Why fans still ship The Walking Dead’s Carol and Daryl

Over the past 10 years, speculation about The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon’s love-life has generated more bandwidth than Donald Trump. He has been shipped with everyone on the show from Glenn to Beth to Jesus to Connie, but as other speed boat “ships” launched and sunk, one sturdy vessel has plowed on. Surviving separations and marriage to a third party, the good ship Caryl has sailed on with thousands supporting a romantic connection between Daryl and Carol.

Empirically it’s the biggest, most popular ship on the show (coming second in a mammoth TV Guide ship poll for “Ships that should happen”), with Carylers producing metric tons of speculation, proclamations, and every form of creative content based on Daryl and Carol as friends and lovers. And it seems to show no sign of slowing down anytime soon, both on-screen – with a Carol and Daryl spin-off heading our way in 2023 – and in terms of the viewers’ passion for it.

It shouldn’t be surprising, given it is the longest standing relationship on the show and one that captured viewers’ hearts from the word go.  There seemed to be an instant connection between these two broken people; abused by those who claimed to love them; two people afraid of love, yet with so much of it to give.

The shipping began when Carol’s young daughter Sophia was lost in the woods at the start of season 2. Daryl made it his mission to put every effort into finding the girl and keeping her mother hopeful.

Fans still ship The Walking Dead’s Carol and Daryl after all their trials.

The scene in which Daryl – until that point gruff and stand-offish – sweetly presents Carol with a Cherokee Rose in a beer bottle, telling her the story of the Trail of Tears is the moment Daryl Dixon became a heartthrob hero, and a ship hit the high seas.

The rough redneck’s blushing earnestness, stepping out of his comfort zone to buoy Carol’s belief that her daughter lives, touched Carol’s heart and captured the audiences all at once. And the odd pair’s connection only grew through the ultimate loss of Sophia and subsequent grief they shared.

Carol’s initial gifts of affection to Daryl, in those early days, are taken flinchingly and warily, but over time we see Carol reach for Daryl – figuratively and literally – pulling him back into the fold time and time again when his past and self-doubt threaten, ensuring he knows he is loved and needed, by her and everyone else.

It affects Daryl so much that by season 5, when Carol is reunited with Daryl and the others in “No Sanctuary,” Daryl runs to her arms and sweeps her off her feet in an overwrought, tearful hug, in the most joyous expression of emotion the show has possibly ever depicted.

Carol’s effect on who Daryl is and becomes is clear in that scene, and it carries on throughout the seasons. It’s an effect that extends to the point that the normally straight-as-a-die Daryl lies to Carol to protect her from the horrific truth about Glenn and Abraham’s deaths in season 7.

At that time, Carol’s fragile state resulted from her insistence on putting others’ needs before her own, killing to protect her loved ones when she knew the damage it was doing to her psyche. Daryl’s lie shows that it is a trait they have in common and may explain their lack of a romantic relationship.

When Carol told Daryl that Ezekiel had asked her to marry him, Daryl gave her his blessing despite knowing it meant he would lose her. (Whether you believe he has a romantic interest in her or not, show-runner Angela Kang’s notes on the script for that scene say that Daryl was jealous and the overall feeling was “Saudade” – “a profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one cares for or loves”). Whilst in the same scene, Carol is equally as self-sacrificing, giving up her life with the King to run the Sanctuary as she knows it’s killing Daryl to do it.

That back and forth, push-pull of self-sacrifice and self-denial is truly what defines their relationship. Each would lay their life down for the other, over and over again. They have an ability to be brutally honest with each other and yet guard and hide their own emotions. Neither wishes to burden their best friend with their true feelings, afraid the truth will drive the other person away and end this relationship they treasure. Whether it’s negative feelings of self-hatred and doubt or the positive feelings about the depth of their need for each other – they seem to struggle with that self-expression.

That issue seems to be a huge part of the current difficulties they are facing in season 10. Daryl has tried but seems unable to fully convey how much Carol’s recklessness and gung-ho attitude, along with her proneness to take flight, affects him. While we learned in Carol’s hallucinations in “Look at the Flowers” that Carol lives in fear, believing Daryl is the one loss she could never bear.

Some naysayers believe the relationship on screen is one of a maternal or sibling nature, and while the relationship could legitimately be described as platonic so far, maternal or sibling, it is not.

Daryl was presented as a contemporary for Carol’s late husband Ed as Sophia’s father. He was presented as an equal and rival to Ezekiel and a threat to his marriage to Carol. Then in season 10, we got a glimpse inside Carol’s dreams and saw her creating a happy world where not only is Henry still alive, but she is also married to Daryl. And let us not forget, way back in season 3, there was a sexual tension-filled shoulder rub and a joke about oral sex between the pair.

The potential is there, and it’s certainly not the case that their relationship is all misery and self-flagellation. They also share many entertaining scenes of banter and flirtatious teasing, gently mocking each other and hiding compliments in badinage.

Whatever the full nature of their feelings for each other are, we know that they are tied together as the Walking Dead’s end was revealed alongside a spin-off in which Carol and Daryl leave to travel the country together.

Carol and Daryl will always put each other first and always turn to each other as their first port of call in crisis times. It would be tough for another character to get between that and to have a spouse or love-interest who would be happy to always be the second choice in moments of stress and pain.

This season’s rift between them may be the biggest the pair have ever endured, and it seems to continue in the upcoming episodes. However, the future for them is clear. With Carol on the back of Daryl’s bike, their future lies together, riding off into freedom and hopefully long-term happiness. It is a metaphor for the ‘ship itself. No matter what rough seas may come its way, Carol and Daryl will ride it out in the way they know best – holding on to each other, faces into the wind, and keeping each other afloat.