Norman Reedus’ 2 Favorite Walking Dead Moments Also Marked the Show’s Biggest Turning Points (& It Was Never the Same)

With 11 seasons and 177 episodes, picking one favorite moment on The Walking Dead is a tough ask. AMC's zombie apocalyptic series went through so many eras that the second half is an entirely different show than the first, though not as bad as Fear the Walking Dead was through its soft reboots. For actor Norman Reedus, who's been with the series since Season 1 and is expected to conclude his time as Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 4, two moments stood out to him as the most memorable over the years.

In two separate interviews with Entertainment Weekly, Reedus named both his favorite episode and moment. In a 2015 interview just before the Season 5 premiere, Reedus revealed his top episode was Season 4, Episode 12, "Still." Seven years later, at the end of the series, Reedus was able to look back on The Walking Dead as a whole and pick the moment that meant the most to him. He chose Rick Grimes, sacrificing himself on the bridge in Season 9, Episode 5, "What Comes After." While the series certainly didn't kick the bucket because of these moments, they did play a catastrophic hand in triggering a domino effect of questionable storytelling decisions.

Why "Still" and "What Comes After" Are Standouts in The Walking Dead's History

Beginning with "Still," the episode was a Walking Dead first, in that it only featured two characters in its entirety, both of them being supporting (Daryl and Beth Greene). Daryl and Beth both also happen to have no comic counterparts. Prior to "Still," there were what some people might call "bottle episodes" that deviated from the main characters' plot. Though they're technically not bottle episodes because they still contribute to the overarching plot. Two examples of this were Season 4, Episode 6, "Live Bait," and Season 4, Episode 7, "Dead Weight," which took a pause from the story of Rick's group at the prison and focused on the Governor's journey after leaving Woodbury.

But even in those two episodes, there were at least five cast members supporting the Governor as the temporary protagonist. "Still" only had Daryl and Beth. The episode followed them after the prison fallout, as Beth tries to find an alcoholic drink for the first time, and Daryl follows her with no other purpose. The two bond, despite their different upbringings, and later set a house on fire that reminds Daryl of his own growing up. Though Daryl and Beth were well-liked by fans, the reaction to the episode was mixed; some critics noticed the engaging character development, pointing out Daryl's rare vulnerability and Beth being fleshed out significantly. Others criticized the slower pace of the episode that stalled the main story, failing to use character work as progress.

As for "What Comes After," the critical reception was much more positive, though not unanimous. It's the lowest-rated episode of Season 9 on Rotten Tomatoes, which is to be expected for the protagonist's final episode. Critics raved over the performances of Andrew Lincoln and returning cast members Scott Wilson (who passed a month before the episode's release), Jon Bernthal and Sonequa Martin-Green. Though there were negative reactions to the clichés, hallucinations and callbacks, as well as The Walking Dead taking the easy way out with Lincoln's departure.

In the episode, Rick tries to steer a walker horde away from the construction camp on a white horse, symbolic of the heroic sacrifice he makes in the end by blowing up the bridge with himself and the horde on it. He lucid dreams his past friends -- Shane, Hershel and Sasha -- in the process. While Shane and Hershel's presence, having a huge effect on Rick as a person, made sense, people were confused about why he saw Sasha instead of someone like Glenn. Though it could be because Sasha sacrificed herself to save her people, an idea that Rick was already contemplating. But what troubled The Walking Dead for good was showing Rick somehow surviving the explosion and being whisked away by a Civic Republic Military helicopter, leaving his story open-ended. Rick wouldn't appear again until the series finale.

"Still" Began a Walking Dead Trend of Solo Episodes

Season 4, in general, was the most experimental season of its time. It's no coincidence that this was Scott M. Gimple's (now Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead television universe) first season as showrunner. This certainly was not a bad thing. The Walking Dead broke its own mold by doing character-centric episodes in Season 4, starting with the Governor in the first half. When the characters split up into smaller groups after the prison fight, the writing naturally allowed itself to focus on who these individuals were without their usual colleagues. Beth and Daryl were polar opposites, allowing them to explore aspects of themselves that they were never pushed to discover beforehand.

Following "Still," The Walking Dead stunned critics and audiences with "The Grove," focusing solely on Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika. It's still considered one of the best episodes of the franchise today. But The Walking Dead started stretching its boundaries. It grew more comfortable with character-centric episodes to tell backstories or fill out the usual 16-episode season. Praise was given to certain solo episodes, like Season 6's "Here's Not Here." Others down the line were less productive in pushing the story in the right direction.

In particular, Seasons 7 and 10 stand out as slower-paced arcs due to installments limited in character focus. Season 7 had a rocky start with not only Glenn and Abraham's deaths, but two back-to-back character-driven episodes ("The Well" and "The Cell"). While "The Well" was more positively received, "The Cell" was less so because The Walking Dead was taking too long to catch up with Rick's group after the Negan line-up. The same sentiment was felt for "Swear," only a few episodes later, as it diverted too much from the storyline and clumsily set up a new group with little stakes. Jumping forward to the end of Season 10, the final block of episodes is more aligned with the bottle episode definition. They more or less feel like one-shot stories that could easily be cut from the series without impact, except for "Here's Negan."

"What Comes After" Forced The Walking Dead to Think About Life After Rick

Looking back, "What Comes After" was more detrimental to The Walking Dead because of the timing and the obvious casting shake-up. The series was already on thin ice by Season 9, having a poor run with Seasons 7 and 8. The ninth season brought a spark back to the series when Angela Kang became the showrunner, but Lincoln's departure was also too big to handle. In retrospect, The Walking Dead did a lot better with Lincoln leaving than other shows did when the protagonist left the show. The Walking Dead managed to survive another two and a half seasons, even continuing to improve on itself after Season 9's massive time jump.

But there's one thing that The Walking Dead floundered, and that was revealing too much about Rick's fate, yet not answering anything about his whereabouts. The series clearly intended to create a nostalgic feel while promising that Rick was not dead, just going somewhere else. At the same time, it was left as a teaser for the CRM, an organization that was already heavily hinted at in previous episodes of TWD. From then on, the audience's attention wasn't on the Whisperer War, the Commonwealth Rebellion, or the general survival of the remaining characters. It was about finding any Easter egg or teaser about Rick's status. Every tiny detail was scrutinized and examined, most often being blown way out of proportion with weird fan theories that never came to fruition. It was exhausting and sucked the fun out of The Walking Dead's original premise of being a tightly-focused narrative about coping with humanity's fall and rebuilding society.

"Still" and "What Comes After" are arguably not the worst episodes of The Walking Dead. Many might consider them some of the better ones, especially when compared to mediocre episodes of the series' poorest seasons. But they also significantly impacted the series in unexpected ways. It can be the smallest episodes that make the biggest difference, as well as the ones where everyone preemptively knows the series will never be the same.