The Walking Dead’s Daryl will “go rogue” looking for revenge in season 8, says Norman Reedus

Season 8 is barely more than a month away, and fans are beginning to get a few hints as to what they should expect for their favorite characters.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly released today, Norman Reedus teased season 8 and began to reveal a few elements on what is in store for Daryl.

First takeaway: Daryl will “go rogue”

The main piece of information Norman Reedus gave the fans was this one: season 8 of The Walking Dead will find Daryl still obsessed with getting revenge. He hasn’t forgiven Negan and his men for the torture he was submitted to in season 7. And this will lead him to stray from the official line of conduct decided by the leaders, as Reedus told Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly:

"“You know, some of us are going rogue a little bit — like myself. There are a couple of some rogue moments in there.” […]“There’s no dilly-dallying with him,” says Reedus. “There’s no gray area right now with him. He’s on a mission to do one thing, and sometimes for the good of the group, you veer left a little bit, and he’s still veering right. So, like I said, he’s kind of going rogue a little bit in the beginning.”"

Of course, this remains quite vague and leaves some room for interpretation. What does he mean by “going rogue a little bit”? “Going rogue” is something Daryl has already done in the past, sometimes with disastrous results.

Daryl has always had a tendency to go off on his own: back in season 2, when Rick asked him if he was “okay” going into the forest alone, he replied: “I’m better on my own”. He hasn’t always fared that well, though: he almost died in the following scenes in “Chupacabra”.

Last time Daryl went off on his own was when he couldn’t live with his guilt for not having killed Dwight in season 6. As we know, this led to Glenn, Rosita and Michonne going after him. As a result, they were all captured by the Saviors.

Second takeaway: Daryl is still set on revenge

So, why would Daryl persist in this kind of behavior? Norman Reedus was quite clear about this in his interview with Entertainment Weekly. Daryl is still after revenge and will let nothing get in his way:

"“It’s very much unfinished business,” says Reedus. “And when certain people are trying to plot the overall takeover or the overall battle, he’s on one direct mission. I mean, he was tortured last year. He wants his s— back, and he wants to have revenge, and he’s really not listening.”"

Judging from this interview, then, it seems that we should expect a certain amount of continuity between seasons 7 and 8 for Daryl. Revenge has been on Daryl’s mind ever since he escaped from Negan’s compound: it was already on his mind when he clubbed Fat Joey to death, and it was still his first instinct when he saw Dwight in Alexandria. Reedus’s words seem to suggest that Daryl will not have snapped out of what he called his “kill mode” by the time season 8 begins.

How could this impact the group ?

The question is, should fans rejoice at the prospect of Daryl going rogue on his quest for vengeance?

For Rick’s group and their allies, this could sound like bad news. Based on the previous time Daryl acted in such a way, it seems like a rather bad idea. Yet, Daryl has often been shown to be very resourceful. Just because it ended badly last time, doesn’t mean he cannot do better next time.

One interesting point is that Reedus mentioned “some people” going rogue, meaning that he will not be the only one. Could he be accompanied by Carol? Many promotional pictures have shown them together, and if one person is efficient when “going rogue”, it’s Carol. Or could it possibly create tensions between them? It will depend, probably, on how radical Carol’s change of heart over the killing issue has been.

Is it good news or bad news for Daryl’s character development?

For fans of The Walking Dead, and for Daryl fans in particular, it could be both good news and bad news. Some fans really enjoy Daryl when he’s being badass, but others have lamented that he had become rather one-dimensional in latest seasons. Apart from the excellent reunion scene with Carol at the Kingdom, Daryl has been mostly brooding, crying, growling at people and occasionally bursting out of anger. Many have jokingly pointed out that he barely had any lines anymore – and was possibly even reduced to communicating in morse code…

The thing is, revenge-obsessed Daryl may just not be the most interesting kind of Daryl. Daryl did not become such a fan favorite only for being the badass who goes off on his own to kick ass. He was also a complex character, in a way that went far beyond the “bad boy with a heart of gold” trope.

Norman Reedus brought to the character his unique acting style. The many nuances in his voice and his great body language allowed him to portray the many facets of Daryl. However, a perpetually angry, brooding, silent Daryl may not give him the opportunity to do that. So, we can only hope the “revenge” storyline doesn’t mean a continuation of this trend.

Would Daryl go as far as to challenge the leaders’ authority?

On a more positive note, there could be potential in the “going rogue” storyline. Daryl may not always make the right choices, especially when driven by emotion, but he is far from being stupid. He proved himself to be a capable “interim” leader when Rick was going crazy. Rick has often relied on his advice in the past.

Yet, in an interesting but also slightly frustrating way, Daryl has never really questioned Rick’s decisions. He has occasionally expressed dissent, but always supported Rick in his choices. Now that Rick has accumulated bad decisions, could this “going rogue” element also entail tensions between Rick and Daryl? We also know that Daryl is not terribly keen on Ezekiel, even though he accepted Carol’s assurance that he was an OK guy. That could maybe play a part in making him disregard certain decisions.

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And also, of course, one cannot help but notice that Reedus said “in the beginning”. So… could this mean Daryl will go rogue and then regret it?

What do you think? What could Norman Reedus mean by “going rogue”? Are you excited to see Daryl’s attempt to get revenge in season 8 of The Walking Dead?