The cause of Daryl’s group’s hallucinations isn’t obvious, but it probably ties back to a combination of bat guano, mold, and the dank air of a corpse-filled, wet hole in the ground. It’s a perfect storm of bad tidings; as the air quality gets worse and the effects of exposure to the guano and its pathogens starts to kick in, the group stumbles across a horde of moldy, glowing walkers that they’re forced to fight off. Adding adrenaline and violence to lingering survivor’s guilt and a head full of what is essentially acid, and you’ve got a bad mix (and a chance for the show’s special effects crews to show off with some great distorted zombie faces).
The hallucinations hit everyone differently. Codron is locked in combat with his deceased brother Michel, until Daryl shows up and dispatches the zombie for Codron, leading to the one-eyed former Pouvoir warrior to attack him in retaliation. Carol is led astray, quite literally, by the hallucinated ghost of Sophia. Sophia leads Carol into a disused service tunnel, and after the two share an embrace and Carol gets to say goodbye (after a fashion), Sophia leaves her mother to carry on without her in a very touching performance and scene from the underrated Melissa McBride.
As for Daryl, his hallucination doesn’t turn him on his fellow brothers-in-arms, nor does it allow him to make peace with Merle or tie up some other loose-end from The Walking Dead. Instead, Daryl finds himself hit over the head and betrayed by his Scottish Chunnel tour guides because there’s only two undamaged gas masks, and they’ve got friends waiting on the other side of the water. He’s on the verge of losing consciousness when his hallucination, Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), appears over him. She tells Daryl that his work isn’t done, and he’s not going to die in a field in France like his grandfather (who also shows up to watch over his hallucinating grandson). Isabelle gives Daryl the strength to push himself back up, batter the two Scots with a shovel, and kill them.
Carol and Daryl, reunited, take huffs of clean air with their gas masks. Their trip to England might have been canceled due to a couple of bad trips, but the two seem undaunted. In classic guru/shaman/hippie fashion, they’ve both gotten something that they needed emotionally from the hallucinations and learned something about themselves. Most importantly, Daryl and Carol are still side-by-side, with a renewed desire to get home.
How Will Daryl and Carol Get to Spain in Season 3?
How that twisting journey takes them from France to Spain–the announced setting for season 3–has yet to be seen. But if I had to take a guess? Daryl’s going to have to prepare himself for another trans-Atlantic boat trip.
Once upon a time, Christopher Columbus and his band of sailors made their way from the sunny shores of Spain to the West Indies courtesy of the ocean current and the prevailing winds. I’d imagine that even walkers are no match for the might of the Gulf Stream. With Daryl’s haircut, Carol’s knife skills, and (possibly) Codron’s one eye, they’d make a pretty good pirate crew for a wayward Spanish galleon.
