Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Took a Tiny, Shambling Step Toward a Carol/Daryl Reunion

When AMC first announced it was anchoring a new Walking Dead spinoff around Norman Reedus’ beloved Daryl Dixon, it was initially meant to bring along fellow zombie survivor Carol—only for it to suddenly become Carol-less months later. Now that Daryl Dixon is finally airing, it’s returned to its Carol-adjacent status, with the potential for more to come.

The latest episode, the penultimate episode of the series’ debut season, flashed back to Daryl’s time in Maine as a sort of zombie-wrangler, collecting walkers in exchange for fuel supplies. But it also included a brief return for Melissa McBride’s Carol, in a voice-only cameo as she spoke to Daryl over a radio. It’s slight, but it may not be the last time fans hear from, or potentially even see, Daryl’s longtime ally on the spinoff.

“We were always excited with any ways that we could kind of kiss up to the legacy show, to the franchise, and to the history of the characters,” showrunner David Zabel told Entertainment Weekly. “And this was obviously a very exciting way, because it was the first time in our show where he had actual real-life literal contact with the world that he was stranded from, and with ostensibly a character who’s as close to him as anybody. So it was an exciting way to send out a life raft, so to speak, and connect him to what everybody knows about his past in the United States.”

McBride was previously reported to have exited from the show in a creative decision, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan—currently starring in his own spinoff, Dead City, from The Walking Dead, of which there are approximately Too Many at this point—then fueled the flames of McBride’s involvement in the France-set Daryl Dixon months later, tweeting set pictures of McBride and Reedus together.

But Zabel was quick to add that Daryl Dixon watchers may not have heard the last of Carol on the show going forward beyond this cameo. “You’ll have to watch and see, but we love the character,” Zabel teased. “And we want to keep her in the world of the show.”

The final episode of Daryl Dixon’s first season is set to hit AMC this Sunday, October 15.

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