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

Like its titular zombies, The Walking Dead continues to live on as a shadow of its former self. That is, except for the Daryl Dixon spin-off.

While other spin-offs have failed to capture what made the flagship show so popular, Norman Reedus and his fan-favourite character have endured for three seasons to much greater success.

With a season 4 already confirmed, the future's looking good for Daryl and his bestie Carol who's accompanied him for the past two seasons. Except, everyone's favourite mulleted hero hasn't exactly had it easy this time around.

Trapped in the Spanish town of Solaz del Amar, Daryl and Carol are caught up in all kinds of drama with the show's new Big Bad, Fede. Plus, Carol's been catching feelings for a local named Antonio. It's a shame then that Fede has kidnapped Antonio and is currently torturing him for info on Daryl.

Will Carol find love at last? Will Daryl ever make it home? And will someone finally cut Daryl's mullet down to size while he's sleeping? These questions and more all come to mind watching the seventh, final episode of Daryl Dixon season 3.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 ending explained

The finale begins with a callback to a callback. Remember when Daryl placed Laurent's Rubik's Cube at a memorial to honour him a few episodes prior? (Laurent was the French kid Daryl looked after in seasons 1 and 2.)

Well, we're back there now with another familiar face from previous seasons. Yep, the mysterious eyepatch guy is actually Stéphane Codron, who started out as a villain in season 1 before he switched sides.

The last time we saw him was at the end of season 2 when hallucinogenic bat poop in the Channel Tunnel caused him to see visions of his brother, during which he stabbed Daryl with a bayonet. Yep, really. That encounter ended with Stéphane running off to who knows where and he hasn't been seen since. Until now. More on that later.

While Antonio is being tortured by Fede, Carol tries to convince his ungrateful son Roberto to help save him. She tells him to wait for Daryl and Justina to return from their mission and board the boat as she goes it alone. Carol's smitten!

Fede makes an example of Antonio, stringing him up on a torture device in the town square as Carol watches in horror from the shadows. Only when he reveals where the Americans are hiding will Antonio be freed. Plus, it doesn't hurt to scapegoat them in front of the town to assert Fede's dominance further.

When night falls, Carol comes to free Antonio while avoiding gun fire from Fede's henchmen in the distance.

Meanwhile, Daryl and Paz go undercover at a royal banquet, working as masked servants right under everyone's noses. This is where the people with power gather in luxury, the same people who demand villages offer up their women to Spanish royalty in a ritual known as "La Ofrenda" ("The Offering").

As they wine and dine in luxurious finery, the royals watch a special show on stage where walkers are dressed up fancy and strung up like marionette puppets to dance for them. The symbolism isn't exactly subtle, but it's a unique, striking image still, which has become somewhat of a rarity in the Walking Dead franchise these days.

The King dedicates a speech to his son Guillermo, and his "beautiful future wife" Elena, who was snatched away from her girlfriend Paz earlier this season.

Daryl ain't having it, so he cuts the walkers free and opens the curtain, unleashing them on the crowd. He also starts a few fires for good measure as Paz heads off to rescue Elena.

The pair reunite with a hug in Elena's place, where Paz finds out her love has a son named Pablo. They plan to run off together, but then a guard knocks Paz out, who wakes up to Guillermo threatening her.

"You want my wife?" he shouts. "Now you’ll be together every night because I’ll mount your head on her bedpost."

As murderous threats go, that's a pretty good one, but Elena then quite literally stabs him in the back to save Paz. They get the boy and run.

At the same time, Daryl saves Justina from the man who chose her at "The Matching" ritual before all hell broke loose. In doing so, Daryl saves some other women, because that's just the nice guy that Daryl is.

Carol also received a welcome dose of human kindness from Antonio who's prepared some tea for her in a brief safe spot. And not just any tea either, but with milk and honey. That's how you know he's one of the good ones.

Of course, it's not long before Fede's men show up pounding at the door. Luckily, the local women who hid them away show them to a convenient escape route concealed down in their basement.

One brief walker attack later and all our faves are reunited safely above ground. Paz thanks Daryl for all his help and then bounces while he and Justina take the scenic route back to the lighthouse on his motorbike.

They stop off briefly to share some thoughts which are supposed to sound deep, but come across a bit basic as they point out how the apocalypse turned some people bad and others good.

Eventually, they arrive back at the lighthouse but are welcomed by two intruders who attack and take Justina hostage. Valentina saves them quite quickly though, revealing that Roberto had her hide after she was injured in the initial attack.

Daryl runs off back to the village again in order to rescue Carol who went back for Antonio again. Fede has captured them both, but decides to immediately let them go…

Of course, there's a catch. The catch being that Antonio's son Roberto has been chained to two of his dead friends who are about to transform just as more walkers are led into the courtyard.

Carol and Antonio try to remove the chains but it's too late. A local named Alba throws a knife to Carol, but Fede's men shoot it away with startling accuracy. Unfortunately for them, said accuracy escapes them just moments later when Daryl arrives and starts shooting at them from a balcony nearby.

Daryl quickly picks off his aggressors as Carol picks up the knife and gets stabby stabby with the walkers. Justina arrives then, casually strolling through the mini-horde as both Daryl and Fede shoot at the zombies trying to eat her.

Remember, Fede is Justina's uncle, so he does care about her safety still, despite how poorly he's treated her up until now. This works against Fede though when the villagers emerge to hear Justina's claims that Fede has been lying to them all.

She also announces that El Alcazar "is in ashes" thanks to Daryl, which means The Ofrenda is over for good.

Instead of torturing Fede like he did Antonio, Justina suggests taking him to the dungeon. To hurt him would mean they're not better than him.

The evil cartoonish mayor then screams "This is your fault!" at Daryl as he's led away. "You'll pay!"

Do Daryl and Carol make it home?

Back at the lighthouse, Daryl and Carol finally get around to sharing those hot dogs they've been hankering for all season. Instead of sailing off immediately, using the boat to find their way home, the pair recuperate and open up to each other on the beach.

"This whole time I’ve been trying to get home," says Daryl. "Why the f**k did I leave in the first place? Why did I have to get in a fight with the guy in Maine? Why didn’t I leave France when I could have? This makes no sense. My whole life I’ve been running, just running and fighting. That’s all."

Carol says he did it to survive, but Daryl worries this has become a habit now, that he might arrive home and feel the urge to leave again still.

The pair hug it out, reminding us that this show is always at its best when Daryl and Carol are actually together instead of getting separated on endless side missions.

Meanwhile, Fede's mama brings him food in jail. He asks to be freed, telling her that the town will obviously kill him as soon as Daryl and co sail away. "You already lost one son. You don’t want to lose another…"

The Spanish matriarch doesn't say anything, but it's not long before we find out what she did next, because Fede suddenly shows up on the beach, holding a gun to Daryl in a bid for revenge. But he doesn't just run up and shoot him. No, that would have been the smart thing to do.

"I let you into my town," he cries. "I gave you food and shelter and you took everything from me. Do you really think you can just sail home now?"

Just before Fede pulls the trigger, Carol appears and knocks him to the ground. A bullet's fired off in the struggle, which somehow starts a fire in the ship. Others join in to help Carol, including Antonio who knocks Fede out with a rock.

The fire quickly devours the ship in a series of explosions, which means the gang aren't going anywhere. A Spanish version of Johnny Cash's Hurt plays as Daryl and Carol watch their ride home go up in flames.

It's all very dramatic, and then Stéphane shows up again, watching the explosions from a distance using his one remaining eye.

With a fourth season already confirmed, it was inevitable that Daryl and Carol wouldn't make it home just yet. But it seems that after bouncing around America, France, and the UK (briefly), the showrunners aren't done with this Spanish setting just yet.

Let's just hope the siesta they take between seasons is enough to inject some new life into this spin-off before it shuffles on into the horizon for good. Since Daryl and Carol left France, the show has lost some of its "je ne sais quoi".

In the UK, Daryl Dixon season 3 will be available to stream on Sky and NOW from 24th October.

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