The Walking Dead: Reedus says Daryl making Merle proud

Norman Reedus says Daryl Dixon is back to the Daryl he was in earlier seasons on The Walking Dead and Merle would certainly be proud of him.

Entertainment Weekly has published exclusive interviews with many of the cast members of The Walking Dead this week in preparation for the return of the show as it continues season 6.

Norman Reedus let us know that Daryl will be “coming off the sidelines” so to speak in the second half of the season. Daryl was leading the herd for most of the first half until he met Dwight and his gal pals and subsequently had his bike and crossbow stolen from him.

Then, of course, Daryl, Sasha and Abe were stopped in the middle of the road as they were making their way back to Alexandria following Eugene’s cry for help on the walkie by a motorcycle gang led by a man who is demanding they turn over their weapons and claiming that all their property belongs to Negan.

Norman tells us a little about what to expect from Daryl in the coming episodes:

"There’s so much chaos happening in the second half. As far as Daryl is concerned, he is pissed off. He’s had his stuff taken from him. He put himself out there and trusted some people, and it did backfire on him, and I think he comes back super pissed off. There’s a lot of that element for me. I mean, I know you know the bad guys that are coming. It’s been announced and well displayed for everyone to see, but there’s definite surprises coming with all of that, and you know, it’s battle time."

Yes, we are well aware of the bad guys that are coming, especially the one big, bad guy. It’s great to hear there are surprises coming along with that. It’s a shame that some things have backfired on Daryl, but things have backfired on everyone. The entire plan to draw the herd away backfired on Rick.

When asked about how he takes things when he is told that his property belongs to Negan, Norman talks about Merle and returning to an older version of Daryl. I hadn’t thought about the fact that Daryl just had his property stolen only a short time earlier and it would be quite annoying to have these events happen back to back.

"He takes it really personally. These are people that he’s trying to protect. And he’s trying to protect himself. I feel like there’s a lot of vengeance happening in the second half, and a lot of payback on Daryl’s mind. He’s headstrong now, and he’s kind of turning into the same sort of aggressive person he was in the first part of the show, going back to his roots. I think he would definitely be making Merle proud right now."

Daryl and Rick both will likely be experiencing some trust issues along with their anger. Rick has Deanna’s words in his head and they need someplace to stay unless they are going to go back out there again. But so many things have gone wrong.

"He gave it a chance. He was kind of against it in the beginning and Rick kind of talked him into it, and then Rick tried to talk him out of it, and he tried to talk Rick back into it again, and I feel like he had a little bit of hope. I don’t know that he was full-blown “I want to make this work and have this be my job.” I think he didn’t really fit in at Alexandria, and now that Alexandria is what it is, we’re back out to the wild again. He wanted to fit in, and he wanted to be part of this group, and he wanted to do the right thing, but he’s still very hesitant about it, and I think now it’s kind of like, “See, I told you so,” type of situation, and he’s definitely upset."

I hope Rick wouldn’t say I told you so, but Daryl may feel that. It will be interesting to add Carol and other characters into the mix. Plus we’re going to meet some new characters.

Next: 10 dramatic moments from season 6A

One thing at a time. We have a midseason premiere in just a few days. Things will start there. We’ll see how things turn out for Sasha, Abe and Daryl in their current predicament. Then we’ll deal with the anger and aggressive Daryl.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)