THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 3, Episode 6, CONTRABANDO

Written By:

Rich Cross

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 3, Episode 6, CONTRABANDO

In the brutal battle of La Justicia Fronteriza, Paz proved just how capable she was as a street-fighting warrior. Her ability to find Daryl out on the open road proves she’s no slouch as a tracker either. Bringing these two characters together ahead of the attempt to infiltrate Barcelona means that Daryl will be able to call on additional firepower and local knowledge. At the same time, it affords writer Marta Gene Camps the screentime to heat up Carol’s simmering relationship with Antonio, as they protect the ailing Roberto back in Solaz del Mar.

The chance to visit a walker-infested Barcelona was always an enticing prospect – and, back in the director’s chair, the ever-dependable Daniel Percival delivers the hoped-for visual impact. As well as the sprawling cityscapes, there’s a melancholic trawl through a forlorn and abandoned funfair that triggers Paz’s pre-apocalyptic flashbacks – nostalgic recollections of a rose-tinted childhood, which contrast so sharply with Daryl’s own fleeting memories of childhood trauma.

After Paz confesses to Daryl her intimate connection with Elena, she agrees to try to track down the Barcelona survivor community she lost contact with years before, led by an old friend. After she finds the group living in secret, and under the radar, deep within the city, her reunion with the group’s leader Laia is joyous. Once again, Daryl Dixon outshines the recent efforts of its spin-off compatriot Dead City. The hidden community in Negan and Maggie’s drama are insipid hippy foragers, eking out a life of New Age penury in Central Park. Laia’s community in contrast is shown to be thriving, well-armed and taking self-defence seriously. It something which simply offers more dramatic potential.

When Laia agrees to put the group’s head above the parapet and join a raid on the royal convoy en route to El Alcázar, Daryl puts together a cunning plan that makes best use of the city’s narrow streets to trap Guillermo’s party at a road block. It’s a tightly choreographed set-piece, well framed and well executed – another target that the last season of Dead City often missed. Percival matches the intense action with some moments of high emotion and agonising and melodramatic disappointment. A sense of élan and confidence infuses the on-screen action.

There’s a very different tone to proceedings back in Solaz del Mar, as the will-they-won’t-they dynamic between Carol and Antonio reaches a critical juncture. There’s even a dabble in comedic embarrassment, as Carol walks in on Antonio taking an alfresco shower. But the heightened intimacy between them feels legitimate and hard earned. Their respectful mutual attraction has been threaded into the season’s storyline from the beginning, while single-minded Daryl’s attention has been elsewhere. Their new closeness encourages Antonio to confide in Carol, confessing the shocking truth behind his late wife’s death, and explaining the hold that this secret has given Fede over him.

But while Antonio carries not only the physical scars of the incident but the guilt that goes with it, not everyone in the episode treats culpability in the same way. When Paz thwarts Laia’s rocket attack on Guillermo’s vehicle to protect Elena, the consequences are devastating. Not for the first time, those agreeing to help Daryl in his quest suffer as a result of that decision. But Paz seems unaffected by the cost of her intervention. Realising the true extent of Fede’s cruelty, Carol guilts his mother Doña Marga into sharing the essential medicine from her son’s stash that might yet save Roberto’s life. When her attempts to sneak Roberto to safety are interrupted, Antonio offers himself as a distraction and a sacrifice.

With a storyline rich in operatic levels of Mediterranean emotion, where the make-or-break showdowns of the season finale will leave Daryl and Carol will soon be revealed. Miles apart from one another, Carol and Daryl both face daunting challenges in rescuing the people they have committed themselves to, as the full ugliness of both the Solaz and El Alcázar regimes is exposed.