Sometimes Our Mistakes Follow us
Episode 3 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond begins in the past Silas is arrested. Hands bloodied and shaking, he’s taken to the police station for questioning. His Father sits there too, telling the officers that his son is a good kid. Back to the present, Hope radios through and reveals she’s wandered off alone. Elton and the others grab their things and ready themselves to leave. Elton asks Silas whether he’s okay to kill and he grunts acknowledgment. Balaclavas on (because now it’s toxic), they head out into the abyss. They make it inside the tire shop and begin looking around for resources. Hordes of zombies pace back and forth outside as Felix and Huck suddenly show up, having tracked them down. Felix demands to know where Hope is but she’s off with the siren, using it as a distraction to break them all out the situation they put themselves in. Anyway, they talk about the mistakes made in the past – with Silas hinting at a dark past that’s currently haunting him. As we soon see, that came from him choking someone out at school – which is why he was in the police station originally. This isn’t a problem for the others though, who agree to have his back no matter what. Hope makes it to the roof but runs into a problem – the crank needed for the siren completely snaps off. Felix radios through and pleads with Hope to come back but she refuses to listen. Hope’s going to sort out this siren no matter what. As Iris is put on the line to say her goodbyes, Hope uses a makeshift crank to get the sirens to work. All the zombies are attracted to her location as Felix and the others sneak out the back…and straight into the middle of this horde. For goodness sake. Hope also makes it out and decides to burn the oil on the ground in order to get away. Only she’s suddenly blindsided by two zombies who stalk toward her. Thankfully Iris shows up and together they manage to free Hope while we’re graced with some poetry in the form of Tyger Tyger, burning bright. The siren idea is clearly a bust – ironically causing more harm than good – as the horde all work together and trap the group behind a mountain of tires. We then cut forward to see the group safe and sound down by the dock. Huck gives a pep-talk to Hope before they all decide to avoid the blaze going forward. The kids refuse to go back to camp though, believing they’re all “where they’re supposed to be.” Reluctantly, Huck and Felix agree to tag along for now. As home truths are revealed, Hope admits that she shot the pregnant lady from the past after she killed their Mother. Iris is not happy with the secret being held between them but promises they’ll stick together for now. Meanwhile, Kubleck calls Barca into her kitchen where he’s having second thoughts over what they did. Kubleck reminds him that they “neutralized a threat” but he’s not so sure they did. Silently, Kubleck turns on all the electrical items around her, including ovens and TVs as she tells him they’re the future – the last beacon of hope for this 200,000 strong populous. Barca doesn’t share her vision though. As they sit together and eat, he’s eventually reassigned to the Complex. When he leaves, Kubleck struggles to hold back tears.
The Episode Review
The line that really stands out this episode is “Sometimes Our Mistakes Follow us” and that seems to be true for World Beyond as a whole. Zombies will always be endearing and interesting in pop culture but the way they’re used in The Walking Dead universe – at least the later seasons -is disappointing, to say the least. Remember when zombies managed to smash open glass windows and were genuinely a menace? The whole tire fire plan with the characters just shows the stupidity they all have and worse, we get a poem read to us in the midst of the action too. The result is a show devoid of tension and suspense, with manufactured danger thanks to the kids themselves throwing themselves head-first into these situations The siren idea – at a stretch – is actually quite good but instead the group run straight into the middle of the horde as they’re being attracted, negating any sacrifice being made here. That’s before mentioning the hard cut from the middle of the tire pile-up to the docks. Obviously the group got away but it would have been nice to actually see this take place. In true Walking Dead fashion though, this is a show to forget and the ham-fisted way each of these characters are explained leaves little to the imagination. Hopefully this one can improve over time but right now it’s hard to see how that will happen.
