‘The Walking Dead’: Norman Reedus Opens Up on Daryl’s Past

The Walking Dead took Daryl Dixon on a dark walk down memory lane in Sunday night’s episode, which Norman Reedus is now expanding upon.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×10 follow. Major spoilers!

In talking with Lydia, daughter of Whisperer leader Alpha, Daryl Dixon saw some reflections of himself. While much of the character’s pre-apocalyptic backstory has gone untold, details of his abusive father Will have managed to creep out. In talking with Lydia, Daryl finally opened up about his father and how he would take any excuse to abuse him as a child which he is actively avoiding despite frustrations with Henry.

“Henry’s a smart kid,” Reedus tells EW. “He’s figuring things out too. He’s also listening. He’s in the other cell listening. He’s figuring it out himself, which is what Daryl needs him to do. He needs him to figure it out. That’s why he’s like, ‘You know where your place is? It’s right where you’re at if you want. Buck up.’ If you’re soft, you’re not going to make it.”

In fact, Daryl might have gone a little easier on Henry in terms of the punishment for being drunk than the Hilltop’s powers that be did. “Would Daryl put him in a cell for getting drunk? Probably not,” Reedus explained. “But It’s not his town, you know what I mean? It’s not his town. These are the rules of the town, so yeah, you gotta get down back in jail for two more days.”

Daryl’s inner detective, however, came out when talking to Lydia. His childhood offered him insight to hers, which prompted some investigation to the story she was telling (which turned out to be false, with Lydia’s mother being the abusive family member rather than her father Frank).

“With the other part about giving the water and she takes a swipe at him, he’s waiting to see her arms,” Reedus explained. “He caught a glimpse of the switch marks on her arm, so when she does it, he grabs her arm and he pulls the sleeve down. He’s like, ‘I knew it. I know what that looks like,’ because Daryl was an abused kid as well. He knows what a birch tree switch can do to an arm, what it looks like — so when he catches a glimpse of it, he’s pulling down the sleeve to let her know that he knows what that is. Then he takes it a step further by bringing the birch tree down there just to see if she notices what that is, but it’s mostly to let her know that he knows. Now once you break that ice, you can start to have a conversation. She’s not going to take that well. She’s not going to just cry in the corner. She’s going to keep on fighting, which is what Daryl would’ve done too.”

Ultimately, the tragic past helps Daryl understand the motives of Alpha and Lydia. h”Tat that turns into is another mutual respect between those two characters, the same way Alpha sees the mutual respect between Daryl and Alpha,” Reedus said. Daryl will meet Alpha face to face in Episode 9×11 on Sunday night. “He connects with both of them,” Reedus adds. “How the season progresses, that sort of connection is going to go further and further and further. It’s a really nice setup. It’s kind of like way back in the beginning.”

“Yeah, with Merle and the drugs,” Reedus went on. “They had me way back then taking drugs, tuning out, being mini-Merle. I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do drugs. I want to be the guy that grew up with the drugs and hates drugs and hates the lifestyle that comes with having a druggie brother.’ It’s that same sort of clearing that I’m trying to get and set for the future that it’s a different story and it’s a more meaningful story. Luckily [showrunner Angela Kang] is letting me do these things for the set up later on.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.