TWD: Daryl Dixon Showrunner Previews Finale: Daryl and Isabelle’s Future ‘May Include Romance, But… ‘
Throughout The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’s Season 1, we’ve seen Norman Reedus’ embattled protagonist fight both for and with Clémence Poésy’s Sister Isabelle. But is their biggest battle keeping their burgeoning feelings at bay? Do they even realize that they have feelings for one another?
“That’s a good question,” showrunner David Zabel tells TVLine with a laugh. “A deep connection has clearly formed between them over the course of the five episodes we’ve seen so far, and it continues to deepen in episode six” — aka Sunday’s finale (premiering on AMC at 9/8c).
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Were the unlikely allies to acknowledge that sparks are flying, it would only further complicate their divergent plans: Daryl’s to return from France to the States and the Commonwealth, and Isabelle’s to shepherd nephew Laurent as he grows into his role of de-facto messiah. Even if the duo leaves attraction out of the equation, Zabel says that “they have to deal with conflict about what [their relationship] means in the future for both of them, because they have different goals and ideas about what comes next. So it’s an interesting, kind of profound place they find themselves in at the end of the season.”
The EP hastens to note that he didn’t set out to drop Daryl into a romance. “The idea was, from the beginning, to really form a mature bond between two people who are really different… and to follow that in a truthful way. And that includes following not only the story that we were telling but following the performances of Norman and Cleménce.
“We tried to be really nuanced in terms of how we developed that and what romance may be read into it or not by the audience,” he adds. “The actors feel what they feel, and the characters feel what they feel. We’re not trying to force anything.”
In the end, where Daryl and Isabelle land may be greater than mere romance. “There’s this whole idea of a surrogate family forming. That may include romance,” Zabel allows, “but a surrogate family was really the idea behind the premise. The big question for Daryl was, ‘What happens if in your effort to go home, you wind up forming a sort of home in the place where you are?’ — in this case, in France. So what’s happened is that between him and Isabelle, between him and Laurent, between him and that whole community that they sort of represent, he has found another place that he feels that he belongs and a place that wants him.
“That goes beyond just romance,” he continues. “That’s more about ‘How do you fit into the world, especially an apocalyptic world? In that scenario, what is your place? What is the place that you’re most needed, and what is the place you most want to be?’”
How are you hoping that Daryl answers those questions? Answers in the comments, s’il vous pla?t.
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