Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of CarolThe Walking Dead has had a few strong spin-offs at this point, but nothing can beat the excitement surrounding Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol. As the title suggests, we’re promised that Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) will finally be reunited. Still, you need more than a heartwarming reunion to carry a full season, and Daryl Dixon has that with yet another terrifying human villain: Marion Genet (Anne Charrier). Marion is leading an army against the Union of Hope, and she wants all of them dead, Daryl included. To do that, she’s creating an army. Not an army of the living, mind you, but of the dead.

The Walkers Have Evolved in ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’

In the first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, our hero is taken hostage by Genet’s army and forced to do battle with an amper, a superpowered walker made in a lab that responds to an unknown injection which boosts their adrenaline. He is given an axe and forced to do battle with it in a pit, and, although Daryl survives, we have now been introduced to new walkers that are more powerful through human influence. (There are also walkers in Daryl Dixon known as “boilers” and “burners” due to their acidic insides.)

In an interview with Den of Geek, showrunner David Zabel explained the reason for creating these advanced, human-changed walkers. He said:

“It was determined that they can’t just be naturally occurring because that felt like a violation of the rules. So we came up with this idea that was partially inspired by evil scientific experimentation through the ages, including Nazi Germany.”

Marion Genet Is Creating an Army of Super Walkers

The Walking Dead has always been about way more than zombies eating people. In this franchise, it’s the alive humans who are the biggest threat, such as the Governor (David Morrissey) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Now The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has Marion Genet, a janitor who used to work at the Louvre in Paris before the outbreak, and has risen up to control her own army.

However, as shown in the third episode of The Book of Carol, we now know just how Genet plans to destroy the Union and the rest of her enemies. Carol and a new friend, Remy (François Perache), can only watch helplessly as a group of hostages is led away, where they are shot dead, before a scientist brings them back with an injection that makes these walkers extremely angry. Remy explains to Carol that Marion is trying to create her own breed of stronger walkers.

Genet Wants To Turn Carol Into a Walker That Will Kill Daryl

Through it all, Carol is trying to find Daryl, and she’ll lie and manipulate everyone in her path to make it happen. She starts by lying to a kind man in America named Ash (Manish Dayal), telling him that she is looking for her daughter Sophia in France so that he’ll fly her there in his plane. When she meets Marion Genet in Paris, Carol admits that she’s looking for Daryl, but lies again, saying that she wants to kill him. Since Genet wants him dead, too, this brings the two women closer and Marion promises Carol she’ll be able to have her wish granted.

It’s only in the final minutes of the episode that Carol learns the truth. As Genet’s army approaches the Union Nest, they stop. Marion lets a large group of her people know that it’s now time. They are rounded up to be shot dead so they can be turned into powerful walkers. Genet explains to Carol that she will be among them and that this is how she will get to kill Daryl. The Walking Dead has seen it all when it comes to its antagonists, but never has there been walkers physically altered by humans. If Marion Genet can create her own army of the living dead, this changes everything for The Walking Dead universe.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol is available to watch on AMC+ and every Sunday on AMC.