The Walking Dead Showrunner Says “Soulmates” Carol and Daryl Share a “Very Big Storyline” in Season 10

“Soulmates” Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) “have a very big storyline together” in The Walking Dead‘s tenth season, says showrunner Angela Kang, who adds the longtime best friends will be on the frontlines in the renewed fight against Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her Whisperers.

“We’ll see a lot of the Whisperers conflict through the eyes of these two as they are at times on parallel tracks, at times on divergent tracks,” Kang told TVLine. Though Carol gives Daryl a rough time for calling her his “best friend” in a moment shared between the two in the Season 10 premiere, “they are best friends,” Kang said.

“I think they are soulmates, whether or not their relationship ever goes into romantic territory. They are tied to each other in this world and have been through so much together,” Kang continued. “They love each other, and they trust each other. They care what happens to the other. And yet that can be very complicated when there’s so much trauma and this bigger thing that’s taking over the communities.”

In Season 10, Carol is still healing from the murder of son Henry (Matt Lintz) — one of nearly a dozen victims claimed by Alpha — a loss that drove her to a “pirate’s” life at sea. When reunited with Daryl, she learns he strictly adheres to Alpha’s warning not to cross into her territory — as he tells it, there’s “no reason to start sh-t if we don’t gotta.”

“Melissa’s lovely, but Carol has been a real pain in my butt for Daryl this season, I will say,” Reedus previously told Entertainment Tonight. “I love working with Melissa, she’s dynamite. We have such a good rapport and we’re good friends, and we have fun.”

When asked if the new romantic development between Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Carol’s ex-husband Ezekiel (Khary Payton) meant there was a chance for the “Caryl” pairing to progress beyond platonic, Reedus answered, “I don’t know if it’s this year, because like I say, she’s a little bit cray cray this year. But I mean, never say never. I don’t know. She’s a problem this year, you know what I’m saying?”

Despite Carol’s trouble stirring, there’s “just some really beautiful stuff” between Carol and Daryl in McBride and Reedus’ tenth season together.

“I love the two of them together. They’re so good together,” Kang recently told EW. “There are certain character pairings because we’ve been following them for so long where they’re in a scene and you immediately feel the history between those characters. That’s one of the things that’s been really fun for us on the writing and producing side to see. Anytime you put those two in a scene, you immediately feel all the weight of the things that they’ve both been through as individuals and as a pairing over the years. There’s just some really beautiful stuff between them.”

The Walking Dead Season 10 premieres Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9/8c on AMC. For more TWD Season 10 intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.