L'âme Perdue

Daryl Dixon washes ashore in France and sets out to return to America. He suffers an arm wound upon encountering a new walker variant called "burners". Near Marseille, Daryl encounters Maribelle and her grandfather Guillaume. Henri and Michel, soldiers from a paramilitary group called Pouvoir des Vivants (Power of the Living), attack them and are killed before Maribelle and Guillaume rob Daryl and flee. The pair are caught by Michel's brother Codron, who kills Guillaume and seeks revenge on Daryl on the assumption he killed Michel. Isabelle, a nun for the Union de L'Espoir (Union of Hope), finds Daryl and takes him to her abbey for treatment.

She introduces Daryl to Laurent, a young boy the Union believes is the Messiah destined to revive humanity; she believes Daryl is the messenger who must deliver Laurent to the Union contingent in Paris. He rejects the idea and leaves. Codron's men attack the abbey, killing most of the nuns, but Daryl returns and helps to fend off the assailants. Daryl agrees to help in exchange for Isabelle leading him to Le Havre. It's revealed that a Pouvoir ship transporting walker test subjects took Daryl from America, but he instigated a mutiny, destroyed their research and escaped. Genet, the leader of Pouvoir, orders that Daryl be found.

After discovering that Rick is alive at the end of 'The Walking Dead,' Daryl sets out on new paths across the United States until his path crosses with a group that transports him by ship to France. Despite being very popular, the character didn't sustain protagonism after Andrew Lincoln's exit from the main series, which was the main concern surrounding this new spin-off. The solution the script brings to grow Daryl's protagonism is to portray him as a messenger of God to transport the boy Laurent, which generates conflicting and interesting dialogues. All the new characters are very well introduced and positioned in the story as important elements. That said, with only six episodes, there would be the possibility of the plot feeling rushed, but if all the upcoming episodes are at least an hour long like this one, the chance of that happening would be minimal. When it was announced that this spin-off would take place in Europe, curiosity to know how Daryl crossed the ocean was immense, and the biggest question was whether this would have to do with the CRM (Civic Republic Military), the group that took Rick Grimes. Obviously, not everything was explained in this first episode about what led Daryl to end up in France, but many clues were provided here about what really happened.

The big surprise of this premiere episode is Isabelle, a character played by Clémence Poésy from Harry Potter. She helps Daryl after he is attacked by two survivors who take his supplies, leading him to the abbey. The dialogue between the two characters and their different worldviews already proves to be important for the development of their relationship. The connection they created with just an hour of screen time is interesting, so much so that at the end of the episode, Daryl opens up to her about how he ended up in France.

Another highlight here is the boy Laurent. He is unaware of his importance, and his way of relating to people shows that he is sensitive, explaining why the nuns find him important. In his first interaction with Daryl, Laurent reminds him of Judith, even saying the same phrase that young Grimes said at the end of The Walking Dead. The boy is presented as an important piece of the plot, being an object of delivery to a community in northern France, and Daryl, the envoy of God, must deliver him. It is not yet clear for what purpose the child is so important, it is only said that he is important for the "rebirth of humanity." This sounds very familiar, as we had "The Last of Us" this year, a series that has a very similar plot.

The series also introduces the antagonist in the first episode. Although he seems caricatured and has the look of a "bad guy," Codron presents a strong personality and a plausible motivation, revenge for Daryl killing his brother. This aspect proves to be refreshing for The Walking Dead universe, since in the last few seasons, few villains had something to fight for, most were evil just for being evil. The last scene of the episode presents us more objectively with what happened on the ship that was transporting Daryl. Apparently, he caused a mutiny on the ship that ended up getting out of control, allowing him to escape. Since the ship is transporting several walkers for experiments, the character got himself into a big mess with a group that apparently proved to be large. With Daryl's mission to reach the port, it is very likely that his paths will cross again with the paths of this group.

As for the variants, the writers are still timid. Here, they even present some acid walkers, but it's a very quick scene. One of the audience's great expectations for this series was precisely to see a little more of the variants that were practically useless in The Walking Dead. With the post-credits scene of World Beyond taking place in France and showing a very agile variant, we hope to see more of this here. In an episode with a good pace, which uses the information to play with the audience's imagination and with a beautiful and detailed setting, Daryl Dixon starts off very well. Currently, the expansion of the 'The Walking Dead' universe has been heavily criticized, but it seems that the series starring Norman Reedus proposes something new, interesting, and with the possibility of opening new paths for the zombie genre.

Of course, everything seems like a blatant copy of 'The Last of Us' when we notice the narrative approach of the debut episode: joining a zombie killer full of wrinkles and scars with a destined child. But make no mistake, before Joel and Wolverine, we had other stories with this type of classic premise or at least something similar. Everything will depend on the execution, on how they can explore the clichés and conventions of a plot that offers few dramatic novelties, especially after the very cool HBO production. Surprisingly, the first chapter brings religious touches, playing with our perception of the mythology of this universe that has always cherished human stories without exaggeration. I highly doubt we will see themes like faith, doctrine, fanaticism, or iconoclasm articulated by the type of superficial text that has been accompanying the franchise's productions, but at least there is the opportunity to explore something different. I am relatively curious about which path they will follow, whether they will kick the bucket and propose a fantastic-fanciful story (unlikely) or if they will use the religious setting to develop some kind of spiritual journey for Daryl, which seems likely. I don't know if we will have a messianic plot, but we will certainly see the trajectory of the silent and wounded man finding empathy.

"The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon" has everything we imagine in a solo story of the eponymous character, from his characteristic of a solitary wanderer with kind tendencies leading him to star in an adventure, to his stoicism that masks much pain. I don't know if the writers will be good enough to create something dramatically deep around the character, but they take advantage of a beaten premise that has been successful to create a curious scenario with layers of religion in France.

The season premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is written by David Zabel who's the showrunner of the show, whilst Daniel Percival directed the episode, titled "L'âme Perdue". Timeline wise, TWD: Daryl Dixon is supposedly set before Dead City and after The Walking Dead. Melissa McBride was originally supposed to serve as a producer alongside Norman Reedus and thus returning as Carol Peletier. It changed to her leaving and changed again to her having a small part. I think the reason was because of the tv series being shot in Paris, meaning being away from home for months or how long the production would need her to stay. We could have gotten a show of an iconic duo, but here we are, with Daryl Dixon taking reins in his own show. Norman Reedus gives us a terrific performance and overall a great job, joining him are; Clémence Poésy as Isabelle, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent, Laïka Blanc-Francard as Sylvie, Anne Charrier as Genet, Romain Levi as Codron and finally Adam Nagaitis as Quinn.

Daryl Dixon's arrival to France sets off a violent chain of events that inadvertently puts a young boy at the heart of a growing religious movement in danger.

Some history to know if you haven't seen the series finale of TWD: World Beyond, it shows mutated zombies in France and makes it known to the audience that the virus started there. But down to the episode and its story, the narrative and story is close to The Last of Us with Daryl having to protect and get this pre-teen to a specific spot to possibly save the world. You could call it unoriginal, good reason for it, but it's a plot which works. Mostly. You see, the character of Laurent isn't well written at all and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi doesn't impress me the slightest, and the whole character comes across being out of place and not a child which he's supposed to be. We don't know much about him other than he's looked upon as a Messiah destined to lead humanity to a renewal and is highly intelligent. If we look at highly intelligent people in our world, Einstein for an example, we have one who is super intelligent but lacks traits of someone who's an extrovert and thus comes across a bit weird at times. Maybe Laurent is like that? Someone not meant to be likeable, that's fine by me, but I hope the actor does a better job for the rest of the series. After seeing everyone else and their performances, its sad to see him dragging the show down, for now it's fine though but that can quickly change.

Great establishing shots, the production and art design were fantastic. The mise-en-scene was also quite great, loved the cinematography but then again that's have always been something The Walking Dead have been good at. Everything around the filmmaking were great in my opinion, if there are anything worth criticizing then it's the writing in some minor ways. The set design, costume and makeup department, lightning, composition, and so on. Everything is brilliant. I found the direction to be quite great actually, mostly the visual storytelling. It's a mystery how Daryl Dixon got to France, we don't get every single answer in this episode and I'm fine with that. We know he went on a journey to find Rick and Michonne, we also know he didn't succeed, but how far did he come? Did he actually find the location they are located in? We'll probably find out soon. This series is completely different from The Walking Dead, a new continent and locations to see. I'm really interested in seeing this story unfold. Something I really liked was when Daryl meets two survivors who he trades with and then a group comes, his instincts tells him not to trust this group who seeks to harm these survivors, but in the end it was the ones who he traded with who were the true "bad guys" in the scene. The thing is, these people were probably kind and good people but the things you do to survive in a world like this can make good people into bad ones, we never learn who they were except for that scene. They could easily have families who they sought to provide for. This scene also establishes the threat of The Guerriers or The Cause who are the antagonist group of the show, they are a breath of fresh air, Anne Charrier as Genet is another character and performance which could turn out great as the villain feels like the morally grey Elizabeth Kublek from World Beyond which was one of that shows only highlights, these two women share many traits. Something I loved about the episode is consequences and how someone's actions can change into something worse or good, this time it's Daryl's actions who lead someone from The Cause to hunt him, Codron. I read a criticism towards the weaponry, muskets and so on, I believe it's mostly for style but also a reason for it. I believe they use it because cartridges and shells for modern firearms are too hard to make. Whilst with a musket the only thing you need is gunpowder and iron melted and formed like a round bullet. That's my reasoning, but I also think it's for style. With that said, in the end of the episode when we get to see Genet, we get to see the antagonistic group's higher-ups and they are better armed. They act and are more like a military than an militia like the ones we saw in the earlier parts of the episode.

Aaron Pruner of TheWrap gave it a positive review and noted Clémence Poésy's "standout performance" and concluded that it "is a surprisingly gorgeous, soul-stirring, and riveting watch. Norman Reedus said they were making art with this show. And you know what? He wasn't lying." I agree with this review, her performance surprised me in how human it was, it was a great performance and a well written character I wish we could see lots of more. Norman Reedus knows a show needs a great supporting cast, after all, he was one of those important ones in the supporting cast. Reedus is also really good in this episode, letting him speak much more and well, to truly act and giving us the opportunity to see him act more than his facial expressions and mannerism. About the "art", yeah, this is an spectacular episode and possibly the best The Walking Dead have looked in a couple of years.

In France Daryl arrives at the coast of France tied to an overturned boat, unconscious, thirsty and hungry. He walks to an abandoned coastal village and finds water in an abandoned motorboat. He spends the night inside; eats a fish and leaves the place with medical supplies and a tape recorder he has found inside the boat. He records a message about himself and heads to cross France to return home. He stops at a supermarket and while scavenging the place, he is attacked by a breed of burner zombies that burns his arm before he kills them all with his harpoon. Along his journey, he stops at a farm, where the young woman Maribelle offers him apple and she introduces her blind grandfather Guillaume, who fought in World War II. Out of the blue, a jeep arrives, and two men subdue Daryl with their weapons and one of them drags Maribelle with bad intention. But Daryl reacts and the men are killed by him and Maribelle. However, Guillaume is not blind and hits Darul with a stick from behind, and then they rob his belongings. Daryl wakes-up in a convent and learns that Sister Isabelle rescued and treated him, including cauterizing his arm to avoid infection. Later she asks him to take the young Laurent with him in his journey, since she believes he would have an important role in the reconstruction of the world. However, Daryl decides to leave the convent. Meanwhile, the dangerous brother of the man killed by Maribelle, Stéphane, finds that he turned into a zombie and Maribelle tells him that Daryl killed him, after he kills her grandfather. Now Stéphane heads to the convent with a team to kill Daryl.

The first episode of "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon" has a strange beginning, with Daryl arriving in France. Then you have a common episode of "The Walking Dead", with Daryl scavenging, meeting bad people and helping good people. The greatest differences so far are the burner zombies and most of the people speaking French. There is no reasonable explanation why he crossed the ocean to go to France, since he does not have any root in this country and don't even speak French. But the action is good and promises to be better on the next episodes. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "L'âme Perdue"

One of the worst episodes of twd, we went from a zombie apocalypse to a program they would put on in church. The episode also starts well, with Daryl going to discover France, lost and disoriented, he knows that this is not his place, the problem begins when he meets the new burned zombies, whose origin is not clear given that explaining , to the screenwriters, it was too difficult, and it is no coincidence that I say this because there will also be a mini conversation about them.

The screenplay is forced on every front, the villains have 0 personality and are always ready to be at the wrong time in the place where, obviously, the various protagonists are, as if they had a radar. The convent subplot is horrible, the new characters are written randomly, just to expand the series, the nuns are all stupid, the deaths are inoperable and the episode is not good. The only positive note I can give is that Daryl has remained the same as the original series and is starting an evolution that can draw interest.

So first of I love Daryl and don't get me wrong, the episode has good quality's. But they really did not get me excited at all. I mean you send Daryl to France, with no explanation other than, some bad people but me on a boat. You're telling Daryl was on that tiny boat all the way from America to France? There's absolutely no way.

And are we seriously doing a dumb story like 'this boy is the next messiah and you need to help us bring him somewhere' really? Is that really the best they could come up with? I, and I'm assuming many other people are here for a zombie tv show, not some religious escort quest. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and keep watching but i'm not keeping my hopes up. Overall a 7/10 at best.