WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 21, "Diverged," which aired Sunday on AMC.
While last week brought us up to speed with Princess, Yumiko, Eugene and Ezekiel, the latest episode of The Walking Dead follows Carol and Daryl dealing with the aftermath of their fight in Season 10, Episode 18, "Find Me." Still blaming Carol's reckless quest for revenge against Alpha for Connie's apparent death, Daryl struggled to forgive her.
With their friendship on the verge of fracturing, this week's episode, "Diverged," opens with Carol, Daryl and Dog walking back from their hunting trip. There is an apparent tension between the two. Carol struggles to open her canteen, but when Daryl offers to help, she shuts him down. Still, he gives her a pocket knife, which Carol uses to undo the canteen's cap. While discussing their limited success hunting, the pair comes to a fork in the road. They separate, with Dog choosing to follow Carol down her path, much to Daryl's dismay. Before leaving, Daryl begins to speak, and Carol cuts him off to say she doesn't need an apology. However, Daryl clarifies he was just going to wish her good luck.
Carol and Dog return to Alexandria, where she discovers a tattered, tie-dye scarf on the ground. After snagging the scarf, Carol brings Dog home. While giving him water and pets, Carol -- seemingly talking to Dog -- announces, "For the record, I didn't need an apology from him. I know he meant what he said, and an apology is just a truce. It doesn't fix anything."
After bonding with Dog, Carol runs into Jerry outside, who asks her what she's doing with the old scarf. "I just want to fix something," she responds, perhaps simultaneously voicing her desire to repair her relationship with Daryl. Begging Jerry for a task to keep her busy, he asks her to cook food. The storyline briefly transitions to Daryl as his motorcycle breaks down before switching back to Carol, now on a mission to make soup with the supplies she gathered on the hunting trip.
While prepping the stew, Carol is interrupted by commotion coming from inside the house. Dog tore the room apart in search of a rat. After chasing the vermin into the garage, Dog knocks over the soup. The encounter prompts Carol to create a rat trap from some random supplies with the help of Daryl's knife. On the hunt for more soup ingredients, Carol heads out into a field to forage, where a group of walkers confronts her. Still visibly on edge from her fight with Daryl, Carol takes out her frustrations on the walkers.
The story returns to Daryl, searching for a fuel line for his motorcycle before returning to Carol covered in blood, returning to her makeshift kitchen with nettles and dandelion greens. Meanwhile, Daryl struggles to repair his bike with too large of a knife, realizing Carol still has his small one. As Daryl walks his bike down overgrown railroad tracks, he comes across a group of walkers and notices a couple of them are wearing military gear. After a close-call battle, Daryl manages to kill one of the military walkers and take his supplies, which he uses to repair his bike.
All the while, Carol is still working on her soup as Dog looks on with envy. The rat makes an appearance before squeezing between a hole in the wall, and Carol plugs it up with the tie-dye scarf. That night, Dog follows Carol upstairs to cuddle in bed. While cozied up with Dog, Carol contemplates leaving the group. Dog kisses her, and Carol says, "Yeah, I miss him too." Hours later, Dog wakes Carol and leads her back into the garage. Hearing the elusive rat behind the wall, Carol decides to break it down in a fit of rage but doesn't find the rat.
The following morning, the soup is still cooking as Carol cleans up her mess from the night before. While doing so, Jerry comes by to check-in on her. Carol, practically in tears, admits that yesterday wasn't her best day and that she needs to fix what she broke. Sensing she isn't just talking about the demolished wall, Jerry says, "A friend is someone who thinks you're perfect even if everyone else thinks you're broken."
Later that day, while Carol is fixing the wall, Daryl returns to Alexandria. Dog runs out to greet him, and Carol follows. When locking eyes, Carol asks what the hell happened to him, to which Daryl responds, "I was gonna ask you the same thing." The two go on to make polite but awkward conversation before Carol returns Daryl's pocket knife. He tells her she can keep it and walks off with Dog.
Although the episode highlights how the easy challenges -- making soup and fixing a motorcycle -- become harder when they are separated, Carol and Daryl's uncharacteristic strained conversation suggests they both, especially Daryl, may need more time to heal. Not to mention there are still factors that could influence their friendship for better or worse, such as the possible return of Daryl's love interest, Leah, and Connie, who the audience knows is still alive. Considering Daryl has blamed Carol for Connie's unnecessary death, her likely Alexandria reunion is sure to change things.
While Carol started the episode expecting an apology from Daryl, it's clear she did some thinking on the matter and about her "best friend." Now, the real question is whether or not Daryl can forgive Carol. Given there is only one episode left in The Walking Dead's Season 10C, fans may be waiting till Season 11 to find out.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and is available to stream early on AMC+.
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