After being separated for most of season 7, The Walking Dead season 8 has seen Rick Grimes and his best bud Daryl Dixon come to loggerheads over their differing approaches in the fight against the Saviors. Due to being captured and tortured by Negan last season, Daryl is taking a ‘no prisoners’ standpoint, putting down any enemies they come across. Meanwhile, Rick is more open to a fairer fight.
In episode 5 “The Big Scary U,” this conflict came to a head when Daryl wanted to blow a hole in the Sanctuary and unleash a horde of walkers on the unsuspecting Saviors inside. Rick, however, didn’t agree with murdering the workers and families like this and the pair broke out into a fight, with Daryl eventually riding away on his bike, leaving Rick alone.
Chatting to EW in a recent interview, Norman Reedus spoke about how he believes that neither Rick nor Daryl is wrong, but that they just have opposing views on how to get things done.
“I think we’re both kind of right. Rick’s taking the stance that there are people to save, and Daryl’s sort of gone rogue. You know, you can see from the episode beforehand, he’s just going to put down anyone because they’re in his way, and there’s a certain game that we’re trying to get to the end of, and he’s not being the sensitive, diplomatic one. He’s really just trying to end it now as fast as possible.”
Despite their heated last meeting, Reedus is confident that the duo’s friendship is far from irrevocably damaged. In fact, he likens their fighting to that of a pair of brothers.
“Like brothers do, you kind of beat the crap out of each other, and then you’re like, ‘So what are we doing tonight?'” Reedus says. “So we have that relationship. We’re both still pissed at each other, but how far are you going to take it? So, that scene, I really liked it. It was very simple. It’s very straight to the point, and there was humor to it, too. I remember shooting that. We were both cracking up afterwards because the more real you play that and the more hurt you are, the more the comedy comes out in some weird way. So that was one of my favorite scenes.”
However, that doesn’t mean that Rick and Daryl will be in agreement for the rest of the season, as Reedus teased that there will be many more times where his character will defy Rick and “go rogue.”
“I’m constantly giving him s— for coming up with these complex plans that don’t work… There are some really big moments coming where I kind of go rogue without him knowing it, because this group gets separated from time to time. Everybody in this group, everyone’s trusted enough, and everyone’s in it enough to make plans, and we’re all trying to reach the same spot, but there are moments when you have to make decisions on the fly, and that happens this season quite a bit.”
Be sure to catch the next episode of The Walking Dead, “The King, The Widow, And Rick,” on AMC this Sunday, November 26th.
