Daryl's trip to France would mean nothing if it weren't for Rick Grimes. Yet The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is making the bold choice to put him aside.
SUMMARY
- When Daryl Dixon washes ashore in his self-titled The Walking Dead spinoff, his first instinct was to go home.
- Although he departed the Commonwealth in The Walking Dead to find Rick, he makes no explicit reference to his missing best friend in the series.
- By the Season 1 finale, he chooses to stay in France to help Laurent and Isabelle, implying that Daryl's moved on from his search for Rick.
Where is Rick Grimes? Is Rick the cure for humanity? Will Daryl Dixon and Rick ever reunite? These are all questions that The Walking Dead franchise has to answer in the coming years ever since Andrew Lincoln departed the flagship series in its ninth season and announced his return to the spinoff The Ones Who Live.
For now, though, the Rick's fate is put on pause as Daryl goes on a journey of self-discovery outside his original crew in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
Although they met each other with hostility in the first season of The Walking Dead, Rick and Daryl quickly began to trust each other as enemies within and outside their group of survivors began to unveil themselves. The two became particularly close after Shane's death, Rick's former best friend who betrayed him.
Rick relied on Daryl as a best friend even during the roughest moments of his leadership, and Daryl would protect Rick to the end of the Earth. So when Daryl learned that Rick was supposedly alive in the series finale of The Walking Dead, he resumed his search for his honorary brother, which somehow led him to France in Daryl Dixon.
Updated on February 15, 2024 by Katie Doll: Daryl and Rick's brotherly relationship is unbreakable, but it'll be a while before they reunite. Rick is currently a captive by the Civic Republic Military in The Ones Who Live, and Daryl's made a controversial choice to stay behind in France. This article has been updated to expand on the Season 1 finale of Daryl Dixon and what it means for the future of Rick and Daryl.
Daryl Dixon Disregards the Titular Character's Original Mission
In the pilot episode of Daryl Dixon, the titular character seems to forget why he left the Commonwealth in the first place.
Season 1, Episode 1, "L'âme Perdue" makes no mention of Rick, despite being the entire reason Daryl washed ashore in the first place. Daryl simply refers to Rick as "something he was looking for," stripping away his humanity by refusing to acknowledge him as a person. After the fallout between the Cause soldiers and the nuns, Daryl confides in Isabelle that the reason he left the Commonwealth was because he believed there had to be "something" out there in the world, but all he found was trouble.
Why Daryl is seemingly in denial about Rick's existence is up in the air. The viewers who tuned into the series finale of TWD know who Daryl means when alluding to his search, but Isabelle and Laurent wouldn't. It's a little bizarre to ignore Rick in his entirety, but there might be a good reason for it. Specifically, separating Rick from the Daryl Dixon series allows the spinoff to grow its own identity.
Rick Grimes' Absence Creates Independence for Daryl Dixon
The bright side of Rick Grimes being exempt from Daryl Dixon is that the spinoff can stand on its own, without preceding stories holding it up.
The Walking Dead franchise, as of now, leans heavily on the fate of Rick Grimes. Rick is the foundation of the series, and every spinoff -- no matter how far-fetched it seems -- has produced at least one theory that connects them to Rick.
But when a popular theory never comes to fruition, an astounding wave of disappointment hits fans. People are desperate for an update on Rick, and as patient as they're being for the already critically acclaimed The Ones Who Live, it couldn't come any sooner. Even a cameo in the TWD finale, which at least revealed Rick's captivity at the CRM, wasn't enough to hold people over.
Since its conception, the Daryl Dixon spinoff has never been purely about its titular character. Daryl's determination to find Rick is what paved his path to France, even if no one truly knows how he arrived there.
The hopeful endgame has always been that Daryl succeeds in his mission and reunites with Rick, but unfortunately, that likely isn't going to happen. Rick is likely in Philadelphia, where the CRM is theorized to be, and Daryl is on another continent. The two have officially gone their separate ways, and maybe it'll serve Daryl's character some well-needed growth.
Rick aided in creating Daryl as one of the most well-developed characters in The Walking Dead. Their brotherly relationship allowed Daryl to open his heart more than he ever could with his real brother Merle. But it's time that Daryl stands on his own two feet and finds his own sense of self without Rick. In doing so, Daryl Dixon will break new ground for the character and live up to the expectation of being a true standalone series. Connections between every Walking Dead series are significant to the franchise's future, but they question the purpose of creating spinoffs when they could've just extended the flagship series by a few more seasons. With no mention of Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon proves that the world of TWD is spacious enough to feature detached stories that don't rely on fan-service connections.
Daryl Dixon Should Still Address the Brotherly Bond
A second season of Daryl Dixon featuring Carol gives Daryl a better chance at breaking down his negligence to make Rick a priority.
Rick didn't even get a mention in the Season 1 finale of Daryl Dixon, which is a shame. There was a subtle hint that Rick may have already returned home while Daryl was gone, but no one could be sure. One would think Daryl's grown comfortable enough around Laurent and Isabelle to open up about his disappointment in failing to find Rick.
But when Isabelle mistakenly tells Daryl that he left the Commonwealth to see what else was out in the world, he doesn't correct her. He just says he has to get home. When the door finally opens for him to return home safely, he chooses to stay with people he barely knows over his best friend he's bonded with for over a decade. And with Rick still at the CRM, there's little chance the two will ever reunite -- that is unless Scott M. Gimple's dream of merging all the spinoffs comes true.
That being said, there's still wiggle room to give Rick the decency of a name-drop in Season 2. Rick was crucial for Daryl's evolution from a hot-headed wild card to a father figure to his children. To completely disregard his impact would be a disgrace to their relationship, even if it does help Daryl Dixon form its own identity.
Being just the first season, though, there's time for Daryl to open the door to his past. No matter how much he's matured over the years, Daryl will always be protective of his personal life. Getting him to break out of his shell is reserved for people he truly trusts and feels comfortable around, and as of now, Isabelle and Laurent aren't included.
In reality, Daryl not mentioning Rick may just be a defense mechanism or the refusal to acknowledge that he's yet to succeed in his mission. It doesn't change the fact, however, that a lack of Rick Grimes mentions makes Daryl's ending in The Walking Dead meaningless -- Rick was so important to Daryl that he risked his safety by venturing into the unknown. Even if it's just a nameless mention of someone Daryl cared for, Daryl Dixon can't completely leave Rick's influence on Daryl in the dark.
