Photo: Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
When The Walking Dead: Study Abroad comes back for a third season next year, Daryl will be studying the art of zombie slaying somewhere else — Spain, based on what we know from reporting, but also England for a while. Au revoir to Laurent, au revoir to Fallou, au revoir to the burners, and au revoir to the two militaristic factions that tried and failed to take control of France over these past two seasons.
“Au Revoir Les Enfants” is a bit of a weird finale, but the first half feels about right, bringing both Laurent and Ash’s stories to a close (until some theoretical series finale flashforward where everyone could reunite at the Commonwealth). At the beginning of the episode, Daryl and Carol are separately attempting to give up their spots on the plane, each convinced that the other should accompany Laurent back to the States. Carol finally accepts the babysitter role when Fallou and Codron arrive with news of a more pressing issue: Jacinta (second-in-command of the Union de l’Espoir) and Sabine (second-in-command of Pouvoir des Vivants) are teaming up after the deaths of their respective leaders, still intent on tracking down Laurent to fulfill the prophecy and supposedly provide hope to their followers.
Jacinta thinks she can get to Laurent through Anna, who treats her with a refreshing lack of fear. First, she gets Jacinta to agree to hand over the plane once they locate Laurent, who is still dreaming of reuniting with her mother back home in Karelia. But Anna has no real plans to follow through, especially after reflecting on her tender interactions with the kid. After heroically leading the crew into a den of walkers deep in a parking garage, she lets herself get devoured without even screaming once. Her signoff to a newly bitten Jacinta — “God gave up on us a long time ago” — solidifies Anna’s sacrifice as the most badass moment of the episode.
With most of the old conflicts resolved in the first 30 minutes, there’s plenty of space to set up some new ones for season three. But the episode isn’t really interested in that, either. Daryl and Carol do get started on their next journey, joined by Codron and a Scottish couple whom Fallou met at the Demimonde. They’ll be the guides on the 50-kilometer walk through the Chunnel to get to England.
But Fallou won’t be with them. Keeping with the farewell tour theme, he gets his own opportunity to shine for probably the last time, meeting an Algerian farmer’s daughter named Akila, with whom he feels an instant spark. Like Sylvie and some of the other characters in Daryl Dixon, Fallou has been a likable, steady presence without really getting much to do besides offer support during the many extraction missions. So even if this romance is a bit abrupt, a contrived reason to keep him in France while Daryl and Carol move on alone, I appreciate it for what it is. Better late than never!
In some ways, this just feels like a normal episode of The Walking Dead, with lots of heavy dialogue musing about the state of the world and the various characters’ pasts. But even if I couldn’t muster up any tears for Carol’s latest Sophia-related breakdown, I do like Fallou and Akila’s connection. They briefly connect over their immigration stories, but her affection grows more after hearing his story about a racist white neighbor who later turned to Fallou for help saving his daughter’s life.
It’s a little surprising even to hear the word “racism” spoken aloud on this show, let alone a full conversation about it. Then again, Fallou’s perspective largely keeps with the franchise’s typical perspective on prejudice. In this universe, racism has been largely extinguished, except for some rare examples like Merle, which happened back in season one of the original show. (You have to wonder if Daryl thought about his brother during this conversation.) In episode two, “Guts,” Rick delivered this monologue: “Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no n*****s anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There’s us and the dead.” That’s pretty similar wording to Fallou’s remark about how there are only two kinds of people now.
Fallou stays behind to be with Akila on her perpetual search for her missing sister, which is probably the right call considering what happens next. Near one checkpoint littered with dead bodies, they stumble upon a delightfully strange new type of walker: bioluminescent, a.k.a. glow-in-the-dark walkers. It basically looks like they all swallowed or impaled themselves with yellow and green glowsticks. And there’s something else to worry about while all hell breaks loose — something that makes it a lot harder for Daryl to focus enough to take down walkers. Two words: psychoactive guano.
Ending this season on a hallucination sequence is a bit of an odd choice, but it also has its obvious utility in forcing our three remaining main characters to confront the ghosts of their past. Codron sees his dead brother Michel, whose killer he only just discovered: that unnamed young woman from back in the very first episode who lied and said Daryl did it. That revelation rocked Codron’s world a bit, making him realize his long revenge quest (which he eventually dropped) was built on a lie. Now he goes running off after his brother again, his fate left eerily unclear.
Carol sees Sophia, of course, and follows her into a group of other walkers, one of which looks a lot like herself. She can’t bring herself to kill the imaginary Carol Walker, which I suppose indicates that she still has something to live for — and her embrace of an imaginary Sophia (thank god it’s not a real walker) shows that she can hold space for Sophia’s memory without always dwelling on the pain of her absence. Kind of basic stuff that the show has hit on before with Carol, but it makes sense.
Daryl has the unpleasant task of taking down two people who aren’t hallucinating: Angus and Fiona, the Scottish couple, who turn on Daryl to take the gas masks and save themselves. He hallucinates his grandfather who died in D-Day, referenced in the last season finale, but he’s thinking most about the late Isabelle, once the kind of co-lead of this show. She gives him the strength to fight back and kill the Scots, taking the gas mask for himself. In our final glimpse of her, Isabelle walks into a cloud of fireflies, calling back to that fantasy she and Daryl shared.
This finale didn’t hit me like the ending of the first season, and I do think the show got less interesting when it pivoted away from Isabelle and Laurent so drastically. Daryl Dixon frequently gestures as real character development for its title character, but it rarely settles on anything definitive. (Couldn’t we at least have seen Daryl openly verbalize his love for Isabelle?) Carol will always be one of the most iconic and compelling characters of this franchise, and I always like seeing her and Daryl share the screen. But if this show keeps going indefinitely, or even just for one more season, I’d like some sense of what we’re watching for. Cool new types of walkers and new translations of “zombie” can only go so far.
