Melissa McBride’s anticipated return to The Walking Dead stage has finally arrived, but it wasn’t without surprises. Her debut in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon coincided with a flashback to one of the most tragic moments of the flagship series. The Season 2 premiere shows a flashback to the barn door opening heard around the world. After searching for Carol’s missing daughter for the entirety of The Walking Dead Season 2, the group is shocked to learn that she was a walking corpse in the Greene barn the entire time. Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol revisits this moment that occurred over a decade ago and for a good reason.
McBride wanted to acknowledge the pain and trauma that Carol still experiences, no matter how much time has passed. In the new episode, Carol becomes triggered after seeing a new ally, Ash (Manish Dayal), open some barn doors. The crew of Daryl Dixon recreated an entirely new sequence that reframes the shocking Walking Dead death. Carol remembers seeing her daughter Sophia (Madison Lintz) lumber out of the barn with several other walkers, catalyzing the beginning of her pain throughout the series. McBride opened up to Entertainment Weekly about reshooting the flashback sequence, saying:
“Coming up to see the set and seeing how they had recreated the whole thing was kind of oddly magical. Greg [Nicotero] and the set designer and everybody did such an amazing job to recreate that. And the little girl playing Sophia looked so much like her. Everything was just so similar that this was all right there for Carol.”
McBride further complimented director Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode and was a make-up and effects master on The Walking Dead. Now he is an executive producer on Daryl Dixon and McBride admired the passion he brought to the sequence even after all these years.
The ‘Daryl Dixon’ Sequence Goes a Step Further Than ‘The Walking Dead’
Nicotero and the Daryl Dixon crew reshot the flashback sequence with a new actor in the role of Sophia. Instead of using old archive footage, this allowed McBride to interact with the events more tangibly. She doesn’t fall to the ground as she did in the original scene. In the premiere of the Book of Carol, the titular character can reach out and touch her daughter – even if it’s a hallucination. Nicotero explained the significance of this moment, saying:
“What’s really interesting is in our new version, Rick isn’t there to walk up and pull the trigger. So what happens if Rick’s not there? Sophia keeps coming forward. And what does Carol really want? She wants to be able to touch her daughter again. She wants to be able to interact with her. So we did a version where this little Sophia touches Carol’s arm, and she looks down as if it’s almost like that’s all she really needs. And then she’s dramatically pulled out of that hallucination.”
Carol’s first official episode in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon comes out swinging as only the series can. There’s a lot of fight left in the franchise and there is no telling what new episodes will bring.
Viewers can catch The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon when it airs on AMC on Sundays at 9 PM ET and streaming on AMC+.
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