Norman Reedus says Daryl and Alpha will face off on The Walking Dead

In a recent interview Norman Reedus talks about Daryl’s coming story arc with Whisperers’ leader Alpha and it’s going to be intense.

It sounds like Daryl and Alpha are going to a very serious arc in The Walking Dead season 9B that starts on Sunday, February 10th. In a recent interview with EW Norman Reedus talked at length about how Daryl and Alpha will come to a sort of mutual respect even as he tries to fulfill his promise to Carol to protect Henry and try to help protect the people of Hilltop.

When talking about how Daryl will interact with Alpha and what Daryl thinks of Alpha and the Whisperers and their unique method of survival Reedus said:

"There’s a lot of Daryl and Alpha stuff coming up. They’re coming from two different places. She’s coming from a place of she’s got it figured out. She’s figured out how to survive. The way that she’s figured out how to survive is smart, but it’s also so dark. Daryl sort of is put in the middle of this. He’s trying to figure it out, but when push comes to shove, Daryl’s like, “Let me go meet this girl.”It gets to a point where there’s a mutual respect between them in some weird way. I know you saw from the clips that were put out of future scenes coming up where Lydia’s saying to Daryl, “You’re not like these people. You live outside of these walls. You’re a wild animal. You get it more than anyone.” I think Alpha kind of sees that in Daryl, and Daryl sees that in Alpha. As the story progresses, you’ll get to know that there is a mutual respect between those two characters."

He goes into more detail in the interview about how Daryl views Alpha and says that Daryl isn’t intimidated by the Whisperers or by Alpha. Beta, however, may be a different story. In one of the teasers that was released earlier during the hiatus Beta and Daryl are seen fighting and Beta has a clear advantage in the fight because of his size and ferocity.

It’s been a long time since Daryl was at the top of his game on The Walking Dead but it looks like season 9B will see Daryl return to the fierce and slightly feral Daryl that fans first met in the early seasons of The Walking Dead. Only now he’s going to go even further to protect the people he loves.

Will Daryl Take Rick’s Arc With Alpha?

Based on what Reedus said in the interview it looks like a safe bet that Daryl will have an arc with the Whisperers that is similar to Rick’s story with Alpha in The Walking Dead comic. In the comic Carl sneaks back to the Whisperers camp after Alpha exchanges her Hilltop prisoner for Lydia. Rick goes after Carl and ends up going through some intense interactions with Alpha to get Carl back. If Henry tries to go after Lydia it makes sense that Daryl would be the one to go after him in order to keep his promise to Carol to protect Henry.

More will be revealed about Alpha, the Whisperers, and how this terrifying new group is going to change the game for the survivors when The Walking Dead returns on Sunday, February 10th.