Why ‘The Walking Dead’ Is Making Me Fear For Daryl Dixon’s Immortal Soul

Tonight on The Walking Dead we’re getting a Daryl-centric episode after mostly ignoring the character since his tragic Beth arc last season. He’s always a fan favorite, but he’s in peril tonight after his “drive really far away” mission with Sasha and Abraham seems to have taken a turn, and the group is now on foot a long ways off from Alexandria.

Despite what my title may suggest, I’m not concerned about Daryl dying tonight. I won’t rule out that maybe someone could meet their end, but if that happens, my money would be on Sasha or Abraham. But rather I am afraid for Daryl’s safety in the relatively near future because of another, seemingly unrelated plotline.

The Glenn situation.

As we know, The Walking Dead is currently playing hide-and-go-seek with us regarding the whereabouts of Glenn, who we were supposed to believe was eaten by a mob of zombies with no witnesses, but it’s becoming pretty clear that the character will return at some point. My bet is by the end of this half-season, and he’ll show up with new comic character Jesus in tow, who is supposed to be joining the cast this year. I can easily see some sort of situation where he crawls out from under Nicholas’s mangled corpse and hides under the dumpster, only to be saved by the ninja skills of Jesus.

But what I think this whole Glenn angle is doing is derailing what was supposed to be a majormoment for his character a little while from now. Namely, his actual death at the hands of Negan.

Negan is an upcoming villain who runs an army of thugs called the “Saviors” that terrorize the settlements in the area. Though his introduction should still be a little ways off, the character has just been cast (actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be playing him) and many are speculating he could appear at the end of season six as a cliffhanger cameo. I’d say the latest he’d show up would be halfway through season seven.

Negan is talked about for a while before he’s actually seen, his reputation literally preceding him. But when he does finally arrive in issue 100 of the comics, he proceeds to play eenie-meenie-minie-moe with several of the major cast members he’s captured, and then decides to make an example by beating Glenn to death with a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat.

What I’m thinking now is that all this drama with Glenn and his supposed death implies that he will manage to extract himself from the Negan situation. It would be more than a little weird to go through this stretch of time believing Glenn is dead, only to find him alive again, but then actuallykilling him a half season later when Negan shows up. I suppose it’s possible, but with so much focus on Glenn’s alleged death now, it would be dramatically strange to force the characters (and the audience) to go through that kind of shock and subsequent mourning process all over again.

WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTO’S  AND VIDEO OF THEATER SHOOTING IN PARIS

This, unfortunately, is where Daryl comes in.

Though The Walking Dead certainly changes many things from the source material comic, it usually sticks with pretty major events, and this is one of the biggest in the entire series. It seems pretty clear that someone is getting beat to death with a baseball bat. And I have a sinking feeling that someone is going to be Daryl.

Though the cast is littered with options, I can’t stop thinking Daryl is the perfect fit for this situation, unluckily for him. He’s a beloved cast member who has been with the show since the start, and Negan killing Daryl would instantly propel him to legendary hated villain status, the likes of which the show has never seen.

But of course Negan could kill a lot people and it would produce the same reaction. Rick, Maggie, Michonne, Carol and Glenn would probably all create the required shock.

And yet Daryl is a unique character in that he exists outside the comic. He is not bound to any future plotlines, while Rick, Maggie and Michonne certainly are. Carol was killed long ago in the comic and her current incarnation is more or less a new character, yet Robert Kirkman has specifically said that if there was one character he wasn’t going to kill, it’s her, given how much they’ve invested in her transformation from fretting housewife to stone-cold badass.

That leaves Daryl, who for all his swagger and crossbow skills and sex appeal, has not been a very well-developed character the past few years, I would argue. Lately, it seems like the show just doesn’t really know what to do with him. Not that such a thing is reason enough to kill him off, but again, I don’t think he’s been nearly as well developed as say, Carol, Rick or Michonne over the years. All that said, there’s no way I’d want to see him die, and certainly no other fans would either.

That’s precisely why this would work so well and this very well may be his ultimate role. The trigger that introduces us to Negan and makes us hate him eternally. It would be the shocking death to end all shocking deaths, and lord knows The Walking Dead is forever in search of new ways to destroy the emotions of their audience.

I worry for you, Daryl. You’ll survive tonight, but I feel like your number may be up soon enough.

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