‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ Season 1 Episode 6 Recap: “La Dona” Season Finale

Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 6 Recap
Daniella Pineda as Idalia and Danny Ramirez as Eric in ‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ season 1 episode 6 (Photo Credit: Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC)

Episode six of AMC’s Tales of the Walking Dead, the final episode of season one, opens with a couple standing in the dark. They’re in the woods and eerie screams and creepy whispers can be heard as they take off running.

Daylight arrives and the woman, Idalia (Daniella Pineda), makes note that Maria (a zombie) is still following them. She thinks she knows where they are and may know of a place they can stay, but just for the night. Eric (Danny Ramirez) wonders why they’d only stay one night and Idalia explains the woman who lives there is kind of a healer. She’s into spells and other mystical stuff.

It’s dark by the time they arrive at a gate surrounded by tall walls. Upon entering the house, Idalia hears a woman whispering in Spanish. “And now in the hour of our death. Amen,” the voice says. Idalia looks around but one’s there.

Within the episode’s first few minutes it’s obvious the season will finish up with a haunted house tale.

Weapons drawn, they set off to explore the house. There are candles lit and religious figurines are the home’s primary decorations. Eric and Idalia are convinced they’re alone until they see a woman – La Doña of the episode’s title – in white standing in front of them. They’re still trying to get over the shock of seeing her when she yells at them to leave.

Idalia attempts to convince the elderly woman they won’t hurt her and that they just need a place to stay. The homeowner warns them they cannot stay but has a change of heart when Idalia begins to shed tears and begs in Spanish to stay. Idalia promises they’ll leave in the morning, and the healer takes pity on them and offers the couple food.

After they wash up, the woman asks – for the second time – how Idalia knew where she lived. Idalia insists a woman named Maria who’d been to the house told her before the zombies got her. They were traveling together, and Maria told her she was a healer.

As they eat dinner, Eric asks why she won’t let them stay. He points out that it’s freezing outside, and she has all this space to herself. Since it’s just the two of them, they won’t take up much room.

Idalia wants him to stop and let it go, but Eric refuses. La Doña (Julie Carmen) tells them no, again, and asks them to leave. Eric becomes mad and grabs her, and she begins to choke.

She hits the edge of the table, falls to the ground, and dies. Blood spreads around her dead body.

As Idalia washes La Doña’s blood off, she looks down at her reflection in the water and suddenly sees hands around her throat. She begins to choke but when she glances at the mirror, she’s shocked that the hands have disappeared.

A short while later Idalia attempts to relax by the fire. She’s jumpy but Eric doesn’t seem to care about what just happened. He believes the house is theirs since the woman died, but Idalia’s not on the same page. Just because the woman is dead doesn’t mean they can take her belongings and her house.

After a little persuading, she’s okay with staying there…for now.

While exploring, Idalia moves photos, extinguishes some candles, and lights others on what appears to be set up as a small altar. As she kneels to pray, she hears the deceased La Doña say, “This is my house.”

Eric does his own exploring and hears strange noises. Fortunately, there’s nothing supernatural about their source. La Doña had a parrot and it’s a talkative little creature.

The uninvited squatters sit down to eat again, and Eric makes a bad joke about how the lady didn’t know what was going to happen tonight. Idalia doesn’t find it funny and warns him they need to be careful about what they say because it’s bad energy. Eric doesn’t buy into that at all.

Eric lays down in the woman’s bed, but Idalia is seriously creeped out about sleeping in La Doña’s bed. Eric insists it’s fine. Plus, it’s a real bed – something they don’t come across often in these zombie apocalypse times.

As they’re lying in bed the floorboards begin to creak. Idalia rolls over and sees a woman bent over the bed. Suddenly, the candles go out. As Idalia lights a match she says out loud, “La Doña?”

Idalia wanders around the house and repeatedly says in Spanish, “He didn’t mean any harm.”

She eventually makes her way down into the basement and hears voices. She finds a wall dripping blood and instead of getting the hell out of there, she explores some more. A zombie startles her. (Why don’t characters in horror films/TV shows ever flee when they should?)

Eric inspects the area where Idalia insists she saw a zombie and, of course, there’s nothing there. He thinks maybe she had a bad dream and suggests she rest. (Eric’s sure this is all in her head.)

The next day Idalia’s waking nightmares take a dramatic turn for the worse when the Jesuses on crucifixes come to life and climb down the wall. They jump on her and she tries to swat them off, finally taking refuge in a room where she finds a picture of La Doña.

Completely freaked out – I mean, who wouldn’t be? – she grabs a jacket and tells Eric she feels cooped up like she’s just waiting to be attacked or something. He notices the rosary around her neck and wonders when started believing in God.

She replies, “Since today.”

After Idalia leaves, Eric checks on the parrot and covers its cage. The parrot surprises Eric and says, “Don’t hurt me.” He asks the parrot why it would say that and why would he hurt it, but then becomes frustrated and tells the parrot to be quiet. Before shutting the door to the room, it asks, “What did you do?”

Idalia walks around in the fog outside and hears La Doña say, “This is my land.” Idalia produces her knife as she begins to hear what sounds like zombies. She swings her knife around, blindly, unable to make anything out due to the thick fog.

She has a brief reprieve from her fright and even laughs to herself when she sees a chicken and thinks it must have been the source of the noise. It’s not. La Doña is standing at the top of the stairs and she yells, “Intruder!”

Back inside the house, Eric threatens the parrot because it won’t shut up and Idalia confesses she’s been hearing whispers and sometimes even seeing things. She gets angry at how Eric’s looking at her, and he explains he doesn’t think she’s weird but he does think it’s weird she thinks she’s seeing things.

According to Idalia, it’s weird he’s okay with all of this.

The parrot makes noises again and Eric has had it with the bird.

Idalia wonders if he’s glad the old lady died, assuring him he can tell her the truth. He believes this is their house now, things change, and that’s the end of the story. The parrot makes a noise again and Eric slams his hands down on the table, startling Idalia. After apologizing, he gives in and says they can leave if she wants.

Later that night while trying to be intimate, Idalia thinks Eric bites her and she pushes him off. He’s confused and she inspects her shoulder. There isn’t a bite mark there. Idalia’s done with the house’s shenanigans and starts packing, determined to leave first thing in the morning. If he won’t come with her, she’ll leave by herself.

Eric wakes alone in bed in the middle of the night. The parrot’s making a lot of noise, but now he thinks it’s flying around as it squawks. As walks down the hall, pictures of him and Idalia fly off the wall around him. We see flashes of the couple killing people…actual living human beings, not zombies. The parrot speaks for everyone when it asks, “What did you do?!”

Eric runs into the bathroom but then suddenly comes to, standing in the room with the parrot’s cage. The parrot is dead in his hand. Idalia finds him and can’t believe he killed the bird.

While digging a grave for the parrot, he hears noises at the gate. He sees Maria standing there, looking alive and well and not at all like a zombie. He looks at her legs and sees a bone sticking out of her ankle as she asks him to let her in. Eric refuses, telling her she’s dead.

Maria yells for Idalia and then claims that Idalia did this to her. He begins to open the gate, but Idalia closes it and drags him away. Maria yells, “You both will pay for what you have done!”

Eric insists Maria’s alive, but Idalia knows she’s not. It’s all in his head and he’s hearing things.

Eric grabs his head as if he’s in pain and reminds Idalia that she’s the one hearing things – and now she’s putting things in his head. They argue about who’s crazier and about what they really did to Maria and her friends. Apparently, these two were horrible human beings even before they stole La Dona’s house.

Idalia’s hallucinations accelerate and she hears La Doña claiming the house is still hers and Maria begging for help. She also sees all the people they killed are now zombies in the basement walls.

Idalia comes up from the basement covered in blood and reveals all of their victims are down there. She starts to blame him for their deaths, but he reminds her they did it together to survive.

Tales of the Walking Dead Episode 6 Recap
Julie Carmen as La Dona in ;Tales of the Walking Dead’ season 1 episode 6 (Photo Credit: Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC)

The house shakes and Eric screams at her that it is just a house and it’s all in her head, demanding that she stop it. Idalia thinks she’s holding a gun and screams back that it’s not her. She looks down and the gun has turned into a glass cross. They run to the window and see La Doña crawling out of the grave they put her in.

The window breaks and finally Eric says they have to leave. (Really?! What’s taken you so long to come to that decision?) As they run around the house, La Doña appears around every corner.

She tosses their bodies simply by pushing her hands toward them. She claims that even in death this house belongs to her. She uses powers to open the door and push them toward it, but Eric and Idalia turn on each other. They blame each other for what’s happening as they somehow end up downstairs, heading toward the zombies.

As they fight, Eric continues to insist this is all in her head.

Lights flash as the killer couple get sucked into the house by the roots of a massive tree. There’s one final flash of lights and then they lie still on the ground, dead.

The camera pans to a portrait of La Doña and her parrot. And that’s a wrap on a very uneven first season.