Paris Sera Toujours Paris

After a brief stop in Angers, including a bizarre zombie orchestra performing Boléro, Daryl's group finally reaches Paris. There, after a poignant encounter with a little girl - now a zombie - who used to be Isabelle's neighbor, they meet a community led by a man named Fallou. With their help, Daryl seeks out information on a ship that can return him to America, which leads the group to the Demimonde nightclub and a reunion with Isabelle's ex-boyfriend Quinn. Quinn reveals that he is Laurent's father and demands that Isabelle and Laurent stay with him in exchange for his help. Daryl rejects the deal and prepares to set out on his own after an argument with Isabelle, leading to Laurent running away after overhearing them. Codron meets with Genet, who agrees to let him lead the search for Daryl while her people continue experimenting with walkers. Pouvoir attacks Fallou's community and Isabelle searches for Laurent, while Daryl falls through a roof following a brutal fight with Codron.

Continuing Daryl's mission to return home, he and his companions need to cross Paris. As soon as they arrive, we meet a group that has developed in the outskirts of the city of light. I'm really enjoying the way the series is portraying Paris, which since the last episode has been approached as a character apart from the series, showing that the city functions - obviously differently - even after the end of the world. The scale and proportion that the technical aspects are taking in this spin-off are exceptional. Simply cinematic. As for the new group shown here, it's what I say every episode: another generic community that doesn't add to the story, except for making Laurent help a grieving woman, which further enhances the belief that the boy is the new Messiah. The leader of the community even shows to be an interesting character, leading the group to a place where Daryl can get the boat to return to the United States. This character was a great addition to the series' cast, and I genuinely hope he returns in future episodes.

Upon arriving at this new location, we discover that Isabelle's ex-husband, Quinn, is Laurent's father, which means he had a relationship with both sisters. I didn't expect anything from this character to reappear (since he was shown as a supporting character in the previous episode) and even less that he would be the boy's father. On the other hand, it seems that this hook left will play a relevant role in the development of the relationship between Isabelle and Laurent, as she now has one more thing to hide from the boy. Hopefully, this will have an impact on the plot and not just be an irrelevant revelation that leads nowhere.

Another scene that caught my attention here in this episode was the moment Isabelle returns to her old home with Daryl. The dialogue and similarities between the two characters create a chemistry between them in a surprisingly quick way, but enough to make us attach to them. With this character's growth and The Walking Dead's history of killing off characters just as they're growing, unfortunately, it is possible that her death will occur at the end of the season.

The scene of the walkers falling from the building and resisting shows the danger of the variants, which have been the great attraction of this series. However, what stands out most in this sequence is the walker child Aimeé, who was Isabelle's neighbor. Before the world fell - as shown in the previous episode - Isabelle didn't want to talk about what was happening to not scare the girl. When we see Isabelle leaving the building to leave Paris, she is looking at the little girl, and her concern about what could happen to the girl is clear - and it happens. This even shows a different approach since we rarely see walker children in all the productions of the universe. Here we see again the issue of experiments with the variants, now with an agile and strong walker, who can easily break free from chains. It is still uncertain whether these variants will actually become troublesome at some point or if they will remain only in these isolated samples, but it is really exciting to see these new walkers, and this ends up giving a breath to the franchise.

But overall, the feeling is of an arbitrary story. If in the first episodes we had those medieval inspirations, now everything here has a foot in the contemporary, especially in the nightclub block. The series' language is random, even in the way the characters' journey is not well delineated, because at one moment they are going somewhere, at another they change their minds, one moment Daryl wants a radio, the next he wants to help Isabelle get a photo of her sister... I understand the appreciation for a more intimate chapter, but better dialogues and a dramaturgy with weight are lacking for the conversations between Daryl and Isabelle to gain emotion.

Furthermore, I am having difficulty understanding the characters' arcs. Daryl seems like a visitor on the adventure, doing what they ask of him and serving as a leader whenever danger comes, but we haven't had any development that advances or makes us reflect on the character's traumas and past events, or any element that shows any kind of evolution. It's the same old Daryl. As for Isabelle, she is a compilation of generic elements from the franchise, and Laurent, well, so far this chosen prophet metaphor doesn't make much sense, and these suggestions that he is special are insufficient to create any dramatic interest in the story.

I'm liking the show overall so far because I really like Daryl. But I feel like this episode and the previous one have the same problem. Both episodes have a community that seems just completely illogical to exist in the apocalypse. In the previous episode there was a pre-school who somehow survived. This episode has a nightclub with electricity and everything powering lights and mics in the catacombs beneath Paris. How does a preschooler fight off a zombie? How does a community survive in the middle of Paris? How do they get food? How are they getting water? It makes the zombies seem very trivialized. Like these pre-schoolers have survived. These people are surviving so easily that they are running a nightclub. There's a dude who made a zombie orchestra...Like it really trivializes the struggles that Rick's group went through. If a pre-schooler can survive so easily, why couldn't the characters in the walking dead? Overall I'm liking Daryl and his relationship with the female lead and the kid, but I wish the writers would think more about how these communities can exist in the walking dead universe.

Oh so after 12 years, Paris underground life is still on; that is terrific but likely not possible. We have seen in TWD that all ressources are gone but not in Paris, France. Of course not. Champagne and candies for the kids. Energy and water are free but not for everybody. Funny to see that the upper class leave in the basement and the lower class leaves outside.

The new bad guys are caricaturals as hell. We don't believe any minite that these people could have survived the fall. They just over act and this is really anoying.

But do not worry God will help the good ones to prevail against the bad ones.

Daryl, Isabelle, Laurent and Sylvie arrive in Angers, where Isabelle has a friend that may have a radio; however, the man is completely insane, and Daryl decides to go to Paris. Once in Paris, they go to the cemetery where they meet Fallou Boukar and his men. He introduces his group and brings Isabelle and her group to his community. Daryl asks for a radio since he wants to return to the United States, and Fallou Boukar tells him that he will take him to a place where he can negotiate everything. Isabelle goes with Daryl to her apartment, and she gets a photo of Lily at the Eiffel Tower and her valuable belongings stole when she was a thief. On the next day, they go to an underground night-club in the catacombs to negotiate a boat for Daryl. Isabelle stumbles upon Quinn, who owns the club, and learns who the father of Laurent is. Meanwhile, Stéphane Codron meets Marion Genet telling her that he is hunting down Daryl, and she hires him to join the Pouvoir.

"Paris Sera Toujours Paris" is a reasonable episode of "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon". The beginning of the episode is hilarious, with the insane man conducting an orchestra of walkers. It is not clear yet how Daryl traveled to France and the beef with the powerful Marion Genet. Now that Isabelle knows who the father of Laurent is, lets see if she will tell the teenager that she is his aunt and guardian. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Paris Sera Toujours Paris"

Is it really so important to annoy the squares that you have to put a drag show in the middle of the zombie apocalypse? Like after all these years people who are still wearing makeup and false eyelashes and playing/ singing loud music in the middle of the city would be the ones still alive? Seriously? One of the things that always made The Walking Dead good was that for such an unrealistic (zombies) show it was actually hyper realistic and the characters' development etc was too. Not any more I guess. Just make Z Nation if you want to but stop calling this kind are garbage The Walking Dead. It's embarrassing pandering. Good job, you've annoyed everyone. Can we move on now to a plot?