Summary
- Daryl Dixon Season 2 may finally explore the origin of the zombie outbreak, starting in France.
- References to France as the outbreak's starting point hint at upcoming big reveals in the show.
- The series has an opportunity to tackle the long-awaited mystery of the outbreak's origin head-on.
At some point, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 will need to address the outbreak mystery, which remains one of the franchise's biggest loose ends. Though shows like Fear the Walking Dead have depicted the early days of the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead timeline, key questions continue to swirl around how it really started. Over the years, shows in The Walking Dead universe have danced around the situation, with Daryl's new adventure in France marking what may be the franchise's easiest path to clearing it up.
Despite taking place far away from the other shows, the spinoff has been uniquely positioned to drop important reveals about The Walking Dead's world. Arguably the greatest example of this is the zombie variants from Daryl Dixon season 1's ending. This helped the franchise provide a working explanation for the stronger, faster, and smarter zombies featured in The Walking Dead: World Beyond series finale. However, this was only one of the answers Daryl Dixon was expected to give. The World Beyond confirmed another twist that should be dealt with by Daryl Dixon sooner rather than later.
Daryl Dixon Season 2 Can't Ignore The Zombie Outbreak's Connection To France
Daryl Dixon Can't Forget The Significance Of Its Setting
While the series has yet to delve into it, the setting of the series makes one crucial fact hard to forget: France is where the outbreak first began. This detail stems from the World Beyond season 2 finale's closing scene, which used a cameo from Dr. Jenner to drop this big reveal. For that reason, the decision to bring Daryl's story to France created the impression that part of the show's purpose was to offer the long-awaited exploration of the franchise's starting point. So far, though, the series has yet to take that route. But, it's important to note that Daryl Dixon has not acted as if it's oblivious to France's place in the Walking Dead mythos.
Daryl Dixon acknowledged France as the place where it all started when Genet brought it up, raising an integral detail regarding its origin. During a speech in episode 5, Genet said, "Finally, out of greed and hubris, they unleashed this plague upon the world...they gave us this disease." In doing so, Genet collaborated The World Beyond's big twist, which was that humanity is responsible for the creation of the zombie virus. It also ties into France being at the center of it, since it would make sense that Genet, as someone who lived in France, would be well aware of what caused it.
The references to the origin of the zombie outbreak came across as setup for something more, presumably in Daryl Dixon season 2. Now that the spinoff has exposed this truth about the apocalypse to Daryl, the logical next step is for the mystery to be tackled directly. To do otherwise would undermine the significance of the show's setting.
Daryl Dixon Season 2's Villain Can Explain Its Outbreak Mysteries
As for how the show can dive into the origin of the outbreak, this information can come from the source that referenced humanity's link to it. Since Genet seemed to be expressing an informed opinion when it comes to who deserves the blame for the virus, it's reasonable to assume that there's even more she can say on the topic. Given her background and connections, it wouldn't be implausible for the franchise to suggest that Genet has personal experiences that would shed light on this mystery.
Heading in this direction would enable the series to adequately flesh out her character and motivations. Something she bore witness to when the virus outbreak began could account for some of the disdain she feels for "the weak" that she says put the world in this situation in the first place. This would help the series accomplish two goals at once, which would be developing Daryl Dixon's main villain and solving the franchise's oldest mystery.
What Mysteries The Walking Dead Still Needs To Answer About France
Elaborating on humanity's creation of the zombie virus in The Walking Dead can lead to a number of major discoveries. As World Beyond revealed, a group of scientists called the Primrose team had something to do with the outbreak, but was in Ohio when it happened. Exactly where they fit into it needs to be explored in depth in Daryl Dixon. The same goes for the Violet team, which World Beyond also connected to the incident.
There's also the matter of the faction that was attacking these scientists in The World Beyond. It's been three years, yet the franchise still hasn't advanced this plotline. It appears that some new group is targeting the people who allegedly caused the outbreak, but who they are and how much they know has not been made clear. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 has an opportunity to change that, and in the process, explain what the scientists were trying to accomplish and how they made the problem "worse" (as stated by World Beyond).
