I thought Daryl's behavior with the bike was strange: "I'll ride on ahead and you two catch up?" In their world that doesn't sound very trustworthy to me, in the most benign case it sounds like he is abandoning them, and possibly going off to set up something more sinister. Why didn't he just leave the bike covered and walk with them? He always could have gone back for the bike later.

 

To hand the gun back, loaded or not, was one of the dumbest things anyone has ever done on the show. But because it's Daryl who seems incapable of idiocy to that degree, I'm willing to blame that on a potential head trauma from falling off the bike.

Oh, and they hadn't needed to engage the enemy from their cover, so handing him the gun for an offensive backup was not necessary. Only if they'd been spotted, should Daryl have taken the huge risk of handing back the gun.

Additionally, to hand it over when he did was triply stupid because he doesn't know this guy's trigger finger, and he could've shot at them, drawing more attention from that crew towards their hiding spot.

But like I said... head trauma, cause it damn sure wasn't coming from Daryl's working ​brain.

 

As he removed the shrubbery concealing his bike, Daryl said, “I can walk it from here till we meet up with my friends. They got a car. You can ride with them.” So he definitely intended for the three of them to walk, with the bike in tow, to Sasha and Abraham’s location. But that plan still baffles me because of the vulnerable position in which Daryl placed himself.

I don't know why Daryl didn't just walk with Dwight and Sherry to Sasha and Abraham's location then drive back to the forest to retrieve his bike. Even if Sasha and Abraham didn't have a car, given the Dixon family's automotive knowledge, chances are they could have secured another ride.

 

I take Daryl's handing the gun back to Dwight as a good reading of people by Daryl. This reading is of a deeper level. By a deeper level, I mean, Daryl read that this guy is not going to use that gun to kill him. Of course, no one is God and so no one can read another person perfectly. So, we can also say that Daryl took a gamble. But his gamble did pay off, in the sense that this guy did not use the gun to turn against him as soon as the threat (from Wade's group) is gone. Notice that Daryl did not give the gun to Dwight at the very end of their encounter but rather at an earlier moment, without the benefit of knowing him at the greenhouse event. So, even with limited time to read this guy, Daryl did pretty well. At the end of the day, Daryl did read this guy well enough that this guy did not kill him. This is Daryl's first gamble.

What Daryl did not read too well is about the part of inviting this guy and girl to go along with him. I see, this part is of a superficial level and is not as critical as the above part of handing the gun back to him. The first gamble is ''will he use the gun to kill me?'', a life-and-death issue. The 2nd gamble is ''will he go with me?'', not life critical. Daryl did not take the gun back after the Wade threat is gone. He knew this guy is not going to kill him, but he did not know for sure if this guy would use the gun to get away. For this 2nd gamble, Daryl lost. It costed him the bike and his crossbow, not his life.

I am not sure about the odds of this 2nd gamble, perhaps 50-50. And of course, if Daryl knew that he is going to lose this 2nd gamble, I do not think he would kill them. For example, if the couple insist that they do not want to go with Daryl, I think Daryl would just ride his bike away but still leave the gun behind for their defense.

Personally, I think Daryl's gambles were good ones. And this perhaps makes him more closer to Morgan's than to Rick's.

 

I kind of agree with both though, but the more people you have, the more people you need to have trained and ready in case shit hits the fan.

 

Thx for the correction, Daryl's actions make much more sense. It's too bad those two were still too afraid to take a chance.

 

You're talking about the difference between Athens and Sparta. In the end, Athens won.

If you want a small group, only taking Rambos is a good idea. If you are trying to rebuild a city or a state, you also need plumbers, doctors, cooks, engineers, repairmen, trashmen, etc. asking them ALL to be Rambo as well is unrealistic.

 

If Daryl met them a week later in the woods, they probably would have joined him. Here they were in the process of escaping, and were still terrified of going back, and probably felt that there would be others out there searching for them, and just wanted to get away from them as far and as fast as possible. I can't say their decision was a good one, but won't go so far as to say it was terrible, either.

 

Humans are a resource, and it’s premature to write off all the Alexandrians simply because they aren’t seasoned fighters. Firstly, in this world people pull their weight in other ways. Doctors, nurses, and medical experts are valuable assets. And when canned food, bottled water, and arms and ammunition become scarce, engineers, farmers, and blacksmiths will become vital and necessary personnel. Competent survivors are a dime a dozen, but a capable survivor who can tend to the deathly sick and severely injured or who can manufacture bullets and repair broken weaponry is platinum in this world and is of particular value.

Secondly, basic training and defense not only strengthen Alexandria’s quantity of skilled (i.e., quality) survivors, but also cultivate trust, loyalty, and other community-building sentiments. Not everyone will become warrior phenoms, but as long as everyone can protect him- or herself, then that’s okay. Furthermore, this simple endeavor may also help minimize or negate risk of mutinies, as it demonstrates good will and concern for others’ well beings. Disagreement is inevitable, but if people realize or believe a leader has their best interests at heart, they may be more inclined to alert their leader(s) of any known brewing mutinous factions. At the very least, they’ll civilly discuss their doubts and concerns, instead of resorting to mutiny, should such grievances arise.

As for Daryl and the forest fiasco, Daryl didn’t falter because he recruited Dwight and Sherry. He faltered in how he recruited them. He neither recognized the magnitude of Dwight and Sherry’s fear, nor weighed it against their desire to join a community. If he had, he would have presented the duo with their options: join him and his group or amicably part ways. If Dwight and Sherry chose the former option, Daryl could have escorted them to Sasha and Abraham then retrieved his bike on the return drive to Alexandria. Instead, he presented two frightened people, who just narrowly escaped being recaptured,with transport and weaponry that allowed them to distance themselves from and arm themselves against their former captors.

If Daryl had exercised better caution and judgment throughout his entire ordeal, he would have ignored his curiosity and simply retrieved his crossbow and left the duffel for the trio to find. (Okay, he would have communicated and possibly rid himself of the situation sooner.) But he didn’t; he returned the bag (and inquired about its contents). Consequently, he inadvertently got himself cornered with the others, as Dwight, Sherry, and Tina’s former captors marched into the forest immediately after Daryl brought back Tina’s insulin.

And in that particular situation, I don’t think Daryl was wrong to arm Dwight. He saw the men flanking them, using the trees as cover, and realized the best option, to secure his (and the trio’s) survival, was to return the gun. They only escaped because they were able to use a nearby walker as a weapon that forced their pursuers to retreat. Without that diversion those men probably would have located them and a fight would have ensued, and I think that’s the scenario Daryl considered and prepared for when he handed Dwight the gun. One crossbow was simply inadequate against all those men, but a crossbow and a gun bettered their immediate chances at survival. If anything, Daryl could have waited for Dwight to fire then used that distraction as the opportunity he needed to slip away.

 

I addressed how to deal with liabilities and recognize potential. Furthermore, I did not agree that Daryl's recruitment of Dwight and Sherry was wrong, and I explained how Daryl's decision to confront their pursuers could be justified. They are two distinct situations. Please carefully reread my posts.

 

If you aren't going to let people in with problems, you aren't going to let people in at all. If people are completely composed and competent, why would they WANT to join your group? They'd have their own place and be taking care of themselves. The only people you are going to find are going to be those in some sort of distress, and will definitely be "unknown factors".

 

Most of the Alexandrians are inexperienced, so that’s why I referenced that perspective when writing my response. Regardless, I proposed how to manage quality vs quantity concerns, liabilities due to lack of fighting skills or experience, and liabilities due to contemptible or contentious personalities. I suggested building community relationships and basic training and defense, as such actions would foster good will, show concern for community members’ well beings, strengthen and unify the community, increase the number of competent fighters, and possibly assuage cowardly behavior and deter mutinous reactions (i.e., problematic citizens).

You thought Daryl should have returned the insulin then bolted, but that’s exactly what he attempted to do…and he had to hide behind a tree because Dwight, Sherry, and Tina’s pursuers found them and began to flank them. So your suggestion for how Daryl should have handled Dwight, Sherry, and Tina probably would have resulted in Daryl still winding up surrounded by the trio’s former captors.

I explained how, in that moment, Daryl arming Dwight was a logical option against an enemy. At the time all Daryl knew was that Dwight could have killed him but didn’t, that Dwight was willing to fire at a living person, and that he, Dwight, Sherry, and Tina were facing a common threat. So it made sense why he armed Dwight.

My issue isn’t with Daryl recruiting Dwight and Sherry; it’s how he recruited them (i.e., the recruitment process). Recruitment was defensible because Dwight and Sherry could handle walkers and they could enlighten the ASZ about a neighboring settlement. Likewise, Abraham and Sasha’s conversation indicated that none of them knew how bad things were in Alexandria. They assumed the others were managing or had managed to successfully remerge the smaller herd with the mega herd or at least prevent it from reaching Alexandria.

For me there is a nuanced difference between recruitment (the invitation to join and the reasons/motivations spurring the invitation) and the recruitment process (the mechanisms one employs to persuade people to join and the tactics one utilizes to minimize risks). And it’s the latter in which I believe Daryl erred. Namely, he underestimated and failed to assuage Dwight and Sherry’s fears, and he didn’t minimize the specific risks of his property and weaponry being stolen—risks that any recruiter could face. I perceive it similarly to Aaron and his recruitment process for Rick and company. He was right to invite them to join Alexandria, but he wasn’t so smart to joke with them and withhold certain information as he got clocked in the face for it and was almost abandoned.

 

Managing the various liabilities is dependent on type. We've already seen how community building, inclusion, etc., can help with certain ne'er-do-wells, namely the cowardly. Nicholas began to transition from his cowardly ways once Glenn forgave him and began to form a relationship with him. Unfortunately, the not-so-dry run didn't give us time to determine if the change was permanent. And Aidan was coming around, before he died, because of Glenn. Likewise, Maggie's saving and praying with Father Gabriel and the community (presumably) forgiving him, for the gate incident, seems to have positively affected him. They made him feel like he could redeem himself and actually belong. He felt inspired enough to approach Carl and resume his training lessons and to volunteer for the quarry plan. Again, we'll have to wait to see if the change is permanent.

Ron and Pete are angry liabilities, and Spencer is a combination: he's cowardly and he's got some anger. It's the angry liabilities you really need to observe and for whom you need to formulate a game plan. I think the first point of action is to pinpoint the anger's source and enact measures to mitigate or nullify it if feasible. The second action would probably be execution. I'm hesitant to immediately jump to this option because it may create a negative feedback loop among the rest of the community: people may begin to question motives, become angry, then decide to rebel. I don't trust exile as an option because the offenders could return and cause serious destruction. Or did you mean execution when you wrote "remove them from the community"? So for angry liabilities, the course of action (reform vs. execution) will probably have to be on an individual basis.

Yeah, that’s why I earlier suggested that Daryl should have ignored his curiosity about the cooler and simply retrieved his crossbow, hopped on his bike, then reunited with Sasha and Abraham. If he really needed to assuage his guilt, he could yell, “Hey, morons, your bag!” then immediately ran away, as it would help the trio more easily find the bag. But I wouldn’t advise that last action. I would have retrieved my crossbow and bolted.

I understand your perspective about Daryl returning the gun. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that issue, as I see the sensibilities in both options. (I would really like to know Daryl's gun proficiency and the quantity of guns the other group possessed. That info would help me determine which choice really was the smartest and safest option in that situation.)