The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 ending explained – every twist broken down

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The Walking Dead, much like the zombies it depicts, isn’t what it used to be. However, the spin-off series focusing on Daryl Dixon is a notable exception.

Many spin-off shows haven’t lived up to the original, but Norman Reedus and his popular character have thrived, making their show a success for three seasons.

A fourth season is confirmed, so things are looking bright for Daryl and Carol, who have been traveling together for the last two seasons. However, Daryl hasn’t had a smooth ride this time around.

Daryl and Carol find themselves in trouble in the Spanish town of Solaz del Amar, facing problems with the new villain, Fede. To make things more complicated, Carol has developed romantic feelings for a man named Antonio, who has now been kidnapped by Fede. Fede is torturing Antonio, trying to get information about Daryl.

As you watch the third and final season of Daryl Dixon, you’ll likely wonder if Carol will find romance, if Daryl will ever return home, and if anyone will finally give him a much-needed haircut. These are just some of the thoughts that pop up during the seventh and last episode.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 ending explained

The final episode starts by referencing a moment from earlier in the season. Remember when Daryl left Laurent’s Rubik’s Cube at a memorial? Laurent was the young French boy Daryl cared for in the first two seasons.

We’re seeing a returning character! The man with the eyepatch is Stéphane Codron – you might remember him as a villain from season one, but he later became an ally.

We last saw Stéphane at the end of season two. A strange incident involving bat droppings in the Channel Tunnel caused him to have hallucinations about his brother, leading him to attack Daryl with a bayonet – it sounds unbelievable, but it happened. After that, Stéphane disappeared, and we hadn’t heard from him… until now. We’ll have more details shortly.

As Antonio suffers under Fede’s abuse, Carol attempts to persuade his son, Roberto, to assist in rescuing him. She urges him to wait for Daryl and Justina to come back from their assignment and then join her on the boat, while she goes ahead on her own. Carol seems to have fallen in love!

Fede publicly tortures Antonio in the town square, while Carol looks on, horrified. He won’t release Antonio until he reveals the location of the Americans he’s hiding. Fede also uses this as an opportunity to blame the Americans and demonstrate his power to the townspeople.

As darkness arrives, Carol attempts to rescue Antonio, carefully dodging gunfire from Fede’s associates who are positioned nearby.

While that’s happening, Daryl and Paz disguise themselves as masked servants at a fancy royal banquet. They blend in right among the powerful figures who gather there – the very same people responsible for a cruel tradition called “La Ofrenda,” where villages are forced to offer women to the Spanish royal family.

While enjoying a lavish meal, the royals are entertained by a peculiar performance: people dressed as walkers are manipulated like puppets to dance for them. The message is pretty clear, but it’s a memorable and unusual scene – something you don’t see much of anymore in The Walking Dead.

The King gave a speech to his son, Guillermo, and his future wife, Elena. This follows a difficult time for Elena, who recently had to separate from her girlfriend, Paz.

Daryl refuses to let things continue as they are, so he releases the walkers by cutting them loose and opening the gate, sending them toward the group. He also starts several fires while Paz goes to find and save Elena.

Elena’s home is where Paz and her love reconnect with an embrace, and Paz learns he has a son named Pablo. They make plans to escape together, but a guard attacks Paz, and she wakes up to Guillermo menacingly threatening her.

He yelled, “You’re after my wife?” Then he threatened, “You’ll be with her every night…as a trophy on her bedpost!”

Considering the danger, it was a surprisingly effective threat, but Elena immediately betrayed him, stabbing him in the back to protect Paz. They grabbed the boy and escaped.

Meanwhile, Daryl rescues Justina from the man who selected her during the Matching ceremony, right before everything fell apart. He also manages to help other women in the process, showing his kind nature.

Carol found a moment of comfort with Antonio, who made her a cup of tea with milk and honey – a small act that showed how kind he was.

It wasn’t long before Fede’s gang arrived, banging on the door. Fortunately, the women who had been sheltering them knew of a secret escape route in their basement and quickly led them to safety.

After a quick run-in with a walker, everyone we’re rooting for is back together and safe. Paz expresses her gratitude to Daryl for his assistance before leaving with Justina – they enjoy a leisurely motorcycle ride back to the lighthouse.

They pause to offer some reflections on the apocalypse, noting how it brought out the best and worst in people, though their observations feel a little simplistic.

The group finally returns to the lighthouse, only to find it’s been taken over by two attackers who capture Justina. Fortunately, Valentina swiftly comes to the rescue, explaining that Roberto had arranged for her to secretly recover after being wounded earlier.

There’s a problem, though. Antonio’s son, Roberto, is chained to two recently deceased friends who are about to turn into walkers, and even more walkers are heading into the courtyard.

Carol and Antonio attempt to break free of their chains, but it’s no use. A local woman, Alba, throws a knife at Carol, but Fede’s crew quickly shoots it down. However, their good aim doesn’t last long, as Daryl suddenly appears and begins firing at them from a balcony.

Daryl swiftly eliminates his attackers while Carol fights off walkers with a knife. Justina then walks into the middle of the zombie crowd, and both Daryl and Fede shoot at the zombies trying to reach her.

Keep in mind that Fede is Justina’s uncle and, even though he hasn’t always been kind to her, he still cares about her well-being. However, this creates a problem when the villagers gather and Justina accuses Fede of lying to them.

Okay, so things just got really intense. Luciana delivers the devastating news: El Alcazar is completely destroyed, thanks to Daryl’s actions. And that, folks, is the final nail in the coffin for The Ofrenda – it’s officially over. No more sacrifices, no more control. It’s a brutal moment, and a clear turning point in the story.

Justina advises against harming Fede in the same way Antonio was hurt, suggesting they imprison him in the dungeon instead. She believes inflicting pain would make them no better than he is.

The comically villainous mayor yells at Daryl as he’s being taken away, blaming him for everything and threatening revenge.

Do Daryl and Carol make it home?

After returning to the lighthouse, Daryl and Carol finally enjoyed the hot dogs they’d been wanting all season. Instead of leaving right away, they decided to rest and talk things through on the beach before continuing their journey home by boat.

“All I’ve wanted to do is get back home,” Daryl says, frustrated. “I don’t even know why I left. Why did I get into that fight in Maine? I should have left France when I had the chance. It’s all so pointless. My life has just been a constant cycle of running and fighting, that’s all there is to it.”

Carol believes he acted out of necessity, but Daryl is concerned this could become a pattern – that he might return home and immediately feel the need to wander off again.

The heartfelt hug between them highlights what makes the show so good: Daryl and Carol are strongest when they’re working together, rather than being sent off on separate adventures.

The Spanish woman remains silent, but we quickly learn her next move: Fede appears on the beach, threatening Daryl with a gun, seeking revenge. Surprisingly, he doesn’t immediately shoot him – a simpler, more direct approach would have made sense.

He exclaimed, “I welcomed you to my town, offered you food and a place to stay, and in return, you stole everything I had. Now you expect to simply leave?”

Right as Fede was about to shoot, Carol intervened and tackled him. During the scuffle, a gunshot unexpectedly ignited a fire onboard the ship. Others quickly joined Carol, and Antonio finished subduing Fede by hitting him with a rock.

The ship was quickly destroyed by fire and explosions, leaving the group stranded. As Daryl and Carol watched their means of escape burn, a Spanish cover of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” played in the background.

The situation escalated quickly, and then Stéphane reappeared, observing the chaos from afar with his last good eye.

Now that a fourth season is happening, it wasn’t surprising that Daryl and Carol didn’t return home in the latest episodes. After traveling across America, France, and the UK, the show’s creators clearly want to continue the story in Spain for a while longer.

Hopefully, the break between seasons will give this spin-off a much-needed boost before it ends. Ever since Daryl and Carol departed France, the show just hasn’t had the same spark.

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2025-10-20 06:36