Tales of The Walking Dead season 1, episode 6 recap: La Dona

The final episode of Tales of The Walking Dead season 1 has arrived and wraps up the season with a modern take on haunted houses. When a couple seeks shelter for the night, one accident causes unexplained supernatural events that make viewers question what’s real or not.

Tales of The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 6 recap – The Healer

The episode begins with couple Idalia and Eric as they seem to have survived a walker attack. As they travel uphill with a walker following below, they worry about finding shelter.

Idalia remembers hearing that a woman, who is a healer or possible witch living nearby. However, they do not know if she’s alive or not.

They easily access the home filled with lit candles and crucifixes on the walls. The old woman, La Dona, arrives and asks that they leave her home.

Idalia very persuasively asks that they only spend the night, hearing of her through her friend Maria. La Dona regrettably agrees.

During dinner that evening, Eric asks if they can stay permanently however La Dona denies his request. He grows angry as she has plenty of room and supplies.

His sudden anger causes La Dona to die of a heart attack right before the couple. This is how they’re troubles begin.

Tales of The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 6 recap – The Haunted House

While Eric is completely fine living and even sleeping in La Dona’s home after she died mere hours prior, Idalia is not. She’s the first of the two to begin seeing and hearing strange things.

At first, she hears ghostly whispers before seeing walkers within the dirt walls of a hidden room. She is choked in the bathroom, attacked by the Jesus figures moving off of the crucifixes, seeing La Dona calling out to her, and even sees blood running down the walls.

She keeps these horrific moments to herself before finally confessing to Eric. He, not surprisingly, doesn’t believe her.

He’s more focused on La Dona’s pet bird who also repeats some chilling words every so often. But it’s not long before Eric too begins to hear voices but brushes them off.

Idalia becomes so upset about the home that she angrily tells Eric that they are leaving in the morning. We all know that won’t be happening.

The night gets worse as Eric suddenly experiences visions that seem to suggest that both he and Idalia murdered innocent people in the name of survival. These murdered people are the walkers Idalia sees in the hidden room.

In the chaos of his visions, he notices he accidentally killed La Dona’s bird.  As he attempts to bury it the next morning, he sees Maria at the locked gate asked to be let in.

He’s scared, having thought she was dead like all the others and notices that her ankle has been bitten. He refuses to let her in.

She begs him repeatedly and as he’s about to let her in Idalia stops him. She assures him that Maria is dead.

He looks and finds a dead walker Maria at the gate. By now, they begin to bicker and argue about what they are seeing.

Is it real or is it in their head?

Tales of The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 6 recap – Idalia and Eric’s Fate

All of the events are coming to a head as La Dona herself shows up. Showing up before the frightened couple she uses her powers to throw them to the floor, ordering them to leave her house.

As the two are moved across the floor they continue to squabble with Idalia telling Eric this is real and him telling her it’s all in her head. They wind up tossed into the room where the walkers are within the dirt walls.

The ending is a little confusing as the episode chooses to use a strobe light effect which shows but doesn’t at the same time, what occurs. It seems Idalia and Eric start stabbing each other, and the walkers begin to eat them as the episode closes out.

Tales of The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 6 review

Unlike the episode prior, this episode makes actual use of suspense. As you follow Idalia, you wonder yourself if what she is seeing real or not.

It’s obvious she feels immense guilt over La Dona’s death and the people she and Eric killed. Why did they kill them?

We’ll never know outside the usual excuse of “for survival”. Unlike the painful time loop plot and child murderer with rehashed excuse for his horrible actions, we get the haunted house trope.

But this plot actually works. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, haunted houses are something that will suddenly not vanish because zombies roam around.

Whether or not La Dona was a witch, or healer, it’s obvious something was wrong with her home for her to have that many crucifixes. What falls flat is the acting (except for La Dona, she was amazing) and some of the scary visuals.

At times both actors do well working off each other. Other times, well, let’s say if any normal person saw blood dripping down the walls, you’d have more of a reaction than what Idalia gave us.

Plus, who was she kidding when she was sweet talking La Dona into allowing them to stay? The trope of a woman seeing and believing in ghosts while the man doesn’t, is very overused.

Let’s be honest, some people aren’t into paranormal stories. Like many of the other episodes this season, this one also falls victim to ending abruptly with no real conclusion.

Were Gina and Blair dead or not in episode 2? Did Dr. Everett tag Amy in episode 4?

How did Idalia and Eric die? Overall, I found this episode more enjoyable than the rest, except for Dee’s episode.

That one was stellar from start to finish. If Tales of The Walking Dead intends to have another season, a lot, and I do mean, a lot of changes need to be made.

I got plenty of ideas if you are interested.

You can watch Tales of The Walking Dead season 1 on AMC.