Spoiler alert: This story contains substantial details about “East,” Sunday’s episode of AMC's The Walking Dead.
Blood sometimes seems to flow like water on The Walking Dead, so it can take something out of the ordinary to really jolt the audience.
The end of Sunday’s episode accomplished that, with blood flying into the viewer’s face – or at least into the camera – just before the picture went to black. The larger shock, however, is that the blood belongs to fan favorite Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), whose fate will remain unknown at least until next Sunday’s Season 6 finale (AMC, 9 p.m. ET/PT).
Reedus tells USA TODAY that there’s no sleight of hand in the tightly focused shot, which features Saviors enemy Dwight (Austin Amelio) sneaking up behind Daryl, who is almost out of the frame, and shooting him when he turns around.
“It’s exactly what you see. That’s (Daryl’s) blood that hits the camera. There’s no trick there,” he says. As to whether the shot kills Daryl, “You don’t know, but he’s definitely not looking good.”
Reedus, who appeared on the big screen this year in Triple 9 and stars with Diane Kruger in Sky (April 15), suggests not reading too much into Dwight’s post-shooting final words: “You’ll be alright.”
“You don’t know who he’s talking to,” he says. “He could be saying that to anyone there. There’s other people standing there.”
Daryl and Dwight have been headed toward a deadly confrontation since they met earlier in the season, when Dwight and two female companions captured Daryl. Daryl regained control and considered inviting Dwight to join the survivors at Alexandria, before the Savior took Daryl’s signature crossbow and motorcycle at gunpoint.
Dwight’s rejection of compassion helped sour Daryl on being open to outsiders. When Dwight uses the crossbow to kill Denise (Merritt Wever), it only strengthens Daryl’s resolve to destroy him, even if it means taking the risk of doing it on his own.
“That arrow to Denise’s head is something Daryl is not going to get over. … That was his arrow that went through her eye and killed her in front of him. He wants revenge,” Reedus says. “Sometimes, when you think with your passion and your heart and not your brain, you put yourself in a situation that comes back to bite you in the (behind), which has happened to him at least twice with that guy.”
However, even Reedus is surprised Dwight got the drop on Daryl. “Daryl is an expert tracker and he’s smarter than that, but he just wants revenge so badly that he let this guy sneak up on him and shoot him. I was shocked that that would happen to Daryl. But, when you’re acting out of passion, sometimes you make a mistake. In that world, you can’t make mistakes like that.”
Daryl isn’t the only one whose life hangs in the balance going into the season finale. Dwight and his fellow Saviors hold Michonne (Danai Gurira), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) captive; a bloody trail is the only evidence of Carol (Melissa McBride); and pregnant Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is stricken by abdominal pains.
“There’s absolutely nobody in the cast who’s untouchable,” Reedus says. “Everyone can go at any minute.”
And they haven’t even met Savior boss Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a major character from The Walking Dead comic books who makes his much-anticipated debut in Sunday's season finale.
"I can say it's the most gut-wrenching episode we've ever done," Reedus says.
