Ever since The Walking Dead‘s “Cherokee Rose” episode, Daryl Dixon and Carol Peltier have been forging their platonic soulmate status. Sure, fans ‘shipped them for much of the flagship series’ run, but they were destined to be friends, albeit friends who have the most memorable hugs in TV history:
Seriously as well, “friends” seems like the better deal for longevity and survival purposes in a post-apocalyptic world. Remember, Carol married King Ezekiel, and Daryl had (something with) Leah, and neither of those relationships lasted while Daryl and Carol’s friendship kept riding.
Heck, ever since we learned that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon‘s second season was subtitled as The Book Of Carol, it became clear that Carol will cross a damn ocean for her best friend. The season debuts in late September, and showrunner David Zabel has fielded a ‘shipping question to SFX Magazine/Games Radar, and sorry, Caryl devotees, it’s not gonna happen:
“The obvious thing to do, and the easier thing to do would be, ‘Okay, now they’re falling in love and they’re a couple.’ But I always felt like that would be a mistake, because it would feel like you were going into the TV book of tricks. To me, there was never a question that [their connection] was something other than what it is, and what it seems to want to be, and why it works so well.”
However, Zabel does confirm that, as suggested, a different type of “connection” has been developing between Daryl and Isabelle, and “[a] lot of season two is about the development of that and where that relationship goes, and that little surrogate family of Isabelle, Daryl and Laurent.” Norman Reedus was on board to see where this goes in the second season:
“Norman and I talked about this, that we wanted to draw a mature, adult relationship between a man and a woman and see where it went. Let’s just put these two characters, who are very different in very interesting, intriguing ways, force them together by the story facts, and then see what happens.”
Hey, as long as Isabelle (or Laurent, who seems to want plenty of attention, judging from the spot he put himself in during the first season finale) doesn’t interfere with the most beautiful friendship in The Walking Dead history, this should go fine.
AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: The Book Of Carol debuts on Sept. 29.