The Walking Dead season 8: First Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride photo
The first-look image (via Entertainment Weekly) from the upcoming season premiering this fall features Carol and Daryl back together, and that’s a good thing given that their relationship is one of the fundamental building blocks of the show. Maybe you view the two of them as romantic, or maybe you just perceive them more as wayward souls who have found a friendship with each other.
Last season, there was a possibility for some tension courtesy of what Daryl chose to keep from her — the truth surrounding what happened to Glenn and Abraham. He felt like it was best within those moments to keep her isolated within a bubble, and as a result of that, he couldn’t bring himself to give her all of the news. (Eventually, Morgan told her later.) Carol is no longer hiding out in that cabin like she once was, and that’s a good thing given that she could be extremely valuable in the war to come. You’ve got Negan and his people on one side (including his new junkyard friends, including Jadis), and then you’ve got the likes of Rick’s group and the Kingdom. It’s hard to figure out how this story will eventually end, but there will certainly be a further body count beyond just Sasha, who we lost at the end of this past season.
For Daryl and Carol, they’re useful to the effort thanks to their experience in battle, but also their ability to think of some unconventional means to solve problems. Maybe the two aren’t the best emotional mediators of the group, but they can get the job done in the way that few others do.
Do we want something more for Daryl and Carol this season?
This is a subject that we’re long torn on, given that neither one of them would ever be the sort of person to express much in the way of feelings for each other publicly. They’d barely do so with each other. As a result of that, we almost think that it’s interesting / more effectively if they barely speak on their feelings, other than maybe a small moment here or there where viewers can infer whatever they want from it. We don’t think that there’s anything wrong with viewers being able to interpret a relationship, and then other people having a different take on it.
Of course, we say all of this, but in the event that Daryl and Carol ever got together in some sort of romantic capacity onscreen, we’d probably jump up and down screaming. We just don’t have huge expectations for anything given that it hasn’t happened over the past several seasons.
Interested in some further The Walking Dead insight?
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