Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2's Finale.The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2's finale features a scene where Carol sees herself as a zombie, and the interaction is incredibly important to the character's spinoff story. Having made her way to France at the start of the season, Carol became a regular part of Daryl Dixon, appearing in all six episodes of season 2. Alongside making her own ally, Carol reunited with Daryl and began helping him with his mission to save Laurent, but she was secretly dealing with her own battles throughout the series, which she was forced to confront in the final episode.
Carol also lied about Sophia's death so that Ash would take her to France during season 2's premiere, and while this seemed inconsequential at first, she was constantly met with visions of her deceased daughter throughout the show. Her visions were a result of not dealing with the grief of losing Sophia over 10 years ago, but this doesn't explain why she sees herself in the form of a zombie. As a result, some viewers may have been left confused by this unexpected hallucination and what it represents, but the spinoff does subtly explain the reason behind it.
Carol's Zombie Self Is A Representation Of The "Feeling" She Told Daryl About
The Zombie Symbolizes The Negative Emotions Carol Was Feeling In The Commonwealth Without Daryl
Towards the closing stages of Daryl Dixon season 2, the central characters travel through a tunnel heading towards England where Carol envisions a zombie that looks just like her. Seeing herself as a walker appears to represent the trapped and isolated feelings she had in the Commonwealth that she talked about with Daryl. Carol's "came back" mystery from Daryl Dixon season 1 left viewers curious about who this return was referring to, but Carol eventually revealed that she wasn't speaking about a person. Instead, she mentioned feeling unsettled at home.
With these emotions returning before she headed to France, it's clear Carol didn't quite feel content in the Commonwealth and hadn't fully overcome her personal issues, despite finding Daryl. Therefore, the zombie version of Carol symbolizes that empty feeling that she had while Daryl was gone, and confronting this side of her personality may mean she is finally ready to go home. Although she has never expressed a desire to stay in France, part of the reason she went to find Daryl was her lack of fulfillment in the Commonwealth without her closest ally.
Therefore, whether it's having Daryl back in her life or simply dealing with her past trauma, Carol overcoming her undead counterpart suggests she has once again found some kind of peace and can fully focus on returning to America.
Making Peace With Sophia's Death Allows Carol To Move Forward
Carol Moving On From Sophia Completed Her Season 2 Arc
Alongside facing her unsettled feelings in season 2's finale, Carol managed to make peace with Sophia's death, giving her the perfect chance to move on with her life. Sophia's death was a major part of Carol's Daryl Dixon story throughout the second installment, but finally confronting the loss of her daughter was the best possible ending to her arc. After dealing with her zombie lookalike, Carol continued her hallucinations as she envisioned a familiar face, and having shared a hug with her imaginary daughter, she finally expressed years' worth of emotions before watching Sophia walk away in a heartbreaking scene.
While it was undoubtedly a huge challenge saying goodbye to her daughter, the scene looks like it will thankfully give Carol the clear head she needs to continue her journey home alongside Daryl.
Despite Sophia being dead for around a decade, the vision gave Carol some much-needed closure around the topic as she had spent a long time avoiding these feelings. Her history in The Walking Dead gave her plenty of distractions since she has faced countless obstacles just to survive, but her lie to Ash seemed to force Carol to deal with these brutal memories. While it was undoubtedly a huge challenge saying goodbye to her daughter, the scene looks like it will thankfully give Carol the clear head she needs to continue her journey home alongside Daryl.
What Actually Caused Carol To Hallucinate Her Zombie Form & Sophia
Daryl Dixon Season 2's Dangerous Tunnel To England Caused All The Central Characters To Hallucinate
While Carol's previous visions of Sophia were provoked by sights that reminded the character of her daughter's death, the hallucinations in the finale were caused by something else entirely. Carol, Daryl, Codron, Angus, and Fiona traveled to England in the finale, where the group stumbled across some dead guards who appeared to kill one another. Fiona claimed the guano inside the tunnel can cause people to become paranoid and start hallucinating, which is exactly what happened to Carol and the rest of the survivors. They each envisioned something personal, hence Carol seeing Sophia and her zombie form.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has been renewed for season 3 and will premiere in 2025.
Although Fiona believed that guano could make people hallucinate, the science doesn't really back this up. However, it's possible Daryl Dixon's bioluminescent zombies played a role, as they were also involved in the scene. Without knowing what these variants can do, it remains a possibility that they caused the hallucinations, or potentially combined with the guano to make the group become delusional. When Daryl and Carol finally got their hands on some gas masks, it seemed to negate the effects, suggesting whatever the characters were breathing in was the main culprit behind their visions in the finale.
