Some rambling thoughts on the ending, after very little sleep!
This isn’t a positivity post, although I will say that it was peak TWD to have Daryl blurt out his first “I love you” to his ‘soulmate’ only to have Carol sort of giggle before saying it back, like “duh! I love you too, you’re MY BEST FRIEND” (kinda tired of hearing the constant BFF mantra at this point tbh) Anyway, I felt he may have been genuinely letting her know what was in his heart. But it didn’t matter as she was steeling herself to say goodbye and wasn’t really hearing him. (Also, the bench scene gave me 9.01 vibes.) Except this time, Daryl was able to express himself, so progress?! 🙃😢
Anyway. I guess most of it came down to the DD spinoff. It was basically what happens when you write yourselves into a pickle, and have to ignore a whole 12 year arc, to ensure Monsieur Dixon makes it to France, alone. I can’t bring myself to think about this new CW role for Carol. (Although they had hinted at it, I’m still really uncomfortable with the idea of it).
Anyway, back to my point about lack of canon. Landing in France, Daryl must be alone and unattached, otherwise, they won’t be able to tease new relationships, consider giving Daryl a gf, or make him conflicted about returning home. Otherwise that Daryl would be a cheat and he would not cheat on Carol. So, leaving Carol simply loving him like a bestie, enables the Daryl ships to set sail once again. As reinventing himself seems to be the whole premise, they need freedom to explore that, I guess.
Although Daryl stans might love this idea, from the pov of AMC there’s still perhaps a lack of investment in this new story, that’s probably where Carylers come in. I’m guessing some will watch because they love Daryl/TWDU, others might watch for Enragement. That rage engagement TWD likes to drag along with it, when people watch to see if everything goes up in flames or if they were right all along about something. Most will not watch at all.
Having said that I feel that perhaps they are banking on enough of us still watching to see if he chooses this new life or if he comes to his senses and chooses Carol. (Or what’s left of Team Family). I dunno. There are a lot of hedged bets here and not much that is actually very appealing. But I just think that if Mel is considering returning as Carol, via Daryl’s spinoff, it isn’t something they would spoil this early on. Otherwise, anything they set up in France, becomes rather pointless pretty early on. Oui? No?
Mel seemed to be finished with the franchise, but on the other hand she has said Carol has story left. Norman says a lot of stuff about Caryl coming back around. Kang has also chimed in. I’m not sure I see Carol with a whole new spinoff, but who knows. Some would certainly welcome that. Either way, they want viewers. Yeah, sometimes it feels like they hate us, but how much of that is because they know Caryl gets them attention - the old rage engagement works when we’re waiting aeons for Caryl to interact. Meanwhile tptb get to tell somebody else’s story. That breaks my heart. Caryl were the story. Or should have been.
Anyway, the carrot is looking pretty tiny and a bit moth-eaten now. Probably time to bin it, AMC.
