want to spoil it.

[00:59:03] I think for the last two months or so I've been aware that she was probably coming back, but was hazy on the details. And then in the last week it became very clear that she was back back. And that's great. I'm actually fine with that.

[00:59:16] I hope that it's not ships in the night and it's not like five seasons of them trying to find each other. I'm just like, oh my God, just reunite them at some point because she needs to get him

[00:59:27] out of this weird nest cult and back to Alexandria for the kids. It very much feels like a cult to me. It does. So some people might not see it that way because it's based in traditional, I guess it seems

[00:59:43] like mostly Christian, but man, you got to stay and help us because this kid's the Messiah and don't worry about your family. Don't listen to them either if they try to get you to come out because they don't know the truth like we do. Yeah, not great.

[00:59:58] No matter how many potatoes they have, it's not a great setup. It was nice to see her. I loved that it was a classic Carol bait and switch. She thinks she's a woman who can't protect herself.

[01:00:09] She shuts him in the boot or the trunk of the car having knocked him out and says, if he's lying, she won't be back. And that's where we leave it. I mean, really, if you're going to say that, like he told her, okay, I traded this motorcycle,

[01:00:26] Daryl's motorcycle with somebody up the road. She's going to say, if you're lying, I won't be back. Then you should wait a second to see if he changes his story. You know what I mean?

[01:00:37] I mean, if you're a normal human, yeah, but if you're Carol, but I mean, you want the truth. So you threaten him like and then if he is lying, maybe you'll then get the truth. But yeah, nope, she just goes. So renegade.

[01:00:50] They're not gonna like her at the nest. So I'm glad she's back. I think it's going to be really fun. I agree with you. I hope they have a lot of scenes together. I think it's going to be really fun.

[01:01:00] But there is a part of me that's like, oh, maybe this is the only Daryl solo adventure. We just we're done with that now. And I already kind of miss it. It was great. It was so good. Yeah, I really, it really was good.

[01:01:12] I'm kind of sad that this week is the last one. It did strike me that of all the characters in The Walking Dead, Carol would do this for Daryl. Like she would search the ends of America to see where he ended up being.

[01:01:24] So I was like, this isn't a stretch. He said he was going to be back in a week. And he's not. Some characters I'd be like, would they do that with Carol? I'm like, no, no, she would do that.

[01:01:32] I do have in my capitals who has Judith and RJ? Yeah, they're probably like Ezekiel. Next thing you know Ezekiel is going to be going off somewhere. I mean, who else is there? There's Gabriel and Aaron. There's a few characters left.

[01:01:51] We don't even know where they all are because they were all kind of split at the end. Oh yeah, Eugene and Max. Yeah. Sexy Mercer and Princess as well. Would you want Eugene as a dad? No. No, I would not. I would not want that.

[01:02:11] Nor Gabriel to be honest. Rosita like, no, no. Poor choices. Yeah, I'd pick Aaron. Well, I think I was going to say he's gotten really intense, but maybe if things quiet down he might have chilled out a bit again. Yeah, here's hoping.

[01:02:24] This is the kind of stuff we might find out at some point. Yeah, plus he has Gracie who's friends with Judith so that might be fun. And Gracie against all odds did survive the show despite being quite hapless.

[01:02:38] So yeah, I mean it was just good to see Carol, good to see her get on the bike and head off into the sunset and see what happens. Yeah, I don't really have much else to add to that.

[01:02:49] I really hope it's not a case of like literal passing ships or something like that. They'd be crazy to do that. I mean, I feel like when they thought it was the Daryl and Carol series from the start

[01:02:58] they were setting it up by having them have a lot of interactions in the main show to show their fun dynamic to kind of whet our appetite for it maybe. And so then not to give it to us would be weird. Yeah, we'll see.

[01:03:10] I think the TV shows these days can run a fine line between like frustration and satisfaction and I think you can push it too far in one direction. Yeah, like if it's another six episode season maybe they get together in episode three that'd be fine. Yeah, that's fine.

[01:03:25] But we'll see. That's alright. If it's like the final five minutes of the end of season two but apparently it's called The Book of Carol next season so I do wonder if it's actually just going to be a Carol

[01:03:35] season and then it would be a two together season but I don't know. I thought The Book of Carol was a joke when I saw it in someone's review and then I looked up and I'm like oh no that's actually the title. Who is writing these titles?

[01:03:47] But it's called The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon, The Book of Carol. So it has his name in it too. It just rolls off the tongue doesn't it? Such an easy title. They just had The Book of Boba Fett and I didn't know why they had that.

[01:04:00] That's why I was like oh it was a joke. No, it's real. Alright, that's my Carol points. I had a short one on Janaye, yeah the whole museum thing, like what? Oh yeah, she says, no I already said that about the union offers fairy tales, every

[01:04:21] person who joins them makes us weaker but I think fairy tales can actually be really strong. She said we're building the future not for ourselves but for those who come after. We have to do the hard unspeakable things so they won't have to.

[01:04:32] I mean I feel like that's almost exactly what, who is the character? I think Isabelle right in Fear the Walking Dead, the CRM woman. Yes, yes, yes. Her name is Isabelle too. She might have said that same thing so it feels very much like the CRM.

[01:04:48] Yeah, for sure. And yeah I guess I've already said that. Let's just get in some notes. So back in the day I was a massive Lord of the Rings fan of the original trilogy and

[01:05:02] thinking about Minas Tirith and Gondor there were also major vibes with Isabelle of Eowyn in the Houses of Healing which is a scene that was actually cut from the film of Return

[01:05:13] of the King but it's one of my favorite bits in the book where she is healing from her stab wound in battle and falls in love with Faramir of Gondor who's also the best character.

[01:05:26] And yeah I just thought the visuals and the vibes were very reminiscent of that and I enjoyed that quite a lot. It was just beautiful even more than usual the whole Mont Saint-Michel so beautiful seeing

[01:05:37] it in the distance with birds and things and then when you go in that beautiful chill French song that was playing and then there was choir music in there and just the vibe was

[01:05:47] really nice and yeah I'd almost be like oh yeah that is pretty nice maybe I will stick around here for a little while. Yeah but if you stayed on vacation forever then it would be like you know.

[01:05:56] Yeah it's not special anymore although when I lived in Boston for like two years and it's not Paris beautiful there but close I think the architecture is really nice there and it's gorgeous and then I came back to California and I'm like man this place is ugly boxy

[01:06:16] buildings and it just made me feel like elsewhere. It's all about comparison all the time you get used to where you are and then yeah. When we moved back from Canada we were like okay well we're moving back so we're going

[01:06:27] to move to somewhere completely different from where we've just been. So we'd been living in a city that was like barely any buildings older than 50 years and now we live in a city where everything is like it's like someone just like shit history

[01:06:41] everywhere like it's unbelievable like you're just like oh like and it was quite weird to start with I was like this is too much it's like everything's too close together and I don't really understand it but it is it's about contrast isn't it and I think one of

[01:06:55] the reasons this series has been so good has been I think there's been a real pleasure in just the different settings and the different cities and architecture and things that we've seen and yeah I've just really enjoyed that.

[01:07:07] It's hard to tell how much of it is that I really think even though we've had a lot of nitpicks that the storytelling has been really good the dialogue's been good characters and

[01:07:17] the moment to moments have been really good so I think it is more than just the setting but I don't know how much more like maybe if this was set in Georgia we'd be like yeah yeah that's fine.

[01:07:29] I laughed that Laurent is like doing philosophy with the guy that runs the nest I was like so we've taken him all this way to become a little philosophy nerd fair enough and my

[01:07:39] final note is I loved the music in this episode we had seconds by you two at the end which I didn't recognize as you two because apparently it's one of the few songs where the edge sings the first couple verses.

[01:07:50] No I didn't know that but the part we were hearing was Bono. Yeah and I did like the way it recalled the use of music in the first season of The Walking Dead the first episode with Rick in the tank with Glenn on the radio.

[01:08:07] The song that's playing when they see Mont Saint-Michel is I'm going to say this really wrong Le Vent nous Portera by it's a cover by Sophie Hunger of a song that was very famous

[01:08:17] at the start of the noughties by Noir Desir and it's been in a few films I thought it was great and I thought the music while they were looking at the burning truck was very

[01:08:28] nice too it's just been I don't know I thought the music was really well pitched this whole season and in this episode in particular I really enjoyed it. Yeah you're right it does bring back that tank scene and The Walking Dead well no I

[01:08:41] was going to say it didn't use a lot of pop music but it actually did and it was pretty good at it too. I still have songs in my playlist that I listen to and remember scenes in The Walking Dead.

[01:08:51] It used it well I don't think it used it too much or too little I think it always used it judiciously and especially in the Kang era there was some good stuff like Jesus and

[01:09:00] Mary Chain and I mean Gimple say what you will but he was also really good about that he picked some great songs really obscure songs that fit the moment just right.

[01:09:10] We were singing a song in choir the other week and I was like oh this is in The Walking Dead Maggie and Beth sing it the parting glass the old Irish song I was like oh cute.

[01:09:19] There's this one song called Paul Simon and I forget who it's by but they played it when Eugene was a trader and he was getting all this like sandwiches and stuff at the saviors and it's there's this one word it's called comfort. I listen to that song sometimes.

[01:09:39] So good and Burning Down the House was also iconic. Yeah yeah yeah yeah all right my notes Laurent says to Isabel maybe Janaye's right that God has abandoned us and she says now is when we need faith the most and I'm like yeah

[01:09:56] now that billions of people have died is when we should trust that God has all our best interests at heart. That's my thought on the matter. I know I know hot take Sylvie asked Daryl if he's ever been in love and I'm like is

[01:10:10] he gonna mention Leah and he doesn't say anything but you know he's got to be thinking about her. He's like no. Raises his eyebrows. He's thinking of dog. He's thinking of dog. He's like my dog.

[01:10:24] Isabel tells Daryl that her father tried to teach her how to change a tire once and gave up after two hours. I'm like dude changing a tire is not rocket science. Two hours what would you be telling someone for two hours turn those little like yeah

[01:10:42] he was just being very angry the whole time. I don't know. No not like that. Not like this. You've ruined three cars already. Uh I don't know why but I thought it was I kind of love that Isabel lied about that drawing of Daryl on the beach.

[01:11:00] Yes as a prophetic thing she actually either she drew it or had Laurent draw it. I forgot which after she got Laurent out there. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. What Daryl I mean Laurent was in on the lie.

[01:11:13] Oh little sinner little shit but he seems okay with it. He says I'm here now and it's not because of your picture so maybe that's a little signal that he's at least in part okay with being there. Yeah he's choosing it.

[01:11:28] I loved when Daryl sees Laurent asleep and sets his Rubik's Cube down next to him completely solved. Way to go Daryl. Yeah go Daryl. It wasn't solved. It was still messed up. You see them uh keep playing with it with each other um outside as well when.

[01:11:46] Oh you do. Yeah. Yeah but Daryl couldn't figure it out. I mean. No he couldn't. I can't either. And last uh in a chat I hope Randy doesn't mind but in one of our Walking Dead chats he

[01:12:02] said they should send Negan over to fill in for Daryl and teach Laurent how to nut tap. And I was like you know what I actually wouldn't mind seeing a scene or two between Negan and Laurent.

[01:12:17] I mean I actually agree with you I think that would be quite funny. Yeah. What is French for nut tap? And then uh yeah I can't I don't know that um. I'm gonna put it in my translator.

[01:12:33] Video that had swears did have the word for balls or testicle but I forget what it was. One thing that would be great about Negan making an appearance on the show is he could finally say fuckity fuck fuck fuck like he does in the comics all the time.

[01:12:49] And. I mean not wrong. Yeah there's just so many fucks and people don't I don't know of people who watch the show and listen to this podcast like that phrase is famous on this podcast if you go way back enough because of this.

[01:13:03] Fucky fuck fuck fuck man that T-dog fuck. And everyone thinks like they see Karen at the conventions and like hey Karen fuckity fuck but um she was just reading somebody's email who called in or wrote in about T-dog and that guy

[01:13:21] had read the comic so it kind of came from Negan even though Negan wasn't in the show yet. He was just in the comics so yeah. I love that. Got all the bums back around. According to my very non-idiomatic translator,

[01:13:36] which is probably not right that probably literally means like. Tiffane tell us if that's right. Yeah Tiffane's like Lucy no. Do do do do do do do do do. Infected news.

[01:14:05] All right time for the news so as I mentioned New York Comic Con happened there was some good Walking Dead news. AMC released another trailer for The Walking Dead The Ones Who Live which is of course the upcoming Rick and Michonne spin-off. It doesn't show much.

[01:14:19] I don't want to know too much anyway so that's okay but I'll put the link in the show notes for that if anybody wants to watch it. Um they also mentioned that the show well they announced when it will premiere sometime in February so sooner than I thought.

[01:14:33] Surely Valentine's Day. Yeah maybe so huh is that a Sunday? I don't know we'll find out. No it's not it's not a Sunday. Somewhere around then. Um the series is run by Scott Gimple and I.

[01:14:50] I always stand up for him because I think he's had some of the best some of well yeah some of the best Walking Dead episodes and he just had a really interesting style but

[01:15:05] he I'm afraid his style was interesting for a while but kind of wore out its welcome. I think it's the curse of all showrunners that that can happen to be honest like I agree I found Gimple particularly arduous towards the end of his time.

[01:15:18] But it's happened on other shows I've liked as well where like a showrunner is good at one style or thing or idea and then just gets overdone and overdone. And with Gimple it can just feel a bit like word salad sometimes or just not you know.

[01:15:31] It's like he's working on some weird poet poetic puzzle or something weird like that and then when we got I've kind of said this before but Kang after him who was much more

[01:15:45] I don't know there was a warmth to her writing that Gimple didn't have and it was so appealing and then you got a big dose of Gimple at the end there with the whole Rick and Michonne sequence at the end of the finale.

[01:15:56] I was like oh no this feels like a step backwards. It's like when you get out of the sauna and jump in the ice pool and you're like oh yeah we'll be going back in the ice pool I fear with yeah yeah Michonne.

[01:16:09] But I believe that Ike Urea is writing on as well so I'm interested to see how that steers it. Because I've never really read any of her writing. She's a playwright. I think she's quite a successful playwright so I'm intrigued to see because that could

[01:16:22] be great or it could be like very highbrow stuff. Yeah so we'll see. She's described it as a prestige miniseries so highbrow you said maybe. Maybe you're right. We'll see. By the way Wikipedia I mean there's conflicting information about whether it's a limited series.

[01:16:39] Wikipedia says it's a limited series but the article they cite it says it's a limited series then there's a little number and I go to the article it says Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that those six episodes will not be a limited series but

[01:16:50] rather the first season of a continuing series starring the duo. But Guerrera described it as a prestige miniseries so I mean I feel like with these shows maybe AMC was like let's see how the season comes out and then we'll decide maybe.

[01:17:04] Yeah I'll have to raise it with someone at work and get that citation changed. Apologies. But I couldn't find any definitive answer and I think that's because there isn't one right now. Yeah.

[01:17:19] Some other roles have been cast one I find for the Rick and Michonne show I find really exciting if you don't want to hear you should skip ahead or just stop now because we're just

[01:17:30] you know we have a little bit more news and that's it but um and we'll see you for the feedback episode. First off uh Pollyanna McIntosh is back as Jadis which is great. If you did not watch World Beyond you might not care as much about that but

[01:17:44] she was particularly great in World Beyond right? I would go as far to say it redeemed the character of Jadis not in the sense of being a good person redemption but it made sense of a lot of the things that we didn't like about her.

[01:17:57] Yes yeah it was kind of like what the Clone Wars cartoon series did for the Star Wars prequel series it made it better. I like that analogy yes it didn't completely fix it but it made it better.

[01:18:11] Yeah yeah totally and she's great um also cast is two actors I've never heard of Leslie Ann Brandt as Pearl and Matt Jeffries as Nat and my favorite the one I was saying is a spoiler Terry O'Quinn as Major General Beale.

[01:18:26] Amazing crossover Lost and the Walking Dead who'd have thought? Yes he if you didn't remember he played Locke on Lost he was my favorite character on Lost and I thought Terry O'Quinn was so good.

[01:18:40] I feel like he was in the X-Files for a bit as well maybe I don't remember. You know what I have only seen a few episodes of that believe it or not.

[01:18:47] Oh I know but if you watched World Beyond again you know the name Major General Beale he was a huge blooming character on there and we won't go into details in case you want to be spoiled.

[01:18:59] There was a whole theory that he was Rick there was a whole theory that Major General Beale was going to be Rick so sorry lads. What? This is a Ricktatorship. Sure and I presume we'll do a another we did a couple of preview episodes for the Daryl show

[01:19:21] that was really fun so maybe we'll do another one like that for the Rick and Michonne show and yeah detail about what we know about the characters and stuff. Oh my god we can trace their love story.

[01:19:34] And then there was a sneak peek video for Fear the Walking Dead showing Madison and Strand and this returning character people have been talking about who I think it's dummies coming back but who cares at this point do whatever I hope it's at least stupidly entertaining.

[01:19:51] Did you see the one where like oh I don't even where Strakes pretending to be German? No who is Strand? Strand yeah. Oh nice. He's like I don't know who you are Madison and there's all these German people like Victor

[01:20:06] who is this and I'm just like what the fuck is happening and Madison's like Strand, Strand this isn't who you are. It's so dumb anyway it made me quite entertained. I don't I don't know you think they're trying to be good or not trying anymore I don't know.

[01:20:25] It's hard to tell. I think they've given up on life. So then there's some Daryl stuff the Walking Dead Daryl Dixon season two will resume production October 20th which what day is it today 17 three days from now as I'm recording this set

[01:20:40] to premiere sometime next year that's all they said but I think that means we'll almost surely get Daryl Dixon season two before The Last of Us season two. In France? Production or? I don't know I don't know I don't want to know I don't know.

[01:20:58] Yes we'll find out. And yeah it's got as you said it's called The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon the book of Carol Margaret, Margaret McBride that was my old boss Margaret McBride. Margaret McBride is taking over the role of Carol.

[01:21:12] Melissa McBride said I've known there was much more to be told of Carol's story and I felt her so unsettled when we last saw her as she watched her best friend Daryl ride away apart or hopefully together their stories run deep and I'm so excited to continue

[01:21:28] Carol's journey here this team of storytellers have done amazing work to land these two established characters in an entirely new world to them and I'm loving the discoveries. All right that is our show episode 546 thanks for listening everybody.

[01:21:49] Next episode as I mentioned is going to be a little bit late but it'll be our feedback for The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon season one episode six coming home. Am I right in saying if you've got feedback about the season as a whole

[01:22:01] as well that would be a good one too? We don't want to hear that. No we don't care. No absolutely. Jason will just throw in the trash. If you want to write in or leave us a voice message for us to ignore

[01:22:15] you can find all our contact information at podcastika.com. While you're there please check out our other podcasts I mentioned it last time but I really want to get into The Fall of the House of Usher I need to

[01:22:27] start watching that so I can listen to Rima and Pike talking about it. Yes. And I'll mention Run For Your Lives with Pike and Daphne they do horror movies and disaster movies and they did

[01:22:40] the 2019 Pet Cemetery recently that was their most recent one so I'm curious about that. That's one to check out. This episode is made possible by Patreon supporters like Jodi Langridge who pledged their support at patreon.com slash Jason Gabassi thanks Jodi. We love Jodi.

[01:22:59] We love Jodi she's awesome hope to see her again sometime. Yeah. Do Daryl Dixon Australia that'd be cool. Oh my god I could actually see Daryl in Australia to be honest I think you'd enjoy it. Get on well there. All right that is our show. Thanks for listening.

[01:23:16] Don't get bit Nils Cordes.