'The Walking Dead': Norman Reedus Says Daryl Will Continue To Defy Rick

Spoilers for The Walking Dead 8x05.Daryl Dixon has gone off the reservation.Earlier this month, [...]

Spoilers for The Walking Dead 8x05.

Daryl Dixon has gone off the reservation.

Earlier this month, Norman Reedus teased conflict between Daryl and Rick, adding the bowman has gone rogue — a result of Daryl's lust for revenge after being captured and tortured by the Saviors.

After Daryl killed Morales without remorse and gunned down yet another Savior despite Rick giving his word he could walk away, the growing tension between brothers boiled over into a fistfight when Rick prevented Daryl from using newly discovered explosives to bomb Negan's Sanctuary.

Daryl wanted to blow a hole in the Sanctuary and unleash a horde of walkers inside, forcing the Saviors to surrender. Rick felt unleashing unholy hell on the Sanctuary's worker bees and spawning even more enemies was a bad call, and forbade Daryl from deviating from the plan.

The fight ended with Daryl putting Rick into an illegal chokehold — season 8's latest callback to the first season — and Daryl took off on his motorcycle, leaving Rick to deal with the Scavengers alone.

Fans are split on the temporary break up of the Rick/Daryl bromance, but Reedus told Entertainment Weekly neither of the brothers were fully wrong.

"I think we're both kind of right," Reedus admits. "Rick's taking the stance that there are people to save, and Daryl's sort of gone rogue. You know, you can see from the episode beforehand, he's just going to put down anyone because they're in his way, and there's a certain game that we're trying to get to the end of, and he's not being the sensitive, diplomatic one. He's really just trying to end it now as fast as possible."

Reedus says Rick and Daryl are pissed at each other, but their relationship isn't fractured.

"Like brothers do, you kind of beat the crap out of each other, and then you're like, 'So what are we doing tonight?'" Reedus says. "So we have that relationship. We're both still pissed at each other, but how far are you going to take it? So, that scene, I really liked it. It was very simple. It's very straight to the point, and there was humor to it, too. I remember shooting that. We were both cracking up afterwards because the more real you play that and the more hurt you are, the more the comedy comes out in some weird way. So that was one of my favorite scenes."

When asked about Daryl gunning down a surrendered Savior in episode 3 (played by Boy Meets World actor Lee Norris) and how much of that was what's necessary in war versus straight up revenge, Reedus says "it's a little bit of both."

Daryl does go a bit rogue this season, and he's continuing to go rogue throughout the season quite a way through the story. There are some bigger rogue moments coming, to be honest, and it's funny because we joke around. Andy's like, "You know what? That would've worked if it wasn't for you." And I'm like, "Well, you know what? If you would've come up with a better plan, that would've worked!"

I'm constantly giving him s— for coming up with these complex plans that don't work. So it's a little bit of both. There are some really big moments coming where I kind of go rogue without him knowing it, because this group gets separated from time to time. Everybody in this group, everyone's trusted enough, and everyone's in it enough to make plans, and we're all trying to reach the same spot, but there are moments when you have to make decisions on the fly, and that happens this season quite a bit.


The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

The Walking DeadSunday at 9PM EST on AMC

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