This week on The Walking Dead: World Beyond the team is tested in new ways, and the plans evolve as alliances are brought out into the open. This episode takes place over a small amount of time in a pretty contained area, but it gets a little more into character backgrounds and motivations than some previous episodes and it feels like the type of adversity that brings people together after the fact. “Madman Across the Water” is the first situation we have seen that really gets to the core of what creates a strong group in the future dystopia, but like all things, it includes some growing pains.
1. Night at the Museum
The core of episode 5 is centered around Elton, his origin story, and his loosely formed alliance with Felix. In the beginning, we are introduced to young Elton and his family; mom, dad, and unborn baby sister Esmeralda. This is the evening that the sky fell, and Elton’s pregnant mom leaves to go to work and to a fate we are familiar with from the first several episodes. But Elton is left behind with his father at his office in the museum.
Over the course of the episode, we revisit young Elton as the sounds outside continue to escalate, his father leaving him inside a box to go find out what happened, military showing up and clearing out the building, and eventually Elton leaving everything behind to venture out into the world beyond the museum. The last thing that Elton’s father told him was to not be afraid and gave him the dinosaur horn that he passed on to Iris, but being stuck in that box for however long has left Elton with claustrophobia that is becoming a problem in the current world.
2. Setting Sail
Every good group needs something to bring them together, and this week’s McGuffin is a beat-up old raft that can take the group across the Mighty Mississippi if they can get it back up and running before the empties get them. I am happy to admit that I don’t totally get what was going on with this thing, was it a boat, a raft, a ferry? Why did it have an engine, and why was that necessary? And even if it was, there is absolutely no way an engine sits exposed for 10 years and is repairable under the given situation.
But it is a great way to bring the group together as Elton and Silas have to go off and collect nail polish for fuel, Felix and Iris have their differences while they go find materials to repair the boat, and Huck and Hope work to get the engine back up and running. It is a classic zombie survival scenario that does exactly what it needs to at this point in the story; bring everyone back together and get them on the same page. It also ties a little into Huck’s story, but seeing them push off, in the end, is satisfying because it took overcoming adversity to get to that point.
3. The Misadventures of Huck
We finally get some of Huck’s backstory in big, broad, vague strokes. This is a character that has a lot of potentials but every episode seems to push her more into the background. We finally get a break to learn about her here but where every other character has flashbacks to lean on let us know more, Huck just tells us where she got her name from in a very vague way that makes her feel even less authentic. What is she hiding?
She basically explains it away as if she doesn’t remember anything other than what people told her once they found her, passed out with a broken arm floating down the river on a raft. So the name Huck is as on the nose as it sounds, and the only thing she is willing to tell us is that she fought for her life to get on that raft and away from whatever she was running from. It feels cheap and shallow because she always portrays these moments as way too heavy to talk about but gives us nothing to judge that for ourselves. And ultimately, she speaks about how hard it was being in this new world all alone but opts to leave the group at the end of the episode to go out on her own once again.
Continued below4. Felix’s Day Out
A character that has the potential to be fascinating, Felix finds himself on the wrong side of discourse every single time and his motivations are paper-thin. Occasionally he tries to explain himself, but he generally comes off as “tone-deaf” because his focus is too singular. Sure that creates some interesting drama for the group, but it gets old really quick and 5 episodes in I wish we had seen Felix turn a new leaf instead of double down on his antagonistic nature.
The reveal from Felix in this episode is that he was supposed to go protect Iris and Hope’s father in the Civic Republic but someone else took his place, so he could stay and take care of the girls. This is new information to the audience, though not surprising. However, Hope points out that they already knew that, and that her real issue with Felix is how he wants to run things when no one needs him, but he wasn’t there for them when they really needed someone to care and guide them. They needed a brother and Felix was too caught up in himself to support them. Felix wasn’t a child when everything went sideways, but he sure does act like the child of the group most of the time.
5. Subplots and Cliffhangers Unite!
My personal favorite aspect of “TWD: World Beyond” has been the cliffhangers. Every episode has ended on a moment that leaves me thinking about next week. This episode was no different, although the intended cliffhanger isn’t nearly as enticing as the promise of what is to come of Elton and Hope complicated pasts. As the plot threads grow ever closer, it is exciting to know that Hope now knows half of what the audience does, now the question is when and how does that all come to the surface. Will Hope bring it up, will Elton make the connections, or will something in the world bring it to everyone’s attention? And how will that play out when Elton realizes that Hope has known for some time?
Bonus Thought! Rolling Like a River
Regardless of where everything goes, I am excited to see what happens next. I am enjoying the fact that “World Beyond” has an agenda and these characters are on a path to get somewhere. Zombie stuff can feel aimless when the only goal is as broad as “survive” or “find more people” but The Walking Dead: World Beyond has a great mix of interpersonal dynamics and mission-driven adventure that keeps things on the rails and gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of teamwork. This episode was a perfect example of what this show can be, and I hope this is the path, or river, that things continue down.
