Daryl ends up in France in a shocking way in his The Walking Dead spin-off series.

The Walking Dead: The Book of Carol Episode 1 revealed more details on how Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) ended up in France.

The Walking Dead‘s final season ended with Daryl leaving the Commonwealth to find his old friend, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), but the plan doesn’t end well for him since he ends up in a different country: France.

How Did Daryl Dixon End Up in France?

Norman Reedus
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 1 showed how Daryl ends up in France. He starts off as a prisoner aboard a ship transporting walkers from America that will be used as test subjects to create far more terrifying walker variants experimented on by a certain Genet (Anne Charrier).

Daryl, being the no-nonsense rebel he is, manages to escape and destroy some of Genet’s research, leading to his on-the-run status while in France.

Episode 1 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol unpacks more details about Daryl’s situation in France (read more about everything revealed about The Book of Carol at San Diego Comic-Con 2024).

The episode sees Carol (Melissa McBride) tracking down her friend as she interrogates an automobile repair shop employee to know more about Daryl’s location after finding his motorcycle with them.

One employee reveals that Daryl was kidnapped by some Frenchmen looking to buy American walkers for a series of tests in France.

How Daryl Became a Prisoner in France

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 5 provides a complete overview of Daryl’s shipwreck story from Freeport, Maine to France.

It is revealed that Daryl ends up in a trading post where he needs to capture live walkers in exchange for supplies. He does this because he needs fuel to return to the Commonwealth.

As expected, he is the best one in capturing walkers, but things go sideways for him after a young man he is mentoring is killed by a man named Juno (John Ales).

Daryl and Juno’s clash leads the pair to a ship named Pouvoir (Power), where both of them end up as prisoners of the Frenchmen who are heading to France to experiment on the walkers.

The former enemies eventually team up to hatch an escape plan, with both releasing all the walkers on the ship as a distraction. However, Juno is killed by a walker, and Daryl jumps off the ship.

Daryl then ends up on the shores of France, where Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) finds him and ultimately saves his life, essentially kickstarting his journey in a new country.

Although Norman Reedus revealed that he was a little skeptical about his spin-off series, giving him a fresh start and new character dynamics in France allows the series to showcase a different side of Daryl.

Carol’s inclusion is a bonus. It brings back the fan-favorite dynamic from The Walking Dead and dials it up even further as more dangerous walkers haunt them.