This week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Consumed,” wouldn’t have worked with any other two characters on the series. It wasn’t a plot-advancing episode — in fact, it ended where the episode two weeks back began. It only filled in a couple of points crucial to the plot (how did Carol end up in Slabtown’s hospital? Who was in the bushes with Daryl when Michonne stumbled upon them back at the church?). And yet, “Consumed” represented one of the best episodes of the season, and maybe the best character-building episode of the series.
That had a lot to do with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, two of the best actors in the cast who play arguably the two most beloved characters on the series — the two characters who have evolved the most since the zombie outbreak. Carol was a weak victim of domestic violence who — during the course of the series — has learned to become the mother she could never be to her daughter, and the woman she could never be with her husband, a woman who can stand up for herself, who can defend herself, and who can fight back.
Somehow, through it all, she never lost her sense of humanity.
Likewise, Daryl was the wild redneck too often defined by the assholery of his big brother, Merle. A born-survivor, Daryl’s socioeconomic past prepared him well for the zombie apocalypse — he was already used to scrounging and surviving one day at a time. But the walkers brought out more than just Daryl’s survivals skills, they brought out his humanity. Every loss has further defined Daryl as one of the group’s most compassionate and sympathetic characters.
These two characters — opposites in the pre-apocalyptic world but spiritual cousins in the present — are absolutely terrific when they are together. It’s not sexual chemistry; it’s electric. “Consumed” director Seith Mann and writers Matthew Negrete and Corey Reed wrote the perfect episode for them, too. The flashbacks were used sparingly, and they didn’t beat us over the head with conclusions: They let us draw our own, focusing instead on the episode’s emotional beats.
The action in the episode — and there was enough to keep things interesting — didn’t drive “Consumed,” it supported the characters, and what the episode reinforced were Daryl and Carol’s survival skills, their ability to think quick on their feet, and the fact that, though they’d like to be Ricks and Abrahams — leaders who can put their emotional attachments aside to make decisions that are best for the group — they are, at their core, people who feel for others. They still want to save other people, even to their own detriment. It’s why Daryl couldn’t help but give the mother-and-daughter walkers a respectful end, and it’s why they couldn’t leave Noah behind, even though he’d stolen their weapons.
Daryl and Carol both have their baggage. Daryl is a survivor of childhood abuse, as we found out when Daryl dropped a sexual-abuse survivor’s guide out of his bag. Carol didn’t ask questions. She didn’t judge. She knows who Daryl is. Likewise, Carol has to carry the weight of what she did to Lizzie. Daryl didn’t want to know about it, and he didn’t want to absolve her of that because he knew that Carol didn’t need absolving. She’s a good person, and whatever happened to Lizzie must have been driven by Carol’s desire to do right.
On the surface, “Consumed” seemed to be about Daryl and Carol’s desire to start again from scratch. But there is no fresh start here. They are shaped by their past, and everything that’s happened since the outbreak began has made them into the survivors they are today: Strong, smart, and above all, compassionate and selfless human beings.
