Oh, of course I don’t think it was rushed in story time! And Daryl is indeed a feral cat, so yes, it needed to take an awful long time. I’m ok with all of that. What I consider rushed is that it was rushed ... for me! I had no time to get used to this new situation and this new person my baby has apparently fallen for! And I need to know and like the girls he likes!

Ok, I see your point. You’re almost convincing me it was ok to do it the way they did. But... but... but... I just wanna know every detail! And also, we’re interpreting things that happen based on the information we are given and then suddenly it feels like they’ve pulled the rug from under my feet, and Daryl has all these secrets. We still don’t know half of what’s happened (and not happened) between him and Leah.

In many ways this is exciting story telling, I have to give that to them. If it had happened to some other character, I might be raving about how clever this was. I don’t know. It’s different with Daryl, because this has challenged some of my theories about him and I thought I knew him pretty well. Maybe I’m just a little pissed about that! Lol. It’s all rather silly, really, to care this much!

 

These are all possible reasons. And such huge question perhaps deserves an answer and we will find out one day.
I’m more interested in Daryl’s side here. Why he couldn’t commit then suddenly he decided he could? What changed his mind?

 

Good questions. Makes me think of that Joni Mitchell line in Big Yellow Taxi, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone..” Story of Daryl’s love life.

 

You never know. May be Daryl has several girlfriends along that river and he is a womanizer in disguise. I heard of sailors who had different wives and homes at each port along their ship's route. May be that map was not a coverage map to find Rick but a map of all his girlfriends.

On a serious note I wondered when and how Daryl told Carol about her. Can't be when they stood across the creek on their brief periodic encounters?

 

My wife and I found it stultifying. After the long hiatus, we want action and forward movement, and had no interest in that relationship or the dog. Any flashback would have been unwelcome though. We like Daryl, but that filthy hair on the sweaty face look, and always tending to it as if it was a coy style, seemed especially repulsive in a close setting.

 

And then to symbolize that Leah sleeps with the fishes...no not really.

 

Thought it was dumb outside first few minutes. Dog was great the rest sucked. Funny that everyone thinks the fight was about Connie when it was really about Carol not knowing when to stop. And Daryl being upset about her running all the time. Gave it a 6