Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol Episode 2.

Last year’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was one of the best spin-offs of the original The Walking Dead series, where we got to follow one of our walker-killing favorites, Daryl (Norman Reedus), as he took his talents to France. An ocean away from his friends, Daryl took up with a religious group called the Union of Hope, where he befriended a boy named Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), who was treated like the Messiah, fought against the evil Marion Genet (Anne Charrier), and fell in love with a nun named Isabelle (Clémence Poésy).

Those scenarios created a fun enough series, but something is missing with Daryl if he’s not with Carol (Melissa McBride). The Book of Carol promises to correct that. The first episode sees Carol searching for her best friend, only to discover that he has been taken away to France. With hundreds of miles of water between them, everything feels hopeless, but then Carol meets a man named Ash (Manish Dayal). Ash is a good man who has never gotten over his son’s death, but what he does have is an airplane. Using his emotions against him, Carol manipulates Ash into flying her to France. As the premiere episode comes to an end, the plane is in the air and Carol is on her way. Will Carol safely make it to France in the latest episode, “Moulin Rouge”?

Carol and Ash Start an Unnecessary Side Quest in ‘Daryl Dixon’ Season 2 Episode 2

Carol and Ash are forced to leave for their trip early after a walker outbreak at Ash’s home. They arrive as they had planned in the beautiful hills of Greenland to refuel, but their plane is a smoking mess and needs repairs. In the distance, Carol sees a few walkers covered in moss and decides to take them out. That’s easy enough until the ones hidden in the grass crawl out and attack her. Ash begins to help, only for the attack to be put down by a gunshot. Carol and Ash are saved by two women, Eun and Hanna, which is good news for Ash, but a reason to be on guard for Carol. The women haven’t seen other people in years, they confess, as they take Carol and Ash to their small home next to a lake.

Eun goes to help Ash with the plane’s busted fuel line, while Carol stays with Hanna at the house. The women were climate researchers who were only supposed to be in Greenland for a few months but got stuck there when the world went to Hell. Hanna doesn’t see this as a bad thing per se, because now the world can heal itself from what humanity did to it. Alone, walking back to the plane, Ash tells Eun why they’re headed to France. Eun learns about Ash’s son, which gets him a kind hug, but then Eun asks if he wants more kids.

At the house, Carol and Hanna share a drink, and the researcher shows off her crossbow. What begins innocently enough turns very dangerous when Hanna points the crossbow at Carol’s chest. A nervous Hanna admits that she is supposed to kill Carol, but she doesn’t want to. So what’s Eun doing with Ash? She wants to keep him there with them to help repopulate the world. Ash is, of course, weirded out by the request and says no, leading to Eun pulling a rifle on him.

Unfortunately for Hanna, Carol has been in this kind of situation way too many times, so she begins to manipulate her captor, sweetly telling Hanna that she could leave Eun and come with them. Hanna might be open to this, but she doesn’t think Eun would let her. When Eun comes back to the house, she wants to know why Carol isn’t dead yet. When Hanna can’t do her part, Eun goes to kill Carol herself, only for Hanna to shoot a bolt straight through her forehead. Carol agrees to still take Hanna with them, but she doesn’t sound so sure of the idea. The sun now down, the two march back to the plane, but before they get there, Ash shoots Hanna in the throat with a flare gun, killing her in the most painful of ways. Ash thought the woman was going to kill Carol, and she’s sure not going to tell her new friend that he killed someone who didn’t have to die. This is a wise choice, as we learn that this is the first person he’s ever killed.

Daryl Dixon Is Ready To Leave the Nest in Season 2 Episode 2

At the Nest, Laurent is aware of how people look at him. He wishes he could be a normal kid, but since he can’t, he wants to be the person they need him to be. Still, he wishes that he could be his own person as well. One wish that does come true is that the Union hostages rescued from Marion come back home. Laurent speaks to the Union leader, Losang (Joel de la Fuente), who tries to reassure Laurent that he’s special. Meanwhile, Jacinta (Nassima Benchicou) worries that Daryl will leave again and take Laurent with him. There are doubters in the Union who are sick of waiting for Laurent’s special nature to be shown.

Sylvie (Laïka Blanc-Francard), another nun, talks to a traumatized former hostage, her boyfriend Emile (Tristan Zanchi), who was beaten by his captors. Daryl and the others might be the focus, but they’re not the only ones suffering. Laurent is doing better the next time we see him as Daryl teaches him how to play baseball. As Laurent goes off to be taught by Sylvie, Daryl speaks with Isabelle. She knows the man she cares about is going to leave them. Daryl doesn’t deny this, but instead tells Isabelle that she and Laurent can come with him.

The next morning, Isabelle goes to wake up Laurent, only to find him gone. Suspecting Marion Genet’s people have abducted Laurent and taken him back to Paris, a group led by Daryl, including Isabelle, Emile, and Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), leave to locate him and bring him home. They manage to find tracks in the woods and follow them to an abandoned building. The group goes inside and easily dispatches the baddies, only to realize their attackers are part of the group from the Union Nest. Emile is one of the attackers, with the fake kidnapping concocted because they were afraid Laurent would leave. Emile tells them that tomorrow, back at the Nest, there will be a ceremony to prove how special Laurent is. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but it can’t be good. The moment isn’t good for Emile, who is shot dead by Isabelle.

Back at the Union’s island home, Sylvie discovers that someone is being hidden away. Curious, she sneaks into the room where they’re being kept. Laurent is there. He was never taken but is instead being hidden by Losang, who surprises Sylvie. When the group gets back to the outskirts of the island Nest, Isabelle tells Daryl she wants to leave and go with him. As the sun sets, they kiss. Just a few hundred yards away, Jacinta tells Losang that she ordered Daryl to be killed, which should be done by now. Losang is angry, but she convinces him that this is the right plan. Little does she know it didn’t work.

Carol Is Getting Closer To Daryl in Season 2 Episode 2

Ash and Carol get back on the plane and resume their quest to France. The next time Carol wakes up, they’re one hundred miles inland over the country she was seeking out. After they touch down at an old racetrack and hide the plane, Carol tells Ash she’s going without him. He refuses this request, saying he wants to help find her daughter, but Carol won’t have it. She doesn’t want Ash to get hurt, and she wants to be alone. We know she can’t take Ash with her because of the guilt, and because he can’t find out that a search for Sophia is actually a search for Daryl. They come to an agreement that Ash will stay with the plane and Carol will be back within two weeks.

Alone again, Carol marches into an empty and dilapidated city that’s shown to be a destroyed Paris, with a half-gone Eiffel Tower in the background. The emptiness quickly disappears as Carol is forced to hide when a military truck carrying food approaches. She can only watch as a man on it beats a homeless guy and puts him in the truck. Thinking that this could lead to Daryl, Carol cuts a hole in a bag of grain, creating a trail for her to follow when the truck drives away. The trail ends at a city square where residents gather around to collect food laid out for them by the military. We learn that these military figures work for Marion Genet. A spokeswoman offers more food and a place to stay for any civilian who wants to work for and support Genet. Nearly everyone raises their hands to volunteer, but only twenty can be taken, leading to people rushing to be taken away.

Carol is caught looking through one of the trucks, and, because of her bravery, is chosen to be taken. On the truck, she meets a man named Remy, who has been separated from his husband, Julien. Remy tells Carol about Genet and how she’s trying to start a new France. Remy feels hopeful, but our Carol knows to be distrustful and on guard. Her reasons for worry are proven when the two trucks of citizens separate once inside the gates of Genet’s compound. As the episode ends, Genet is seen torturing a man. It’s Stephane Codron (Romain Levi), a soldier who went to war against Daryl in the first season of Daryl Dixon. He is cut up and bloodied, but he refuses to talk. Genet wants to know where Isabelle, Laurent, and Daryl are, but while he might scream, he’s not talking. Carol is already much closer to Daryl than she knows.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol is available to watch every Sunday on AMC and AMC+.