Summary
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 takes on a bit more shape in Episode 2, introducing new characters and conflicts.
Oh, we’re not doing the whole “Carol has a dead daughter” thing again, are we? She and Daryl have been in Spain for two minutes, and she’s already vehemently opposing local customs, especially since those customs involve shipping young women off to God-knows-where. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 was a bit wayward in its premiere, and feels like it has a bit more shape and purpose in Episode 2, but if we’re going to be circling this same drain, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about it.
In other news, Spain is surprisingly hospitable to Daryl’s increasing moral edginess. This isn’t a totally new idea, but it feels new after Daryl’s rather uncomplicatedly heroic sojourn in France. But “La Ofrenda” toys with the idea of him being a legitimate antihero, at least initially. He’s so concerned for Carol, who’s still a bit delirious from infection fever, that he’s perfectly happy to intervene in a highway robbery and hold the couple he just rescued, Roberto and Justina, at gunpoint until they take him to the community they’re literally on the run from.
The community is called Solaz del mar, and its mayor – if that’s the right word – is Federico de Rivera, whom Justina is relatively pally with. Federico’s pretty adamant about not violating the rule about housing strangers, but he eventually acquiesces. Or, at least, Roberto’s father, Antonio, volunteers a room that Carol can rest in. Either way, the question arises – why would Justina and Roberto have been so eager to leave this place? What’s going on that we don’t know about?
This brings us to the episode’s title, “La Ofrenda”. This is what Roberto and Justina were fleeing. It’s an age-old tradition of annually offering a young girl from Solaz to El Alcazar, which is supposedly the last remnants of the old Spanish monarchy. Federico is friendly with the king-to-be, Guillermo Torres, so the deal is that Solaz offers up a nubile young woman – a bit like a small hamlet offering a sacrifice to a dragon in a fantasy story – so that El Alcazar offers supplies and protection. It’s a cosy arrangement for Federico, if not necessarily for the town’s young women, or indeed the loved ones who never see them again once they’re taken away.
What I appreciate in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 2 is that Federico isn’t an uncomplicated villain. His decision to put up with this archaic and obviously morally repugnant tradition has been made out of fear, but fear is relatable, especially in an apocalypse. Solaz is one of those places we’ve encountered a few times in this franchise, where circumstances have conspired to leave the people relatively untouched by the horrors of the outside world. This is why a decision like fleeing for the sake of love – which seems a bit naive to someone like Daryl – seems like a viable option for Roberto and Justina. They haven’t suffered enough to know the value of safety, even if that safety is compromised once a year to uphold an abhorrent tradition. It’s a nice idea, since it also gives Daryl and Carol something to disagree over, since Daryl’s pragmatism makes him more amenable to the idea, while Carol’s personal experiences make her especially sensitive to it.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a little girl, Alba, who gets chosen as the sacrifice, which is determined through a pig race, of all things. There’s no way Carol’s going to be okay with that, despite Daryl’s best efforts to keep her quiet. But I think it’s pretty encouraging for the season overall that it isn’t immediately clear who’s in the right here. You’re tempted to side with the girls, obviously, but Federico’s argument in favour is fairly compelling, and Daryl’s insistence on staying out of it and making their way back to America seems right given his experiences, both with getting involved in local politics and, of course, losing almost everyone he has ever cared about. There’s the skeleton of a pretty compelling conflict here, but I just don’t fully trust any show in this franchise to explore it properly.
A couple of things immediately threaten to upend things in Solaz anyway. For one thing, Paz, one of the more trusted figures in Solaz, is secretly in love with Elena, the future queen of Spain, who Guillermo clearly drags around as a kind of sweetener for the people so they believe that the girls they sacrifice will end up having nice lives. Daryl stumbles upon this relationship virtually immediately, but it’s everyone else finding out that’s the problem. It’s something to keep an eye on.
Also of note is Daryl’s rescue of Roberto and Justina having potentially brought trouble to the town’s doorstep, since one of the highwaymen got away and tracks Daryl back there with a few thugs. Daryl’s able to make short work of them, as usual, but I doubt that’ll be the end of it, and with Carol calling out local customs, the two are pushing their luck to begin with. At this rate, they might never get back home. AMC will be thrilled.
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