Thoughts on The Walking Dead season 8 first photo: Carol and Daryl

As fans are eagerly waiting for the release of the season 8 trailer of The Walking Dead, here are a few questions raised by the first picture from season 8, showing an apparently reunited Daryl and Carol.

The first thing thing that has caught our attention in the first released photo from The Walking Dead season 8 is the orange armband that Carol is wearing. The fact that she is wearing one, but Daryl isn’t, seems to suggest that the different groups fighting Negan might use such signals to indicate which group they belong to. As pointed out previously on Undead Walking, this might prove useful to avoid casualties from friendly fire, for instance.

This in turn raises questions about how the various groups will organize: will they go on separate missions, or on joint missions but as separate groups, or just “mix”? And what about Carol and Daryl, then? Will they be a real team again, or fight on separate teams? Sure, the picture released last week shows them together, to the delight of many fans who love to see them paired up. It’s been a long time since we last saw them operating as a tandem, and many of us have missed it, since they always make a great team.

Still, Carol is wearing Kingdom battle gear as well as that orange wristband. The fact that they are shown together doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not simply having a chat, or sharing some strategic information before going on separate missions or in separate groups. They are both looking at something or someone, behind Carol. It looks as if Carol is getting ready to join a group of people that is off-camera, or as if they are discussing the right course of action to solve a problem. In any case, this impression may be wrong, but they don’t really look like they are about to embark on a mission together.

How close will Carol and Daryl be in season 8?

The relationship between Carol and Daryl is one of the most complex and interesting ones on The Walking Dead. Lately, it has been marked by separations and reunions. Carol and Daryl’s reunions are often moments of pure, raw emotion that testify to the strength of their bond. This was true of the Terminus reunion, and it was also true of the Kingdom reunion in season 7: it was extraordinary to see how Carol’s stone-cold façade, which she had maintained with Ezekiel, Morgan and pretty much anyone who tried to get close to her, completely collapsed when Daryl appeared at her door.

Then Daryl lied to Carol, saying everyone in Alexandria was OK, and he left. His decision to lie was mostly interpreted by fans as a selfless act of love, to protect Carol from a truth she could not bear to hear. His decision to leave sometimes puzzled viewers, but can be easily explained in exactly the same way: Daryl is the one person who truly understands Carol, and supports her unconditionally without questioning or judging her actions. The one thing Daryl could not understand, at first, was why Carol had left. But after hearing her explanations, leaving was his way of showing that he understood and respected Carol’s decision, and her need, at that particular time at least, to stay away from the people she loved.

One big question many fans had after this was: how will Carol react to Daryl’s lie? Of course, as we know, Carol couldn’t remain in that blissful ignorance forever, and she did eventually hear the truth from Morgan. The action-packed finale did not address the issue. We did not get to see a ‘reunion’ scene, this time. Carol was only seen sitting next to Morgan after the fight. Will she and Daryl discuss the lie? Could it drive a wedge between them?

Based on their history, the answer should be: no. Carol and Daryl instinctively understand each other most of the time, and they have demonstrated time and time again their ability to simply accept the other’s behaviour, even when it seemed incomprehensible: Daryl leaving with Merle, Carol killing Karen and David, or Carol leaving Alexandria, are the most striking examples. Carol will probably understand the logic behind Daryl’s lie, and may not even have to discuss it with him. It is possible, though, that Daryl might feel the need to justify himself, as lying is definitely averse to his personality, while feeling guilty about things, on the other hand, is pretty much his default setting.

Now, this photo from season 8 of The Walking Dead shows that Carol and Daryl are definitely going to interact. Their body language suggests that they are comfortable with one another again – they are standing close to one another, their bodies facing each other, and they seem rather relaxed, especially Daryl. Carol, however, is looking away – should we read anything into this? If anything should drive a wedge between them, though, it will most probably have to do with her new ties to the Kingdom and possibly to Ezekiel, rather than with Daryl’s lie.

Given Negan’s obsession with Daryl, is it wise for Daryl and Carol to be visibly close?

As a fan of both characters, one thing that came to my mind when I saw this picture was the potential danger of Carol and Daryl openly appearing as a team again. Although Morgan told Carol the truth about the people Negan had killed, it’s worth nothing that he withheld important information regarding Daryl’s fugitive status – possibly his own way of sparing Carol? In this case too, Carol will inevitably have to find out the truth.

Now, Negan has made it abundantly clear that he hasn’t given up on Daryl: as he told Rick during the battle, he wants “his” Daryl back. Negan’s attempt to convert Daryl and recruit him for the Saviours was a complete failure. It was probably doomed from the start: as Forbes writer Paul Tassi pointed out, Daryl is probably “the most non-recruitable person on earth”. Especially, I would add, if you’re using techniques such a physical and mental abuse, which Daryl has basically been trained to endure for his entire his pre-apocalypse life.

There is one obvious way, though, for Negan to break Daryl. A way that somehow, didn’t seem to cross Negan’s mind, even when he had both Daryl and Carl in his power: to use Daryl’s love and loyalty for the ‘family’ to trap him. After all, it was Negan’s cruel taunting of Rosita that made Daryl lose control and punch Negan. It was Dwight’s idea to use a picture of Glenn that had the most devastating impact on him. And Negan knows how to use people’s love for one another to trap them: he did exactly that with Sherry and Dwight.

If Negan really wants to go on with his “unfinished business” with Daryl, it seems obvious that Daryl’s main weakness might be Carol. Which in turn, raises the question: should Daryl and Carol avoid appearing as a team during the war? Maybe there is no cause for worry, as so far, Negan has demonstrated to be rather terrible at gathering intelligence – basically, he doesn’t scout, he doesn’t use spies, he doesn’t leave people behind to monitor his ‘colonies’. But this might change after the season 7 finale, as we saw how shocked Negan was when realizing the extent of his ignorance – the rebellion of the Kingdom, the existence of Shiva, Maggie being alive…

Next: Production resumes on TWD season 8

If Negan was to discover how important Carol is to Daryl, this might be very bad for our heroes… Or maybe, knowing what we know about Carol’s uncanny ability to create mayhem, would it actually be very bad for Negan?