The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus says Daryl goes “very, very dark” with guilt after the devastating Season 7 premiere.
Warning: Spoiler material for The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.”
The Walking Dead fans are currently coping with overwhelming (fiction-caused) trauma in the aftermath of the long-awaited Season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” Indeed, while providing sweet succor in answering a burning question, the half-year-long mystery of who Negan skull-smashed to a bloody pulp yielded unfathomable answers. However, for Norman Reedus’s Teflon redneck Daryl Dixon, surviving the ordeal come as little comfort, due to his feelings of guilt.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, Reedus provides details about the future of Daryl Dixon and it’s far from the sunny picnic Rick was imagining. It was revealed that Abraham drew the proverbial whammy in Negan’s fatal game of Eeny-meeny-miny-moe as the person who, “like a champ,” absorbed the Season 6 finale’s point-of-view execution from Negan's barbed-wire-bat Lucille. However, Daryl’s temper got the better of him, punching Negan, causing the death-dealing despot to follow through on his earlier threat to “shut that s**t down” upon another outburst. At that point, Negan abruptly executed Glenn as punishment for Daryl’s actions. Thus, not only did Daryl remain a hostage with Negan's Saviors after the incident, he’s also in a place of extreme guilt. As Reedus explains of an upcoming downward spiral for Daryl:
"He goes very, very dark. He does certain things that he can't go back from. He goes to a very, very dark, dark place. It's a combination of hatred. It's a combination of self-loathing. It's different from when he first started on the show. He has a big chip on his shoulder. He thought people wouldn't like him. He didn't give a shit. He hates you, too. It turns now into he kind of hates himself. He hates the world that we're in, and he doesn't lose the fight in him, but he definitely no longer sees anything good in the world, that's for sure."
Of course, Daryl’s arc over the course of seven seasons was defined by his personal journey of weighing his lone wolf inclinations with his burgeoning desire to belong; something he briefly looked for elsewhere with his ne’er-do-well brother Merle and later with the roving bandits the Claimers to no avail. However, with Rick’s people, he not only found a group, but a family; something seemingly shattered with his own perceived inability to protect his friends, letting Savior Dwight escape earlier, and, ultimately, his emotional outburst that apparently cost Glenn his life. As Reedus explains further of Daryl's Glenn guilt:
"I think it weighs heavily on him. I don't know that anybody in that group blames him for anything, but he blames himself more than anything. It really brings him down to a certain level where whatever shitty thing is thrown at him, he is just going to take it."
Consequently, we might see Daryl regress somewhat in Season 7 to something resembling an earlier version who was distrustful and irascible. Not only is he destined for a good round of self-loathing, but he’s also being held hostage by Negan and the Saviors as further leverage against Rick and company to follow through on their duress-dictated promise to produce offerings. However, Daryl’s beef with Dwight, who has taken his crossbow and motorcycle is far from over by a long shot. While Daryl doesn’t exist in The Walking Dead comic books, Dwight very much does and that character’s arc, combined with Daryl’s captivity with the Saviors is a potent plot formula.
The Walking Dead picks up the pieces of symbolically shattered hearts as Season 7 continues Sunday nights on AMC.