Daryl Said "The Walking Dead" in the Series Finale and Fans Are Freaking Out

There's something so satisfying about watching a TV show or movie where a character says the title of it in a sentence, as if that's the most normal and natural thing in the world. So when Daryl says, "we ain't the walking dead" in the series finale of The Walking Dead, fans flocked to Twitter to applaud the series for adding in that line.

Those who remember the early seasons of the show may also remember Rick once telling Daryl, "we are the walking dead." In the series finale, Daryl calls back to that with his own line, which puts a focus on the survivors fighting against each other.

Daryl wants everyone to band together instead and fight the actual undead and his line cements that belief.

When Daryl says "the walking dead" in the series finale, it's hard not to need to hear that line at least one more time to make sure you heard correctly. But it's what he says and, even if some viewers found it to be a little too tongue-in-cheek for them, others absolutely loved it.

The line also made some viewers realize how much they're going to miss watching The Walking Dead every week. The show lasted 11 long seasons on AMC and was one of the shows that helped build the network as a beacon of high quality drama.

The line almost didn't happen, though. Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, told Vanity Fair that he had to be "talked into saying it." He added that he didn't want to make a big deal of saying the line, so he found a way to "just make it part of the sentence without making it a poster."

As much as tons of fans loved hearing Daryl say "the walking dead" in one of his most iconic lines of the series, not everyone responded as positively to it. Some fans tweeted that they found the line to be cringe and even comical.

To be fair, the line could have been a lot cornier than it was. And, like Norman Reedus said, he did his best to incorporate it into his lines rather than declare it in an overly dramatic fashion.

But, whether you loved Daryl's line or made you hide your face just a bit out of secondhand embarrassment, one thing most fans can agree on is that the Walking Dead series finale delivered. And after 11 seasons of wild storylines and immeasurable losses, that's all we can hope for.