SPOILER WARNING IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 18, “FIND ME” YET!!!!
A new Sunday means a new Walking Dead episode. Although you can watch the episode on AMC on Sunday’s, you can stream the episode earlier on AMC +. Episode 18 is named, “Find Me". It is highlighted with the characters of Daryl, Carol, Dog, and a new character named Leah. This episode is about what Daryl was up to in the 6 year time skip in season 9. During that time, Daryl tries to find Rick’s body, meets Dog, and meets this mysterious character, Leah. There are lots to unpack in this episode with multiple flashbacks and an important scene at the end…
As I said in my preview for this episode, it starts off with a scene with Daryl and Carol poking fun at each other. Daryl wants to go get wood for the fallen wall at Alexandra and Carol wants to tag along. They joke about Daryl not getting his motorcycle started and Carol asking if he needs her to do it because she has a “heavy right foot”. They also joke with Carol spearfishing and Daryl calling it “beginners luck” after her successful catch. Three things from the present day Daryl & Carol that are important in this episode before the ending scene… One, during the run for the fallen tree for Alexandra’s wall, Daryl and Carol encounter an abandoned cabin, which will encounter unpleasant memories for Daryl that happened during Rick’s body search. Two, the duo talk about “luck running out” and Carol wondering if their luck have run out because their “home” is burned down and destroyed from the Whisperer’s final attack. Finally, three, Carol finds a map on the ground in the beginning scene and puts it in his backpack, which is really important. The map is all of the location Daryl looked for Rick’s body. He kept that everywhere he went during time skip. He even gets real emotional and loses all hope when the map got destroyed when a downpour happened. However, the map is still in Daryl’s backpack.
Via: Youtube.com/AMC
When Carol & Daryl finds the abandoned cabin in the woods, Dog starts to sniff under the floorboards indicating that he found something and Carol finds supplies and a note that was written by Daryl. She asks him, “If this is where she lived”. After she finds this note, the episode now begins what Daryl has been up to the last 6 years when he was living by himself after Rick’s “death”. Daryl finds the Cabin but is captured by a woman named Leah. Leah points a gun at his head and ties him up but eventually decides to let him go. During the next few years, he is visited by Carol in the woods, giving him supplies like a jacket to check on how he is doing. Also during the next few years, Leah and Daryl cross paths numerous times. This is also actually how Dog and Daryl meet. Dog was Leah’s dog. Dog (as a puppy) often leads Daryl back to the cabin. Daryl and Leah eventually start a 10 month relationship .She is getting tired of Daryl always looking for Rick so she makes him choose Rick or her but Daryl chooses Rick,. Eventually Daryl changes his mind but it is too late. Leah leaves but Dog stays behind. Daryl leaves Leah a note to come and that says “find me” and shows him where Alexandra (home) is. This is the note that Carol finds in the beginning of the episode.
Via Looper.com
My favorite scene between these two was when they were talking about the ones that they lost. Leah lost a kid named Matthew, that she saw as her own. She was with a group but the mom died in child birth, so she cared for him like he was Leah’s own son. Daryl opens up to her too. He tells her that he is looking for his brother. As a diehard Walking Dead fan, you know that Daryl’s real brother, Merle, died in season 3 episode 15, “This Sorrowful Life”. However, Daryl was not talking about him. Daryl was talking about Rick Grimes. Daryl and Rick were the ultimate duo. There was immensely trust between these two. It is crazy to look back at how their relationship blossomed. It started with Rick telling Daryl that he locked Merle on top of the roof in season 1, Rick telling Daryl in season 4 that “You are my brother”, Rick telling Daryl “brother take my hand” in season 9, to now Daryl telling Leah that he is looking for his brother. I thought this scene was so cool to show that they would die for each other and after all this time, Daryl will never give up for Rick.
Via: Youtube.com/AMC
In the final scene and Daryl digging up all of his painful memories, Carol and Daryl have the biggest argument that I have ever seen. Daryl accuses her of always running away from her problems. Just like how she did in season 4 6, and during the time skip between season 9 and season 10. Daryl also blames her for losing Connie, but Carol believes that she made the right call to stop Alpha. You obviously see how much Daryl still cares for Connie and how much pain he is still in because they can’t find her either. The episode comes full circle when Carol wonders if “their luck in their friendship has run out”.
Episode 18 was lack luster and one of my least favorite in awhile. I know that this whole “extra” part of season 10 is extra and a ton of it is filler but I didn’t know it was going to be this bad. I did not get how Daryl and Leah started a relationship. During the whole series, you always saw Daryl being the “lone wolf”. He would never start a relationship with anyone. He didn’t have one with Carol, Beth, or Connie. I know a lot of time passed during this episode but it doesn’t make sense in his character on the show that Leah and Daryl got together. I also don’t see him opening up that easy to someone. You also see in this entire show that it was hard to open up to anyone. He often keeps to himself, keeps everything down, and never shows any emotion. When he does show emotion, Daryl goes off on his own like with Rick’s “death” and Beth’s death when he always would go to the woods by himself and cry that Beth was gone and burn himself with cigarettes. The only saving grace was to see a different dynamic of Carol & Daryl’s relationship. I don’t see this “bump” going past season 10C but it could be a precursor to what to expect with Carol and Daryl’s spin off show. Leah is also not confirmed to be dead, just missing. She could always return in season 11 or the spin off show. I predict that she is definitely to be in their spin off show, but could always return in the Rick Grimes movies, or even be that mystery person in the Commonwealth in season 11 that someone recognizes when the group goes into the community. If I could give a rating of less than 1 star I would, but I give season 10 episode 18, “Find Me” one star out of 5 just because how it makes no sense that Leah and Daryl ended up together. The whole thing seemed forced and out of place. The only saving grace of this episode is the ending scene between Daryl and Carol and seeing how Daryl and Dog met…