Throughout its 15 years on the air, The Walking Dead found itself on the wrong end of its fans' wrath on more than one occasion. The beloved AMC series is renowned for revolutionizing the zombie genre, chilling viewers from the introduction scene and thrilling them for 11 more seasons. It's something special that the show was able to accomplish, but that didn't prevent its loyal fanbase from speaking up when some of the storylines got a little bit out of hand.
The show had plenty of ups and downs throughout its run, with criticism often geared towards the back half of those 11 seasons as the question constantly came up surrounding whether or not the show had run out of steam. And that's where one particular episode of television comes in - one that was so infamous that it left fans scratching their heads (or maybe even shaking them!).
Now, The Walking Dead has had some "bad" episodes before, but "Diverged" takes the top spot for most reviled among the TWD Family. But honestly, it doesn't deserve that infamous reputation.
Despite its flaws, "Diverged" allows us to spend time with two of The Walking Dead's best characters in a way that no other episode could
"Diverged" is the 21st episode of season 10, airing as one of the infamous bonus episodes of that season designed to bridge the gap between it and the eleventh season. That automatically sets it off on the back foot because the bonus episodes aren't well regarded at all, with fans feeling that they offered little beyond filler and added almost nothing to the overarching story. There is definitely some truth to that - honestly, you could probably skip most of them and not even notice - but there is also some charm in some of these episodes. This one features a lot of that charm.
The fact that "Diverged" is led by Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus is an instant selling-point. The friendship between Carol Peletier and Daryl Dixon is, by far, one of the most compelling relationships on the show, so you know you're always in for a treat when you have an episode that focuses on these two characters. Granted, it places the focus on their relationship when they aren't on speaking terms and it does little to repair their friendship, but there is merit here in that it explores an aspect of their friendship that the series simply wouldn't have had the time to do in any normal episode. And that presents McBride and Reedus with some great opportunities to deliver.
McBride, in particular, is fantastic as Carol here. Although we knew the character extremely well at this point, allowing us into her house as she does normal activities really pulls back the curtain, showing audiences what is going on in her head in a way that no other episode really has. She's determined to do something - anything - in a bid to fix things. As Alexandria struggles to rebuild, she tells Jerry that she wants to help. That is very true, but it's clear that she's also trying to distract herself from her broken friendship with Daryl. She can't fix that at this point in time, so she's trying to fix anything else.
McBride always portrays Carol with a sense of calm focus; she's a quiet warrior who will get the job done in the end, and that's still on display here. But this character study of an episode allows us to see some rare moments where Carol falters, and McBride conveys that so well, subtly showing us how she's searching for a purpose in the hopes of making things better. Carol doesn't always say how she's feeling, but McBride lets us know through her performance.
She's lost, irritable, and a little off her game - things that Carol isn't known for being. She's questioning her decisions from earlier in the season, specifically about how she went about defeating Alpha in the survivors' war with The Whisperers and the people she put at risk while doing it. We' re not used to seeing Carol like this, and it makes for quite the interesting watch.
This is particularly clear in the moment when she pulls her house apart at night in search of the mysterious rat that is driving both her and Dog insane. And, in many ways, it becomes the final straw for her, just as the infamous Fly did for Walter White in that iconic episode of Breaking Bad. Granted, it wasn't quite as effective as that one - but that doesn't mean that it wasn't effective at all.
"Diverged" is one big metaphor for Daryl and Carol's relationship; it's broken, in need of mending, and thus the two of them spend their days attempting to fix things around them. While Carol puts her energy into making soup for the people of Alexandria and Daryl tries to fix his motorcycle, both of them run into a ridiculous number of obstacles along the way for what should be relatively straightforward tasks. For Carol, the solar panels need fixing and they are low on ingredients, and for Daryl, the pocketknife he needs to repair his motorcycle is no longer in his possession (he gave it to Carol earlier in the episode). Even the pleasant distractions aren't pleasant. And to make matters worse, both of them run into groups of walkers while on their new missions.
The episode started with them reaching a literal fork in the road (as Carol heads back to Alexandria and Daryl decides to stay in the woods for a bit longer), which is a metaphor for their friendship at this point. It's a bit of an obvious metaphor, sure, but the ones that come later in the episode as both of them struggle; those are more subtle, more effective, and more telling of how they are feeling. And, in any other show, this would have been well-received.
If we're being honest, the biggest sin in "Diverged" is that it doesn't repair Daryl and Carol's relationship in the end. The closing moments see Daryl return to Alexandria with his motorcycle as Carol offers him soup; he's tired and declines her offer. It undermines the episode's purpose and renders it pointless to those watching it. The season 10 bonus episodes had to behave like season 10.5 as it couldn't really move the storyline forward before season 11, so there was little that could be done here, but the decision to prolong Daryl and Carol's tension ended up taking away from an effective episode of television.
"Diverged" is like a fun little side quest that simply couldn't have happened in any other episode of The Walking Dead, but it also houses some surprisingly subtle, mature writing and proves to be to a solid character study of two beloved staples of the franchise. Although its ending undercut the entire purpose of the episode, it doesn't deserve its reputation as the worst episode of the series, especially given how fantastic Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus are.
Justice for "Diverged"!