The Walking Dead Fans Aren't Holding Back Their Thoughts On Daryl And Leah
Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 10, episode 18 — "Find Me"
The latest episode of The Walking Dead's additional season 10 episodes didn't have any big action set pieces, but it did have some huge emotional stakes. The episode dropped early on AMC+, though it will run on AMC proper Sunday, March 7, following the same release schedule as the rest of the "bonus" episodes.
Through a series of flashbacks, viewers saw fan favorite character Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) meet, court, and then move in with a woman named Leah (Lynn Collins). She ultimately disappears, leaving him quietly heartbroken and wondering what happened. Daryl and Leah met and formed a romantic relationship during the six year lost period after Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) disappearance. Even though we only got the Cliff's Notes version of their time together, it was enough to set the fandom ablaze with opinions. Like a family judging the romantic choices of one of their own, everybody had something to say about Daryl and Leah.
There were plenty of fans of the coupling, such as Reddit user u/Duendenostalgico. They took to the "Find Me" episode discussion thread to say, "I'll say it ... I actually liked the relationship between Daryl and Leah (Daleah). It didn't feel forced...Daryl must have really fallen in love to chose to move in with her."
User u/WolfOfRivia1111 not only agreed, but they also had high hopes for Leah's future prospects on the show. They wrote, "It was nice to see Daryl having a romantic interest, and you know that her character will connect in some way, whether with Commonwealth or CRM."
However, that warm reception wasn't shared by everyone.
Why some fans aren't feeling the love when it comes to Daryl and Leah
While some fans enjoyed finally seeing Daryl find love, however briefly, others didn't think the revelation of Daleah was handled as well as they would have liked.
Twitter user @lionheartamelia declared, "If that was their way of making me care about Daryl and Leah's relationship well... I really don't..." In a follow up tweet, they further expanded on their opinion of the episode, saying, "I already thought that showing it in one episode was bad enough but it wasn't even the full episode they're together for. There's no way they expect anyone to actually be invested."
Several fans pointed to the fact that Leah's backstory — she was emotionally devastated after losing her adopted family to a horde of walkers — wasn't exactly original. Twitter user @_carylitalia summed up the feelings of some when they tweeted, "As for the flashbacks, still don't like what happens and Leah's story is totally uninteresting (IMO)."
Meanwhile, user @therealAvorg was especially annoyed at what they saw as the show giving fans the runaround. They tweeted, "We've waited 10 years for Daryl to find someone, they make us ship Caryl, that doesn't happen, Connie shows up and everyone ships them and it could still happen, then a f—ing flashback appears where Daryl found someone random and they don't even show them kiss..."
But for all the fans who were disappointed by Daleah, there were also those like @brotherblxke, who tweeted, "Not me thinking Leah and Daryl are cute bye," complete with the crying emoji. Don't listen to the haters, Daryl and Leah. You've got plenty of fans out there rooting for you to work things out.