Will Daryl Dixon Die In The Walking Dead Season Finale?

With The Walking Dead season finale lined up for next Sunday night, the speculation over which character(s) will meet their demise has been running rampant through Tweets, comment sections, and actual real-life conversations (yes, those are still a thing).

A popular theory, one which those who believe it seem to really be behind, is that Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon will kick the bucket come episode 16 of season six.

Many of the fans backing the Daryl death theories use a few different reasons to back up their claims. First of all, Reedus has a new show coming up on AMC called Ride With Norman Reedus. Some others claim it would be the only way to make us hate Negan as much as the showrunners want us to. A lot of people are saying it will be the most shocking route the show can go since everyone dubs Daryl as a “safe” character.

First of all, Ride With Norman Reedus has been filming all off-season long, which has been the past five months. The Walking Dead starts filming its seventh season next month which shows us that the first argument is invalid. Reedus’ new series has no effect on his The Walking Dead schedule and, even if it did, the two shows are the same network and AMC can easily prioritize the schedules there.

Then there’s the Negan hate theory. Some even back this up by claiming Emily Kinney’s Beth will pop up in a hallucination where Daryl takes a blow to the head and hears Beth singing him over to the other side. This one needs to stop. Not only is Negan going to be hated no matter who he kills strictly because of the manner in which he’ll talk to Rick and the group but there are plenty of characters for Negan to choose from which have a huge connection with the audience besides Daryl. This isn’t to say it’s impossible but if Negan were to bash Glenn, Maggie, Rick, Michonne, or Carl’s head in, we would probably see an even stronger reaction than if he were to choose Daryl, right now.

Killing a character like Daryl for shock value would be a huge mistake and the team behind The Walking Dead knows that. Now, if Negan were to pop Daryl right off the bat, it would be a huge moment for the characters and audience alike but it wouldn’t be a move done purely to shock the audience. Daryl has been a friend of Rick, Glenn, Carl, and Carol’s since the earliest days of the show. They’ve grown together. They’ve survived together. It would make Daryl a figure whom Alexandria would rally behind his death, which is something Negan definitely doesn’t want.

It would be a little immature to rule Daryl out of danger for the finale but of all the characters The Walking Dead could kill off, Daryl doesn’t seem like the likely choice. Several others are in relationships and have strong ties to story lines which would be altered more significantly than if the rônin samuari Daryl Dixon were the one to go.

Now stop going in comment sections and acting like you know Daryl is the one who’s going to die and telling everyone how excited you are. When it’s not Daryl, you’re going to look foolish! And when it is and you find yourself running out of tissues to wipe the tears everyone will turn to you asking, “I thought you were excited?”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 PM ET on AMC.