Daryl and Carol are not doing well

Three weeks ago, I titled the title of my recap on The walking dead episode which explored Daryl’s romantic past and his and Carol’s angry fight in the present “Daryl’s Return and Carol Power Hour, Minus the power. “Well,” The Daryl and Carol Power Hour“Is back for his third outing, but this time missing the” and,“ as well.

“Divergent,“ as one can easily guess from the title, talks about Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) splitting up after the fight in “Find Me ”where Daryl, not unreasonably, got mad at Carol for always running instead of facing her guilt over the consequences of her actions (e.g. Connie’s presumed death and the Whisperers’ destruction of Alexandria ). The episode begins with them literally diverging by taking different paths at a crossroads, Carol heading home, while Daryl goes to stay in the woods for a while. The only thing achieved in “Diverged” is that it ends with Daryl and Carol back together on a (figurative, this time) path to friendship. As such, this appears to be the least of those additional bonus episodes affected by a Season 10 pandemic.

Honestly, I can sum up Daryl’s story here: his motorbike breaks, he hurts his leg a bit trying to get a spare, there are a few zombies, and then he drives back to Alexandria himself. If there is any meaning here, it’s that Daryl is better off with Carol, which is sort of belied by the fact that he spent about seven years away from Alexandria and it was fine. Carol’s “way” is longer and has a bit more to go, although it may come down to Carol having a big guilt trip because of what she’s done, which now seems to have cost her a lot. best friend. It feels broken on many levels and in an attempt to ignore these feelings, she begins trying to fix all she can when she returns to Alexandria –including a scarf and some trash she picks up from the floor. (Maybe a watch?, I can’t express how dark these screens are.) When Jerry (Cooper Andrews) tells her that the Alexandrians somehow have the rebuilding under control, she desperately asks him if there is any. whatever she can do to help, and he says make lunch.

Carol is incredibly happy to have something meaningful to do, and there is the bonus that this means that she also has to repair the solar panel generator to get the energy to get a slow cooker work. Unfortunately, there is a rat roaming free in his apartment, which sets off a frenzy at Dog, causing damage to the house and spilling his food supplies while chasing him, to no avail. Carol spends several satisfied hours building a catch-up, then returns to the wilderness, finds green dandelions and things for soup, and kills a bunch of zombies. When an unusually energetic, blood-covered Carol returns to Alexandria, Jerry is clearly worried.

This is where things get weird and a little silly. Carol caught the rat in a box, but has no way of keeping the rat caught lifting the box so he falls to the ground and rushes over and Carol lets out a yip (more on that below). What follows is a wacky rat hunt that honestly wouldn’t be out of place in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. In the end, the rat escapes into the wall, another problem Carol hasn’t been able to solve, and she goes to bed with an adorably cuddly dog. “Don’t worry, he always comes back,” she told Dog. “I don’t think so, do I?

In the middle of the night, Carol and Dog hear the rat rushing through the walls, and Carol grabs her knife and stabs through the drywall where she thinks the rat is hiding. Then she starts again. And even. And even. And finally, she blows her entire wall down in a frenzy. It goes without saying that the rat is neither killed, nor caught, nor even spotted.

The next morning, Jerry comes to see her and sees the wall. It’s not just about the blood or the lack of soup, but Jerry understood the real problem: She left Alexandria with Daryl and came back alone and upset. She confesses and asks, “What if you’re broken and your best friend just found out later than everyone else?” Jerry gives her a big hug and they silently watch the rat come out of her house and down the street. Soon after, Daryl arrives in town, Carol spots him and they have a neutral conversation that makes it clear that they are already on the mend, although Daryl still needs more time. On the other hand, Daryl walks into his house which is less than 10 yards from Carol’s place, so he probably doesn’t need much more time. Carol even smiles a little as she walks in.

Honestly, this episode didn’t have to exist. It was extremely slow, even compared to the other Season 10 / Pandemic episodes, and it quickly concludes something – Daryl and Carol’s fight – that we already knew would have been over sooner or later, and that was. is the very next episode they’ve appeared together since the spat. I’m honestly curious to see if there will be any further repercussions beyond that., although I would be surprised if they were. Feels like the fight was created just as a way to fill this episode.

The biggest problem is that “Divergé” is incredibly harsh on its metaphors. Of course, the show has never been very good with these things, but only occasionally has it been worse. Carol’s desperation to make things right was just the outward display of her sense of internal breakup, and because she fears that she and Daryl have gone their separate ways forever as best friends. But it didn’t really have any emotional issues as their relationship was portrayed as so strong. for so long that it’s almost impossible to believe that a mid-size fight would end it all.

It’s a pointless and goofy episode, but it’s harmless, especially since it’s one of the bonus episodes of season 10 – the last one will air next Sunday and will give us Negan’s much-vaunted origin story. The walking deadthe roadmap of with episodes Primarily involving Negan has been patchy at best, but so far I think the show has benefited from this small batch of simple, calm episodes. Maybe Negan will too.

Assorted reflections:

• I just want you to imagine the day from Jerry’s perspective: Carol asks what she can do to help; Jerry asks for soup; he sees Carol leaving; he sees Carol coming back covered in blood; he goes to bed with the soup which has never been seen or mentioned.
• I would love to get a hug from Jerry. It looks delicious.
• I loved Carol’s fake laugh at Jerry’s slight joke, as well as the way her smile instantly falls on her face when no one is looking. Melissa McBride is a delight.
• So let’s talk about Carol’s yip seeing the rat. This seems unusual for a woman who has been in great danger by both living and deceased people. and been through some incredibly sinister things to be afraid of a mere rat, but I think it’s fine. Even though I managed to live more than three days in the zombie apocalypse and become a great survivalist, I bet I would still run like hell from a bee.

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