The Walking Dead: World Beyond review, Episode 5

Some good character moments prop up a fitfully entertaining episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which still isn’t living up to its potential.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond has consistently confused me with its intentions. I don’t know if I love it, hate it, or love to hate it, and it’s starting to mess with me. Some episodes — or rather, some moments of every episode — are exciting and push the story forward, and then the next one just slows everything down.

I think there’s promise here, which is why there’s so much back-and-forth in my mind. I feel like the showrunners hyped up the idea of a Rick Grimes connection so I’m constantly looking for clues that could mean something. It’s sort of taken away from the fun of watching the series.

Anyway, there are some interesting tidbits to discuss about “Madman Across the Water,” so let’s get right to it!

The Adventures of Huck

I noticed this while perusing through Entertainment Weekly’s recap of World Beyond this week, and I had to make sure to mention it here. I didn’t pay much attention to Huck’s (Annet Mahendru) name at first, but this week, it sort of came together. The group spent a chunk of this episode trying to get across the Mississippi River by making their own boat, all the brides having been destroyed on “the night the sky fell.” It can’t help but recall The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

We got hints this week about Huck’s backstory, and how she struggled to find a place of safety, and I really want to know more. She’s such an elusive character.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

Anyway, the group begins scavenging for spare parts to make a boat. I’m all for the teamwork, but again, but I don’t love their changes of success given their inexperience. They still haven’t been able to kill an empty, and as we’ve come to learn, they’ve all been traumatized in the past, so they’re just not in the right headspace to take on such a task. I believe in them, of course, but the whole thing feels forced.

Elton’s past

All the while, Felix (Nico Tortorella) is hopeful that he can keep Elton (Nicolas Cantu) on his side about his plan to direct the group back towards the colony. Elton hadn’t explicitly said he was going to help, after all.

I have to interject here and say that I’m frustrated with Felix. I know he’s trying to protect the kids and keep them safe, but he fails to understand that Elton, Silas (Hal Cumpston), Iris (Aliyah Royale) and Hope (Alexa Mansour) are a unit now. And more importantly, both Elton and Silas have been through some heavy things, and finally have a place with friends that feels like home. Can’t he just let them be and becomes adults through this experience? I hope this changes, and fast.

I believe this frustration comes from a place of empathy for Elton. We got a lot of flashbacks to his past this week, and it really made my heart ache for the kid.

As a young child, Elton had a happy life with his mother and father. But on the day the sky fell, he had to hide inside a box as empties stormed through the museum and killed his dad. Watching a young Elton come out of the box to find his dead father was quite haunting. I will give World Beyond kudos for nailing the emotion here.

A storm is brewing

I never thought nail polish would be the thing to save the day, but here we are.

I’m still not clear on this, but at an abandoned warehouse, the group finds flammable nail polish which they hope to use to create a fire to get the engine going. It all comes down to the wire as an incoming storm threatens to get in the way of getting the boat up and functioning. To make matters worse, lightning strikes a pole, drawing nearby empties.

Basically, everything that could go wrong does, and the team has to work fast to get the boat into the water and themselves across the river. We get another amazing Elton moment when he has to crawl under the boat to fix a loose piece, bringing him back to when he hid from empties in the box as a kid. He fights through the trauma until the group pulls him back out.

I don’t know about the rest of the cast, but I really love Cantu’s work so far. He’s done wonders for with Elton, and I’m loving where he’s taking his journey. The same can be said for Cumpton’s work of Silas.

Crossing

Lo and behold, after all that, the group makes it across the river into uncharted territory. Huck decides she’s going to go off on her own and figure out what this new terrain is like. Meanwhile, Hope and Elton share a heart-to-heart about Elton’s family, both unaware that a young Hope killed Elton’s mother.

But when Hope spots a picture of Elton’s mother, she makes the horrifying connection. There isn’t much time to process it, however, because an empty may have made its way into their camp.

Much to their surprise, it’s not an empty at all, but a human. And they’ve got a weapon.

The Verdict

All in all, World Beyond was slightly better this week, but it’s still not living up to its potential.

I’m invested in the Elton/Hope storyline and curious to see what this revelation is going to mean for the group dynamic. Elton is certainly going to be frazzled if/when he finds out, and may bring out a side of him we won’t want to see.

And then, of course, I’m still waiting on that Rick Grimes connection, and what the heck the CRM is up to. It’s a mystery they shouldn’t prolong too much longer, because people will drop out before they get to it.

See ya for the next one!

Grade: C+

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