Paris may be the City of Love, but love can get a little twisted in the apocalypse. In the fourth episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Sister Sylvie shoots her shot with Emile, Quinn goes to extremes to win back Isabelle, and Daryl’s trip home gets another detour. Our heroes also got to see some more landmarks up close; some have fared better than others.
After a weird dream and a near miss from the swimming dead, Daryl sets off to rejoin Isabelle after the fight with Codron. He walks by an apartment where a girl is practicing Bach’s “Cello Suite Number 1 in G Major,” a.k.a. The Only Cello Piece Anyone Ever Plays (simply Googling “that one cello song” takes you right to it) in film and television. That struck me for some reason. Not how basic the music is, but how nice it is that Daryl can experience another culture in more or less the same way we do. Post-apocalyptic France and the United States are similar in a lot of ways. Both countries have been factionalized into communities with their own philosophies about survival, violence, and hope. But for whatever reason, I can’t picture someone feeling safe enough to sit in the window and play music on The Walking Dead. It’s not that America is devoid of music, but it only ever occurs behind guarded fences. Hmm.
The first person Daryl recognizes is Antoine, the pigeon man from l’Union de l’Espoir, who is almost immediately murdered by passers-by who try to steal his birds for dinner. What the heck?! Antoine’s random death was so upsetting and unnecessary that I docked an entire star off of my rating in protest. There’s no reason for this sweet man to die. He asks Daryl to free the birds and bids his winged comrades adieu.
Somehow, he finds Rue Manuel and Izzy’s old apartment with her inside. They determine that Laurent probably went to the Eiffel Tower. “Paris kinda sucks,” Daryl says to Isabelle as they make their way … which seems rude and incorrect. Antoine’s death clearly ruined Paris for him. He was having such a lovely morning full of music. And alas, at the tilted ruins of the Eiffel Tower, things do start to suck even more. First, Laurent discovers a herd of zombies, or “hungry ones,” who have been quarantined under the tower’s base. Then, the herd manages to free themselves the second he gets close, which is très inconvenient. Then, as Daryl and Isabelle fight off the hungry ones, some men arrive and kidnap Laurent in the chaos and confusion. At least we see Daryl swinging his medieval mace around and taking out zombies in style.
Isabelle and Daryl tie up one of the men left behind, Armand, and interrogate him with the classic method of Nun Cop/Slap Cop. Armand starts to lay on the slut shaming about Izzy’s old life, which tips her off that he’s working for her ex. Quinn had his own son kidnapped so that Isabelle would return to him. His associate Anna told about the boy’s desire to see the Eiffel Tower up close. Daryl gets Armand to reveal a back entrance to the Demimonde by stabbing him repeatedly and telling an allegedly made-up story about a sensitive kid named Jimmy butchering a pig. With that information, they reunite with Fallou, Sylvie, Emile, and a few other members of l’Union de l’Espoir to put together a plan.
Fallou gives an incredible pep talk to the group about working together. He says a threat to one of them is a threat to all of them. They will go in as one and come back as one. But that’s just a metaphor because they immediately split up. Fallou takes a group to the Demimonde’s main entrance. Daryl takes Armand to the back entrance. Isabelle and Sylvie go to see a guy about a boat that will take Laurent out of Paris to the Nest. On the way, Sylvie asks if Isabelle like likes Daryl. Isabelle shakes it off and deflects by getting Sylvie to gossip about Emile and admit she wants to stay in Paris with him and his community’s garden.
At the Demimonde, Quinn gives Laurent candy, and Laurent puts two and two together. This man is obviously his father. Quinn lies and says he saved Laurent from the men at the tower rather than sent them. (I kind of doubt Laurent’s going to buy that.) He also says that Isabelle will be with them soon. I still don’t 100 percent understand their dynamic. Does Quinn want to be her lover or her pimp, or both? I suppose we’ll find out sooner rather than later. It’s very Phantom of the Opera the way this man is hell-bent on holding one woman hostage.
What have our other antagonists been up to? Not much, TBH! At the top of the episode, Codron and Genet interrogate Sonia at l’Union de l’Espoir HQ in Montmartre and learn all about Laurent’s destiny. Turns out, Genet has heard rumors about the tiny messiah. Genet also stops by the Demimonde to have an oddly flirtatious chat with Quinn about what she’s willing to trade should he be the one to capture Daryl first. She’s willing to give him food and weapons, but what he really wants is her Monet. She’s chill with that. “Impressionism, it’s degenerate art,” Genet says.
Armand attempts to betray Daryl in the tunnels, so Daryl leaves him to be devoured by zombies with a curt “bon appetit.” But Fallou’s attack on the catacomb entrance is successful. Emile is injured, but the club clears out, and Daryl can sneak in undetected. He’s also able to get Laurent out with almost no resistance from Anna. Thanks, girlypop! All that’s left is for Daryl to confront Quinn, which he does on a catwalk over the dance floor. Again, very Phantom! I’m suppressing my desire to compare Emile to Marius and Cordon to Javert because I don’t want to mix musical metaphors. We can do Les Misérables next week if the episode allows. Anyway, Laurent’s watching, so Daryl leaves Quinn alive (and knocked out).
Personally, I’m way more invested in the Quinn and Isabelle drama than whatever Genet wants with Daryl or Laurent. At the end of the episode, Isabelle secures a boat but knows that without Quinn’s help, they won’t be able to get past Genet, Codron, and Le Guerrier. She thinks the safest way forward is for her to return to Quinn while Daryl takes the kid to the Nest. So, just like Christine Daae, Isabelle goes down once more to the dungeon of her black despair to be with Quinn at the club. He gets his wish, for now. I doubt Laurent and Daryl can just sail out of Paris, especially since Quinn needs the American to get his painting, and Genet also doesn’t want Laurent to leave the city. But that’s next week’s problem.
Four episodes into this spin-off, and I’m continually struck by how well it works despite one very obvious flaw: Daryl Dixon is not a protagonist. I don’t mean this as a slight on the character or Norman Reedus’ performance, but Daryl doesn’t want to be the center of attention. He doesn’t even want to be perceived. He’s not a leader. I can almost see him trying on personas that are a little more Rick or even a little more Negan, and it just doesn’t work. But the show does, and it’s because of that thing Fallou underlined in his speech: the ensemble. If you’re going to make a show about a supporting character, you have to surround him with other people and make us care about them, too. And I do! I care about Isabelle’s sexy French depression. I care about Anna. I’m fascinated by Quinn. I care about Sylvie’s budding romance with Emile. I even care about Laurent and his destiny. I’m not ready for Daryl’s vacation to be over.
Un Petit Plus
• This episode’s title translates to “The Iron Lady.” That is not a reference to Maggie Thatcher or the 2011 biopic starring Meryl Streep. It’s an old nickname for the Eiffel Tower herself.
• I tip my hat to the subtitles/translations for trying to make Armand sound tough and telling us he said “bullshit” when he clearly actually said “blah blah blah.”
• That said, it’s not translated, but I believe the punchline to the “what is the favorite dish of vampires” joke in Laurent’s candy is “croque monsieur.” Put that in the subtitles, cowards! That is funny!
• The story about Jimmy is definitely something that happened to Daryl, right?
• Daryl and Laurent jet past the Pont de Grenelle Statue of Liberty in the finale shot of the episode, a reminder that France and America were such good friends that they traded monuments back and forth. This replica was a gift commemorating the centennial of the French Revolution in 1889.
