The Walking Dead Season 4: Why Did Daryl Dixon Lick His Fingers? Vincent Martella Explains — Exclusive

Vincent Martella’s (Patrick) appearance in The Walking DeadSeason 4 premiere may have been brief, but since his character’s mysterious death closed out the episode we know that he will play a very pivotal role in the start of the season.Wetpaint Entertainment spoke with Vincent — a longtime TWD fan — about his part of the show, and even in spite of his character’s premature death, he couldn’t have been more grateful for the chance to appear on the AMC hit.As you might have guessed, one of Vincent’s on-set highlights was meeting and acting with Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon).“I’m actually a really big fan of The Walking Dead, I’ve been watching the show since the very beginning so meeting Norman Reedus was really incredible anyways because I really admire his work,” he began. “It wasn’t too difficult for me to act very excited when I got a chance to work with him and meet him.”The episode’s director, Greg Nicotero, even advised Vincent (as Patrick) to treat Daryl like a rockstar during their on-screen introduction. As Vincent explains, “During the scene they felt that it was very important for me to keep in mind that I was meeting the coolest person I could imagine, someone I really couldn’t believe I’d get the chance to shake hands with. I just had to keep that in mind the whole time I was shooting, that I really idolize this guy. It wasn’t too difficult because Norman is a really great guy and an awesome actor.”
In light of Patrick’s death from this new flu-like illness at the end of the episode, the exchange with Daryl became even more important, especially since Daryl licked his fingers before reaching for Patrick’s hand — whichcould mean that our beloved bow-toting zombie killer has been infected. Say it ain’t so!While Vincent wasn’t able to tell us much more about the disease — “as you guys watch the show the mystery will unfold a little bit” — he did explain how the finger-licking came about. And it was all Norman’s idea. God bless that man!“He licked his fingers when he went to shake my hand, which everyone found really, really disgusting, but it was actually a choice that he made as a character,” Vincent notes. “He was like, ‘I figure this is something that Daryl would do.’ I felt like that came off as one of the best parts of that scene.”While we certainly hope this gross finger lick won’t be the kiss of death for fan-favorite Daryl, one can never be too sure! Do you think Daryl is in danger? Tell us your thoughts below!funete;http://www.wetpaint.com