The Boat
The strongest force in the world is nature – at least according to our survivors in World Beyond. Episode 5 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond begins with the group deliberating over the best way to proceed forward. Specifically, they realize they need to get a boat. Only, Felix and Huck put Elton in a difficult position, telling him he needs to convince the others to leave and head back home. With this playing out as their last card, Huck contemplates whether to just jump straight forward and start Plan B or not. Down on the dock, there’s no working boats so the group decide to try and make their own. Their first port of call is the nearby warehouse, which they decide to search for supplies. On the way, Elton finds some old antiques which brings back memories of his childhood back at camp. His Father talks to him about meteors and points one out on the poster he has up in the office. Back in the present, the group continue to make the boat with them all banding together to make it work. Hope overhears Huck and Felix whispering about leaving though and it immediately causes drama to ensue. Elton admits that the pair are speaking sense, especially given how dangerous the world is. Plus, the girls don’t even know if their Father is even alive. Iris refuses to listen though and tells them they’re going to continue trying to cross the river no matter what. With a storm on the horizon and little time to fix the engines, Felix and Iris head off together to find tinder to heat up the engines. Only, the storm catches up to them and a bolt of lightning hits the nearby telephone pole, what are the odds! This then hits a nearby building and unleashes a whole swarm of zombies. Elton starts emptying the vials of nail polish with Silas, hurrying back to fill their make-shift engine. It seems to do the trick too…until it ignites completely. With time running out, Felix heads off to tie a fishing line between two branches to hold back the swarm of zombies fast approaching. At the same time, they call on Elton to get over his fear of claustrophobia to fix up the engines. Breathing heavily, he heads underneath the raft and manages to fix the problem. All together, the group manage to thwart the threat and head on-board managing to make it to the other side. With the threat thwarted for now, Huck heads off alone. With a camp fire set up outside, the group keep warm while Elton remembers fond memories from the past. Specifically, he remembers a thin sliver of hope that came when he was saved but forced to survive alone after his Father died. That day he was all alone and had to head out into the eerily tranquil streets to find the evacuation centre. Back in the present, something stirs in the branches. As the camera pans out, we see someone holding a makeshift weapon.
The Episode Review
With another episode of World Beyond comes more back-story for Elton. In truth ,this is actually the best part of the episode and his entire 10 minute story has been more intriguing than the entirety of World Beyond’s flawed fetch quest so far. Those brief moments showing a young Elton heading out alone actually look really interesting and I wish they’d just made that the story here instead. Alas, that’s not the case and this time we find the group making a boat to cross the river. The contrived lightning strike is pretty ridiculous – and even more so given it wasn’t followed up with rain and an actual storm. It just happened to be a solitary lightning strike and not much else. That’s even worse late on when the group happily sit outside enjoying the tranquil air instead… which completely contradicts what Elton told Silas about the storm imminently closing in. Then again, logic is not World Beyond’s forte and the series has just about managed to keep it together until this point. With that cliffhanger ending, could this be the spark needed to ignite this one?
