Spoilers ahead for Season 2, Episode 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Read at your own risk.
In a first for the post-apocalyptic franchise, The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) shared an onscreen kiss with Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), in the latest episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, fourteen years after the parent series first introduced his character.
Isabelle is not Daryl’s first love interest; the flagship series, shot during the Covid-19 pandemic, revealed a relationship between the archer and Leah, a survivor who would switch allegiances and join a ruthless mercenary group, the Reapers.
The relationship was largely off-screen, and the two characters never shared a kiss, making this latest development in the French-based spin-off, more significant.
“The meaning of home takes on a different meaning for Daryl,” Reedus explained in AMC+’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol Episode Insider (via ComicBook). “And I think these relationships start to form and these connections are made.”
Speaking about Daryl and Isabelle, David Zabel, the series showrunner, added: “What we’ve seen in season 2 is that has deepened a bit. You absolutely see Daryl, Isabelle, and Laurent as a family unit.”
“From the beginning, there was always the hope that there would feel like a dynamic chemistry between the two of them,” Zabel said. “But it wasn’t a given, and it wasn’t a necessity. And of course, it happened, and so it made sense to us to want to give that more visual realization.”
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 is scheduled to debut on AMC and AMC+ sometime in 2025. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol premiered on AMC and AMC+ on September 29 on Sky Max and NOW.
