I saw Daryl's Book of Carol (Season Concludes)

Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol was good, damn good, in fact. The Shane aspect remained (and there was even a reversal variant to accompany it), but The Searchers component was its thrust, even with the concept already tested in the Maggie/Negan venture, Dead City. With this popular trope inserted, a resilient quest pushes The Book of Carol, in which our titular lady seeks our titular gent (ah, signs of Leia and Han when Star Wars was good).   

Between these themes, there's significant chemistry, thanks in no small part to the characters, which in turn succeed because of their performers: Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Louis Puech Squigliuzzi, Manash Dayal, Clemence Posey, Anne Charier, Adam Nagiatis, Lukerya Ilayshenko, Roman Levi, Joel de la Fuente, Eriq Ebouany, among many others. They team up, divide, console and fight, holding different views and motives throughout their perils, sometimes at the cost of their lives, but in a way, their combative positions are nowhere near as myopic or intolerant as what we find in our rueful, present day. 

The Book of Carol, moreover, rises to the occasion because it analyzes what results from such conflict: faith, cynicism, hope and deceit (the latter most evident when Carol lies to Ash, so he'll take her to France). Such ambivalent additives distinguish any life. Though Daryl Dixon (like any Walking Dead tributary) is fictional, it's also like any worth-while Star Trek adventure, swinging right back to earth, right into stark reality, after its allegory is completed. When one peels away its reflective layers, one sees nothing but sincerity. (Try to find that in Harry Potter or This is Us. Go on. I dare you.) 

It now appears (per handy gossip) that Daryl Dixon: Season 3 will take place in Spain, and perhaps that's where we'll receive a closer-to-the-bone confirmation as to whether Laurent is ethereal or just a pampered, run-of-the-mill kid as he resides with his new, surrogate dad. Whatever happens, it's certain to be historic, but then when all is said and done, what stretch of The Walking Dead hasn't been?  

DARYL DIXON #2: THE BOOK OF CAROL

Many, including myself, presumed that a Daryl Dixon/Walking Dead spinoff would've been as much a Carol Peletier one. That didn't happen in the Shane-ish, first-season, of course, with its titular hero going solo (well, sort of), but for Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol, the Norman Reedus/Melissa McBride reteaming is, indeed, developing, thanks to Carol's noble quest. 

The Book of Carol moves along much like Michonne's entrance in The Ones Who Live, and based on the initial episode, that may remain the juxtaposing flow for a while. (I like that we're seeing Daryl and Carol's commitment to cause, paralleling from different locales. In particular, Carol's assault on a fellow who referred to Daryl in a derogatory way was satisfying: a nice dose of female chivalry there.)  

I can say this much: Without the Daryl/Carol overlap, a sorrowful incompleteness would dominate the mythology. (The same would have gone for Rick and Michonne, but we now know how that turned out.) On this basis, the direction of Daryl Dixon: Season 2 appears to be on a staunch, Dead City (Searchers) trail, but it'll all come down to what the duo does once reunited and how that reunion accentuates or dissipates their bond. 

Will Daryl leave France at some point? Will Carol decide to set roots there? Will the two simply cross paths and then split up? I don't think I'd like the latter much, but maybe it all comes down to how the writers might render such. (BTW: I believe the storytelling was most poignant for Manish Dayal's heartbroken dad, Ash. His love for his son references Carol's lament for Sophia, and it even connects to the Governor's loss of Penny.) 

I'll give an assessment on the whole kit and caboodle after the season ends, but for now, I'm just glad to be along for the ride.