The Shipbaiting Is Not Okay...
It doesn’t matter that Isabelle is a nun. It doesn’t matter that Daryl’s feelings aren’t confirmed, and it doesn’t matter that they ultimately won’t get together. The baiting, the relentless effort to make the audience think that they will, is the most heavy-handed we’ve ever seen and that in itself disrespects Daryl, a character who "falls in love forever," who represents unconventional masculinity, whose fanbase thrived on the vulnerability, loyalty, and unconditional love he showed Carol over 11 seasons.
Whereas Angela Kang’s juxtapositions between Caryl and Daryl/Leah demonstrated Daryl's devotion to Carol, preparing us for eventual canon, the drama behind the scenes last year makes it highly unlikely Zabel wrote le spinoff with Caryl endgame in mind, at least not until much further down the line if at all. Yes, there are a few allusions to Carol in the first half of S1, but they seem shoehorned in or left open to interpretation. I fear that’s because, until Melissa signed on for S2, AMC and Zabel felt compelled to tease an alternative endgame just in case “cool dude doing cool things in cool places” wasn’t a strong enough motivation to watch. The problem is, aside from turning Daryl into the conventional hero he isn’t, they’re just recycling key elements of Caryl's relationship.
In the jarring bath scene for example, Isabelle and Daryl see each other’s scars, lending credence to an observation Isabelle makes later that they were both “broken until the world ended.” Well, that’s Carol and Daryl in a nutshell. The abuse they both suffered before the ZA helped them relate to each other, see straight through the misconceptions others had of them, and raise each other up to become the most loyal, most loving, and fiercest survivors of the flagship show. Fans clocked their soulmatism early on, rooting for their romantically-coded interactions during their search for Sophia to blossom into a full-blown relationship. Since the hope for a child's future also lays the groundwork for Daryl’s and Isabelle’s bond, it seems like AMC was hoping the similarities would evoke the same emotional response from viewers. Maybe they were hoping fresh eyes would see the same potential for Daryl and Isabelle that we saw in Caryl while long time viewers would get lost in the nostalgia of it all.
In any case, it doesn't work. It can't because as great as Clemence’s performance is, she and Norman don't have McReedus' chemistry. Daryl’s and Isabelle’s relationship hasn't had anywhere near the same amount of time to grow into what people love about Daryl and Carol. Female characters aren't interchangeable. People weren't fooled when Maggie adopted Carol's fashion sense in the pilot of yet another male-driven spinoff, and people aren't fooled now.
From the scenes I've watched and what many fans have been saying, some of Isabelle's behavior comes off as emotionally manipulative, especially when she accuses Daryl of abandoning Laurent the way his abusive father abandoned him. It’s an absolutely ridiculous line because Daryl is not like his father. Carol and TF showed him that. Daryl also just met this kid. Caring about him and wanting to keep him safe are honorable, but that doesn't obligate him to stay. The scene is unsettling, and when you consider Daryl's history, it makes the shipbaiting even more questionable.
I know some think it sets up the opportunity for Isabelle to take a darker turn in S2 much like Leah did in S11. Like I said, there's a clear juxtaposition between Daryl telling Isabelle that France doesn't feel like the place he's supposed to be and him telling Carol he does know where he's supposed to be. We know Norman and Nicotero are more than familiar with that arc, so if they wanted to, they could give us the missing payoff through Isabelle (sans having to sit through a canon relationship between her and Daryl first). The problem is, we also know Norman hated that arc and I can’t imagine he’d want to repeat it. What’s worse is that Zabel's comments about a potential romance between Daryl and Isabelle don't address the toxicity of some of their interactions, which makes me worried he's not even aware of what he's writing.
I’m not saying Caryl fans won’t get what they want. Now that we know Carol is back and Melissa has just as much input on her story as Norman has had on Daryl's, there's more reason to hope for S2 to be good. Daryl and Carol could, and should, go canon and I could go back to celebrating my favorite characters with deep analyses, minisodes, and whatever else I did to try to spread joy (I barely remember anymore. I was so young a year and a half ago).
In the meantime, especially because of S1’s gimmicky ending, I reserve the right to be angry and skeptical. The backlash following le spinoff’s announcement last April should’ve told AMC loud and clear what we want to watch and what we don't want to watch. They had so many chances to earn back our trust—revert to the original premise, revise Daryl’s arc, remove the shipbaiting, tease a Caryl romance, give Carol’s first appearance more substance, SOMETHING—but they were more concerned about saving face, and now their audience for S2 has a lot to think about.
What was the significance of Daryl's growth in the flagship if the spinoff was going to regress him to the person he was in the early seasons? What am I supposed to make of his most intimate scenes with Carol if he can be placed in (poorly nuanced) intimate situations with a stranger? What am I supposed to feel when Carol presumably does everything in her power to find Daryl, and he’s conflicted about where he belongs?
Daryl and Carol said they loved each other in TWD’s series finale. Neither of those characters ever throw those words around, so when they say it, we know it isn't just a simple declaration. It's a promise that should keep Daryl grounded during his misadventure in France, yet the spinoff never explicitly addresses it. They want to keep Daryl's feelings ambiguous so they can build unnecessary tension. It's frustrating. After having their worst fears exploited for years, Caryl fans deserve a story that fulfills their deepest desires. They—and Melissa herself—deserve peace from the cyber bullying AMC, Zabel, and co. perpetuate the longer they deny representation of an earned relationship between a man and woman both over fifty. Caryl fans are supposed to be resilient, but S1 overall is a pretty low blow. I just want to look forward to S2 without feeling like I'm getting jerked around.
