‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’: Norman Reedus & Melissa McBride on Carol and Daryl’s ‘Hope’ in Season 3

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 3, Episode 1, “Costa Da Morte.”]

It’s Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and the series’ long-running heroes Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) have already endured so much in just the first episode. That includes surviving a shipwreck, where they crashed ashore in Spain, after making it through England’s wasteland and meeting the country’s last surviving Brit, Julian (Stephen Merchant). Of course, Carol is now dealing with a post-shipwreck injury that’s made her a bit feverish, but she’s on the mend. And then, in the final minutes of the premiere, Daryl returns to their campsite to find his companion missing. It’s a bit of a “really?” moment. These two still can’t keep track of each other after all this time?

Thankfully, we know that they will be spending the majority of the season together, from the looks of the trailer, so we’re not too worried that Carol has temporarily vanished. TV Insider even debuted an exclusive clip earlier this week of the duo slowly making their way into Solaz Del Mar, a small village in Spain, so let’s just say, Daryl finds Carol.

What’s really setting these two characters apart this season isn’t so much distance or geography, but their mindsets. On the boat — before a storm knocked them off-course, killed Julian, and injured Carol — Carol had told Daryl about her vision of her deceased daughter Sophia (Madison Lintz) in the cave, which happened during Season 2’s finale. “Something lifted. I feel this peace. Lighter,” she admits. “I’m kind of excited about what comes next, moving forward.”

Carla Oset/AMC

Does she still feel that way, after their latest life-threatening moment at sea? “I do feel like it’s a lighter Carol this season,” confirms McBride to TV Insider. “And I don’t know that Carol can pinpoint what happened, other than she had an experience and felt the sense of letting go. She had a vision of something that she’s yearned for, to see Sophia healthy and beautiful, not the way she remembered her, the last sight of her. Carol was battling a ghost [version of] herself that haunts her and won’t let her go, won’t let her feel worthy, won’t let her enjoy things….so coming into Season 3, we’re seeing Carol in an open headspace, one that senses a hopefulness.”

The serious, straight-shooting Daryl, says Reedus, is feeling the hope, too, despite how much he’s also feeling that tug towards home. “When they arrive in Spain by accident, the first people they encounter is this young couple that’s running away to be together. And there’s dialogue [in the season premiere] where Daryl is coming out of the channel that sets his headspace for what’s to come,” explains Reedus. “He says, ‘All we do is run and fight. Maybe we’re doing this wrong. Maybe there’s something better.’ So when they see [the couple], and Carol’s watching them, Daryl immediately thinks, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ But what happens is, we’ve never seen anybody fight for love before, and love is happening around him.”

Reedus continues: “He starts fighting for love, too. And as the series goes on, love will blossom up all around him, and there is hope. And [Daryl will] start to think, hopefully, maybe, there’s a hammock somewhere he can lay on, and he’ll be happy, too. So he’s trying to, with a little post-traumatic stress, figure himself out and figure out if he deserves happiness.”

Someone get Daryl that hammock, ASAP, he’s earned it.

In the meantime, we’ll be looking forward to seeing how Carol and Daryl maneuver in this despondent world with a little bit of hope on their sides for once.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC, AMC+