Tag: The Walking Dead: World Beyond

In This Life starts with Hope pulling the weapon she stole from Felix on Huck before leaving us hanging for a little while.

When we come back form the first commercial break Elton has found Silas. The smoke from cooking a rabbit gave his location up. Iris has found a stabilization boot for Felix which is letting him move about a little more freely. As Iris and Felix chat, she tells him that she doesn’t trust Huck. There is only one room in the old folks home they haven’t searched, which Huck said was full of bodies. What does it mean if Huck was lying?

Huck & Hope

Out on the trail Hope has Huck at gunpoint. Huck tells Hope that even if she pulls the trigger, the other’s will come looking for her. This is about when a few walkers come stumbling there way, and Hope has to decide on what to do. Shoot Huck? Keep her at gunpoint? Or shoot a few walkers?

Hope freezes as the walkers come closer and ends up losing her gun as Huck yells stupid sh*t. Huck is yelling stuff like “work your angles”.

Back at the old folks home Iris and Felix go into the room that Huck said was full of bodies. Only there are no bodies. The room is full of supplies. Supplies that could have helped treat Felix’s ankle as well as the truck.

While Iris and Felix are realizing that Huck might not be who she says she is. Percy is telling Elton and Silas just about the same thing. Silas wasn’t the one who killed Percy’s Uncle, it was Huck all along.

Who Sent The Messages

After clearing the walkers Huck congratulates Hope, telling her she did an awesome job killing the walkers. Hope wants to know why Huck is there, which brings Huck to admit to Hope that Hope’s father didn’t send the messages, it was Huck all along. At least according to Huck. When pressed on the why, Huck tells Hope she needed Hope to realize that civilization is worth fighting for. Huck gives Hope a long spiel about why the CRM is the right path. When Hope asks why the CRM cares about her, Huck tells her she has no idea who she is.

When we come back from commercial Leopold is having wine with his CRM girlfriend, telling her about how Hope took apart and rebuilt a computer. Hope is special. Maybe she will even save the world.

As Team Percy is making their plans to catch up to Huck a CRM team shows up in a truck, forcing them out of their hiding place. The plan is to catch up to Huck and Hope, and save Hope, which is just about the same plan that Felix and Iris come up with.

As Huck and Hope are holing up for the night Iris and Felix pull up in the truck and Huck tell her they need to hide if she wants to save their life. When they have no choice, Huck comes out and acts as if everything is okay, and Hope covers for her.

Felix pretends to believe what Huck is shoveling long enough to grab her gun and demand that she tells him what’s going on.

When we come back from the next commercial break we see Leopold’s girlfriend breaking the news that Hope will be with them shortly, but something is off, it appears that Leopold is behind glass, but it turns out what we were seeing was her practicing, Leopold wasn’t even there.

Back at the abandoned house Huck tells’ Felix that he needs to get back into the house and leave. Hope chimes in and tells Iris and Felix they have to walk away so they can live. As Felix is thinking about what Huck is saying she attacks, pushing Felix down the stairwell at the same time she knocks over the lantern.

As the fire rages Huck and Felix do battle with their spears while the girls look for the handgun that Felix dropped. Hope finds the gun before running towards the hand to hand fighting. Who does she shoot? Who does she decide to go with?

Hope then does the crazy thing so she puts the gun against her own head and tells Felix and Iris to go, that she is the asset and that she has to go with Huck to help her father.

While Hope is making her decision Silas has decided to sacrifice himself to save Percy and Elton.

Hope decides to go with Huck as Silas gives himself up to the CRM.

Back at the CRM Leopold questions the military arm of the CRM, and admits that he is afraid they are being lied to, but he knows how they can be certain.

Out on the road Huck has Hope, and they have reached the drop point, and are waiting for the helicopter. When Elizabeth arrives to pick up her daughter and Hope she tells Huck that she’s taking care of the loose ends. While Huck thought she was saving Felix and the others, her mother just made it clear that no one was going to be left alive if she had anything to say about it.

The season ends with Hope telling Iris that the Civic Republic has no idea that it’s really been the both of them all along. They are apparently smarter together than alone. As Felix and Iris walk, Bill finds them in the woods and the two embrace. Bill tells them he thought they were dead, but doesn’t tell them that everyone in their home has been gunned down by the CR.

In This Life Scoring

In This Life scored a 50/100. It just struggled to generate any excitement for me.

Things I don’t like about The Walking Dead: World Beyond

• The writers really struggle to let any suspense build. They must believe the audience is really dumb, because they spell out everything that might lead to suspense.
• There is no real feel of danger from the undead. The focus is all politics, but it’s not up to par with what we got from the original “The Walking Dead” and the quality gap is really noticeable.
• The expandable spear weapons are just dumb. A solid shaft spear would just make more sense.
• Iris’s dinosaur tooth spear is even dumber than the expandable spears. A fossil is not going to make for a good piecing weapon.
• The flashback should be a tool used more selectively. There are just too many flashbacks in The World Beyond.
• Why is Elton wearing a mustard suit? (screaming this)

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series Rank!

The Sky Is a Graveyard finds Silas tied up outside. Is he prone to violence? The rest of the team struggles to decide what to do with him. He was found passed out in a room with a body. Worse, his wrench was covered in blood. Did he kill Percy and Percy’s Uncle? Percy’s Uncle had his head bashed in and Percy is missing. Silas remains tied up outside while the survivors struggle with what to do next.

Things don’t get any better for Silas after they search his bad and find Iris’s drawings she’d thrown away before they started their journey. Is Silas fixated on Iris? Did Silas kill Percy and his uncle out of jealousy?

Flashbacks

As the team tries to figure out what to do with Silas he has flashbacks. We see what happened in his house when he was younger. Silas’s father was abusive, beating his mother and him alike. The question is, did Silas kill them both? What actually happened? When Silas sparred with his father he must have killed him. When Silas goes upstairs in the flashback he finds his father has turned. Silas then flees to his room only to be forced to kill his father a second time after his mother comes home and is attacked.

Silas is suffering in his own hell as the rest of the group takes sides. Hope is ready to convict Silas while Huck is ready to leave him chained up when they walk away. Iris and Elton don’t quite buy it though, believing that Silas wouldn’t have hurt anyone without cause.

Silas is suffering, and when a walker is coming for him he seems at peace, ready to let it end. He’s is only saved because Hope comes out in time to spear the Zombie.

Morning

The next morning Iris goes out to talk to Silas, to ask him what happened. He reveals he got out of his restraints, but he stayed to talk to her. He doesn’t really remember what happened, all he remembers is anger.

After Silas leaves, Elton decides that he has to follow him. He thinks that Silas will have a better chance at surviving if he has someone to watch his back. Elton tells Hope that he’s going to find Silas, then his mother. This brings Hope to tell him the truth, that she killed his pregnant mother.

Silas and Elton move off, each of them on a different path for the moment.

The Sky Is a Graveyard ends with Huck revealing that she’s Elizabeth’s daughter when her mother hands her a watch, and Huck asks if it was Dads’? Huck then confirms that the package is safe, and she only has 48 before the rest of the survivors come looking for. They have to debrief fast so she can get to the other survivors. Who is the package? Is it Hope or Iris?

The Sky Is a Graveyard Scoring

It took eight episodes for me to have that moment where I’m actually curious to see what happens next episode. In the end, it wasn’t enough to save the full episode. There is a ton of dialogue without much depth, which is why the episode scored a 62/100,. This makes it an episode you should save for a Rainy Day.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

Truth or Dare begins with Huck, played by Actress Annet Mahendru who happens to speak six languages, waking with a start.

Tony, Percy’s Uncle knows where there are fuel stores, thanks to some tricks of light, but now the team needs to know where they actually want to go.

Who goes to comfort her? Of course it’s Elton, which just makes her guilt worse.

Using the same trick they used to find the fuel dumps, they find a likely target in New York where Hope and Iris’s dad is.

The kids and the adults both enjoy some alcohol while the younger group plays a game of Truth or Dare. This goes south when Percy asks Hope what the worst thing she’s ever done. She knows she’s killed Elton’s mom at this point, but she’s not willing to say that, so she leaves the group when Percy pushes her.

Flashbacks

While Hope is suffering we see Huck’s flashback to when the apocalypse started. She’s with her team, and they are facing their first zombies. It only takes one exchange for Huck to realize that headshots are critical. She must have watched a few zombie movies in her time.

As Huck is remembering, Hope wanders up to the roof where she bumps into Huck and admits that she killed Elton’s mom. Huck gives some good advice and tells Hope that no one else needs to know the truth. It won’t change anything but make life harder. Better to carry the truth and let the others go on in peaceful ignorance.

The next morning the team heads out to a CRM fuel dump, aiming to get enough fuel to get to New York.

Once inside Huck finds herself facing a hostage situation. Hope has a gun pressed against her head, and her survival depends on what Huck does next.

Huck talks down the hostage taker, and he releases Hope, but continue to holds Huck at gunpoint. We then see what Huck did when she was a Marine. She killed her own troops instead of killing innocent civilians. Then, after taking her hostages gun, and telling her she could save him, she puts a bullet in him, because the reality was he was too far gone.

Momma Drama

Once the team is safe, Tony and Percy tell the team they want to continue on the journey with them. Hope then gets the dagger twisted in her heart when Elton tells her that maybe his Mom is alive, because hey, anything is possible, and Hope has to agree.

As Hope and Huck talk about the pain of carrying the truth without sharing it, we see how Huck got her facial wounds. She did it to herself.

Truth or Dare  ends with Iris waking up, wondering why Percy didn’t come to meet her. When she goes looking for Percy, she finds Tony with most of his face missing. Percy is missing, and Silas is nearby, passed out in a bathroom stall.

Did Silas due the horrible deed? We are going to have to wait until next week to find out.

Truth or Dare Scoring

Truth or Dare scored a 60/100, putting it in Rainy Day territory. The Huck storyline was intriguing, but there just isn’t a lot to the storyline that is generating anxiety at this point. I’m hoping things will get better in the coming weeks.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

Madman Across the Water finds the survivors trying to get across the Mississippi. It is a big, wide river. In a world without anyone to maintain the infrastructure, things like bridges don’t last long. While the top level story is about getting across the river, the episode is really about Elton dealing with his childhood zombie trauma.

As the group is marching to the river, we repeatedly see signs for the Daiquiritown Animal park.

I felt like this was the first issue with the episode. There was a lot of build up referencing the animal park, making me think they were going to do something a little more interesting with it. Zombie Tiger? Zombie Bear? Something?

Madman Across the Water felt like a long build up to give Elton his back story, and I’m sorry, I just don’t feel a connection to these characters at the moment. There isn’t any real tension or anxiety.

Madman Across the Water Scoring

Madman Across the Water ranked a 60/100, making this an episode you want to save for a Rainy Day. The child actors are okay for the most part. They just don’t gel together.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Season 1, Episode 3 is titled “The Tyger and the Lamb“.

The group has reached the “BOG”, the Blaze of Glory, and the fire has attracted hordes of the undead to the burning tire pit. The group has to cross the “BOG”, but how to do that with hordes of the undead around? Hope takes the responsibility on herself to reach the siren on one of the buildings in hopes of drawing the undead to her, and away from the main group.

While Silas has flashbacks to whatever happened before he moved to the Campus Colony, the main group is struggling with how to get out of the “BOG”. Silas did something, but it’s not clear if he killed his parent before or after they turned into zombies.

Felix and Huck have found the main group, which drives home the realization that Hope was the one leaving the trail for the adults to find, but it’s not really clear why yet.

First Forty

The first forty minutes of The Tyger and the Lamb suffers from the same issues as Episode 2, The Blaze Of Glory. There just isn’t any suspense around the Empties.

It isn’t until the last few minutes of the episode when we see Elizabeth Kublek, the leader from the Civic, that the episode has any real tension. Elizabeth’s lieutenant questions what they did, how many people they killed, and she’s going to make sure she takes care of any potential issues before they grow, sending her lieutenant to some sort of mental health institute while also letting him know he’ll be doing manual labor when he gets out. Once he’s out the door, she does show some emotion, but she still turned him over, making me wonder if he’s related to her?

The Tyger and the Lamb Scoring

I’m hoping the series finds its pace and gets more intense, otherwise I’m afraid it won’t last more than a season or two. The Tyger and the Lamb scored a 65/100, improving slightly from the Episode 2 dip.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

The Blaze of Gory picks up right were Brave left off. Iris is trying to lose her zombie killing virginity, and not doing very well at it. She ends up pushing the zombie into an empty pool and only survives due to dumb luck.

The falling into a pool thing must have been a contractual item for both sisters, because just a little while after Iris ends up falling into an empty pool, so does her sister Hope.

The coolest zombie in the episode was the bee zombie, the poor undead creature was taken over by bees.

There are lots of plot points in The Blaze of Gory, including emotional flashbacks of Felix being forced to tell his father he is gay.

There was just something missing though. The edge that the other Walking Dead franchises have just doesn’t exist in this world. I’m hoping it gets there, but the world just doesn’t feel threatening, and the actors don’t feel like they are afraid of the zombies.

The Blaze of Gory Scoring

So far this feels like a G rated kids adaption of a family friendly Zombie TV Show. Unfortunately, that’s not what I am looking for. I hope things get grittier and more real soon. The Blaze of Gory fell 25 points from Brave, scoring Rainy Day Score of 50/100.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Brave	70
1	2	The Blaze Of Glory	50
1	3	The Tyger and the Lamb	65
1	4	The Wrong End of a Telescope	71
1	5	Madman Across the Water	60
1	6	Shadow Puppets	60
1	7	Truth Or Dare	60
1	8	The Sky Is a Graveyard	62
1	9	The Deepest Cut	55
1	10	In This Life	50