This review contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, episode 4.

After a couple of weeks of treading water, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is finally getting into some juicy action and setting up a high-stakes plot. Season 3’s latest episode opens with Daryl and Carol finally starting to repair the boat that they hope will take them back to America. Daryl is eager to hit the high seas and head back home as soon as possible, but Carol is still worried about their unfinished business in Spain.

The episode gets off to a pretty slow start. The whole first act is made up of long sequences of boat repair, mixed with conversations we’ve already heard plenty of times over the past couple of weeks. Carol pleads with Daryl to have a bit more compassion for the people of Solaz; Daryl pleads with Carol to just let go of her attachments in Solaz and come home with him. This seemed like an interesting conflict when it was set up, but there’s nowhere to really go with it besides having the same argument over and over again.

About a quarter of the way in, the episode suddenly gets a lot more exciting when the boat restoration crew is attacked by a band of pirates out for blood. They dispatch the pirates on the beach pretty quickly, but then they hear a bell ring out, signaling that Solaz is under attack. So, Daryl and Carol rush back to town to help fend off an invasion, and we’re treated to the most exhilarating episode of the season so far.

This Is Daryl Dixon Season 3’s Most Exciting & Action-Packed Episode So Far

The Whole Second Half Is A Battle Sequence Combining Mad Max & The Wild Bunch

As the raiders arrive at the gates of Solaz with a convoy of makeshift post-apocalyptic gas-guzzlers and the guards desperately try to pick them off from the walls, we’re treated to an almost Mad Max-like action sequence. It’s a bit convenient that the main characters only get flesh wounds, but the action keeps escalating as the battle goes on into the night. Just when Solaz seems to have a handle on the invasion, the invaders launch fireballs from afar.

This battle scene brings back the season’s western influences with a vengeance. My favorite thing about this season of Daryl’s spinoff is that it feels like a spaghetti western full of zombies, but last week’s episode put those influences on the backseat in favor of something more generic. This week, as the town fights off invading bandits, the western vibes are back. The rat-a-tat shootout in the town square is ripped straight from The Wild Bunch.

It’s got nothing on The Last of Us’ Battle of Jackson set-piece, but it’s still a captivating action scene with bloody spectacle, intense editing, and riveting choreography. It’s not just a battle between Solaz and their invaders; the forces at Solaz release their walkers as a defense tactic, so there are flesh-eating zombies roaming around the battlefield, too. It’s a welcome return to the thrills that Walking Dead fans are used to. Last week’s episode had a couple of minutes of perfunctory zombie-slaying action that was pretty disappointing, but the entire second half of this week’s episode is all action.

The ending of the episode sets up a more compelling conflict than Daryl and Carol’s deliberation over their travel plans. Roberto steals one of the bad guys’ trucks and races off to reunite with Justina. Carol and Antonio head out after them, and Daryl reluctantly joins them because he won’t let Carol face life-threatening danger alone. And with that, a rescue party is headed out into hostile territory. For the first time since the season 3 premiere, I’m actually excited to see where The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon goes next.