There are many fan-favorite characters from AMC's The Walking Dead. Daryl Dixon, portrayed by Norman Reedus, is among these favorites. Throughout the main series, Daryl came close to death numerous times, but luckily, he survived to be featured in his own spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Let's take a peek at some of the classic Walking Dead scenes featuring Daryl in life-or-death situations. (video below)
First up is ep. 205, "Chupacabra." In this episode, Daryl embarks on a solo mission in the search for Sophia (Madison Lintz), Carol's (Melissa McBride) daughter, who had been missing for days. He took one of Hershel's (Scott Wilson) horses for the journey and found the girl's doll, leading him to believe she would be nearby. Ready to continue his search, his horse is spooked and bucks him off, sending him falling down the ridge where he is pierced by one of his arrows.
A second fall and blood loss finds him in a weakened hallucinatory state. He awakens to see his brother, Merle, yelling at him, but he quickly realizes this is a hallucination, as Merle's right hand, which he had cut off, isn't missing. This scene reveals a great deal about the relationship between the brothers, as Merle continues to berate his younger brother for not searching for him in Atlanta and for befriending Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who had left him handcuffed on a roof in the city. Daryl always did what his brother told him, and it is evident that Merle used his brother as a punching bag to vent his frustrations.
The Walking Dead - The Suicide King
The next episode featured is "The Suicide King," the ninth episode of season 3. The previous episode featured the shocking reunion between the Dixon brothers at Woodbury, home of the Governor (David Morrissey). This episode picks up with the brothers in the Governor's ring, where he tells the crowd that Merle is a traitor and Daryl is a terrorist. He explains that this fight will be to the death as Andrea (Laurie Holden) begs him to stop the fight.
Despite his treatment of his brother, Merle would never come against him. After the brothers fight a bit, Merle tells him, "Just follow my lead, little brother, we're getting out of this, right now!" They team up against the walkers that have been brought into the ring. And just as it looks like they may not make it out, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) opens fire on the crowd as Rick throws a gas grenade, and they rescue the brothers.
In season 7, Daryl was captured by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and forced to endure extreme conditions as a prisoner of Dwight (Austin Amelio) at the Sanctuary. "The Cell" is the third episode of the season and introduced TWD fandom to the earworm that is "Easy Street" by The Collapsable Hearts Club.
The story watches Daryl being fed dog food sandwiches by Dwight, forced to listen to "Easy Street" and Roy Orbison's "Crying" on repeat, and look at images of Glenn's (Steven Yeun) remains after he was beaten to death by Negan. It was difficult to watch Daryl endure this type of psychologically torture.
Watch all three clips from the episodes mentioned about in the video below.
Check out these stories and more on Undead Walking:
Follow Undead Walking on Twitter (X) and Facebook, and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on everything in The Walking Dead universe.