The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 3, “L’invisible,” which premiered Sunday, Oct. 13 on AMC.

Very few antagonists of The Walking Dead franchise have been able to live up to the memorable villains that shaped the main show. There were the “big bads” like the Governor, Negan and Alpha, who were an obvious threat based off their sadistic desire to control a large quantity of people. But then there were the smaller antagonists, like Shane Walsh and Pete Anderson, whose monstrous sides were brought out by the apocalypse. But there are a rare number of antagonists who showed no signs of evil until they were corrupted by the outbreak, like Daryl Dixon‘s Marion Genet.

Genet was introduced in the first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon as the primary antagonist of the series. As the leader of the Power of the Living, the militant/political organization in control of Paris, Genet was interpreted as a woman who was evil just for the sake of it. One inspiring speech to her supporters presumed her political agenda had generous intentions, but her nefarious actions never spoke for her words. Long story short, Genet was a closed book that made it hard to understand her plan for France. Thanks to Season 2, Episode 3, “L’Invisible,” her backstory sheds some light on how she came to be in her position, even if it doesn’t excuse her cruelty.

Marion Genet’s Flashback Reveals a Surprising Backstory

In the Season 1 finale of Daryl Dixon, Genet said she worked nights in a museum in France, subtly explaining her dedication to restoring the quality of famous artworks and how she got so good at reading people by studying the subjects in paintings. Flashbacks in “L’Invisible” expand on this narrative by showing Genet as a janitor at the Louvre in Paris, one of the most famous museums in the world. She was treated like scum by her superior, who’d call her a lazy pig for not acting quick enough to clean up a spilled drink that probably shouldn’t have been allowed in the first place. After all, who allows an orange soda near the Mona Lisa of all places? The only people that notice her as a person are her fellow janitors, one of them being her former second-in-command Sabine.

Sabine and the other janitors are planning to join the nationwide walkout for better healthcare for service workers. If the timing is also right to true events, the walkout Sabine references would actually be the 2010 French pension reform strikes, which also meant they were protesting plans to raise the retirement age. While the others are hopeful, Genet isn’t, and she remains pessimistic about the outcome of the strikes favoring the workers, claiming the government will never care about them. They won’t have to worry about the results of the strike, however, because the Wildfire virus breaks loose in the city that day.

As confused tourists and Parisians scramble to safety, Genet has to watch her partner get eaten alive by a walker. From that day, Marion, her fellow workers and likely some tourists hunkered down in the museum. She’d spend her time walking around the museum, admiring the pieces of art without the sounds of tourist guides or cameras. It took the death of her partner and the apocalypse for her to realize that she doesn’t have to stay trapped like the subjects in the artwork. Nobody else in the museum would step up to lead, as they only relied on prayers for hope, so Genet did it herself.

Are Flashbacks Daryl Dixon’s Secret Ingredient to Good Characterization?

More exploration into Genet’s background has been a long time coming, especially since her role has only been to be the thorn in Daryl’s side. For the longest time, her position as the Power of the Living’s leader has been disenchanted by ominous grounds. Why does Genet hate religion so much? How did she get into this powerful position in the first place? The flashbacks finally close the door on these questions, while also adding a sympathetic layer to her character. Even more fascinating is that the show is drawing parallels between Genet and Carol, the newest dynamic in the series.

Both women were seen as invisible in the pre-apocalyptic times, and didn’t see a future where they could be visible. They were empowered by the apocalypse, but Genet was corrupted by power, while Carol used her freedom for good, except for the massive lie Carol is telling Ash. As it stands, Genet has become a richer character that Daryl Dixon is sorely lacking. Isabelle held this honor in the previous season, although she’s slowly falling down the rabbit hole of stale characterization since being downgraded to a romantic interest.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Character Flashbacks
Episode

Isabelle Carriere
Season 1, Episode 2, “Alouette”

Daryl Dixon
Season 1, Episode 5, “Deux Amours”

Marion Genet
Season 2, Episode 3, “L’Invisible”

Genet and Isabelle being the supporting characters at the top of their class reveals an outlier: they’re being uplifted by flashbacks. This makes sense as both Isabelle and Genet had an episode dedicated to them showing their utterly different personalities in their normal lives, until they had to radically change their perspective on the world within one day of it falling apart. Building the gap between their past selves and their present selves frames them as real people, rather than just characters who were dropped into the world with no background. Even Daryl’s flashbacks in Season 1, Episode 5, “Deux Amours,” helped fill out his development by presenting who he is in America vs. who he is in France.

In a show that’s over a decade into its catalytic event, flashbacks shouldn’t be a prerequisite for interesting characters. The Last of Us supported this theory well enough with Kathleen and Marlene, whose actions and motivations provided enough character details. Daryl Dixon has a general problem of writing boring side characters who don’t exist outside a box. An example of this is the suspiciously perfect Fallou, who has no personality traits beyond being a good person. Flashbacks are a necessity to flesh out Daryl Dixon‘s supporting characters, because the focus is so heavy on Daryl and Carol as is.

There’s Still Something Missing With Genet in The Walking Dead

Having sung Daryl Dixon‘s praises for writing a good villain, there are a few elephants in the room. Daryl Dixon is juggling a lot with Genet, and one has to wonder if maybe the show bit off more than it could chew just to squeeze in as many cool things at once. Currently, Genet is a dictatorial leader who hates religion, wants to protect the “invisible people” of France, hates crooked corporations and the government, and is performing experiments on walkers.

The former three traits were explained by the flashbacks, even though she became the very thing she’s been fighting against in a turn of events. But there’s no connection whatsoever to her walker experiments. There’s reason to believe that in the first season, the walker experiments were only created to bring an exciting new element to the franchise. But there’s no internal logic to why they exist. Genet’s actor, Anne Charrier, explained after the Season 1 finale that she never talked to the writers about how Genet got involved in the experiments, but that she had her own idea:

Anne Charrier: No, we did not talk about that. But I know why she’s doing it. She’s doing it because she wants to get stronger. She has larger views. She believes if she can manage to handle what nobody else is able to handle, then she can set things right — what she believes is right.

The ambiguity behind the experiments eventually created a giant theory that Genet was behind the murders of the French scientists that accidentally exposed the virus to the world. If that was the case, it would at least justify her speech about fighting against pharmaceutical corporations that destroyed the world and using their creation against them. But the flashbacks don’t suggest anything of the sort. Genet’s slow resentment of religion and its possessive impact on vulnerable people is there, but not that of scientists. Despite the immersion the flashbacks have added to Genet’s character, people are still left wondering what in the world these walker experiments are for, why Genet is so invested in them and whether they even matter in the grand scheme of things.

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon air every Sunday at 9:00 PM ET on AMC and AMC+.