The Walking Dead Season 10 Finale: Norman Reedus Reacts to Lauren Ridloff’s Return

The Walking Dead on Sunday saw the return of two characters when Virgil (Kevin Carroll) came across the missing Connie (Lauren Ridloff), and a Connie comeback has Daryl Dixon actor Norman Reedus “super excited.” Connie has been MIA since February’s midseason premiere, “Squeeze,” where our heroes fought their way out of a zombie-filled cave hiding Whisperer Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) walker horde. When Carol’s (Melissa McBride) attempt to take out a throng of walkers below inadvertently caused a cave collapse, trapping Connie and Magna (Nadia Hilker) inside, it forced the left-behind survivors to find another way out: by moving through the horde.

“I was super excited about that [return]. I really like the Virgil character a lot, and I like that actor. He’s super cool,” Reedus said on Talking Dead. “He is one of the more complicated characters I think we’ve ever had on the show, I’m curious where he goes. But he found Connie, which is great.”

Virgil is the hard-to-figure-out survivor who duped Michonne (Danai Gurira) into sailing with him to his home on Bloodsworth Island, where he claimed she would find weapons capable of ending the Whisperer War.

“I remember looking at Connie laying there with the leaves in her hair, and I was like, ‘She’s so beautiful, it looks like a Vogue shoot.’ I was like, ‘Wow,’” Reedus added. “But I’m super excited Connie is coming back.”

Magna, covered in guts and grime, resurfaced alive earlier this season when she returned alone during the Whisperers’ fiery attack on Hilltop. Reuniting with a guilt-stricken Carol and at-the-time girlfriend Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), Magna revealed what happened in the aftermath of the explosion:

“We kept pushing, searching, took a turn, and before we knew it, we were in the horde. Connie and I moved together. The sickos pushed forward, got between us, and her hand… her hand just slipped out of mine. And I couldn’t find her again.”

In reality, Ridloff was temporarily written out of the season to allow for filming on Marvel Studios movie Eternals. Ridloff plays super-speedster Makkari, the first Deaf superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I think for the story, it’s actually worked out really beautifully,” showrunner Angela Kang said in a February interview with Insider. “So I think there’s some really interesting stuff that came out of it for both Carol and Daryl, and she’s a character that I think is leading with emotion for both of them. So sometimes those things that you have to do to help out a beloved actor also work out in your favor.”

The Walking Dead returns with new episodes early 2021 on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.