Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 6, “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” which premiered Sunday, Nov. 3 on AMC. This article also contains mention of suicide.

All six episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon have been leading up to the final moment where Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier say farewell to France. But getting to that moment requires some sacrifices, deaths and goodbyes to new friends. In the Daryl Dixon Season 2 finale, Daryl and Carol are the only ones who reach the end of the road. Others have to stay behind or find new homes.

Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 5 ended on a cliffhanger: Daryl, Carol and Laurent are taken aback by Ash’s revelation that his plane can’t hold four people. Somebody has to stay behind, and it’s either Daryl or Carol. Obviously, anyone keeping up with behind-the-scenes news about Season 3 can easily tell where this is going. Both Daryl and Carol end up staying, refusing to stay separated for another second in a foreign country. To make their way back home, they have to navigate more of Europe.

Jacinta and Anna Valery Become the Final Bosses

Losang and Genet’s deaths in the previous two episodes left it up in the air who was going to be the obstacle in Daryl and Carol’s journey. In The Walking Dead franchise, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. Walkers and nature find ways to knock survivors off course. But of course, in Daryl Dixon, it must be a big-bad final boss. Hence, Jacinta takes Losang’s place with Anna Valery at her side.

Most people probably assumed Anna was only a guest star for Episode 5, “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir,” but Daryl Dixon needed to affirm one last time that Anna isn’t so one-dimensional. She’s essentially the Agatha Harkness of Daryl Dixon: she sides with Jacinta to leak the location of the plane — and by extension, Laurent — but changes her mind at the last minute when she’s reminded that Laurent is only a child who doesn’t deserve the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The final confrontation between the two women ends with Anna’s death, which she gladly welcomes with open arms. Her final words are the nail in the coffin for Jacinta: “God gave up on us a long time ago.” Only, Jacinta doesn’t realize how much meaning her words have until she fails to stop the plane and takes her own life. While there are still other members of the combined Union of Hope and Power of the Living, it’s safe to say both organizations have disbanded, at least for now.

Ash and Laurent Escape to America

Laurent Carriere (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) playing the guitar on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

What may disappoint fans is that this is potentially the end of Laurent and Ash, unless there’s a hitch in their escape plan. After a lot of back-and-forth, the party decides that Carol is the best candidate to take the last spot on the plane. Daryl is more adjusted to France than she is, and she can help Ash with the plane if they run into problems. But at the last second during a shootout, she departs from the plane to save Daryl, Codron and Fallou. The only ones leaving for America are Laurent and Ash.

Later, Carol remarks that Laurent and Ash have probably arrived at the Commonwealth. But just because she assumes it, doesn’t make it true. The trip to France wasn’t easy to begin with, thanks to an unfriendly run-in with a couple of environmentalists. Who’s to say that the trip back to America won’t be just as bumpy? The door is open for Laurent and Ash to return in Season 3, but that’s not necessarily good news for them. Still, Laurent has been a constant in Daryl’s journey in the series, and Ash is the best new character in the franchise. Continuing on without them would be a crime.

Fallou Finds Love and Codron Finds His Brother

Alika (Soraya Hachoumi) and Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney) work on a car on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Codron, played by actor Romain Levi, wears a black leather jacket in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Akila on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Codron wearing an eyepatch on The Walking Dead: Daryl DixonAlika (Soraya Hachoumi) and Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney) work on a car on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Codron, played by actor Romain Levi, wears a black leather jacket in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Akila on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Codron wearing an eyepatch on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

More characters reach the end of the road, thinning out the pack ever so more. Once Ash and Laurent are in the clear, everyone can take a sigh of relief. Everything they’ve been working toward has paid off, even if it meant people like Isabelle and Sylvie had to die along the way. Now, the objective is to get out of France before someone else takes Losang and Genet’s place. The sad part is that everyone is convinced a new dictator is bound to come forth, meaning they’re just giving up on their country.

Daryl, Carol, Codron and Fallou are joined by three new people: Akila, and two Scottish friends named Fiona and Angus. The latter two can help smuggle the group past a border in the Channel Tunnel. But over the course of the episode, Fallou grows close to Akila, a relationship Codron jokingly calls love at first sight. In the apocalypse, this type of romance is something one can’t pass up. Fallou stays behind with Akila in France to begin a new life without the constant threat of danger.

The most satisfying part of the episode isn’t an out-of-the-blue romance to easily scratch Fallou off the list. Instead, it’s Daryl and Codron finally communicating and clearing the air about the death of Codron’s brother, Michel. Since the series premiere, Codron has been led to believe that Daryl killed his brother. At first, it was a smart use of a miscommunication trope that raised the stakes and showed how much grief can blind someone from reality.

Even after the former enemies made up in Season 2, Daryl wasted every opportunity to tell him the truth: he never killed Michel. But the healthy conversation between the two men is washed away when Codron hallucinates Michel and blames Daryl again for his death. The two fight once again until Codron runs off in the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.

Daryl and Carol Survive the Chunnel – But What’s Next?

Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

That leaves Daryl and Carol with the two remaining survivors, Fiona and Angus. Because there are a limited number of masks to protect themselves from the bat guano spores causing hallucinations, Fiona and Angus attack Daryl and prepare to kill him. As Daryl considers giving up, he hallucinates Isabelle as he first met her. In the background is a vision of his grandfather, who died on D-Day in France. Isabelle encourages him to keep going, to not die here like his grandfather. Because in this scenario, Daryl has a choice: he can keep going as long as he bets on hope, just as Isabelle told him when they first met. His last moments with a hallucinatory Isabelle give him enough motivation to kill both Angus and Fiona in a fit of rage.

TWD: Daryl Dixon Characters
Fate by Season 2 Finale

Daryl Dixon
Alive

Carol Peletier
Alive

Isabelle Carriere
Dead

Laurent Carriere
Alive

Codron
Unknown

Fallou
Alive

Sylvie
Dead

Losang
Dead

Genet
Dead

Jacinta
Dead

Anna Valery
Dead

Ash
Alive

On the other side of the tunnel, Carol is also looking to move forward. She sees her daughter, Sophia, dressed in the same outfit she wore when she died. Carol decides not to go with her, as much as she’d like to, releasing her only memory of Sophia as the zombified version of her. Now Carol will only think of Sophia in the moments she knew her best: as her daughter, alive and happy, despite living with an abusive man. In the final moments, Daryl and Carol find each other and move forward through the tunnel. Codron is left to fend for himself, Fallou stays behind and Laurent and Ash head to America. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is back to square one with only its main characters left.

Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is available to stream on AMC+.

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