From Super Walkers to Spaghetti Western
If Season 3 was supposed to be Daryl and Carol’s epic voyage home, “La Ofrenda” tacks hard into genre cosplay, abandoning the emotional ballast of homecoming for the spectacle of a stylized detour. The transatlantic intrigue that once connected France to America via Madam Genet’s super-walker experiments and CDC callbacks has been buried with Genet herself. In its place? A dusty village, suspicious locals, and Carol and Daryl playing cowboy in a Spaghetti Western pastiche. Cue the tumbleweeds and narrative whiplash.
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| “La Ofrenda” – THE WALKING DEAD DARYL DIXON, Pictured: Óscar Jaenada as Fede. Photo Credit: Manuel Fernandez-Valdes/AMC @2025 AMC Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Narrative Whiplash Is Real
The problem isn’t just the aesthetic shift; it’s that the show traded a compelling arc for a cinematic spaghetti western veneer most viewers may not recognize or care about. The stakes have shrunk. The tension’s gone soft. Daryl’s emotional evolution has been sidelined in favor of moody standoffs and cultural confusion. To the viewers who’ve been riding shotgun since the CDC days, this episode might leave their neck sore and their patience thinner than a ‘hollow one’s’ (aka walker’s) skin.
Carol: From Strategist to Wandering Critic
Carol, once the mastermind who conned Ash into flying her to France, now wanders off like a bored tourist. Her skepticism of “La Ofrenda”—a lottery where girls are exchanged for village security—lands with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Instead of the determined survivor we saw last season, we get the classic know-it-all American trope. Daryl, bless him, remains a true minimalist, grunts his way through his scenes with a clear message: “Fix boat. Go home.” During the town’s celebration dinner, he tries to get Carol to stop talking, but she’s too busy being a buttinsky to notice.
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| “La Ofrenda” – THE WALKING DEAD DARYL DIXON, Pictured: Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon. Photo Credit: Manuel Fernandez-Valdes/AMC @2025 AMC Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Side Characters, Side Problems
Roberto and Justina are lovely and sympathetic yet not compelling enough to derail Carol and Daryl’s journey home. Their dilemma feels like filler, not fuel. Even the one moment of real conflict—when Carol says, “If we hadn’t forced them back, they’d be free,” and Daryl responds, “No, they’d be dead.”—feels like a speed bump on the road to nowhere.
La Ofrenda: Civilized or Just Misguided?
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| “La Ofrenda” – THE WALKING DEAD DARYL DIXON, Pictured: Candela Saitta as Justina, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Hugo Arbués as Roberto. Photo Credit: Manuel Fernandez-Valdes/AMC @2025 AMC Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
La Ofrenda is the community’s lottery that exchanges its girls for its continued security. The practice is disturbing but not misconceived. Compared to the randomness of everyone claiming “I’m Negan” at the Sanctuary, it’s almost civilized. The showrunner takes care to establish that this practice links back to medieval, aristocratic traditions. This is the kind of layered and morally ambiguous storytelling that once defined the best of the Walking Dead. But here, these details get buried beneath side plots and genre confusion.
Romance by Numbers
The Paz and Elena romance tries to add emotional depth but ends up feeling like a checkbox exercise. Elena is classic lipstick, styled like a perfume ad—soft-spoken, elegant, camera-ready. Paz is not. She is rugged. She rides a horse, wrangles pigs and walkers. She’s trusted to guard the perimeter. Daryl’s line: “You do it all,” was meant as admiration, but it only highlighted how cartoonish her characterization was. Paz and Elena’s dynamic leans unwittingly into lesbian stereotypes without offering nuance or surprise. It’s not unwelcome; it’s just weak sauce.
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“La Ofrenda” – THE WALKING DEAD DARYL DIXON, Pictured: |
Bottom Line: Fix the Boat, Fix the Plot
The faithful are here for Daryl and Carol’s return to America. That’s the draw. That’s the arc. Season 3 feels far from it, though. “La Ofrenda” is a detour that doesn’t earn its mileage. The scenery’s gorgeous, the performances are solid, but what do you think about story so far? Is it getting lost in translation or am I missing something?
Here’s hoping someone remembers to fix the boat before the plot sinks with it—but that’s just me. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Overall Rating:
5/10
Lynette Jones