The Walking Dead 907: Daryl’s home in the woods, explained

It wasn’t hard to picture Daryl Dixon living in the woods with a dog, but The Walking Dead “Stradivarius” reveals the heartbreaking reason for it.

Daryl Dixon has always been a loner, but after the six-year time jump on The Walking Dead it was clear that Daryl was living in a tent in the forest with just his dog for company. In The Walking Dead “Stradivarius” Carol pays her friend a visit and we learn the heartbreaking reason he has been living off on his own for so long.

Before episode 907 it was pretty easy to imagine that Daryl was spending time away from the communities. It was easy to think that maybe he and his dog needed their space from time to time and went off on hunting expeditions, much like Michonne’s nocturnal walker-hunting forays prior to Rick’s death.

However, when Carol sits down with Daryl for a heart to heart with her best friend, he reveals the truth: He had been searching for Rick all this time because he never gave up hope. There was no body, and so he kept up the search. Then, after a while, it was easier to live out there on his own than return to one of the communities and be forced to deal with his grief.

The last conversation Daryl had with Rick was in the hole in “The Obliged.” Daryl reminded Rick that he’d die for his brother, to be sure, but he also reminded Rick that Maggie was suffering every day Negan remained alive. They exchanged heated words, and they fought. (It was their fighting that landed them in the hole in the first place) But they saved each other and worked together when the herd posed a threat to the communities.

Later in “The Obliged” Daryl arrived to see the walkers bearing down on Rick at the bridge, and despite his attempts to keep the walkers from reaching Rick, there was nothing Daryl could do to save him. And then Rick was gone.

Daryl has been laden with guilt since the season 7 premiere when he jumped out of Negan’s lineup, prompting the then-leader of the Saviors to take another life as a punishment. Glenn’s death weighed so heavily on Daryl that he spent his time at the Sanctuary as an almost broken man until he found his will to fight again. Later, he’d align with Maggie at the end of season 8 to help her get the justice she deserved.

While Daryl had no role in Rick’s “death” he had to stand by and watch his best friend and blood brother “die” before his eyes. It’s not surprising that Daryl wouldn’t rest until he found Rick’s body to give him a proper burial, and it’s also not surprising that Daryl kept hope alive because there wasn’t a body. As time passed, though, the possibility that Rick had been swept away and/or turned into a walker and wandered off on his own grew until Daryl ultimately decided that being on his own was far better than being around everyone.

Carol, like Rick, knows that Daryl needs people around him. Her mission is simple: She knows he won’t go back to the Kingdom with her, so she crafts a story about needing him to watch over her son. And Daryl, being Daryl, feels compelled to help because that’s the man he is. And his history with Carol stretches all the way back to the beginning.

Whether he knows she’s manipulating the situation to get him to leave or not doesn’t matter. He decides to leave the woods and return to the Hilltop with her, and he arrives in time to be able to help his friends on a mission to find Eugene.

Just like that, Daryl is back with his people. And that’s how it should be.