As The Walking Dead’s resident ne’er do well badass, Daryl Dixon is featured in many of the show’s more intense sequences. And sometimes, the physical danger is all too real, even if zombies aren’t the cause. Actor Norman Reedus recently spoke about his favorite scene in Season 5, and it involved an actual on-set injury that never made it to air.
Speaking with TheWrap, Reedus shared that his favorite scene came from the tenth Season 5 episode, “Them.” Here’s how he explained surprisingly hurting himself.
I liked us in the barn. Yeah, I liked in the barn, we’re getting overrun by walkers and the storm comes…I actually cut my arm up during that. And they got it on camera. But it didn’t make the cut. They said they actually saw my arm opening up and blood start coming out of my arm on camera.
Dammit, The Walking Dead! This is a show where a character exploded a walker’s head with a flare. A show where Rick chomped through a guy’s neck. A show where a character got his head lopped off with a sword. But an actor accidentally cuts himself, and a legitimate moment of bloodshed doesn’t make the cut? Granted, there might have been other problems with the scene beyond just him getting his arm cut, like Carl farting or something, but it would have still been a nice little easter egg for fans to wonder about.
Perhaps it’ll pop up on the Blu-rays as an outtake of some kind. Maybe Reedus just didn’t remember screaming, “Son of a bitch, I cut myself!” as the scene was happening, and that’s why it had to get cut. Is it wrong of me for wanting to watch Daryl bleed, just to make sure he’s human? After all, this is the episode where he put a cigarette out in his hand to make sure he could still feel.
Beyond Daryl cutting himself, “Them” contained one of the more disgusting scenes that The Walking Dead ever laid on viewers. It was before they got to Alexandria and realized that civilization wasn’t totally dead, so they were all exhausted and starving and on their last legs. So what did they do? Roasted up some wild dogs and ate them. Yummo. It was somehow worse than what happened to Bob.
Check out Reedus explaining his enjoyment of that hectic sequence below.
At least the entire episode wasn’t banned, right? It’ll be a long wait, but The Walking Dead Season 6 is scheduled to go into production this summer, with a blood-soaked premiere date coming in October.
