Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, and EPs answer our burning questions.
The season 2 finale ofThe Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon The Book of Carolwas a freaky, psychedelic affair.
In the end, one shot took out the truck driver.
Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
Meanwhile, Carol saw her daughter Sophia in both pre- and post-zombie state.
Can I come with you?
she asked her daughter, but Daryl would eventually come to her rescue and bring Carol back to reality.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
Lets go home, Carol told her best friend as they made their way towards England.
Though it seems that is not where they will end up.
We wanted to play it like Darryl’s going to get left alone again, says showrunner Zabel.
Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Manish Dayal as Ash on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
He’s going to be left alone in France.
Everybody else is going to go, and he’s going to be alone again.
There was a lot of conversation on the day really about how to reveal Carol, Zabel recalls.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
Does Daryl see her first?
Does she see Daryl first?
Where’s the camera going to go?
Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon— The Book of Carol’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
Is she standing up?
Is she down in a sniper pose?
We had a lot of chats about that.
Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Romane Vialle as Sophia on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
It turns out that line was not originally in the script.
We ad-libbed that line out on the day, Reedus reveals.
That’s their relationship.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
We didn’t actually fly around in the plane, Scigliuzzi says.
But a long day that was well worth it.
From Laurent’s vision, he’s sad, but also happy that he’s going to leave France.
Will we see Laurent again on a differentTWDshow?
It turns out that is a distinct possibility.
He’s actually much more polite than that.
He was just checking in.
So what is the answer?
Might we see Laurent alongsideNeganorMichonneon whatever future spinoff that might be on the horizon?
It’s a garden of forking paths, Gimple says.
Of course, those plans will most likely be dictated by how other characters shake out.
You have all these pivot points, Gimple explains.
Like, oh, if we’re doing this, we can’t do that.
Or if we stop doing this, we can’t do this.
Or what do we need here?
And who’s available then?
But yeah, he’s absolutely in mind.
Louis is terrific, Laurent was wonderful.
And such a great character to bring different things out of Daryl.
I am a fan.
Everybody was just blowing black dust out of our noses and eyeballs for weeks, Reedus says.
And that wasnt the only issue.
It was very dark.
Also, a chill right through the middle of it.
And it’s a long trek if you oughta go to the restroom.
Even so, McBride calls the setting amazing, incredible.
It was one of my favorite sets, with the glow-in-the-dark walkers.
It was so fluid in such a hard circumstance.
We had enough hurdles with the location, and even the sets inside the tunnel were huge.
It felt like we were all on the same path.
And then there were the hallucinations.
I asked a lot about, How looped out are we?
and understanding how this is going to be shown.
Filming that is tricky, but that was fun.
Another good challenge, and I love that resolution with Sophia coming in there.
It was very, very sweet.
It was also sweet for the actress to finally be done.
That was the last scene I shot, too.
And one album has been his mainstay since the day the spinoff began filming.
I played theNick Caveand Warren Ellis albumCarnageover and over and over, Reedus reveals.
That was my go-to album since the day we started at the Abbey in season 1.
And just all the themes of that album worked with the tone, the violin, the voice.
It fit with where I was.
But that changed for the finale tunnel scene.
I remember Norman sending me aRadioheadsong, says showrunner Zabel.
It was actually one I didn’t know that well, but it was the perfect song.
The tune in question was Pyramid Song, off Radioheads fifth studio album,Amnesiac.
It captured the spirit of that sequence and the mood of it, Zabel says.
It had a melodic sadness to it, and then also a discordant noisiness.
And that sequence had both those things."
Finally, where exactly are Daryl and Carol going?
Season 2 ends with the dynamic duo continuing their journey through the Chunnel to England.
Yet season 3 is filming and set in Spain.
So how exactly doesthatwork?
There’s a big earthquake and the Chunnel now goes to Spain, Zabel laughs.
It’s a circuitous route.
And it doesn’t go straight to Spain.
Its a very cool adventure that somehow gets them from inside the tunnel to Spain.
The Chunnel does not go to Spain.
Season 3 seems to have hit its stride before they started, so I’m pretty excited about it.
Its a really, really good team over there, and it’s a really good story.
How that story plays out, however, remains to be seen.
