What’s that sound?
OH MY GOD IT’S THE WALKING DEAD!!!
That’s right, its time for us to make an update to our blog, and what better thing to talk about than our favorite show and yours, AMC’s The Walking Dead.
Let’s be honest here, we are all familiar with The Walking Dead. If you aren’t an avid watcher, then you have had it recommended to you. At the very least, you have heard of the zombie show that everyone else watches, so don’t you dare come at me with that superior “I don’t watch television” attitude. There is a lot of great television happening now a days. It isn’t all Picket Fences or Caroline in the City. You are really only doing yourself a disservice, so get off of your fucking high horse and join us down here on the shit covered horse trail and watch yourself some mother fucking TV!
The Walking Dead has always been about character. I know you surface level plebeians out there are scratching at your extra thick scalp with your giant hairy knuckles and saying “But Dan, it’s a zombie show, it’s really all about the zombies and the blood and the killing!”. Well, eat a bunch of dicks, it’s about a lot more than that, and a huge hunk of what it IS about is the development of the characters. Every member of the core group has had, at the bare minimum, 20 minutes devoted to expanding on who they are. Hell, even Beth got an episode. It was more for Daryl, but her story was there.
My point being that every character has their very own arc. They all have been significantly changed by the hellish circumstances that they have been forced into. Rick has gone from your standard homespun sheriff to a man who is on the brink of sanity, barely able to deal with what he has been forced to do in order to protect the people in his life. Carol has gone from being a timid, abused housewife to being someone who is willing to do whatever she can to survive, including killing children. Maggie went from being a largely expendable piece of eye candy who held sympathy for the walkers to someone who you would want by your side in any survival situation.
Perhaps the most drastic change in character has come from everybody’s favorite hillbilly bad ass Daryl Dixon. Daryl was a character created specifically for the show. He has no comic book counterpart, therefore he has no base to be compared to. The screenwriters were able to create this character from the ground up and make him into someone who is unique to the show. Daryl is introduced to us as a racist redneck who is pissed off at the world and may very well stab you through the heart if you turn your back to him. Throughout the series, he has morphed into the finest, most loyal, upstanding character on the show. It was a slow build and the rough exterior never went away, but he has shown his soft pink underbelly far too many times to stay as the hatable asshole he started as.
Today, I want to present to you my theory on when exactly this transformation began, as the show itself never gives a clear and concise answer to when this occurred. The turn is slow, no doubt, but as with everything, it had a beginning.
A main plotline of season one is the group making their way to the center for disease control in Atlanta, Ga. In episode 5, “Wildfire”, they arrive at the CDC. The majority of the group is positive that the locked down building is empty. That anyone who can help has abandoned the center and they need to leave quickly before the nearby walkers become aware of their presence. Rick is steadfast that isn’t abandoned as he saw a camera move, therefore someone must be controlling it. After a little arguing about whether they should stay or go, the gate opens and they are welcomed into the CDC. Episode 6, “T-S 19” opens with a bit of backstory that explains why Shane left Rick at the hospital when he did. It’s not relevant to what I’m writing, so I’ll leave it there. Inside the CDC the group meets Dr. Bruce Jenner…
What?
Oh, sorry…
Dr. Caitlyn Jenner…
What???
Oh…
Sorry…
Dr. Edwin Jenner. The group meets Dr. Edwin Jenner, a research scientist with the CDC who was helping look for anything that can help the world get passed this whole “zombie outbreak” thing. Dr. Jenner is alone at the facility. There are no other scientists, no security, no custodial staff, no one. Just him. Dr. Jenner sits and has a fancy dinner with the gang, Carl drinks some wine, they all take showers, it’s a whole slice of life that they have all sorely missed since the whole fiasco started. The next day, Dr. Jenner takes the gang into the main room and lets them in on all the research that he and his fellow scientists had been working on. On the wall, there is a large timer that is counting backwards. A clear and obvious countdown. Dale speaks up and asks Dr. Jenner what happens when the clock reaches zero. Dr. Jenner explains that when it hits zero, the lab will purge itself of any contaminants that are left inside. The heat will rise and any living organism inside will be killed. For those of our slower readers, humans are indeed living organisms. This doesn’t sit well with the gang, seeing as they have been trying to survive, but before anyone can leave, Dr. Jenner uses a keycard to lock down the main room. As the clock is ticking closer to zero, the group begins to get more and more panicked, searching diligently for an escape.
This leads me to my point. While trying to escape, Daryl starts banging on the exit door with an axe. Since the door is built to withstand large scale explosions, his axe is only delivering glancing blows onto the door. Rick gives a heartfelt plea to Dr. Jenner, begging for the lives of his group, especially those of his wife and son. Something in Rick’s plea must have plucked a string deep inside Dr. Jenner’s heart, because he uses his keycard to open up the doors to the main room, not letting them out necessarily, but giving them a fighting chance.
Before the door opens up, Daryl is still hacking away with his axe, and when it does open, he has a surprised, satisfied look on his face. He had no idea that Dr. Jenner had opened the doors. For all he knew and as far as he is concerned, he opened that door by whacking it with that axe. This is the crux of his turn. It creates everything that he becomes. He opened that door, saving the entire group, giving them a chance to survive, and that sticks with him. He knows that the group needs him. That in most cases, he is the only one that can help them out of sticky situations. Everything that he does, from this point forward, is prefaced with that moment flashing into his head. The moment where Daryl first saved the lives of the people that he has come to look at as his family. This is what has shaped Daryl, not as a character, but as a man. Not just A man, but THE man. The man the group can look to to help get them out of whatever they need help getting out of.
In the end, Daryl has proven himself to be much more than the surly lone wolf that sits on the outskirts of the pack. He has proven himself to be the man the group looks to lead them when their leader is in absentia or simply going off the deep end.