The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 episode 6 ending explained: The failed Barcelona rescue and Carol’s poison reveal

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 3, Episode 6, drops viewers into two crises that refuse to be resolved. The episode titled "Contrabando" aired on October 12, 2025, with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride headlining alongside Alexandra Masangkay, Eduardo Noriega, Óscar Jaenada, Hugo Arbués, and Candela Saitta. The hour is directed by Daniel Percival and written by Marta Gene Camps. It splits cleanly between Barcelona and Solaz as Daryl and Paz try to rescue Justina from an El Alcázar convoy, while Carol discovers why Roberto is crashing again.

The Barcelona play detonates inside the Gothic quarter, and the lock that will not break becomes the hinge of the ending. The Solaz thread turns on a quiet confirmation of poison and a loud confrontation at the gate. With The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 episode 6 positioned as the penultimate chapter before the October 19 finale, every choice is loaded to set up the last push.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 episode 6 ending explained: The failed Barcelona rescue and Carol’s poison reveal

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, season 3, episode 6, opens with Paz catching Daryl on the road and steering him toward Ciutat Vella, the historic heart of Barcelona, where El Alcázar moves Justina under heavy guard. Paz remarked,

“I thought you might need a tour guide in Barcelona.”

Daryl said,

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Their plan leans on locals from a refugee enclave and on Paz’s read of the streets. The ambush at the gate starts hot with disguised women opening fire and a second unit prepping a launcher, only for Paz to yank the shot off Guillermo’s car when she sees Elena in the blast window. The rocket misses and smashes a walker pen instead. The street fills. Daryl and Paz reach the cage, try the keys, attempt to use the gun and then try brute force.

The lock holds. He grips Justina’s hand across the bars as the dead press in, then he lets go and runs. That loss is the core of the ending, because The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, episode 6, weaponizes Daryl’s old flashback about being told to run and makes him do it again in the present to stay alive for another try. A voice in the flashback yelled,

“Go. Run. Don’t you ever look back.”

The show has him mouth the apology and flee because there is no other move when the city turns on them. This hour underlines the chaos of Ciutat Vella and the “too-late” timing that forces the retreat, which is exactly what the finale now must address.

Across the cut, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, season 3, episode 6, sends Carol from hunch to proof. Roberto rallies, then collapses. Fede stalls on medicine. Carol clocks that Antonio’s cat was poisoned and pushes into Fede’s office. When Doña Marga confronts her, Carol lies and wins the meds. That opens the deeper secret about Maria. Old protest footage shows the car bomb that killed her, and Roberto overhears Antonio admit the push that put her in harm’s way.

That knowledge resets the family line that Fede has been pulling all season. Carol kisses Antonio, hides Roberto under the cargo, and drives for the gate. Fede stops the truck. Antonio turns public and accuses him loudly, buying just enough cover for Carol to roll out of Solaz with Roberto still breathing. These beats leave The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, episode 6, with two live grenades for the finale, a second strike on the convoy, and a town ready to flip on its mayor once proof of poisoning and the Maria truth spreads.

What does the failure mean, and what does it set up?

Daryl’s decision to let go is not a stall. It is the series insisting that the Barcelona rescue will require a smarter second hit. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, episode 6, closes on a failure because the show wants the next hour to open on a reset that targets two goals at once: freeing Justina and Elena, and cracking the Ofrenda machine that feeds El Alcázar. Elena's choice in Barcelona matters here. Paz refuses to sacrifice Elena to get Guillermo, which suggests that the finale will be built around saving both women while severing the system that has taken them.

Meanwhile, Solaz has turned from a moral coaxing game into open power politics. Carol has evidence, Marga is no longer blind to Fede’s play, and Antonio’s public outburst at the gate marks a split that others can follow. With The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 episode 6 serving as the penultimate chapter before next week’s last episode, the show leaves itself one hour to answer who escapes Barcelona and whether Solaz burns or bends.

Stay tuned for more updates.