Carol and Daryl question causes chaos on TWD Comic Con panel

Comic-Con at Home TWD panel’s Carol and Daryl controversy

Although SDCC’s cancellation due to COVID-19 meant that they couldn’t appear in person, a handful of The Walking Dead cast members – along with producers Greg Nicotero, Scott Gimple and showrunner Angela Kang – met for the convention via video chat today. One of the questions revolving around Carol and Daryl led to a bit of TWD controversy.

Talking Dead’s Chris Hardwick acted as chair and question-master to discuss the elusive season 10 finale  for Comic Con@Home’s TWD panel, broadcast online this afternoon.

The change of locale and the cast not being able to appear together did not dampen any of their spirits, and the intrigue and hijinx we’ve come to expect from this cast continued from their video screens.

One of the hot topics in any TWD panel is the relationship between Carol and Daryl, and it was no different today. Hardwick began by asking Melissa McBride where Carol was at, emotionally this season.

McBride’s answer covered Carol’s spiraling grief and need for revenge, before referencing how these issues were coming at the detriment of her relationship with Daryl.

Of course, Hardwick then wasted no time in moving on to prod McBride further about Carol and Daryl’s relationship, asking how she would describe Carol’s relationship with Daryl as we come to the end of season 10.

McBride answered in her own inimitable way with a noise that was somewhere between a miaow and a meh.

The hilarious noise managed to capture the essence of the very rough patch the long-time friends are currently experiencing, and the undefined nature of what exactly their relationship is at the point we last saw them.

However, McBride had made clear in her previous answer that Carol is attempting to “make amends” from the pain she feels she has caused through the season, something that was evident at the end of “Look at the Flowers”.

We saw in her hallucinations with Alpha, that she felt she’d lost everything but talk of losing Daryl was something she wouldn’t let happen. This seemed to spur her to free herself from her trap and declare “it’s never too late” before heading back to Alexandria, in order to set about fixing that which was broken.

McBride’s non-answer answer had her fellow panelists in hysterics, with Norman Reedus grumpily reacting as though in character. He seemed to be having some technical issues with Zoom and had resorted to using his phone in order to hear McBride’s answer.

Giving his own interjection into the conversation in the form of a doodle, he held up a drawing of the wiggly-mouthed emoji  – backing up McBride’s expression on the rocky place we left Carol and Daryl.

As the rowdy class of cast-mates died down, Hardwick moved to show-runner Angela Kang for a more cohesive, expanded take on where the Carol and Daryl relationship was heading in season 11. She confirmed they were currently in the “myeeeeh” place but would be moving on.

"“All I want to say, without spoiling it all, you kind of start from that point and they’ve got a long road to travel. So, I’m excited, we’re writing some stuff now and we’ll see where it all lands.”"

Kang also talked about the fact that a relationship as long and deep as Carol and Daryl’s gets complicated, which is certainly the word to describe their interactions this past season, with Daryl desperately reaching out for Carol to open up to him, and her closing him out.

It seems it’s a topic with no easy answer – certainly not a spoiler-free one. And a subject that the show is going to be spending more time exploring in coming episodes.

Thankfully, things took a lighter turn again later in the panel when McBride was asked how she felt about working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. McBride immediately expressed her joy by exclaiming “Very exciting!” only for Norman Reedus – listening again on his phone – to react in fake disgust.

“He gets a very exciting, and I only get this?!”  he declared, holding up his doodled emoji before storming off-screen in a pretend fit of pique.

This caused gales of laughter from the panel again, with McBride reiterating her “myeeh” before teasing Reedus further on his return to his seat, by declaring working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan was “delightful.”

There’s no doubt this cast loves working with each other, and love to mess with each other just as much – as the years of the Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus prank war can testify. And thankfully, even without the atmosphere and camaraderie of Hall H at Comic Con, they are still able to get across their love for their characters and the joy they have working on this beloved show via Zoom.

You can watch the panel at Comic Con’s own website, or on YouTube.