Negan’s attempts to convert Daryl, Eugene and Sasha on The Walking Dead

Negan’s treatment of Daryl: much abuse, but not much progress

How Daryl works

Daryl is mostly characterized by his fierce loyalty to his “family”, his physicality and bravery to the point of rashness. Daryl’s efforts to show his devotion to the group come from his desperate need to be loved by others. His past is mostly marked by neglect, abandonment and abuse, even from the people who were supposed to love him (his parents and Merle). Daryl is used to being neglected and humiliated, and though he can be offended at the stereotypes people project upon him (most notably when Beth suggested he might have spent time in prison in Still), he is not a proud character. His efforts to prove his loyalty and to protect the group are arguably far more about remedying his own self-esteem issues, than about getting recognition.

Negan’s strategy: deprivation, abuse, humiliation

Negan is very clear about the reason why he picked Daryl as his prisoner: he believes “he has guts” and sees him as a potential recruit. What Negan has failed to see, however, is that Daryl is both extremely loyal and extraordinarily resilient. Negan’s strategies to “break” Daryl – a task he delegates to Dwight – are mostly based on deprivation, abuse and humiliation. First, they treat him like an animal (literally, by stripping him naked and feeding him dog food). Then, they use techniques that could be described as torture, by depriving him of sleep through the constant use of loud music. Finally, they use humiliation by treating him like a servant and denying him the right to speak. Then they simply keep telling him that the abuse can stop if only he joins Negan.

These methods prove to be inefficient: with his history, Daryl is well equipped to resist all this. His response is simply to revert to his old reflexes: he put his walls up and takes the abuse and hardship stoically. He barely looks at Dwight and the others while they talk to him, and hardly seems to register anything they’re saying. He does, however, observe the environment: he bides his time and waits for an occasion to escape or lash out at his abusers. Even when he does get angry and starts kicking at the door – which Negan mistakenly interprets as a sign of success – he is still only thinking about escaping.

What’s more, Daryl does not have weaknesses that Negan could use to his benefit to bribe him: he has never been shown to care about comfort, power, status, or even women. As he has little interest in any privileges, and little sense of self-preservation, bribes and threats are equally inefficient. Dwight did eventually strike a chord when he used a picture of Glenn to send Daryl into a guilt trip – the propensity to drown in guilt being one of Daryl’s main weaknesses. Once again, Dwight mistakenly believed he had broken Daryl. In fact, this did not do much to bring Daryl any closer to joining Negan.