First glimpsed as fly-by raiders ransacking Julian’s beached boat, in opening episode Costa Da Morte, the merciless Los Primitivos return mob-handed for a full-frontal assault on Solaz del Mar in Episode Four – and exciting stuff it is too.
The spectacle of their murderous attack is the thrilling, dramatic heart of La Justicia Fronteriza (“Frontier Justice”). But that extended set-piece is preceded by more exploration of the complex familial entanglements that have shaped Roberto’s romance with Justina, and hint at the reasons for Antonio’s reluctance to endorse his son’s connection to this principled and passionate young woman. There are more references, too, to some longstanding disagreement that might explain the stressed relationship between Antonio and Fede, the settlement’s leader and Justina’s uncle.
Just as prominent in Shannon Goss’ script is the tension between selfishness and selflessness in the struggle to stay alive – a fracture line threatening to open up in the relationship between Daryl (who simply wants to get home) and Carol (who feels a sense of responsibility for the perils their hosts are facing). It’s just as evident in the clash between Roberto (who believes that the settlement is exploited and blackmailed by their protective alliance) and Fede (who thinks their sacrifices are the price of living in safety).
Some clever plotting first reintroduces Los Primitivos in a repeat attack on Daryl and Carol’s boat. This small-scale raid ends in tragedy just as repairs are proceeding apace and as the American refugees welcome a larger and better-skilled crew on board. But that skirmish is just a prelude to the far larger raid on Solaz del Mar, which threatens to overwhelm its defenders.
In contrast to the numerous dictators and authoritarians that dominate communities in the universe of the Walking Dead, the nihilists of Los Primitivos seem to be the kindred spirits of Alpha’s Whisperers back in the USA – although the two groups will never have been aware of eachother’s existence. There are key differences though. The Spanish primitivists seem to have no interest in ingratiating themselves within the ranks of the undead, and they favour a style of dress and combat which celebrates the bombastic, Spanish warrior past. They also do not appear to have a charismatic, all-powerful leader at their core – at least, none has been revealed so far.
As the tense battle unfolds, there’s plenty of the season’s budget visible on screen, in a tightly choreographed mêlée of fighters trading axe blows, arrows and gun shots. Daryl and his compatriots arrive as the raiders breach the citadel, opening up on the attackers from the rear as the defenders regroup to hold the line. Alongside Antonio and Roberto, Paz – the clandestine girlfriend of the wife of El Alcázar leader Guillermo Torres – proves herself to be an excellent combatant in the fight.
This far into the Walking Dead franchise, it is difficult for the writers to devise new and inventive ways to frame the walker threat. Here Goss comes up with something genuinely ingenious: trebuchets that catapult flaming cadavers over the city walls to unleash fire and death on those hunkered down within. This would be a high-risk strategy if Los Primitivos were aiming to seize the captured city in a colonial land grab. But, as one of their captured prisoners later confides, they have no ambition beyond the visceral thrill of burning everything to the ground.
At the end of the clash, as the bodies are cleared, survivors draw sharply different conclusions from the failure of El Alcázar to have provided the kind of deterrence that might have scared off the raiders. Although injured, Fede remains convinced that they should be grateful for being supplied with the arms which repelled the attack. Roberto is adamant that this betrayal is simply proof of their so-called protectors’ absenteeism and bad faith.
Risking being shot, Roberto prepares to leave to find Justina, abandoning the community as a place now beyond saving. When Antonio insists on setting out to find him, he’s immediately joined by Carol (still dealing with a sense of guilt about Justina’s sacrifice) and then by a reluctant Daryl (whose insistence on remaining detached is crumbling). What they find out on the road confirms that their mission will be more than a simple grab-and-go. Everything is shaping up to reveal the defining conflict of Season Three as a threeway fight between the savages of Los Primitivos, the retro-royalists of El Alcázar and the bloodied survivors of Solaz del Mar. The battlelines for a new Spanish Civil War are already being drawn.
The third season of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON premiers on Sundays on AMC and AMC+ in the US and will be available in the UK on Sky Max and NOW TV from October 24th
Read our previous reviews of the third season of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON below:
Season 3, Episode 1, COSTA DA MORTE
Season 3, Episode 2, LA OFRENDA
Season 3, Episode 3, EL SACRIFICIO
