‘The Walking Dead’ Postmortem: Norman Reedus Breaks Down that Carol and Daryl Reunion

Warning: This interview for the “New Best Friends” episode of The Walking Dead contains spoilers.

Save those “Caryl” shippers who are still waiting for The Walking Dead to make that fantasy a reality, Sunday’s reunion between friends Carol and Daryl was pretty much everything a TWD fan could want, from the emotional greeting to the shared meal, the teasing, and Daryl making an incredibly unselfish decision to protect the humanity of this woman he cares so deeply about.

Norman Reedus is currently filming the second season of his AMC motorcycle road trip series Ride with Norman Reedus, but he took time out to talk to Yahoo TV about the big reunion, about why Daryl is so angry and focused on making a war with the Saviors happen, about his fondness for a certain wild animal, and what makes the upcoming Season 7 finale unlike any season ender the show has ever done.

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Daryl is so angry. Rick and Michonne have gotten to a hopeful place, but Daryl is not. He wants to still kill every single Savior as soon as he can. How much of that is motivated by what they’ve done to the group, what they’ve done to him after they kidnapped him, and his own guilt about Glenn?
I think he’s very focused right now. He wants revenge, and he can’t do it alone, and now that he’s back with his group, and everybody’s on the same page, and Rick’s ready to fight, he’s motivated. I mean, eye of the tiger, no pun intended right now. He’s very headstrong, and he wants to do what he thinks needs to be done. Rick leaves him in charge to talk to Ezekiel and try to convince him, but he quickly realizes Morgan has Ezekiel’s ear, and he has to convince Morgan to man up and get him to fight with us. Morgan and Daryl haven’t had very many scenes together, me and Lennie [James], so I liked doing those scenes. As well as being back together with Carol. But yeah, Daryl’s, he’s pissed. He went through a lot of suffering. He’s never going to get over Glenn. That’s never going to happen. Glenn wouldn’t want him to give up, either. Glenn would want him to get revenge and fight for his people, and that’s exactly what Daryl’s going to do now.

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He also had to deal with the immediate aftermath of the deaths alone; everybody else at least got to be together and try to get through it, but he was stuck at the Sanctuary. How much of that is fueling how he’s just kind of raw?
Very raw. When they first took him, and they put him in that jail cell, he kind of just let it happen. He didn’t even fight it. He was like, “I deserve this… this is where I deserve to be.” And he let himself get pushed around. As much as he was suffering, he wasn’t fighting back at all, and after a while, especially looking at that Polaroid of Glenn, and having that time alone to think about it, he’s like, “Man, Glenn would not want you to end this like this. This is not how this is going to end.” He did everything to get out of there, and he got out of there. He went back to his people. Coincidentally, they’re ready to fight, too, and maybe that has something to do with it, you know, handing Rick back his Python. Now, the whole group is ready to go, so that’s where Daryl’s at, too. He’s like, “Smash, right now.” You know what I mean? “Hulk, smash!”

He gets a new crossbow, which is great, and it looks like he might have found a new partner for all of them in this quest to knock out the Saviors. Richard has a plan. It’s maybe a good plan, until Daryl starts to realize that this person in the cabin he’s talking about sacrificing is. Carol.
He wasn’t going to let that happen. He’s always wondered where the hell Carol was, you know, especially after all of this. I mean, I hit Richard like 50 times. I don’t know how many times made it to the final cut, but like, Daryl beat the s**t out of that guy for like 10 minutes. So, yeah, once he started realizing this might be her, there’s no way he’s going to let this guy do this.

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You and Melissa [McBride] hadn’t filmed together for a while, because of how everyone was scattered in the first half of the season, so it must have been a fun and happy reunion as co-stars, not just as the characters.
The first half of [Season 7] was hard for all of us. We weren’t with our group. We didn’t see our friends every day. You know, you build this thing from day one, and you fight with these people, and there’s a very real thing. These characters fighting to stay alive, and then there’s also the very real equivalent of these actors from day one starting this show, and fighting to keep this show great. All those moments are very real. There are certain actors on this show that, when I work with them, I’m thrilled, because I know them so well, and they know me so well. The first rehearsal of Carol at the door, we were both bawling our eyes out. It was ridiculous. They’re like, “Too many tears.” Like we’re just, “Waaaaah!” It’s all very real for us, so it’s nice to be able put those things back together, and hopefully we’ll keep going in that direction.

They’re very emotional, very happy to see each other, but then Daryl breaks the hug first, and his voice is shaking when he asks her, “Why’d you go?” Is there a little anger in him at Carol for leaving and not telling him that she was leaving, or telling him why?
It’s more like a little kid whose mom left. More like that.

We assume Daryl is going to tell her about Glenn and Abraham, and what the group is trying to put together to go up against the Saviors. He doesn’t. What is the specific thing that makes him spare her the truth?
Well, he’s watched her go through this struggle for a long time, and although he hasn’t seen her for a minute because of where they’ve been, he knows her very well, and those characters know each other like the back of their hands, but he decides to do a very selfless act and tell her what she needs to hear to keep going, because if you lose yourself after everything that’s gone down, what’s the point? He realizes that’s what she needs to hear, and he cares about her so much that he lies to her.

This reunion shows their relationship at a new level. A lot of fans have been waiting for a Daryl/Carol romance, but the way they react to seeing each other, and the sacrifice he makes in not telling her the truth… their feelings for each other are kind of beyond just romance. It’s a deeper thing.
It’s deeper than that. And it’s the deep ones that stick, you know what I mean? It’s deeper than that, their relationship. It has been from the beginning, and it’s just gotten deeper, and deeper, and deeper. You can’t deny that connection, but you’re right. Especially in this world that we’re living in, this end of the world, there’s nothing else left.

It’s inevitable that she’s going to find out the truth. Do you think she’ll be angry with Daryl for lying to her?
I was thinking about that after we shot that. I was like, “I bet she’s thinking, ‘I f***in’ knew you were lying. I could tell you were lying. I know you so well.’” But I don’t think she’s going to hold it against him. I think she’s going to think it’s a sweet thing that he did. You know what, to tell you the truth, I don’t know how that’s going to play out, and that script, it hasn’t been written yet, and that story hasn’t been told to me yet, but knowing Carol, I think she’s going to be like, “Yeah, I could tell you were lying, you big liar.”

We see Daryl bond with Shiva. He’s kind of The Tiger Whisperer with Shiva.
I want that tiger. I really want it.

His fondness for Shiva, along with Carol telling him she thinks Ezekiel is an okay guy, seems to soften Daryl’s initial judgment that Ezekiel is an idiot for not agreeing to work with Rick’s group right away. Will that help him have some insight into how to try to change Ezekiel’s mind?
Well, I don’t think Ezekiel’s in Daryl’s good graces by any means, and I don’t know that Daryl trusts Ezekiel. I mean, he sees this guy doing this big clown outfit thing, and he’s over the top, and he’s doing this Shakespeare thing in this zombie apocalypse world, and Daryl’s kind of like, “Who is this dude?” But, you know, if Morgan trusts him and Carol trusts him, then Daryl will trust him. I still think he wants his tiger, but… I don’t know yet. I don’t know Ezekiel. Then Rick leaves me there to talk to Ezekiel, and we realize that Morgan has Ezekiel’s ear. Morgan, too, is kind of going through the same thing that Carol’s going through, like, “I don’t want to fight. There’s gotta be a better way,” and Daryl does not come from that point of view, but he’s gotta convince Morgan to fight, too. He gives him a real man to man talk like, “You gotta step up. We need you, and what you think you’re doing is not what you’re doing.” I think we all know that if we need Carol, Carol’s going to show up. She’s saved our ass multiple times, so it’s not that. But, as far as Ezekiel goes, Daryl doesn’t know who this dude is, with this outfit.

Everybody’s describing the season finale as this dramatically different, crazy episode. How would you describe it?
Very different. I mean, we’ve never done a finale like this. You know how this season started off, and it, you couldn’t get any more grim. Maybe the tide’s changing a little bit. Starting from [“New Best Friends”], the season starts to feel like us again. The whole first half of the season, all I did was like, “What the f***? Why is this guy walking around carrying my clothes?” I’m like, “This sucks, Scott [Gimple].” And he was like, “It’s supposed to.” And I’m like, “Damn it. Way to mindf**k me.” But it was supposed to be painful for the viewers as much as it was painful for us, because you have to knock these heroes down lower than they were before for them to rise up and like be heroes again. That’s essentially where we’re headed.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.