Daryl Dixon 3x05 Full Reaction!

Quiet enough weekend. Melancholic day yesterday, though overall, quiet. Damn good episode we have. Lovely to hear it’s perhaps your favorite of the season. The western influences have been strong in this season. Which, given the comments you made about Butch and Sundance that you highlighted, I knew you’d gravitate toward that. The love is shared with the westerns. This episode really leans into that, combined with the shades of a damn good Lawrence of Arabia homage. I have heard a statement that says indeed, Norman had quite the grand time with this episode, for reasons you mentioned. Likewise, the cinematography is very strong this week. Start by talking about the couple. Rotten to hear that Justina did not volunteer. Good that they get Roberto out of his tight spot. And they give him some witchcraft to heal him. We agree on Carol’s medical assessment of it’ll allow Roberto to tie one on if it doesn’t work. Quick sidenote: No apologies about the loud bang causing you to look offscreen at that. You mentioned about it, I rewound. You could hear it, but it was rather faint, or at least the camera didn’t pick up the sound all that much, so, it’s cool. Hope it wasn’t anything serious. Good on our heroes coming up with the yarn spun. Love how Daryl says about Carol being a good liar, and Carol makes no effort to contest the remark. Knew that’d get a good laugh out of you, just as it was great for you to encourage Carol with the lying. Melissa did have a good “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.” look when she got into character as she laid on the bullshit. Which yes, the claim of Daryl being outdoorsy isn’t a lie. The scene of said bullshit being laid on comes with a peek into the tension between Antonio and Fedrico. Seems my surmise is in the ballpark that it’s over a woman. Again, of the Spain arc, Antonio and Paz are my favorites. Great how Paz is let in on the truth, and you had the great response to that part. Valentina is creeping up to be third favorite of the Spain arc. Love how she reassesses Carol’s romantical interest. We both adored Carol asking if Valentina’s ever been told that she’s one horny lady, and Valentina admits that she’s usually not called a lady all that much. We are both getting very invested in the Carol/Antonio business. We had similar responses to Carol offering the invitation to Antonio to accompany them to Ohio. Stinks that Federico’s mom clocks the necklace, and although Federico initially dismisses it, he has someone sent to follow-up on Daryl. Speaking of, yes, this episode is a great showcase of how the apocalypse did bring out so much good in Daryl. Something which has been tempered lately, for obvious reasons. It is interesting compared to the France arc that Daryl and Carol have more stronger language barrier here in Spain. I like the realistic touches of the smaller language barriers on both sides. The words or phrases that don’t have the precise translations, where you say, “How do you say?” or “What’s the word?” or things like that. Speaking of that, I recalled you made the trip to Barcelona, so I knew that’d be on your mind with all the mentions of Barcelona. You spoke of learning the language so as to not fall into the tourist stereotype. Me, I’d be more worried about my being the dumb American tourist, vis-à-vis food and drink rather than language. As mentioned, I’m far from fluent or conversational. Would take a page out of your book and bone up on the language if going to places where English is not the dominant language. It is great when Daryl stumbles on the group led by Amaia, I believe they said her name was. We called the scenes with the water, love Norman’s acting there. They created STRONG investment in this one, hence no apologies necessary for the tears, Jess. Your tears in this universe, God, it always gets me good. I mean, any universe that incites the tears from you are treasured, but considering that in television, The Walking Dead is to you what M*A*S*H is for me, the tears convey a lot more love. Warms the heart something fierce when Daryl imparts the word “Dépaysant” to this community. Keeping Isabelle alive in his heart, in addition to her being his angel in Heaven, mmm, that gets the tears going on my end, and I adored your reaction to that scene. The encouragement of Daryl being the one-man army: You know, I do believe that the answer to the question of is Daryl a one-man army is “I think the fuck so.” as you put it, love that. Daryl got the good action in. Daryl already has been emulating Chuck Connors being a damn fine rifleman, and now he gets to have the T2 fun. Very, very sweet how you and the little girl were playing the counting game with Daryl picking off the bad guys. Real tragedy that Mr. Shouty man couldn’t shout anymore, laughs abounded at that part of the reaction. Daryl did the damn thing on the train. Funny as hell when he and the bad guy notice each other, yet do the smart thing of prioritizing killing the walkers. Likewise, hilarious, relatable, and oddly sweet how when finished with that, they both take a breather with the guy holding up his hands in an “Uno momento, por favor.” manner, and Daryl has the silent, “No estoy apurado” response. Great how you found the scene ridiculous. Good note on the graciousness of Daryl letting the guy catch his breath before drowning the guy. And shooting him in the head with the shotgun, “for good measure”, as you say, though I also suspect it’s a preventative measure, so he doesn’t walkerfy. Then there is Lola. I KNEW you’d hold the relief that Lola was not a snake. Fear about that immediately crossed my mind. And I would have warned you about that if she was a snake. As it is, she was not a snake, and every single subsequent moment of your reactions to Lola were beyond delightful. Just some of the best things ever. Especially you cheering that Lola lives, meaning we are singing, “Lola! Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola!” in celebration. The horse also did surprisingly well, given this universe’s track record. That, also, anticipated you would be happy about. Now to save Justina. All of this was such a terrific reaction. Looking forward to how the rest of the season plays out as there is the shared question of will the Spain arc conclude in this season or next. I too am unclear on that, and when it comes to next season, I only know one thing about the fourth season. So, we play the waiting game. For now, thank you for the beautiful reaction, Jess.

Thomas Corp