#’The Walking Dead: World Beyond’: The Group Goes Back to School (RECAP)

World Beyond, a show about teenagers, seems like it was destined to end up at a high school. And so it does, in “The Wrong End of a Telescope,” as the group is forced to take shelter from a storm.

Once they’re in the school, everyone separates to find supplies (because that always goes well!) and predictably, they encounter various dangers—but as they ultimately discover, the biggest danger just might be part of their own group.

Protecting The Young

Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Huck (Annet Mahendru) attempt to find food in the basement, and as they walk, Huck tries to convince her young companion to turn back. No such luck—what a shock! They’re cornered by a frightening dog that looks like it might attack them, but they’re able to sneak past, because the dog was just protecting its young. Hope and Huck get to the pantry and find plenty of food.

Elton (Nicolas Cantu) and Felix (Nico Tortorella) go through what looks to be a chemistry or biology classroom, where they find iodine to purify water they collect from the storm. They also run into some walkers that (presumably) died after being trapped in lockers, which triggers some nasty memories from Elton’s childhood. He leans more and more toward Felix’s suggestion that they should all turn back, which is only reinforced as walkers and other dogs start making trouble around the school. They go back to the gym, where Iris (Aliyah Royale) and Silas (Hal Cumpston) are, and ascertain that they’ll have to go to the basement to get out of the building.

A Narrow Escape

Iris and Silas bond and flirt and dance, but their happiness is cut short by a walker at the door and a snarling dog in the vents. They escape the walker by luring it into the gym and then slamming the door on it, but there are more walkers in the hallway. They end up shut in a room with the dead closing in, and a stuck door their only means of escape. Thankfully, there’s good news—Hope and Huck are on the other side of that door, so if they can hold on long enough, they’ll be free. But walkers are closing in.

It’s then that Silas, well, snaps. He kills one walker and viciously beats another, pummeling it with his bare hands as the others get the door open. Elton tries to get him to stop, but he (violently) shoves him away. Only Felix is able to get through to him, and, as one might imagine, the injured Elton is now quite willing to turn around and head home.

Finding a Cure…?

Iris, though, is unfazed, even after Silas confides in her about the thing he might or might not have done: killed his dad. She maintains that that’s not who Silas is, and she thanks him for “saving her.” Despite his pleas otherwise, she won’t leave him behind. Um, Iris? There are so many red flags here. How are you not seeing the red flags?

And thus, despite setbacks that could’ve wiped out at least a third of them, the group continues on with food and supplies. There’s also an interesting post-credits scene that’s probably CRM-related, in which a woman in a high-tech facility appears to be testing walkers to develop a cure for the virus. On her desk, she has a photo of Iris and Hope’s dad with her and a couple of other men, one of whom was the walker she was conducting experiments on. So… she has to be their aunt, right?

Other Observations

• This episode felt like filler. Really, everything that happened could’ve happened in about five minutes; instead, we spent a whole episode at a high school for no good reason, really. And on the subject of “really?,” is it logical that there would be that many perfectly preserved canned goods just sitting around 7+ years into the apocalypse? No. It isn’t.
• I just don’t understand Iris’ character. Not only did she barely react to that revelation about their mom last week, but this week, she’s going back to Silas after he 1. Viciously pummeled a walker and injured his friend to keep punching it, and 2. Admitted he might’ve killed his dad. So now I’m wondering—something’s clearly off with Silas, but is there something off with Iris, too? Are they both going to be villains? Or is this just uneven writing?
• How the heck did Silas do that without getting bitten? Feels like it shouldn’t have been possible, given how he was hitting the walker’s face.
• Rating: 1.5/5. While this was slightly better than last week’s installment, World Beyond is clearly treading water until it can reveal something else huge about CRM, and it feels inconsistent with both the larger TWD universe and in the characterizations of its mains.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Sundays, 10/9c, AMC