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THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 2, Episode 4, LE PARADIS POUR TOI

Written By:

Rich Cross
THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 2, Episode 4, LE PARADIS POUR TOI

The fourth episode of Daryl Dixon’s second season is the most consequential in the show’s history to date. Pivotal events and revelations of weight and of significance roll out one after another across the course of its fifty minutes. Unfortunately, it’s easily the most frustrating and disappointing instalment yet seen in this Walking Dead spin-off. It’s one of those episodes that are impossible to review without leaning into some significant spoilers, so please bear that in mind before reading on if you’ve yet to watch it.

Le Paradis Pour Toi (‘Paradise for you’) has many things going for it – most of them to do with setting, atmosphere, and mood rather than with storyline and plot. The cinematography in and around The Nest (and it does feel cinematic) is extraordinary. Since it first appeared in the Season One finale, Mont Saint-Michel has delivered plenty of stunning visuals. But it’s never been shown-off better than here – whether it’s the sweeping aerial footage, the intricately connected alleyways and courtyards, or the front vista, lit up at night in smoke and fire – all of it looks fantastic. But the verdant French countryside that characters travel through and the hamlets and villages away from the Normandy coast are all equally atmospheric and continually remind the viewer that, as Carol observes, “we’re not in Ohio any more.”

It’s not just the locations that excel, there are some positive character moments too. After his sidelining in the first part of the season, Codron secures more overdue screen time here, even if the character might not welcome the nature of the extra attention, as he’s lashed to the back of a buggy as walker bait. His character’s conversion to the cause of Laurent is given a bit more substance here and, once he’s freed by Carol, he gets a modicum more agency.

And then, of course, there’s the longed-for reunion of Daryl and Carol, a genuinely emotional moment and a fleeting pause amidst the mayhem of battle. It’s well staged, it’s neither mushy nor melodramatic, and it packs sufficient punch to make it feel like the wait was worth it.

But there are significant problems. Carol’s escape from certain death at Genet’s hands stretches credulity so far it simply snaps. She’s the lone survivor of the massacre by machine-gun of a group dozens strong. After being jabbed with a syringe of hyper-zombie serum, she’s unaffected (it’s implied her thick jacket takes the brunt of the needle). She then runs away on foot in front of Genet’s fully armed troops, steals a vehicle and races towards The Nest under fire from both attackers and defenders. She emerges from all of this without a scratch. Walking Dead’s showrunners are not normally so cavalier about how they stage jeopardy and combat, and the lack of attentiveness here irritates.

The assault on the citadel by the hyped-up walkers unfolds with energy and at pace. But it’s not the mesmerising, intense spectacle that the carefully crafted mythology surrounding these new creatures has foreshadowed. Both Carol and Daryl get the chance to get stuck in, but the relentless ferocity of the “unstoppable” new walker breed feels over-promised and under-delivered. Compared to the far longer, reflective character piece that follows it, it’s all over pretty quickly and with a lot of the action occurring unseen off-screen. Given where the episode ends up, it’s unclear what the future holds for those scientific abominations – whose development is the reason Daryl was snatched from America in the first place.

There’s also the infuriating explanation of the meaning of the phrase (“[inaudible] came back”) that Daryl heard Carol say over a crackling radio connection months earlier. Speculation had been rife about which much-missed individual had returned to their community during Daryl’s absence. It’s possible that the writers never had a character in mind and regret dropping the suggestion into the script. Now, face-to-face once again, Carol explains to Daryl that it was not a person that had returned, but an unsettling feeling. It’s a woeful pay-off for a much trailed teaser, and one that will leave many viewers nursing an unwelcome feeling of their own.

But that’s nothing compared to the decision to kill off the character of Isabelle. Clémence Poésy politely notes in AMC’s Episode Insider that having her character exit the show at the very moment that Melissa McBride arrives was “frustrating”. Rather than savouring the chance to explore an emotionally complex ménage à trois, the showrunners end Isabelle’s story with an abrupt, low-key death that simply does not do her character justice. Why can’t the series support the presence of two powerful, self-assured, kick-ass women? Killing off Isabelle is inexplicable.

The post-battle story involves a sharp tonal shift and slows the pace from a sprint to an amble. The main purpose of this bucolic interlude is to allow Daryl and Carol time to reconnect and draw breath before their search for Laurent begins again in earnest. The killing off of Genet and the consequent ascension of Losang to become the head of a newly united cult are both strange narrative choices – and make the effort to humanise Genet in last week’s L’Invisible feel redundant. But the power switch at The Nest does at least mean that Daryl is now confronted by a unified group of deluded religious fundamentalists in pursuit of their missing messiah.

The events of Le Paradis Pour Toi allow creators Scott Gimple and David Zabe to ‘clean house’ and reset, ahead of the Season Two finale (and the much-publicised decamp from France to Spain). But it’s a painful, and at some points a clumsily executed, process. It’s the first time since the series launched, that confidence in the storytelling talents of Daryl Dixon‘s team has taken any kind of serious knock.

stars

NEW EPISODES of season two of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON premiere in the UK on Sky Max and NOW each Friday

Read our reviews of SEASON TWO of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON below:

SEASON 2, EPISODE 1, LA GENTILLESSE DES ÉTRANGERS
SEASON 2, EPISODE 2, MOULIN ROUGE
SEASON 2, EPISODE 3, L’INVISIBLE

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