This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 5.
Through only 11 episodes, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has introduced more types of unique zombies than the flagship Walking Dead series did through its 177-episode run.
Due to the ingenuity of some French mad scientists, the undead have taken on a handful fascinating variants on Daryl Dixon. These include “burner” zombies, whose blood and skin are acidic and melt living flesh; and “amper” zombies, who are injected with a heavy dose of a secret substance that induces an adrenalized response. The various factions that make up the post-apocalyptic political landscape of Daryl Dixon‘s France have found some creative martial uses for these ampers and burners. In the series latest episode, however, Daryl Dixon himself comes up with an amper application that defies most previously established zombie canon. Allow us to explain.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 5 “Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir” finds Daryl reunited with Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and immediately invested in her latest concern. Daryl and Carol are on the hunt for the missing Ash Patel (Manish Dayal), the American pilot who brought Carol to France and the only man they know who can get them out.
After a fact-finding trip to the underground night club Demimonde, Daryl and Carol follow a fuel-related clue to a location known as Maison Mère*. There they find an injured Ash, hiding in a car from a massive horde of walkers. Daryl and Carol successfully cut a path through to get into the vehicle. It quickly becomes clear, however, that they are going to have a hell of a time getting out. Daryl is out of ammunition and Carol has but one bullet. That’s when Daryl pries open a crate and discovers a collection of darts filled with a familiar luminescent green liquid.
*In real life, Maison Mère is a swanky Parisian hotel. On Daryl Dixon, it’s little more than a clearing in the middle of nowhere. Either this was a sarcastic joke from the Demimonde guest or nature has reclaimed urban Paris far more quickly than we anticipated.
Daryl undoubtedly remembers this substance from the season 1 finale, in which similar liquid-filled darts were fired into the necks of four rotters. One of those rotter’s heads promptly exploded, while another immediately attacked and disabled his fellow zombie, leaving two ampers for Daryl and his fight partner Quinn (Adam Nagaitis) to take down.
Zombies attacking other zombies is incredibly rare in most undead mythologies and it was absolutely unprecedented in the world of The Walking Dead before this spinoff. This trait remains so ironclad and consistent in Daryl’s reality that survivors are able to avoid walkers by cloaking themselves in guts as camouflage. Back then Daryl undoubtedly clocked the unusual behavior of these zombies, and he’s able to put that knowledge to good use here.
Using the last remaining bit of the car’s battery, Daryl has Carol open the car’s sunroof. He then emerges through the top window and fires darts into two zombies before taking cover once again. Sure enough, the two ampers make quick, violent work of the rest of the crowd surrounding the car and Daryl and Carol are left with only the two rotting adrenaline junkies to take out. That’s a difficult task, considering their ferocity, but still a far more manageable one than surviving a horde.
By learning quickly, Daryl Dixon just broke a major zombie precedent while finding the most creative way yet to survive an encounter with the undead. Of course, the award for the most creative way to interact with zombies overall still goes to the Undead Orchestra Composer.
The finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol airs Sunday, November 3 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
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