TWD bonus episodes reveal focus on Carol and Daryl’s friendship

Carol and Daryl’s friendship is under the microscope in the new season 10 episodes

After a seeming age (Thanks COVID!) we finally have some news for original Walking Dead fans about the continuation of season 10. AMC have released not only the start date and titles of the bonus  6 episodes coming in 2021, but also the episode descriptions.

Thanks to this release we know that among the much awaited telling of Negan’s tale in “Here’s Negan” and an exploration of where Maggie’s been in “Home Sweet Home”, there appears to be not one but two episodes that focus on Carol and Daryl and their relationship.

This is, of course,  good news for both Caryl shippers and fans of Carol and Daryl stories in general. However, from the episode descriptions it seems that all in the garden isn’t rosy for our power couple.

In episode 10×18 “Find Me”, “an adventure for Daryl and Carol turns sideways when they come across an old cabin. It takes Daryl back to the years when he left the group after Rick disappeared as he relives a time only the apocalypse could manifest.”

Whilst in 10×21, “Diverged”, “Daryl and Carol come to a fork in the road and head their separate ways. Each going into their own kind of survival mode, the easiest of challenges become much harder. Will their individual journeys be the tipping point needed to mend their friendship, or is the distance between them permanent?”

It seems as though the tension from much of the season 10 episodes that we’ve already seen, is still simmering over in these extra episodes. From “Lines We Cross” at the opening of the season to “A Certain Doom” we saw the Carol and Daryl friendship stretched to breaking point in a way that we’ve never witnessed before.

Carol’s single-minded determination to destroy Alpha, in retaliation for the murder of Carol’s adopted son Henry, and her recklessness with her own life whilst trying to reach that end, drove a wedge between her and the rest of her family, including Daryl.

Even when Alpha was finally taken out by Negan, it wasn’t all the good news it seemed, as Negan revealed to Daryl that it was Carol who released him in order to get the job done. Thus, showing Carol was continuing to work alone, cutting Daryl out in the most extreme of ways.

We saw through all of this Daryl’s level of frustration at not being able to reach Carol, his hurt at being locked out for her plans, and devastation by her seeming lack of care for her own life.

Yet Carol is too lost in her own pain and self-hatred to take on Daryl’s concern for her, and until the events of “Look at the Flowers”,  it seems only to drive her further and further into her own “lockdown” tendencies.

It’s a behavior we’ve also seen Daryl turn to repeatedly through the seasons, with him withdrawing from the group and pushing everyone away after both Sophia and Beth’s tragic deaths.

This survival mode that the damaged pair each find themselves being drawn to, seems to be the launchpad for exploring these characters’ relationship deeper in the bonus episodes which begin airing in February.

Show-runner Angela Kang promised we’d see character and relationship “deep dives” in these COVID safe episodes, and it looks like that’s exactly what we get in “Find Me”.

Having Daryl take us back to the time period after Rick’s disappearance takes us to the last time Daryl withdrew from the world and shut everyone out. It is a perfect time to explore these events, as it is the equivalent mindset to where Carol has been emotionally this season.

This is the perfect opportunity to explore why these two people who are so close retreat inside themselves when troubles strike, rather than leaning on each other as one might expect from such a deep friendship.

It’s an issue that gets to the heart of their complicated relationship, rooted in their own troubled backgrounds and the abuse they have both endured in their lives before the apocalypse.

Survival instinct for them both has always been self-preservation, keeping your issues to yourself, and not allowing anyone to hurt you by showing your vulnerability. Yet, it’s an instinct they seem to fight with when they are together..

The entire length of their friendship exists as a push-and-pull with these ingrained behaviors and fears, with their bond repeatedly overcoming the learned behaviors, only to be pushed to the cliff-edge again when another trauma takes over.

And it seems that battle reaches a climax again in 10×21 “Diverged”, as they find themselves facing whether to come together or pull apart finally.

It is, in reality, a moot point as we know they are headed to a spin-off together so no matter what has unfolded in recent times, it will never sever their connection completely.

So we can assume then that this episode may focus on how and why they finally settle on a way forward together that sees them resist their own fight-or-flight response to take on their burdens alone.

Obviously this won’t be a quick fix, as the cracks in their friendship can’t simply be papered over easily, and it seems like in these episodes we’ll see the Band-Aids and scars that the past few years have caused, and fully explore the fragile frame that’s holding them together.

In an interview with Siruis XM’s EW Live, Norman Reedus spoke about filming these 6 episodes, and revealed that what he’d been shooting for Carol and Daryl was “heartbreaking”.  This seems to confirm that these two episodes are going to see Carol and Daryl wrestle with the issues that drive them apart, both separately and together.

Along with the episode descriptions, it implies we’ll be seeing the pair exposing their pain and problems and ultimately asking can love and trust overcome the self-doubt and self-hatred they had drilled into them all their lives.