The Walking Dead Finally Let Norman Reedus Drop A Big F-Bomb, And Daryl Fans Were Here For It

Spoilers below for The Walking Dead's latest episode, so be warned if you haven't yet watched!

The Walking Dead set up its final spring finale with Episode 1115, "Trust," which spent part of its time bringing characters closer together, such as Eugene & Max, Ezekiel & Carol (even if she denies it), and Lance & Leah. The latter is going to be a big problem  for Maggie and her Hilltop crew, or at least the less important ones, but that battle likely won't play out in full during the next episode, but rather later in Season 11. However, we're not discussing the ins and outs of these characters' future at the moment, because there are more pressing matters at hand: Norman Reedus' Daryl dropping a big honking F-bomb.

Josh Hamilton’s Lance took exactly zero time to start losing his cool once Maggie denied entry to the Commonwealth soldiers, which led to him impulsively going after li’l Hershel with the “found” baseball cap. Might have been a smart move had Elijah not been within “pinning-Lance-against-the-wall” distance. Yet he was, and things became extremely tense after that, with seemingly everyone else pointing weapons standoff-style. It’s here when Daryl dropped what will now be considered one of the character’s most iconic lines, as seen in the clip below:

I guess all the other characters are used to hearing Daryl say “fuck” a lot, from whatever dialogue takes place outside of what’s seen in the episodes, since no one jumped up and down pointing at him with both hands. He seems like the kinda guy who would say “Goddamn, these fuckin’ mosquitos,” if it was a hot day and he was getting overwhelmed by mosquitos, but he’d never say that at a time when viewers were listening in. 

To be sure, The Walking Dead has featured specific moments featuring F-bombs in the past, though usually through uncensored scenes on Blu-ray releases, or in a largely muffled manner. Here, however, Norman Reedus delivered one of the clearest swears of any kind in the horror drama’s eleven seasons. (And yes, I'm counting the one from his time in that hole with Rick a few seasons back.) To be expected anytime Norman Reedus does something badass, such as returning to filming with the quickness after an on-set injury, the Internet was here for his foul mouth, as it went with the Twitter user below.

The fact that Daryl was granted the opportunity to utter such a relatively clear "fucking" in a Season 11 episode is a weird slap in the nuts to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, whose arrival back at the tail end of Season 6 made it seem like The Walking Dead was about to deliver a smorgasbord of F-bombs, though it never happened. (Though it might have had he noticed his phone sticking out of his jeans in a recent episode.)

Even the viewers who haven't necessarily been having the best time with The Walking Dead recently were more than pleased to hear Norman Reedus let his "fuck" flag fly, as it were.

Something of a similar sentiment from the fan below, who seems slightly more proud to be one of The Walking Dead's core viewership. 

Because Twitter is very rarely a place where everyone can come together in agreement, there were obviously some who weren't all that into Daryl's filthy language, and others who didn't think it was that big of a deal to begin with. But anyone who's been waiting for just such a moment definitely had gleeful emojis to share.

But just to get one out there that reflects the thoughts of Comic Book Negan:

I have to think fans would let their own F-bombs start flying if Andrew Lincoln's recent visit to Atlanta, which included a meet-up with Norman Reedus, had anything to do with the final Season 11 episodes being filmed. The production wrapped up as March 2022 came to a close, though, without any Rick-related rumors popping up, so we'll have to wait and see how things pan out.

One of many big TV shows ending in 2022, The Walking Dead will air the last episode of Season 11B on AMC on Sunday, April 10, with the final eight episodes arriving later this year. Head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are on the way in the meantime.