THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 3, Episode 7, SOLAZ DEL MAR

Written By:

Rich Cross

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 3, Episode 7, SOLAZ DEL MAR

This third season finale delivers strong payoffs, heightened spectacle, impactful emotional beats and – for many of the supporting characters – a genuine sense of jeopardy surrounding their fate. Daryl and Carol are each afforded their own separate storyline, until the pair are finally reunited for a decisive reckoning with a key adversary and the chance to leave Spanish shores for good. It’s an endpoint that feels both well-crafted and consequential.

In the hope of rescuing Elena and Justina from the clutches of El Alcázar, Daryl and Paz pose as day labourers recruited to join the workforce supporting the festivities of the “matching” event. To get round the problem of Daryl likely being recognised by the prince or his men, writers David Zabel and Jason Richman introduce the simple conceit that the waiting staff have to wear (rather freaky) theatrical face masks.

As they prepare to launch their rescue bid, a disconsolate Elena encourages Justina to accept the inevitable and recognise that the alternative to being “matched” is not liberty but servitude. Their downbeat mood is in sharp contrast to the loud and lavish party that the king has demanded as the backdrop for the “matching” ritual. Director Daniel Percival evokes just the right sense of decadent indulgence, with the royal courtiers wilfully ignoring the reality of their doomed Gilded Age as servants tend to their delusions. Their final days in the golden bunker.

On stage, a cast of walkers, dressed as marionettes, with painted faces, and controlled by human puppeteers above provide the main entertainment (a grotesque concept introduced in Season One’s Paris Sera Toujours Paris), before becoming the proxy weapon Daryl needs. The chaos that then unfolds in the castle plays out with a great sense of energy and pace. Justina is no meek “damsel in distress” either, and is given real agency here, joining Daryl in battling their way to freedom and saving other hostages in the process. Meanwhile, Paz heads off to find Elena and to settle accounts with the royal dynasty.

The regime’s disintegration is rendered through some efficient and fast-moving spectacle – Percival has proven himself a masterful wrangler of action sequences this season. But this is only half the battle, as Daryl heads back to Solaz to end matters.

Valentina’s lighthouse provides sanctuary for the recovering Roberto, even as Antonio’s position in Solaz worsened with the discovery of the three missing El Alcázar militiamen in a cage of walkers. Ignoring Roberto’s sense of outrage at the truth about his mother that his father kept from him, Carol sets off on her own rescue mission. She discovers that Fede, sensing the growing alienation of his population, is moving hard against Antonio. In the hope of placating El Alcázar, he decides to make an example of his prisoner using the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment.

A series of quick-fire captures and escapes culminate in a showdown which settles the question of the community’s future, and leave Daryl, Carol and their new compatriots free to set sail to the States. It’s a very watchable sequence of multiple jeopardies, and tense viewing too – given how willing the show’s writers are to kill off well-established supporting characters.

The episode ends with an unexpected pivot, an evocative visual and a fresh predicament – all of which leaves the showrunners with their options wide open as they plot out Daryl Dixon’s fourth and final season. To complicate matters further, the arrival of a mysterious lone pilgrim teases an unexpected connection to Daryl’s recent past.

Daryl Dixon’s third season has been wildly entertaining from the get-go. There are a few elements that have not felt fully thought through: Daryl’s childhood flashbacks seemed ultimately to lack purpose, and the terrifying Los Primitivos ended up sorely underused. But for the most part this season has offered an engaging and unpredictable story arc: one that’s included character development for both Daryl and Carol, arresting scenery and settings, and innovative walker action – all brought to life with a distinctive Spanish aura that’s unafraid to lean into the power of melodrama.

It’s a close-run thing, but Season Three might just edge it as the show’s strongest to date.