While it seems that I’m finally done giving The Walking Dead a free pass simply for doing something slightly different, that doesn’t mean I’m going to come down on it unnecessarily and even though the season’s official shift to Spain doesn’t yield anything overly spectacular, it’s a solid, if unremarkable, info dump of world building. However, as the show takes a rather deliberate route to introduce this year’s new normal, you can’t help noticing the old habits creeping in at the side already as the writers keep tweaking with Daryl and Carol’s stats at will in order to keep them smart/dumb/weak/kind/cruel enough to adapt just enough to the new situation they find themselves in.
But as the backdrops of France and England have given way to the sunny climates of Spain, has the show has The Walking Dead got any new ideas up its tattered sleeve?
Shipwrecked on the coast of Spain, Daryl searches for a feverish Carol who has wandered off in the early hours of the morning. He finds her in a fairly short time as she’s transfixed by the sight of a young couple, very much in love as the frolic in a stream, but while an addled Carol finds her heart warmed by the sight, Daryl figures it might be prudent to rob them a little for some much need provisions. Of course, nothing proves to be that simple in the world of the Walking Dead and soon the lovers are held at gunpoint by a trio of men whom Dixon rapid dispatches while a fourth member manages to escape.
The couple are Justina and Roberto and live most incarnations of forbidden love, they are fleeing their village because the laws there are threatening to keep them apart. However, due to Carol’s sickness, Daryl forces them to return so his ride or die can receive the medical care she needs and before you know it, the thwarted lovers have led them back to Solaz del Mar where they soon try to buy enough time to heal and get materials to fix the boat.
In rapid succession they (and we) are introduced to Federico de Rivera, the man in charge and Justina’s uncle; Roberto’s father, Antonio and the other members of Justina’s family – but we haven’t been here long before we find what Roberto and Justina are fleeing from. Into Solaz del Mar rides El Alcazar, a man who claims to be connected to Spanish sovereignty, and his sizable entourage who has arrived in time for the local lottery. This sees the names of various young, local maidens tied to the necks of racing pigs and whoevers name is on the winning oinker is handed over to El Alcazar in exchange for guns, medical supplies and continued protection.
Carol isn’t exactly thrilled at this prospect, but Daryl has bigger issues to deal with as he notices that the “bandit” that escaped from the group he stuck full of arrows earlier is actually one of El Alcazar’s men and he’s just been recognised…
Surely the biggest issue this episode has to overcome is that despite being the second episode of the season, La Ofrenda has the rather odd job of actually starting the season proper thanks to the previous installment being something of a prologue-style bottle episode. The reason that this is a problem is that means that we have two episodes back to back that’s burdened itself with explaining some complex world building and the fallout is that the season premier of Daryl Dixon’s 3rd season has taken two whole episodes to get off the blocks. All that stuff concerning Stephen Merchant and what has become of London has literally no consequence whatsoever to the rest of the season other than providing us with a boat and nerfing Carol with a lingering injury and so it seems that with only two episodes under its belt, this latest season has to go down as the slowest moving start to date.
I’m also genuinely starting to feel that Daryl and Carol have been our lives for so long, there’s actually no more for them left to say. We’ve seem them both in love and both in pain, we’ve seen them at war and even trying pacifism on for size and it seems the only thing writers can think off to try and keep us engaged is once again employ the old trick of wounding one of them so the other plays protector, but this is an old Walking Dead trope that’s so weathered and worn, there’s Walkers in the show who look in better condition. And yet, despite the fact that the entirety of this season’s idea box seems to literally be “go to Spain”, I’ll be dammed if the location change doesn’t succeed in perking us up a little, if only to concentrate on learning the new status quo.
The best thing about the shift to Spain is that the makers immediately take full advantage of trying to add a more western flavour to the show to the point where the writers out and out announce it with a reference to a spagetti western poster hanging on Antonio’s wall. But aside from that, if you were to strip away the Walkers (not hard considering they have a minimal effect on the episode), all lot of the set up feels like something right out of a cheesy gunslinger flick. Two lovers caught up the the plans of a village that may be too traditional for their own good? A town Mayor in bed with questionable forces to keep his people either safe, or under the thumb? A grizzled stranger (or two) wandering into town and soon seeing that things seem rotten in Solaz del Mar? However, at least the show chooses to address issues concerning civilised people willfully regressing to the older ways to secure their safety – even if that pretty much what the entire franchise was about ever since its first time jump…
But even though there’s plenty of set up for Daryl and Carol to inevitably stick their noses in it’s also nice to see the latter gently challenge the notion of giving daughters away on a yearly basis only to be passionately rebuffed by a grandma who truly believes that this genuinely is the way to protect their way of life. However, it’s plain that other, younger townsfolk disagree with it and while Justina and Roberto are obviously at the top of the list, we get strong hints that enigmatic cowgirl, Paz, strains against such restrictions too, especially when we find out that she had a past relationship with El Alcazar’s future wife, Elana.
Unfortunately, despite all of these aspects, this doesn’t stop the episode from moving pretty damn slow – which might not have been so much of an issue if this was the first installment. But because we’ve already had a deliberately paced first episode, the season is already in danger of being way too subtle for its own good. Yes, Daryl manages to kill four guys at the end of the episode who come after him, but as it stands, we simply don’t yet have a real dog in this fight and can’t really get on board with where Daryl and Carol causing the usual amount of community destroying mischief they’ve been up to for over a decade.
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