Showrunner David Zabel explains that final scene and what it means heading into season 2.
The first season ofThe Walking Dead: Daryl Dixonended with our titular hero having to make a big choice.
And more help may be on the way.
Norman Reedus on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
He’s got the boat on one side and the kid on the other as the season ends.
So what does he do here?
DAVID ZABEL:That’s what you’ve got to come back for in season 2.
Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Laïka Blanc-Francard, Clémence Poésy, and Norman Reedus on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
But that was always the moral dilemma from the very beginning.
And so that’s a sort of beautiful dilemma to have.
Very difficult, but a kind of beautiful thing and speaks to the kind of guy that Daryl is.
Melissa McBride on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
How big a location will the Nest be in season 2?
The Nest is pretty prominent in season 2.
It’s quite prominent.
Norman Reedus on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
And it’s amazing that we’ve been able to shoot there at Mont Saint-Michel.
It’s an amazing, magical location that seems made up, but is real.
It created an emotional reaction, which I’ve rarely had with a landmark or a physical place.
What can you say about the choice he made and his future path?
And Daryl, of course, is defined in part by the death of Merle and having brained Merle.
So they were meant to be kind of inverse versions of each other a little bit.
So Codron has this turn because he’s so sorry.
He’s on a journey of his own because he’s redeeming the murder of his brother.
He doesn’t have it in his heart to kill the child.
And he realizes to some extent the errors of his ways.
And so he chooses a different course at that point.
But he has a moment of real redemption where he does the right thing.
That is definitely a great story to tell and certainly one that we are thinking about.
And so what happens when those two guys attempt to hash that out?
We haven’t gotten to that part yet.
First of all, where was that filmed?
Was that over in France or did you guys film that over here?
That was in France.
We filmed everything in France.
So Daryl’s whole backstory in episode 5, that’s all filmed in France.
So it was a little tricky at times.
What was it like getting to work with Melissa?
I was on set and I have such admiration for Melissa.
I love the character of Carol.
And when I first started talking to Melissa, we really hit it off.
And I was so happy that we were going to get her to do this part of the story.
So I talked to her a lot.
And it was great working with her.
And I love that.
So it’s an amazing combo, and working with her was great.
That was very exciting for me that day.
So how is Carol going to play into season 2?
Well, it’s pretty set up in what we’ve seen in episodes 5 and 6.
There are two elements mainly.
But she’s worried about him presumably, and she’s felt compelled to go out searching for him.
So we can read into that.
But he never came home, so now she’s worried about him.
And so that’s going to also function into the story for Carol in season 2.
There are a few things.
And it becomes ultimately a story about how we as people can save each other.
So that was a big part of it.
Does religion save you?
Does science save you?
Science being this misguided science that we see with the walkers in season 1.
Religion can’t save us.
The only thing that can save us is ourselves, is each other.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
