HOLLYWOOD—Last week’s return of “The Walking Dead” saw the return of a fan favorite, Maggie, but at the same time the introduction to a new threat, the Reapers. This week’s episode, ‘Find Me’ was focused on a Daryl’s journey during that time he was away from the others. On Daryl’s journey, Carol was by his side as always. These two have always been close and people want them as an item, but I think that’s a deal breaker America. If it ain’t broken don’t try to fix it.
I’m still trying to figure out why Daryl named his dog by the name ‘Dog,’ that just seems so Daryl right people, nope, and we learned why this week. The duo stumbled upon a home in the middle of the woods that brought back some memories for Daryl about how he encountered the pet and a stranger in the process. We rewound to five years ago, back when our heroes were in chaos after Rick was presumed dead.
Carol was checking on Daryl’s throughout the process, who was doing his best to ‘find’ himself after so much loss. Watching Daryl endure the conditions of that wicked storm was hard to watch. I mean his map was destroyed by water and the wind was literally pummeling him. Dog stumbled upon a woman hiding out in a home that Daryl burst into, but didn’t expect her to be armed with a shotgun ready to take him out.
I hate this about “The Walking Dead.” We meet someone whose name we have to literally beg each episode to give us the information. Luckily for Daryl, Leah was willing to give him a pass. So the reason he is called ‘Dog’ is because of his female owner, Leah gave him that name. Ok, we are getting somewhere I guess.
I’m just going to be honest, this is a bit of a lackluster episode, and I was bored about 25 minutes in. Is there some sort of reasoning we’re getting this flashback about Daryl and how he came to be the owner of Dog? Darly and Leah had a bit of a love/hate relationship. She was looking out for him, while he was looking out for her. Daryl threatened her to stay away from his camp, and she made it clear she could find her own fish. There was obvious friction between Leah and Daryl, both arguing they did not want to be in the presence of the other, yet they constantly lookout for one another helping when needed.
We got some vital details about Leah, who had a son, Matthew, who she raised. It was her sister’s child. That sibling died during Matthew’s birth. Leah’s story was heartbreaking, as was Daryl who talked about the loss of his brother, Rick. That death has been haunting our hero for quite some time.
Carol did her best to try information from Daryl about Leah, but he continued to be very coy about why Leah was there one minute and gone the next. That forced Daryl to point the mirror at Carol about her actions and how it impacts others. Yes, you may have killed Alpha and destroyed The Whisperers, Carol, but in the process lives were forever altered. This is actual friction between Daryl and Carol that as a viewer I’ve never witnessed before any it was hard to watch at times.
Perhaps that betrayal involving The Whisperers really fractured Daryl and Carol’s friendship forever. He wanted her gone and it looks like his words may have pushed Carol in that direction. Here’s hoping next week’s episode, which seems to focus on Father Gabriel and Aaron is a bit more intriguing than what I would call a filler episode we got this week. Until next week “Walking Dead” die-hards!
