I had high—perhaps too high—hopes for Daryl Dixon, mainly because I genuinely like the character and think Norman Reedus, out of all these characters, is a smart choice for a spinoff. But I walk away from the first season and its sixth, and final, episode with nothing but disappointment.

For one thing, I just can’t get over the entire premise of this show. Daryl being in France in the first place just doesn’t work. I don’t believe for a single second that transatlantic ocean travel would be taking place at this point in the apocalypse. Fuel would be too scarce to power a ship. It would be more plausible for them to have fixed up an old galleon or something and sailed across the ocean. Daryl as a sailor on a pirate ship exploring the world might be a cool show. This show? Just far too preposterous to take seriously.

The fact that the French are essentially using hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel to go . . . import zombies from the US, is so breathtakingly stupid I can’t even begin to comprehend how the creators of this show thought it was a good idea, other than to think of their audience as a bunch of morons who will lap up anything they’re served, no matter how turd-like.

Then there is the Laurent storyline, which is basically The Last Of Us but instead of being an immune kid he’s some kind of messiah who, I guess, everyone in a certain faction in France already believes in for reasons. I’m not sure how the nuns at the convent convinced wide swaths of the remaining French population that Laurent is a miracle child. I guess we’re just supposed to accept it. Mind you, even Jesus wasn’t considered a messiah in Israel until he was fully grown and performed miracles and whatnot, but hey in an age where the best form of communication is carrier pigeon, sure, it must be easy to spread the good word.

It’s just so stupid. I think Reedus did a good job throughout and I think Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) is one of the best new TWD characters in a long time, but the rest is just bad. The villain, Genet, is one-dimensional. A typical latter-day TWD villain in that she’s a woman (virtually every villain in this franchise is a woman now) and wants to control everything. No depth, nothing particularly unique or quirky. Here, she throws Daryl into an arena against super zombies and, shockingly, he survives. But:

Of course Daryl survives. Of course Quinn is hurt and then redeems himself by buying Daryl time to escape and save Isabelle and Laurent. Of course there is a scene where zombie Quinn tries to kill Isabelle and Daryl has to beg the most annoying character in the entire show to save her. Why are kids in the zombie apocalypse still hesitating like this? It was the exact same in the most recent half-season of Fear The Walking Dead.

Give. Me. A. Break.

Of course they get to the Nest and one of the main leaders there turns out to be an American. Wouldn’t want to make Daryl learn anymore French! Bon Appetit! was enough. Of course Daryl tries to leave without saying goodbye, and of course Isabelle tries to stop him (and of course romantic possibilities are not enough to make him stay). Of course when he gets to the beach, sees the ship and slaughters a bunch of zombies, Laurent shows up just in the nick of time and the exact right spot and shouts “Daryl!” stupidly from the bluff, surrounded by zombies but totally oblivious. Of course Daryl will end up staying for Season 2.

Oh, and of course he finds the grave of his dead grandfather who died on the beaches of Normandy despite it being one among thousands in a search that would take days or longer in any realistic scenario. But then again, finding proverbial needles in proverbial haystacks is what this franchise is known for. See, for example, pretty much any happenstance in Fear The Walking Dead.

It’s a lot of predictable outcomes, in other words. I wasn’t even particularly surprised when Codron was unable to shoot the kid and turns on Genet’s men instead, though it made me wish we’d seen more of him, had more of his internal struggle play out throughout the season, because he could have been a much more interesting and complex character. Missed opportunities abound, largely because they tried to do too much with too few episodes and ended up not doing much at all.

At the end of the episode we get Carol (Melissa McBride) looking for Daryl, tracking down a biker who happens to be on Daryl’s bike, and outsmarting him, locking him in her trunk and then driving off to follow up the lead he gives her. Three thoughts:

The episode was, once again, very striking to look at and the music (though perhaps not the U2 song at the end) was lovely. What a beautiful show this is, visually and sonically. The design elements are top-notch. If only the story could be as good as the design! How often I say this! How often I repeat myself!

What did you think of the finale? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

Also, I may update this post with scattered thoughts and a video review later, so stay tuned!