The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and the guilt that weighs him down

The Walking Dead season 11 kicked off with “Acheron Part 1,” and what a way to start a final season. Things are dark, things are desperate, but our group, despite their differences, is trying to hold it together for the greater good. One major conflict is Negan and Maggie, and it is a tough one to take sides on, especially for Daryl.

Daryl Dixon came from an extremely dysfunctional home, so it has always been difficult for him to trust anyone. Before the outbreak, he wandered around with Merle and scraped by a living any way they could. Legal or not, it didn’t matter. They even planned on robbing the Atlanta group before Rick came along.

After a time, Daryl realized that he truly had a family in Rick, Carol, Maggie, Glenn and all the others. And once he came to that realization, he would defend them at any cost to himself. He finally felt accepted and that he belonged.

Daryl Dixon and his enormous guilt

During Negan’s lineup, Daryl’s feral side emerged, and he lunged at Negan without thinking of the consequences. This lead to Negan taking another victim, Glenn. Perhaps this was Negan’s intention all along, but we will never know. Daryl has carried that guilt with him since that horrific night.

Since then, he has also lost his best friend and true brother Rick. He has also had a major conflict with another dear friend, Carol. Conflict that will be resolved as their bond is strong and can withstand a bit of turbulence.

Then, Maggie returns, no doubt bringing back the full force of Daryl’s guilts surrounding Glenn’s death to the front of his mind. He feels he needs to protect her and Hershel at all costs. He feels he owes this to her and her son and Glenn’s memory.

Negan and Daryl have never been pals, but I think Daryl was starting to see that perhaps Negan

changed his ways. He saw him save Judith; someone else is who is very important to Daryl. Although he wasn’t happy about the circumstances, he saw how Negan partnered with Carol to take down Alpha. And, he witnessed Negan turning down the chance to become the new alpha when the Whisperers bowed down to him. Negan instead chose to save Daryl. And, they took down Beta together.

But, then Maggie returned and forced Daryl to remember everything that happened before. In “Acheron Part 1,” Daryl clocked Negan for mentioning Glenn to Maggie. This was most likely years of pent-up frustration coming out in one swift punch.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens between these three characters. There is a lot of history there, and Daryl is working with some heavy emotions that could all unload at once.

The Walking Dead “Acheron Part 2” is available on AMC+ now and will air on AMC on August 29.