While it will be some time before we actually get to see Daryl Dixon season 4, production on the final season is complete. Because of that, AMC already shared the first look at what Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), and everyone else in the crew are going to be up to.
And it’s not looking good. If you haven’t seen the teaser yet, check it out:
As a reminder, at the end of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, Daryl, Carol, and several other characters from Spain were finishing the final parts of the boat that stranded them there. However, seeking vengeance and having been freed by his mother, Fede (Oscar Jaenada) hunts them down and tries to kill Daryl, but his weapons cause the boat to explode.
This leaves the group, once again, without a way to get back to America.
Now, with the season 4 teaser, we got a few hints about what to expect heading into season 4 next year. The story is still under wraps, but based on what I see (and years in this fandom), here are my three theories.
Daryl is actually very hurt — but he’s not the one in danger
Honestly, I’m shocked it’s taken this long for Daryl to end up in a hospital gown, no matter how much of an ick it is to me. He has had too many brushes with death.
I’m sure the first thing that fans are freaking out about from the first shot of the teaser is that Daryl is not looking so healthy. He’s clearly in a hospital with some of his hair shaved off, as if he suffered a serious injury to his head. And I actually do believe that’s true.
I wouldn’t be shocked if somehow Daryl got into a serious accident or a fight that left him injured like this, and he was dragged to some locked-down area in Spain that we haven’t encountered yet. Or maybe he was taken into custody somewhere. We do know that Codron (Romain Levi) saw the explosion in previous seasons, so maybe he followed Daryl and his crew and dragged him somewhere safe. Perhaps he's responsible.
I actually don’t think he’s the one in trouble. I think Daryl is perfectly safe, but the fact that he is separated from his group makes me think they’re the ones truly in trouble and will need help soon.
That man is real, but he's not where you'd expect him to be
In the teaser, we see Daryl open his eyes in the hospital and look shocked at a man standing over him as he says, “Welcome home, son.” At first, I thought it was a hallucination of Daryl’s father.
We’ve known through backstory and flashbacks in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon that Daryl has had a tumultuous past with his father, who was a drunk and an abuser. That led to many of the developmental issues Daryl and his brother Merle (Michael Rooker) had while growing up.
That’s actually not going to be the case here. It's a new character altogether.
According to Deadline, that is Jimmy Smits, who plays Captain Alejandro Perkins, a former U.S. Navy officer and medical doctor who has somehow survived the last decade and isn't interacting with Daryl. But, how is he speaking to an American in Spain?
I think either Daryl is at a U.S. base in Spain, or he somehow made it across the ocean and is now somewhere in the country that's not even close to where his family is. The picture that was revealed said it was taken during 407, which means season 4 episode 7. But even then, I don't know if they'd reveal such a big thing in the teaser. I think there's a twist coming.
Those running walkers are real
At one point in the teaser, we see Carol and several others get caught up in what looks like a rampage of running walkers — very different from the zombies we all know now. It’s almost like World War Z zombies, or the zombies you see in those Korean zombie movies. They look extremely fast and dangerous.
My first thought was that it was a hallucination, or maybe someone was dreaming. But honestly, the walkers in this series have been getting a lot more advanced.
I don’t think this will be a huge group of walkers. But I do think it would make sense for them to be a single group of evolved walkers. We’ve seen walkers in the ocean and walkers that evolved through nature. I wouldn't be shocked if these walkers had somehow become runners.
It could also be the result of someone experimenting on walkers. That has happened consistently throughout these spinoffs. Maybe that is just the result. Human curiosity is scary.
This makes me so excited for season 4 — and also very terrified. Daryl better somehow reunite with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) at the end of this!
You can watch all three seasons of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon on AMC+.
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