Daryl and Carol are so close to sailing away for America as “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” wraps up Season 3 — and yet so far away.
As Sunday’s finale opens, we see a mystery figure approach the statue where Daryl left Laurent’s Rubik’s Cube. The mystery man picks up the cube and studies it as he removes his hood… to reveal an eye patch. It’s Stéphane! (Bonjour, old friend.) While Carol helps Roberto get to Valentina’s lighthouse, she’s afraid Antonio won’t meet them there like he promised. And sure enough, Antonio is getting worked over by Fede’s goons for calling him out in the town square, with Fede demanding to know where Daryl is.
We know the answer: He’s on the way to El Alcazar with Paz, with the two of them volunteering as workers to get inside the castle walls. Once inside, they’re given masks to wear and put to work, while Justina and the other girls prepare for the matching ceremony. Elena helps pick out a dress for Justina, but Justina asks what will happen to her if she’s not chosen. Elena gestures to a woman scrubbing floors and getting abused by a guard and says she could end up there, “or worse.”
The Battle of El Alcazar
At a fancy El Alcazar dinner, the wealthy crowd (including the king and queen of Spain) laugh as snarling walkers are dressed up in funny costumes and strung up like marionettes on a stage for their amusement. Daryl and Paz are serving water as the king announces that his son Guillermo will one day take his place, with Elena as his queen. They bring out the women for the matching ceremony, and Justina is the last one chosen — while several rejected women are taken away in shame. Daryl has an idea, though: He sneaks backstage and cuts the walkers free, letting them chow down on the rich folks while he tries to find Justina. Paz makes a beeline for Elena — and meets her young son Pablo. (So that’s why she stays with Guillermo.) Paz is discovered and gets knocked down, with a vengeful Guillermo ready to finish her off… but Elena stabs him with a sword, and Paz finishes the job.
Justina pulls a knife on the man who chose her, demanding a vehicle to escape, and he overpowers her, but Daryl swoops in to save the day, killing the guy and taking Justina with him — along with the unchosen women. They have to fight their way through a swarm of walkers and royal guards, but they make it to freedom, and Paz decides to stay at the refugee camp in Barcelona with Elena and her son. Daryl heads back to Solaz with Justina on his bike, and she can’t understand why Daryl would risk so much to help her. “The world’s messed up. I felt like something got lost, you know? The chance to really have something,” he tells her. He won’t have that chance… but he wants her and Roberto to have it.
The War at Home
Things are looking grim back at Solaz, though: Carol sneaks back in town to see Antonio being strung up on the medieval strappado torture device, with Fede calling him a traitor and demanding the truth. In the dead of night, Carol cuts Antonio free, and they hide at a friend’s house, but Fede’s goons come knocking, and they have to flee through underground tunnels. (Fede also set a bunch of walkers loose to make things more difficult.) Gustavo the gate guard offers to help them… but he leads them right to Fede in exchange for a payout. Fede takes them to the town square, where he has Roberto chained up to a pair of dead bodies as the walkers close in. Carol and Antonio try to free him, but it’s no use — until Daryl rides into town, guns blazing.
Daryl takes out a few guards as Carol and Antonio fight back, and Justina is there, too, telling the town that Fede lied and served her up to El Alcazar. The whole town turns on Fede — even his own mom slaps him! — and they throw him in the dungeon while Roberto and Justina are reunited. A happy ending, right? Well…
Daryl and Carol head for the boat with Roberto, Justina and Antonio in tow, and Daryl has a moment of reflection, telling Carol he’s been running his whole life and he doesn’t even know if he can stop running. Carol reassures him with a hug, but that night, Fede shows up with a gun (his mom sprang him from his cell) and points it right at Daryl. As he fires, Carol tackles him, and the bullets hit the boat, setting off a blaze. They manage to tackle Fede to the ground and disarm him… but their boat — and their dreams of sailing to America — go up in smoke. Fede escapes in all the confusion, and the flames reach so high that Stéphane can see them from a distance. So maybe Daryl and Carol aren’t heading home — but maybe they’ll see a familiar face soon.
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