Clémence Poésy’s Daryl Dixon Character Gives Fleur Delacour a Shot at Redemption

This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon episode 1.

Naturally, Darly Dixon himself (Norman Reedus) is the main character of the latest Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. But that doesn’t mean our eponymous hero has to endure the ravages of post-apocalyptic France alone.

The supporting cast of Daryl Dixon is headlined by Clémence Poésy playing Isabelle: a nun with a mysterious past. The French actress has enjoyed a vibrant career in both modeling and acting, with major roles in projects such as In Bruges, 127 Hours, Tenet, and countless other French and English-language productions. To the millennials among us (Hello! And sorry!), however, Poésy will forever be known as Triwizard Tournament contestant Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Though she never really went away, Poésy popping back up in a pop cultural powerhouse like The Walking Dead gives us a chance to reflect upon her big debut mainstream film role. It also gives Poésy’s Isabelle a chance to succeed where Fleur Delacour failed. What I’m trying to say is that Fleur dropped the ball in the Triwizard tournament. I mean, she really shit the bed.

The fourth installment in both the book and film series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire takes place during Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts in which the dangerous Triwizard Tournament takes place. Students from the Eastern European Durmstrang Institute and the French Beauxbatons Academy arrive at Hogwarts to submit their names to the titular Goblet of Fire to be selected as their school’s champion. The Goblet chooses Fleur Delacour to represent Beauxbatons, and boy I bet that cup regrets it. (Technically the Goblet was compromised and enchanted by Barty Crouch Jr. to illegally select Harry but we think that the Goblet made the choices of the other three champions on its own).

Miss Fleur Delacour has about as impressive a pedigree as any young witch could possibly have. Not only does her lineage include Veela blood, meaning that she is literally supernaturally beautiful (making Clémence Poésy a smart casting choice), but she is one of the top students at Beauxbatons as well. As impressive as her resume may be though, it turns out that Fleur is unfortunately just not built for this tournament.

Despite having surreptitious foreknowledge of the nature of the first event, she biffs the dragon challenge hard – somehow letting a snort from the sleeping Common Welsh Green set her skirt on fire. Why she was wearing a skirt in the book’s version of the first challenge is anyone’s guess. Maybe the Triwizard Tournament was operating under tennis rules or the Wizarding World of 1994 was just not a particularly progressive place.

Things don’t go much better for Fleur in challenge number two. Attacked by grindylows underneath Hogwarts’ massive lake, Fleur returns to the surface absolutely terrified that she let her sister Gabrielle down. If Fleur were Harry Potter, judges undoubtedly would have been charmed by her naivete. But Fleur is not Harry Potter and she is docked points.

By the time the third and final challenge rolls around, Fleur has absolutely no prayer of winning this thing. Of course, no one other than Harry doesthanks to the evil machinations of Lord Voldemort, but she is still taken out of the maze challenge hilariously early. Ultimately, Fleur is a disaster. She can’t even get Cedric Diggory to go to the Yule Ball with her and has to settle for dumbass Roger Davies!

This is all to say that after playing Fleur Delacour nearly two decades ago, Clémence Poésy could really use a win. Let’s hope that Isabelle’s journey to get the little messiah Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) to safety goes better than Fleur’s encounter with the grindylows.