As someone who has rewatched Modern Family enough times to memorize every single word of dialogue, you can imagine my thrill over finding out that the third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has included the very epic Stephen Merchant in its cast. Once he buttles his way into occupying your mind rent free, Higgins becomes this practically Shakespearean supernatural symbol with his super unique shenanigans. So I was curious to see how David Zabel’s Daryl-centric spin-off of The Walking Dead would incorporate Stephen Merchant’s impossible-to-mask quirks into a morbid story of survival. But when there’s life, there has to be some hope, right? That’s the running theme connecting the three seasons of Daryl Dixon; the everlasting search for just enough hope to keep going in a very terrible world crawling with hungry Walkers and greedy humans. Stephen Merchant blends into it seamlessly.
Spoiler Alert
Who Is Julian Chamberlain?
Against all odds–the Walkers, the rabid Scots, and the bat guano–Daryl and Carol have made it to England after all. But the silence they’re hit with the moment they set foot in London doesn’t fully let you enjoy Carol’s very lame joke about the cars having their steering wheels on the wrong side. It’s a dead city. It’s quite unlike what the Scots had promised them. But a dead city is better than a horde. So Carol has reasons to save the can of hotdogs for a celebration. What they land themselves in when they actually get into the city, however, is a whole other scene. A formidable horde closes in on them. Thankfully, Carol isn’t too shabby with locks. But even though they make it into a house that was once clearly gorgeous, the state they’re in really makes you think about what Daryl said to Carol at the beginning of the episode. For the longest time, their lives have only been about running and surviving. Daryl never really got to think about what he deserved until he met Isabelle and a whole new world opened up for him. In this new world, Daryl dares to expect more than survival. But just because they’re in a state of complete helplessness right now, doesn’t mean that things won’t change. Carol isn’t too optimistic about their chances. And considering Walkers have completely surrounded the house and every street leading out, it makes sense for her to think that they might not make it if they go out looking for food. But Daryl won’t stand for it. He doesn’t want Carol to think that that can of hotdogs will still be special if it serves as their last meal. He wants her to save it for another day. And that’s coming from a man who knows that he will do everything in his power to get himself and his friend out of the hellhole that is post-apocalyptic England. Sure, Daryl would’ve gone above and beyond. But the odds of the two of them surviving that massive horde is, frankly, pretty terrible. So when Daryl’s attention is caught by a light playing on the walls of the house, and they stop to wait and see if it could be another person, you’re bound to be relieved that they don’t go with their original plan of just braving the horde. They’re understandably cautious when they hear the sounds of someone deep in the night. But to their relief, it’s just Julian Chamberlain, who isn’t a relative to the former British Prime minister Neville Chamberlain, mind you. It must’ve been this strange but sweet British guy who saw Daryl and Carol and sent them a signal by playing with reflections. He certainly took it as a gesture of their doors being open for him when Daryl sent the signal back with a small shard of glass. It’s good to see that the apocalypse hasn’t knocked that British sense of politeness out Julian. He’s a very generous guest who might’ve climbed in, but he hasn’t come empty handed. It’s a really cozy little feast they have by the fire with the rabbits and the single malt Julian brought. To Julian, this means much more than meeting two friendly people in a world full of the dead. You see, Julian is the last man alive in England, and he’s been so for many years now. To say nothing of the unimaginable difficulties he’s had to face to survive this long in a dead country, Julian hasn’t seen or spoken to another person in ages. Lucky for him, the people he’s met are the warm kind. They’re the type who’d find his quirky little Cockney rhyme about how the Walkers are squid adorable.
Do Daryl and Carol not trust Julian?
There’s a lot about Julian that suggests that he’s a salt of the earth, good guy. He respects the kind of perseverance that it takes for a person to go through the hellscape that is the post-apocalyptic Channel Tunnel and come out alive. They’re three of the toughest, most persistent warriors against death. Julian, for instance, has somehow managed to survive in England even after it sealed off the tunnel to keep the Europeans out and trapped its own people inside in the process. And the way he talks about the diseases of selfishness, cult-mentality, and greed in people, the ones that pushed his country to death, he sounds like someone who would’ve done things differently had he held the power to make decisions. But Julian couldn’t even make a decision to leave when his friends died. Even if he was a great sailor, he couldn’t have crossed the Atlantic and gone to America alone. So he’s stayed. And he’s waited for human contact for an excruciatingly long time. But since that’s the kind of condition that can drive a person mad, Daryl and Carol are smart not to trust him immediately. They’re just trying to scope him out when they toss their drinks to the side and let him get tipsy. And to be honest, there’s a moment there when Julian seems almost too insistent on keeping them in England. But fortunately, Carol had no reason to infantilize him so much. Julian’s a good guy who understands that Daryl and Carol have people in America who miss them. He’s thrilled to bits to get an invitation to go with them. All Julian really wants is a life. The kind of thing that isn’t just fighting, scavenging, and somehow getting by.
What happened to Carol?
You don’t just decide to take a boat and sail the Atlantic unless you’re really out of options. But as far as options go, Julian proves to be a pretty reliable person to roll the dice on. He said they’ll know when it’s 10AM. And he sure as hell meant it. When the clock hits 10, Big Ben’s loud gong attracts all the Walkers and clears out the path for Daryl and Carol, courtesy of the awesome Julian Chamberlain. But here’s the thing. Daryl and Carol lied on their resumes. Neither of them know the first thing about boats and sailing. Julian verifies that before they inevitably go aboard the boat that Julian has been waiting to sail away in for decades. He clearly struggles between believing in himself and doubting every single thing he does. But what makes him so cool is the fact that even when he’s terrified that he’ll fail, Julian goes for it. They make a pretty neat crew, the three of them. Daryl and Carol are fast learners. And Julian, though terrible with the map and the compass, knows his way around the boat just enough to keep them afloat. There’s this quiet sense of grief in Julian when he talks about the near future when someone will crack open the last bottle of scotch. But the good thing is, they aren’t even close to running out of it. The scotch is what gets Carol to finally open up to Daryl after the long stretch of trouble they’ve gone through from the moment they reunited. Seeing Sophie under the influence of the guano in the tunnel didn’t only give Carol the courage to persevere, it also lifted the weight that’s been making her feel guilty for going on after her daughter’s death. Since then, Carol has found the will to even look forward to having a future. The lesson Daryl takes away from this is what helps him reassure Julian when he seems down about his life. Julian saved every penny he made, but he never found the time for love. It was really too bad that the world went to hell just when Julian felt ready to seek out someone special. Being the only man alive in his country for all these years leaves little room for any hope for love to brew. He would’ve been kinda crazy to dream of finding someone in the state he was in. But it’s not such a pipe dream for him anymore. That’s what Daryl wants to remind him of. Julian can find someone to love in America. It’s a good thing that they had so much hope to hold on to when the storm hit them. Julian was hit by the boom pretty early on in the storm. And with him getting his bearings in the cabin, it was Daryl and Carol trying to keep their boat steady in the raging storm. The can of hotdogs is really the only physical reminder of the journey she’s been through to come where she is. So that’s what Carol holds on to in a tumultuous Atlantic.
A whole lot has transpired between everything going black in the night and Daryl waking up on the shore in the morning. The storm knocked out the boat. But fortunately, although one of them is in pretty bad shape, Daryl and Carol have survived. Considering Carol is seeing about three Daryls, my official diagnosis is a concussion, at least. Julian’s nowhere to be found. When Daryl looks through the storm-ravaged boat, there’s no sign of Julian. That doesn’t really make you hold out hope for his survival. Julian was inside. And if there’s any chance that he survived the crash, he would’ve been too battered to move. Julian never really got to experience romantic love after all. The blurry man Carol sees by the beach is a Walker. It falls on Daryl to finish off an undead Julian to save his friend. Once again, it’s Daryl and Carol in a strange land. A board nearby tells them that they’re in Spain. But apart from Carol’s can of hotdogs, they don’t have any resources to survive in a foreign land. It’s really too bad that Carol doesn’t even get a good night’s sleep after Daryl very painfully digs out a piece of metal from an infected wound on her back. The woods right beyond the little cave they’re sleeping in are inhabited by people who wear animal skulls and ride horses. So I’m guessing they’re not going to be very friendly. So Daryl was smart to keep a clearly-concussed Carol from attracting their attention. The next morning, they find a decrepit cabin to seek shelter in. And when night falls again, the walls Daryl usually puts up prove too weak against Carol’s feverish questions. Daryl knows what she’s mumbling about. So he does open up and tell her that he saw Isabelle in the tunnel. Like Sophie’s vision did for Carol, Isabelle guided Daryl’s fight against death.
In the ending of episode 1, it looks like Daryl and Carol will have to go up against more than just the cavalry of the people of the wilderness. On his way back from the hunt for food, Daryl sees a car of questionable looking men pass by. Daryl has the quickness of mind to hide. But when he goes to their shelter, Carol seems to be missing. We did see her waking up. But in her far from lucid state, she might’ve walked off somewhere by herself. These treacherous lands are the last place where one should go on a random walkabout. Daryl has his work cut out for him.
