The Walking Dead - Daryl, Dwight, and the Cliffhanger

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 15, "East".

Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead gave us a Daryl filled with guilt and consumed by vengeance. We all quietly whispered “no” as Daryl barreled out of Alexandria, shaking our heads as he was followed by some of our heroes’ strongest, leaving Alexandria’s defenses wanting.

Glenn and Michonne were unable to convince Daryl to turn back. Rosita joined his cause. When it looked like Daryl and Rosita were about to save Glenn and Michonne in another big-damn-heroes moment, Dwight ended all hope. In the last ten seconds of the episode, as Daryl moved to shoot Dwight, Dwight shot first.

The question on everyone's minds: Is Daryl Dixon dead?

For a split second, I thought this was the end of our precious emo redneck zombie slayer. However, with the fade to black and dubious “You’ll be alright”, I immediately calmed down.

The joke has been made. Don’t worry, he’s under the dumpster. I was firmly rolling my eyes through the entire Glenn and Nicholas debacle, like, Glenn’s not going down like this. If they’re going to kill a major character, they’re not going to make it ambiguous.

Upon closer viewing, it seems as though Daryl was shot in the shoulder.

While Norman Reedus feels the need to insist that Dwight’s “You’ll be alright” could have been directed anywhere, I don’t buy it. Dwight is focused on Daryl because of their recent history. Of course he was speaking to him. Daryl turning around meant he was going to shoot, clearly, even Dwight knew this.

“I should have killed you”. Maybe you shouldn’t have made your intent to kill him so explicit, Daryl.

Dwight had to shoot him or Dwight would be dead. And I hate to break it to some fans that believe there’s no way Dwight of all people would be the one to take out Daryl Dixon, but Dwight is actually a big character in the comics. Yet I still don’t believe Daryl is dead. Dwight just shot Daryl to stop Daryl from killing him.

Now here’s the real question. Is Daryl going to die?

He won’t die from the bullet that covered our screens in blood Sunday night, but I’m not so sure Team Family will be able to make a hasty escape from the clutches of their captors with another dick-biting miracle.

With the finale being 90 minutes, however, it would make sense for that battle to last a chunk of the episode before it’s wrapped up. I assume Negan won’t make an appearance until at most the halfway point. He might not even appear until the final scenes of the episode. That gives TWD writers plenty of time to make us squirm over the unclear fate of our beloved badass.

Hopefully Daryl and Team Fam will survive this jam, make it back home, and Daryl spends the rest of the episode healing up from his gunshot.

Because we don’t want him there when Team Family meets Negan.

But this, of course, is just my opinion. How do you feel about the shocking twist? Where do you stand on Daryl’s fate? Let me know in the comments!

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