Summary
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon continues to chug along nicely in Season 3. “Contrabando” isn’t quite as exciting as the previous two episodes, but it’s still a respectable outing that sets up a sure-to-be-dramatic finale.
While not quite the standout that the wide-scale defence of Solaz and Daryl’s solo train side quest were, Episode 6 still feels like Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon operating at a pretty high standard. “Contrabando” also feels like a penultimate outing, like things are really coming to something resembling a conclusion, though the idea of Daryl and Carol actually returning to America remains a far-flung pipe dream, at least as long as AMC can keep wringing spin-offs out of them.
But the action remains spread across two fronts. On the one hand, Daryl heads to Barcelona to attempt to spring Justina from El Alcazar, while, back in Solaz, Carol continues to interfere in Antonio and Roberto’s personal lives in the hopes of swaying them against Fede and the archaic status quo. I’d be lying if I said these things were equally compelling, since everything involving Daryl is much more interesting and exciting, but this is his namesake show, so that’s probably to be expected.
Daryl gets a partner in “Contrabando” in the form of Paz, who catches up with him while he’s still in transit. This is pretty fortuitous, since Daryl could use help in general, and Paz is uniquely positioned to provide it, since she knows the local area, the way to the Gothic Ciutat Vella neighborhood where the El Alcazar convoy is heading, and is friendly with the locals, including the residents of a refugee community she once stayed with while she was travelling with her lovesick friend, Nerea.
This community of mostly women who have fled from their ritual mistreatment doesn’t feel as comic-book-y as the leper village teaming up to take down a zombie-pulled train, but it’s similar in spirit. This season is evidently enjoying its ragtag community team-ups, and besides, Paz has a bit of a personal subplot here. The man her friend married and stayed with, Khalid, is still there, and breaks the news that Nerea passed. Paz’s life took a different turn, and she remained roaming in search of her own love, Elena, but it’s a nice way to reinforce the value of what she’s fighting for.
We also meet the local equivalent of Daryl, a woman named Laia, who is quickly swayed by the idea of attacking El Alcazar’s convoy, since it also means attacking the sexist traditions that have allowed Guillermo, who’s travelling in the convoy, to maintain power. It means freedom for the women who are offered up as sacrifices in archaic traditions, the kind of women who are forced to seek sanctuary in this kind of secret place that scrapes out an existence in the shadows. Saving Justina and Elena means, in essence, saving everyone. It’s easy to get behind all this, despite the seemingly impossible task ahead.
In what is perhaps the boldest narrative decision of Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 6, that task proves to be literally impossible, at least for the time being. Daryl and Paz, even with slightly psychotic, rocket launcher-shaped help from Laia, aren’t able to spring Justina from the convoy, and not even to kill Guillermo, at least not without Elena being a casualty. Paz’s efforts to protect Elena get Laia shot. The dangers of Ciutat Vella, a ramshackle neighbourhood hiding a horde of the undead freed by the fighting, prevent Daryl from opening the lock on the prison truck. He’s forced to let Justina’s hand go, silently mouthing his apologies all the while. This is a guy who has already lost almost everyone – his brother, recalled here, Isabella, and more – now losing the woman who has become the totem of his remaining shreds of hope. Norman Reedus is really good here. He’ll never get much credit for it, since it’s a role largely dedicated to making him look cool, but the man can act.
Things are less dramatic in Solaz, but no less interpersonally juicy. The revelation that Fede is poisoning Roberto is a bit shocking in itself, but it’s also bundled up with a tremendous amount of age-old rivalries over secret, lost loves and all that jazz. Fede remains hopelessly head-over-heels for Antonio’s late wife, Maria, which obviously colours their rivalry, and almost certainly makes Fede even more callous towards Roberto, as a reminder of his loss and unrequited longing and simmering resentment for Antonio. For a guy who was willing to sacrifice his own niece for a cosier lifestyle, poisoning a love rival’s kid is a small affair.
But, of course, Carol figures it out. And through some tears, halting Spanish, and pleading English, she’s able to convince Dona Marga of Fede’s misdeeds and acquire some life-saving medication for Roberto. But this puts Antonio in a bit of a pickle. He knows he and Roberto are in danger, that he should leave Solaz with Carol, but he can’t, since Fede has been holding a cruel truth over him the whole time. In a roundabout way, Antonio was responsible for Maria’s death, his obsession with filming a documentary having put her in the line of fire. He never told Roberto this, and has always been terrified that, if he crossed Fede, he’d reveal it. As it turns out, he doesn’t need to worry, since in the process of revealing it to Carol, Roberto overhears the truth. This doesn’t do much for Antonio and Roberto’s relationship, but it does strip Fede of the leverage he had.
And thus, Antonio enlists Carol to take Roberto with her and Daryl, hiding him in the back of the truck and giving Carol a parting smooch for good measure. But Fede has figured out that something’s amiss and orders the truck to be stopped and searched. Antonio has no choice but to make the heroic self-sacrifice of standing up to Fede publicly, threatening to reveal his lies about Justina and Roberto. This gives Carol and Roberto the opportunity to leave. But for them to get on the boat, Daryl is going to need to get back alive. As far as setups for a finale go, that’ll certainly do.
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