Well naturally because he feels responsible for her death just like Beth. She is another dead girl to him and he's drinking to cope with the pain. And as far as Carol knowing? I'm sure she did know because she was watching him as he did it.

 

Daryl does drink. Who would mention this if it ain't true.

 

I'm not sure we all know that.

If you remember from "Still" they played "I never", a drinking game he did not particularly enjoy and which did indeed turn him into a bit of an a--hole (including dragging Beth outside and making her watch him repeatedly shoot a walker with his crossbow). Of course, it also allowed him to open up about what was eating at him, so in the end his drinking didn't end up to be all bad.

Maybe knowing that alcohol makes him an a--hole is what motivated him to drink the mini bottle. Maybe he wanted to feel bad about himself for not having killed Dwight the first time they met, thus eventually leading to Denise's death, so maybe the drinking served two purposes:
1) it was a salute to Denise (as in a toast), and
2) it allowed him to open up and feel the guilt that he's harboring because of her death.

 

He's an asshole when he's drunk, taking a few drinks doesn't get him drunk. And he has never swore off drinking, just apologized to Beth for being the way he was to her. We also saw him drink and get drunk at the CDC with nothing to complain of other than a hangover. And we saw him drink with Joe on the way to Terminus. So you are off base to say he doesn't drink. Was he also drinking at the church when they had the wine? But I do think he was using it to cope with Denise's death.

 

Drinking cheap backwoods redneck moonshine makes him an Ahole when he drinks, Drinking mini bottles of Jim Beam doesnt.

 

I guess i just saw it as a little tribute to her in a way...they found the mini bottles while they were on the run that she wanted to take (to find the medication) so he tipped one back in her honor.

If he wanted to drown his sorrows, he would need a lot more than that tiny little bottle

 

Stop, Daryl pounds beers all the time, they just don't show it. He shotguns Nati all day.

 

Drinking to someone who mentioned several times that her parents were alcoholics and that she herself didn't drink because of it isn't much of a tribute. I think it was meant to indicate to us that he was headed to a bad place. He does mention that he becomes an a**hole when he drinks in Still, and I think he passes on drinking at the church, but I'd have to check that.

 

Yeah, at the CDC he was actually walking around with a half full bottle of Southern Comfort in his hand lol.

 

Yeah but she's too dead to be offended. One might say Hershel had a drinking problem and Beth drank to him...

 

Funny you should say that.

Because, if I can remember correctly, Daryl's mother was negligent because she had a drinking problem. She was so drunk that when their house burned down, she died. So Daryl's feelings about drinking (i.e. he doesn't respect big drinkers/alcoholics, he generally tries to avoid drinking) make sense

Daryl told Carl about this at the prison after Lori died and Rick had gone crazy. And I do remember that thing with Bob in 4A.

 

Rick wants Daryl's 'mini bottle' in Rick's 'mini bottle opener'.

 

Oh, I definitely think we were meant to think about the similarities between Daryl's life and Denise's during the episode. I'll go so far
as to say that Denise was saying those things deliberately because she suspected that Daryl had had a horrific childhood. She had seen his back while stitching up his stab wound, that level of violence almost always occurs in the setting of substance/alcohol abuse.
I think she was trying to reach out to him in a way that he would understand. I suspect that is partially what is fueling this revenge scenario.

 

Now that I think about your posts, everything that has happened between Daryl and Denise over the past couple weeks makes a lot of sense.

Denise was a psychiatrist. Not that you need to be a psychiatrist to figure out Daryl (he isn't that hard of a read) but it makes sense that she'd try to counsel/provide low-key therapy to her friends.

 

I agree, which makes her death doubly sad. I liked Denise as a character in her own right, but she would have been a good friend to Daryl and an ally in his journey to overcome childhood abuse.