How The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 Finale Sets up Season 3

[Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol finale, “Au Revoir Les Enfants.”] “Home is wherever the people you love are,” and for Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride), that’s America. After the best friends reunited at the Nest — where Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) died protecting her nephew, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) — the duo fled to the French countryside to find the boy before Losang (Joel de la Fuente). Having united what remains of the Pouvoir and Union de l’Espoir following Genet’s (Anne Charrier) death, Losang led his acolytes into the skull-filled Catacombs of Paris. There the monk met his end when Daryl beat him to death with one of those skulls, avenging Isabelle.

Demimonde club owner Anna (Lukerya Ilyashenko) provided Daryl with the ethanol needed for Ash (Manish Dayal) to pilot his plane back to America, but with a hitch: the plane can’t get off the ground with four passengers. The Daryl Dixon season 2 finale began with Daryl choosing to stay behind in Paris while Carol compelled Ash to leave her behind and fly her friend home in her place.

Meanwhile, Losang and Genet’s respective second in commands, Sister Jacinta (Nassima Benchicou) and Sabine (Tatiana Gousseff), formed an alliance to find the airplane and fulfill Losang’s prophecy. They strong-armed Anna to give up the plane and Laurent’s location, but at the last minute, she led Jacinta’s people into the path of the brûlant: the acidic-blooded burner walkers. Jacinta was bitten and Anna died when she was left to be torn apart for her betrayal.

RELATED: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Trailer Teases Daryl & Carol in Spain

Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney) and Codron (Romain Levi) arrived in time to help Daryl load Laurent into the plane with Carol and Ash. Daryl then provided the plane with cover as Jacinta and her ATV-riding Guerrier attempted to impede the plane from taking off in an assault on the runway. Just as it looked like the Guerrier were going to intercept the plane, Carol fired the shot that let Ash and Laurent escape — leaving Carol and Daryl stranded in France as Ash agreed to fly Laurent to the Commonwealth in Ohio. Jacinta then turned her gun on herself as she watched the plane disappear into the sky above Paris.

[RELATED: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Trailer Teases Daryl & Carol in Spain]

But all was not lost. Fallou connected with a Scottish couple at the Demimonde who could help them get to England. From there, Daryl and Carol could find a way across the Atlantic Ocean to America. (The England connection was first referenced back in the first season finale, when Losang arranged a boat from Dover in Kent, South East England, that was to transport Daryl to the island of Newfoundland.)

Angus (Matt Swift) and Fiona (Sarah McCardie) guided Daryl, Carol, and Codron to the Channel Tunnel, an undersea tunnel linking northern France to southern England. The Chunnel is 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) and about a nine-hour walk through bat-filled tunnels blocked by Army barricades. Exposure to bat guano, known to have psychoactive effects, caused the group to become paranoid and suffer hallucinations: Carol confronted a vision of her zombified daughter, Sophia; Codron wrestled with the death of his brother, Michel; and Daryl saw a vision of Isabelle, who reminded Daryl to “bet on hope” before she faded away into fireflies with the words, “Bon courage [good luck], Monsieur Dixon.”

As the group fought off their trauma-induced hallucinations and bioluminescent walkers, Angus and Fiona attacked Daryl for the two gas masks left behind by the soldiers driven mad in the tunnels. And then Daryl killed Angus and Fiona before they could kill him. As Carol let Sophia go, and Daryl let go of Isabelle, Codron ran off into the Chunnel, leaving his fate unknown.

The episode ended with Daryl and Carol, reunited once more, donning gas masks to make the trek through the Chunnel and into England. “Let’s go home,” Carol said as The Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” played out their time in France.

Daryl and Carol’s long journey home to Ohio will take them through Spain in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, which will air on AMC in 2025. (Watch the just-released Daryl Dixon season 3 trailer here.)