The Walking Dead Season 7 episode 3 gave fans a look into life in Negan’s compound. We saw Dwight torture Daryl to force him to kneel. In the end, Daryl makes a tough decision that he may never come back from.
[Warning: The Walking Dead Season 7 episode 3 spoilers ahead. Stop reading if you’re not caught up with the episode.]
We first see Daryl naked, dirty, cold and hungry in a dark cell. The only light source Daryl has is through the small crack at the bottom of his cell door. Dwight opens the cell, feeds Daryl a dog food sandwich, turns on “Easy Street” and repeats this cycle over and over. Dwight wants to break Daryl and force him to kneel to Negan.
Daryl continuously refused. Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl on the show, explained to Entertainment Weekly why Daryl takes Negan’s abuse. Daryl believes he deserves to suffer because his actions lead to Glenn’s death. If Daryl succumbs to Negan’s torture, he’d be dishonoring Glenn’s memory. Daryl can’t do that to Glenn.
“Daryl’s a fighter,” Reedus told EW. “He fights to the end, but in saying out loud his name instead of Negan’s name — it’s the last shred of himself that he has and for his friends. I assume he thinks he’s going to get killed right there when he says he’s not Negan. He’s signing up for more torture, but he’s doing it for the love of his friend.”
Reedus added, “He can’t say that he’s Negan. He’ll never do that. He’ll fight, but matters of the heart to Daryl are hard. They mean more. Hit him in the face with the bat. String him up. Feed him dog food. Whatever. He can handle that, but when it comes to matters of the heart, they’re hard for him, and he’s learning, and those are the things that give him faith and hope, and he can’t let go of that, because that’s the last thing he has left.”
It’s likely Negan won’t ever kill Daryl; the guy has a strange respect for him. Negan can’t break Daryl the way he broke Rick. It only took an RV ride and threatening Carl to get Rick to understand he now belong to Negan. Daryl doesn’t have anyone he’s attached to at this point. When Carol left, Daryl was truly alone. Carol understood the abuse Daryl endured before the zombie apocalypse. Daryl is completely defeated, but feels like he owes it to Glenn to get back.
Daryl will make it back to Alexandria, whether he’ll be dead or alive when he does is unclear. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
