Au Revoir Les Enfants – The season 2 finale begins with Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) giving Laurent Carriere (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) an acoustic guitar while breaking the news about someone having to stay behind. Laurent questions Daryl’s decision to stay behind but handles it much better than imagined. Evidently, Daryl has not shared his decision with Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) because she’s practically telling Ash Patel (Manish Dayal) the same thing.

Fallou Boukar (Eriq Ebouaney) is in the process of learning more about his traveling companions when a dehydrated horse forces an unexpected stop outside an old sanitarium. Nadine (Chrystal Boursin) and the others do not appreciate his and Stephane Codron’s (Romain Levi) decision to search the sanitarium alone but the decision likely saves their lives when they are surprised on the inside by Sabine (Tatiana Gousseff). Sabine questions them about the plane which inspires the group to attempt to warn Daryl.

It doesn’t take Daryl and Laurent long to notice Ash’s icy reception. Assuming that he is the problem, Laurent questions Carol while Daryl subtly broaches the topic with Ash during a supply run. Rather than arguing it out, they briefly discuss Laurent and Ash’s backstories. Shortly after, Daryl saves Ash’s life, so there are clearly no hard feelings.

Anna Valery (Lukerya Ilyashenko) takes a trip down memory lane as well when she and her assistant end up in a section of town where she used to live. This doesn’t last long thanks to Jacinta (Nassima Benchicou) ambushing them. Rather than fighting out, they come to a compromise. Fallou and Stephane manage to warn Daryl and Carol about their earlier encounter just as Anna and Jacinta arrive at the opposite end of the racetrack. Although Anna leads the group into a trap and sacrifices her own life, a stubborn carburetor cuts the flight so close that Carol has to bail out and join the shootout in order for Ash and Laurent to escape.

Along with Stephane and Fallou, Daryl and Carol find a stronghold to wait out the night. While there, Fallou hints at Akira coming with him but she doesn’t appear to be interested. Things get a bit dicey the moment Fiona and Angus show up but Fallou quickly identifies as their guides. It doesn’t hurt that they brought along rations and alcohol. Later that evening, they all gather around the campfire and trade stories about what the world was like before the fall. Carol is the first to retire from the recreation. Fallou and Akira will also steal off into the night, leaving Stephane and Daryl alone at the fire.

As the night continues, the others will disappear as well, leaving Daryl and Stephane alone at the campfire. Stephane shows remorse about the death of Isabelle Carriere (Clemence Poesy) and finally learns that it wasn’t actually Daryl who killed his brother, Michel Codron (Paul Deby). Carol appears to continue to struggle with the loss of Sophia and fears that she is forgetting her when Daryl checks in with her before retiring for the evening.

When the group arrives at the tunnel, Fallou surprises everyone by making the decision to stay behind. After a brief and meaningful goodbye, an encounter with a large pile of bat guano hints at the group’s perilous journey ahead. Things only get worse when they discover the first security checkpoint completely devoid of any living humans. The skeletonized walkers and abundance of damaged gas masks don’t sit right with Daryl. It’s only seconds later that the group encounters a mob of bio-illuminated walkers, but by this point, they have all begun hallucinating.

Carol follows a walker that she mistakes for Sophia to an entirely different section of the tunnel, away from the others. Stephane sees his brother, which causes him to rage out against Daryl. They briefly fight and Stephane ends up stabbing Daryl once in the shoulder before returning his attention to his brother. Things only get worse for Daryl when he backtracks to the checkpoint and is subsequently attacked by Fiona and Angus. It would appear they have discovered two functioning gas masks and aren’t willing to share them.

Carol imagines saying goodbye to Sohpia while Isabelle visits Daryl and inspires him to go on by recalling their first meeting in which she told him to always bet on hope. It isn’t long before he snaps out of it and turns the tables on Angus and Fiona. By this time, Carol has managed to return to the checkpoint. The final ends with Carol and Daryl brandishing the gas masks and continuing on while Stephane is still wondering about somewhere.

 

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Review

I can’t say the series was entirely awful. I did start enjoying it about halfway through. The episodes were entirely too long and boring at times, but overall fairly satisfying. I thought I read somewhere that there was going to be a huge twit at the end but it would appear that was incorrect unless I missed something. I did feel that it was stupid how Carol ended up staying in Paris as was the fact that the plane couldn’t hold 4 passengers. I know they were only intending the one additional passenger when they embarked but this aspect just didn’t sit right.

Despite that, I have to give the finale a 5.7 out of 10. Get more of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon recaps here. Join our newly established forum to see what others are saying. Support our site by donating. Learn about our advertising packages here.