(Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – Carol’s bookSeason 2 finale of.)

Goodbye, France! After two seasons in the City of Lights and its winding countryside, survivor Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and his best friend, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) are moving on to different pastures for Season 3 in 2025 — London and eventually Spain — after the events of Round Two’s crowded finale. (Watch the Season 3 teaser in the clip above for a sneak peek of what’s to come, including a look at Stephen Merchanthis role.)

Finally, pilot Ash (Manish Dayal) walks away with the attentive young Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), leaving Carol and Daryl to find their own way back to America. And we see how well the first leg of their journey goes as they say goodbye to friends like the trusty Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), who stays behind to explore a new romantic connection, and the tough Codron (Romain Levi), who runs away in the caves while drugged – a fate that almost befalls Daryl and Carol as well. Will we see Codron again? Remember, you can’t always get what you want.

But before we delve into the what-ifs and futures, we took a step back to discuss some of the key moments and incredible locations seen in the final episode, from walker Carol to that creepy hospital.

Below, director Daniel Percival fills us in on all the details you missed.

I love the opening moments we have in the final episode – Daryl hands Laurent a guitar while he plays The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. How did Norman feel when he sang to the camera in that close-up?

Daniel Percival: You know, there was a lot of debate about what song to play and Norman suggested the Stones, not just for that but for the ending (scene). We were all very excited, but it took a while to clean it and we only cleaned it the day before we shot it. So poor Louis had to learn the chords (last minute). I didn’t know Norman was going to sing, but he was totally impressed at the moment. It was a very beautiful scene to shoot and a very delicate scene to shoot because it wasn’t just a goodbye. We’re getting to the end of the season and this was one of the last scenes (Reedus) was ever going to shoot with Louis. So it was a really heartfelt scene, swept up in the moment.

Stéphanie Branchu/AMC

The show filmed in so many amazing and real locations throughout France, and the hospital that Codron and Fallou explore seemed like one of the most interesting places, with its twisting hallways and peeling walls. Was that a real location or did you build that set?

It was an old hospital. I think it was a veterans hospital, during the war, it was attached to a castle. That beautiful, misty opening—it was literally attached to that (building). This happened quite often, (where) these great houses were converted into hospitals. But it was completely scrapped, just the way we like our locations on this show. (laugh) And we ended up in our psychiatric ward.

You know, when people write in Los Angeles, or even Paris, what they imagine these locations are, it gets rewritten again when you find it very often because we’re re-inspired. It’s really nice. I just came from a big Season 3 script meeting, and this process just keeps happening.

There were so many goodbyes in this episode, but one that stood out was Anna Valery’s (Lukerya Ilyashenko) as she was pulled away by walkers who say, “God gave up on us a long time ago.” Why was this the perfect ending for her character?

There’s a great scene in the previous episode where she took on Demimonde, but is still burdened with a sense of guilt and responsibility towards Quinn (Adam Nagaitis). “I did what I had to do,” she said. And she is affected to hear that the nuns have died. He has a whole story about how he took control and had to drive very hard and dominate. You see the man in the chain and you see him talking to the people at the bar, but of course it comes back to haunt her. She is betrayed. And she is burdened with a deep sense of guilt and self-loathing about who she has become. So you think she’s selling out Daryl, but she’s actually leading them into a trap that she may not survive herself, to save them, to save the boy. And when he dies, he dies knowing that he has done a good thing. He also knows that sister Jacinta (Nassima Benchicou) has been bitten, so he is relieved to know that they are both dead.

And then finally Carol and Daryl make their way into these incredible caves with bioluminescence and all sorts of dangers that were, in the story, old Eurostar tunnels. Can we talk about filming these scenes? Where was this filmed?

Right on the coast of Normandy, very close to the Eurostar entrance, the train that goes to England. It was a tunnel, if I’m correct I’m told it was built by the Nazis during WWII to defend the coast of Normandy. There is a story, I don’t know how true it is, that during a bombing mission in the area, Hitler’s train was on a visit to the Normandy beaches and British Intelligence found out about it and they went to bomb the train and they took and hid in that tunnel. So Hitler must have been in that tunnel.

I was in that tunnel for days and days and days, the plumbers and electricians had to put in miles of cables because it’s a huge tunnel. And it was the right size and lined with concrete in the way that Eurostar is, so I felt that if it did deteriorate, that’s what it would look like.

Many of your locations have a huge history. Do you think this place is haunted?

(The crew) swear they saw ghosts there. It was not a pleasant place to work. It wasn’t a pleasant place, and we were there in the winter – pouring rain outside, dark outside – so it was dark when you got to work, dark when you left, and dark inside. But it had an atmosphere that fueled the filming as well. It took 20 minutes of walking just to reach the plateau. It was a huge and crazy undertaking, but we did it.

Emmanuel Guimier/AMC

And while you’re there, we get to see Carol fight her walking self. Did Melissa have to prepare for this or was she a double?

Yes, he liked it. (laugh)

It’s so great. What does that moment symbolize for Carol’s journey?

She is fighting with herself. She struggles with the part of her that can’t let go of the loss of her child. Metaphorically and physically, she has to fight the demon that she carries inside her, you know, that she wishes she were dead and not her child. And she doesn’t kill the walker version of herself. He’s about to stab him and can’t. And not because she’s afraid, but because she knows she just has to let go, and so it’s transformative for her.

It’s a hugely important moment for the character and for Melissa to play that scene. As she takes the shot, we literally had a close-up of her, and the double disappears below her, and we pull back to reveal that there’s nothing there. And she broke. She just swallowed, you know, the pain of that moment, everything flooded for her.

Is there anything in this episode that would surprise fans if they knew?

Well, we actually built a track and a racetrack, and we even fly airplanes. None of this is CGI, all the airplane stuff – all of it. We were doing real landings, real takeoffs. The only thing that wasn’t real was Ash stopping at the wheel, I did that part in a green screen set that I did on location so that he would be the one shooting the game between the plane and the buggy . There is no tricked-out frame in this. And it took an incredibly nervous pilot to risk doing that, and the very quiet stunt drivers following him – they went all the way to the wing. That was all real. We rehearse those stunts weeks and weeks before. With each rehearsal they got closer and closer, and the stunt (the guy would say), “Listen, I can go another 10 feet. I can walk another 10 feet.” By the time they got it – they practiced it so many times, it was a reflex. These things terrify you as a director.

Now, I know you’re involved in Season 3, which started shooting recently. France has been an integral part of the show for the past two seasons. How do the new settings (London, Spain) affect the show in terms of direction?

Every place we go has an atmosphere and a flavor and a color palette. And even in France, you know, there are so many different environments. The south has much warmer tones and is limestone and sandy. The north was wet and wet. So we subtly adapt our processes all the time. I will say for this new season, it’s a very subtle change that fits the environments we’re in and fits the dynamism of what we’re doing. What I strive for all the time, more than anything aesthetically, is to make everything feel authentic and real. We are never nowhere, we are always somewhere.

One of the differences with filming in Europe, if you think about (the mothership), you’re in the woods in Georgia all the time. Maybe you’re at a gas station or a camp, but there aren’t many anywhere in America. There is a lot of wilderness. In Europe, you stumble upon all sorts of remains dating back 4,000 years. People have lived here and built here and survived various apocalypses and wars and conflicts and fires and plagues for centuries. So you’re always in a place that has a resonance or a history or an atmosphere, and it’s really wonderful to shoot on a constant that gives you that all the time. Even regionally, in the countries you shoot, there are architectural differences, iconic landscapes, different flavors for every part of the country you’re in. How do you communicate with your audience in subtle ways all the time where you are? There are countless moments of this.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – Carol’s BookSeason 3 premiere, TBA, AMC