The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney Was Nervous About Beth and Daryl Episode With Norman Reedus

The Walking Dead star Emily Kinney admits to feeling nervous about a standalone episode partnering Beth with Daryl (Norman Reedus) in the zombie drama’s fourth season. In Season 4 episode 12, “Still,” the duo forage after surviving the Governor’s (David Morrissey) devastating assault against their prison base that killed Beth’s father, Hershel (Scott Wilson), and left their group scattered in all directions. While hunkered down in a shack, Daryl gets drunk on moonshine before growing argumentative — and then tearfully remorseful — over his failure to prevent the attack or save Hershel, who was viciously decapitated in front of Beth and half-sister Maggie (Lauren Cohan).

“There’s an episode that’s just Beth and Daryl, and the whole episode is just our little journey,” Kinney told Let’s Stay Together. “I remember at the beginning, getting that script and being like, ‘Okay, it’s only me and Norman Reedus,’ and feeling definitely a bit nervous of basically carrying the whole hour of the show.”

The episode, scripted by future showrunner Angela Kang, ends with catharsis when Beth and Daryl set fire to the shack — and past traumas — with raised middle fingers.

“I remember finishing up that episode and feeling proud, being like, ‘Oh wow, we did it, we made it.’ And all the ups and downs we had to go through in that particular episode,” Kinney said. “It was such a good opportunity, it pushed me in a certain way.”

Kinney addressed the Beth and Daryl pairing in a November appearance on the Talk Dead to Me podcast, where the actress was asked if a potential “Bethyl” romance was shot down by the same bullet that killed Beth in fifth season episode “Coda.”

“I just viewed it as a bond. Just like any new sort of relationship-slash-friendship, I feel like there’s always questions about where it’s gonna go or what kind of relationship it is,” Kinney said. “And I mean, [the episode] really was just the beginning of them becoming friends, and being people they could lean on and trust. So I don’t really know, that’s how I feel. I think it’s vague on purpose.”

Reedus previously identified “Still” as one of his proudest moments of the series, telling Huffington Post Live in 2014 the episode “came out great.”

“They did such a good job with it. And Emily’s so good in it,” Reedus said. “But that sort of hope is something he needs to find through other people. And I think he starts off that episode in a really dark place. He basically just growls at her in the first twenty minutes of that show. She becomes that light at the end of the tunnel.”

Reedus next returns in the currently delayed Walking Dead Season 10 finale airing TBD on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.