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This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 episode 6.
On August 18, 1856, the 34th United States Congress made guano one of the most dangerous substances on Earth. And yes … this has everything to do with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 finale.
Throughout the 1840s, U.S. imports of guano soared as the substance became one of the most vital components of both agricultural fertilizer and gunpowder. At one point, the U.S. alone was importing 760,000 tons of the stuff a year, leading to soaring prices and kicking off a time period known as “guano mania.” With every militarized country on earth competing for the same dung deposits and with the very real fear of price gouging due to an oligopoly controlling the supply of precious bird poop, the U.S. had to act and thus, the Guano Islands Act became law.
What’s the Guano Islands Act? Essentially, it allows a United States citizen to take possession of any unclaimed island with guano deposits on it, so long as it’s not under the control of another country’s people or within the jurisdiction of another government. Any island, anywhere in the world, with every claim backed by the full might of the United States military. For a brief period of time, number two was number one when it came to international relations, and at one point the United States claimed over 100 islands in the name of guano.
Talk about going bat-shit crazy.
However, as Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) finds out in “Au Revoir les Enfants,” the finale of the second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, guano isn’t all saltpeter and better crop yields, it’s also highly dangerous in large concentrations. Almost as dangerous as the assembled remnants of Sister Jacinta’s (Nassima Benchicou) Union de L’Espoir and Les Pouvoirs, who are searching aggressively for Daryl Dixon, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), and the mystery airplane. The mystery airplane that can only hold three people. That doesn’t bode well going forward. Here is how the Daryl Dixon season 2 finale shakes out – bat shit and all.
Does Laurent Make It Out of France?
A good portion of the episode is taken up by two separate negotiations. Anna (Lukerya Ilyashenko) cuts a deal with Jacinta to betray Daryl in exchange for Ash and his airplane. Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) each take turns trying to talk Ash (Manish Dayal) into taking Laurent to America, while also trying to make sure the other one gets on the airplane.
Of course, when Jacinta and her people show up and start a firefight with Daryl, Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), and Codron (Romain Levi), plans often change, and while Ash and Laurent take to the skies and head for America safely, Carol isn’t there with them. She bailed out of the airplane as it raced down the ersatz runway to make sure the other two were able to escape, leaving her stranded in France with Daryl.
Thankfully, Fallou has some Scottish friends, Fiona and Angus, who are looking to get back home to the United Kingdom. They’re willing to Sherpa Daryl and Carol through the disused Chunnel from Calais to Kent. That’s where the guano comes into play.
Horror in the Chunnel
The Chunnel is infested with bats, and with bats comes their all-powerful guano. Not only is guano a good fertilizer and a good way to extract saltpeter for gunpowder, guano is also highly acidic and, as seen in the episode, a great place for stuff to grow, including bioluminescent mold like foxfire and a whole laundry list of bacteria, funguses viruses, and all sorts of unpleasant diseases, not counting the fact that bats are a common carrier of rabies. Including, potentially, several types of hallucinatory fungi like ergot. Ergot, famously, caused an outbreak of violent hallucinations in the French village of Pont-Saint-Espirit very similar to those that start to affect Daryl, Carol, and the rest of the crew.
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.
All episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 are available to stream on AMC+.
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