The Walking Dead: Norman Reedus Explains Why Daryl Sided With Tyreese's Terrible Plan

So, why didn't the trigger-happy Daryl Dixon choose Rick's plan to storm the hospital? After all, maybe Beth Greene would have survived last week's midseason finale of The Walking Dead if Daryl ignored Tyreese's diplomatic, but ultimately doomed, hostage rescue.

Fortunately, Norman Reedus has the answers. In a chat with Entertainment Weekly about the failed mission, Reedus explained that Daryl's temporary allegiance to Tyreese was a "gift" for the character.

It's just these little things where we have each other's backs and that moment with Tyreese, Tyreese is really shaken-up and he's had a hard time killing people, and Daryl is looking at Tyreese and thinking, you can't fail… So while Rick is down there on the ground and drawing a map, he's not really looking at Tyreese. Daryl is looking at Tyreese, and he realizes that he may screw this up, so Daryl sides with Tyreese and Rick doesn't really know why because Rick didn't see Tyreese flinching like that. So it's little gift that Daryl gave Tyreese. But Rick listens to Daryl now. So that was between me and Tyreese…It's these little gifts you give each other to show solidarity and friendship and that you have each other's backs and that's what that was.

But with that gift horribly backfiring, we'll see how generous Daryl is moving forward. As Reedus further mentioned in the interview, "Daryl wants to play the smart move," and won't hesitate to question others in the pursuit of that. As Beth's death lingers on Daryl and the group's minds, it should open up some interesting new dynamics in the fifth season's second half.

The Walking Dead Returns on February 8th after its midseason break.