Daryl Is Apparently Butt Naked On The Next Walking Dead Episode, But Not In A Good Way

the walking dead norman reedus daryl dixon

Daryl Dixon has been a fan-favorite on The Walking Dead ever since he strutted onto the scene and starting flinging squirrels back in Season 1. He's since proved to be exactly the kind of guy you want on your side in the zombie apocalypse, and he's also become a wild card sex symbol to many viewers, mostly because competence is way more attractive than clean hair in this case. Fans will soon see more skin from Daryl than usual, but not in a way that should get anybody salivating. Norman Reedus had this to tease about Daryl's predicament in the next episode:

I'm butt naked...eating dog food in the next episode our show. It was pretty gross.

Norman Reedus' reveal to EW that Daryl will be eating dog food in the nude sooner rather than later unfortunately makes a lot of a sense. Daryl was last seen in The Walking Dead being forced into a car by some Saviors to be held as Negan's prisoner. He was in rough physical shape thanks to a bullet wound, and he was clearly already breaking down emotionally after he got Glenn beaten to death.

Under normal circumstances, dog food might not be too unattractive to Daryl. The man has devoured raw squirrels that he cut open with a dirty zombie-killin' knife; at least dog food has probably been processed. The combination of physical humiliation and mental degradation that comes with being stripped and served dog food in his current circumstances should be enough to make Daryl suffer plenty, no thumbscrews or baseball bats necessary. I'm not sure if I even want to know if it's wet or dry dog food. Poor Daryl. Poor viewers.

The torture by nakedness and kibble sounds like it's going to be pretty effective. Norman Reedus has also teased that Daryl is going to hate himself and lose the ability to see any good in the world. He won't give up his willingness to fight for survival, but it seems that he'll have lost the sense of hope that he gained from his time with Beth. He'll be in rough shape among the Saviors, but the one bit of good news for Daryl fans is that he is probably much too valuable as a hostage to be killed.

Besides, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has explained that Negan has some grander plans in store for Daryl, even if minions like Dwight don't necessarily agree. Morgan claims that Negan admires Daryl for taking a swing at him and sees Daryl as somebody who would make a valuable ally. Considering Daryl's loyalty to Rick, Negan will undoubtedly have to get ugly in order to break Daryl enough to even consider switching sides. Hopefully Lucille stays out of the equation. And if Norman Reedus is written for any more scenes where he's in the buff, maybe they could choose more stereotypically erotic foods instead.

Tune in to AMC on Sunday, November 6 at 9 p.m. ET to see Daryl naked and dining on doggie dinner on The Walking Dead.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).