The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon‘s director Greg Nicotero talks about recreating Carol’s flashback scene in the season 2 premiere. The scene links back to one of the most heartbreaking moments in season 2 of the original series, known as “Barnageddon,” where Carol sees her daughter Sophia walking out of the barn as a zombie. In the original series, Carol then witnesses Rick coming up and shooting Sophia, finally killing her.

In Daryl Dixon, when Ash opens the doors to the barn on his property, it triggers Carol’s memory, but instead of using the original shots for the flashback scene, the creators made a change to the scene to add more depth to the emotional moment. Nicotero revealed to EW that the last shot of Sophia touching Carol’s arm was improvised on the day of filming, explaining he wanted to explore the scene from Carol’s perspective. The director asked himself, “What happens if Rick’s not there [to pull the trigger]?” The answer came very quickly because, as a mother, Carol “wants to be able to touch her daughter again.” Here’s what the director recalled about filming:

At one point, we did one of the takes, and as the little girl got closer and closer, I said to myself: 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.

What Changing The Scene Means For The Walking Dead

Carol Still Can’t Get Over Sophia’s Death

Greg Nicotero was involved in filming The Walking Dead season 2 episode, “Pretty Much Dead Already”, that contained the scene. Having Rick not pulling the trigger isn’t the only thing that was changed from the scene. Because Sophia’s actor has grown up, the zombified little girl is played by a different actress. Aside from a change of actor, everything else is almost exactly the same as it was in the original series up until the moment where Sophia reaches out to her mother.

It shows that, even though the tragic event took place many years ago, Carol still remembers the day like it was yesterday. The scene is crucial to Daryl Dixon‘s exploration of Carol’s unresolved feelings as a survivor. Losing her daughter played a huge part in Carol’s transformation in the original series. She’ll never forget about Sophia, and what happened to her daughter is a trauma that’ll take shape in Carol’s modern-day narrative. Not replaying the original scene exactly as it happened sheds a new light on Carol’s character.

Our Take On The Improvised Flashback Scene

It Makes Barnageddon More Heartbreaking

The original series only told the story from the viewers’ perspective, with Rick putting zombie Sophia to rest and Carol witnessing her daughter’s death. The trauma of seeing her daughter walking out of the barn as a zombie and being shot down is too great, and for Carol, it’s simply impossible to remember her daughter as a lifeless thing. Even as a zombie, she’d want Sophia to be human.

The flashback scene in season 2 of Daryl Dixon is able to give Carol the voice she didn’t have in the original series. It taps into her heartbreak and desire as a mother. The flashback scene is simple but impactful, and even so many years after season 2 of The Walking Dead aired, the moment in “Barnageddon” still remains one of the most heartbreaking scenes.