Showrunner David Zabel explains to The Hollywood Reporter there were several ideas around how the long-awaited “iconic moment” would play out.

After a full season and change apart, Walking Dead heroes Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Pelletier (Melissa McBride) have finally reunited — and it’s perfectly timed, as one of the other most important people in Daryl’s life has just departed.

The fourth episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol features the long-awaited reunion between the two title characters, in the thick of the season’s biggest action scene yet. The safe haven known as the Nest is under attack, with France’s dictatorial leader Genet (Anne Charrier) leading the charge. The chaos allows Carol to slip in (albeit, not unnoticed), and fight her way through mobs of walkers to find the person she’s been looking for all season long.

The second of six episodes in ‘Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ makes a stop in Greenland, with writer David Zabel explaining, “We’re not lacking for story here. We’re just lacking real estate.”

When The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol producer and writer David Zabel sat down to work with the rest of the team on breaking season two, six words immediately leapt to mind: “We’ve got some work to do.”

With two out of six season two episodes now released, the titular heroes have yet to meet face to face. For anyone feeling impatient, you’ll have to blame air travel in the zombie apocalypse. As Zabel and the writers started chipping away at story beats to bring Carol (Melissa McBride) from Maine to France, it became clear that she would need at least one major detour along the way.