The Walking Dead Reveals New Look at Daryl’s Search For Rick Grimes

Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) continues his search for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) when The Walking Dead flashes back to Daryl's six-year absence from the group. Part of the six new episodes extending season 10, the never-before-told story in "Find Me" reveals the aftermath of Rick's apparent death in a bridge explosion years before Daryl returned and went to war with the Whisperers. Season 9 episode "Scars" revealed Daryl and Michonne (Danai Gurira), the mother of Rick's children, spent her entire pregnancy hoping to recover Rick's body — turning up nothing but the Colt Python revolver Rick used to halt a walker horde in "What Comes After."

Look closely at the official trailer for The Walking Dead season 10C, and you'll see Daryl wearing the same green poncho from the season 9 episode "Who Are You Now?" In that first episode set after the six-year time skip, Daryl is a woods-dwelling loner until Carol (Melissa McBride) and son Henry (Matt Lintz) bring him to the Hilltop.

After failing to find Rick's body in "Scars," Daryl tells a heavily pregnant Michonne, "I'll be back when I find something." When Michonne tells him to come home to Alexandria, Daryl promises, "I ain't gonna stop looking. Not ever." Daryl doesn't know Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), formerly Jadis of the Scavengers, rescued Rick when she called down a Civic Republic Military helicopter.

Rick is wounded — but alive — when the CRM shuttles him far away from Virginia, putting him into the hands of the shadowy Civic Republic.

"I think he's been looking for this body," Reedus said about Daryl's vow to find Rick on a 2019 episode of Talking Dead. "'If he died, where's his body?' And he's a master tracker, he can get you from here to there no problem, he's very intuitive, and he's very observant, and he just can't find it. It makes no sense to him. Michonne's doing it a little bit, and she kind of even says something to the effect of, 'We have to go forward.'"

He added, "I don't know, I think it's hard for him to swallow. I think he needs closure. There's a piece of this puzzle missing."

Daryl's search for answers could continue in the Daryl/Carol spin-off reuniting Reedus and Melissa McBride after the final season of The Walking Dead. The untitled spin-off is now in development for a 2023 premiere on AMC. Lincoln returns in the Walking Dead feature film now expected to begin shooting in the spring.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC with new episodes on Sunday, February 28. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.