The Walking Dead: World Beyond
Episode 6 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond was a pretty decent entry in AMC’s latest zombie spinoff.
The episode focused on our merry band of heroes coming across a newcomer, Percy, who enlists their help to retrieve his truck, which he says was stolen. It turns out that Percy is a grifter. He’s running a con, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids.
World Beyond is one of those shows where very little happens each episode until something does. A lot of slow build followed by some big action.
In ‘Shadow Puppets’ we pick up where last week’s episode left off. Percy actually showed up at the very end of that episode, though we didn’t see who it was until this one.
After a tense moment, the kids invite Percy back to their fire, where he spins a tale about how his things were stolen by some other men. But there are cracks in his story, like how he traveled such a vast distance in so little time. So he confesses: He has a truck. It was what the thieves actually took. He was only lying to Hope and the others because he was trying to protect them. After all, if they heard he had a vehicle they’d be too tempted to go get it for themselves and that could be dangerous.
Sure enough, the con works. They agree to go help him. When they get to the spot they see the truck. They rush over and find a man inside, wounded and either out cold or dead. It’s Tony, Percy’s uncle. He’s in on the con, but they don’t know it. They lay him against the building.
The thieves are apparently in a building across the street and Felix and Percy head in. Impatient at not being able to come help, Iris heads in as well, leaving Hope and Elton outside and Silas with the truck.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond
Inside the building, Iris comes across Percy. They head upstairs and find the keys and a pile of Percy’s stuff. He tells her to go start the truck. He’s going to gather this things and look for the bad guys. She heads down the stairs and hears a cry and a gunshot. Torn between wanting to get the hell out of there and wanting to go help Percy, she hesitates. After a moment she heads upstairs.
Percy is nowhere to be seen. She sees his things and reaches inside the back pack. It’s filled with paper. She realizes it’s a prop.
Meanwhile, outside we see Tony sneak up to his feet and grab the kids’ bags. He tosses them in the truck and makes his escape. They’re as good as gone when they see a pack of “has-beens”—a kind of fun term for zombies—and decide to head back to save the kids and Felix. Grifters they may be, but they’re not heartless.
In the end, everybody makes nice—though it takes a bit for the girls to forgive Percy and his uncle. Silas never trusted Percy to begin with and his instincts were solid. Elton seems to genuinely like both men regardless of their attempt to rob them blind.
We learn that Tony used to be a magician, and Elton wins him over by asking if all his tricks are sleight of hand.
The conversation about Hope’s dad and Elton’s mom also carries on this episode. Hope carries her secret like a ball and chain. She knows that Elton’s mom shot and killed her mom and that she killed his mom in revenge. It’s something she clearly wants to tell him, but I can’t imagine how it would help anything. The truth shall set you free, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. What good will it do to unburden herself on Elton? He’ll know his mom killed someone, for one thing. His memory of her will be tainted. His friendship with Hope (and Iris) will be compromised.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond
It’s not like this is the kind of secret that could ever really come up any other way, either. Hope is the only one who knows what happened and has visual confirmation of who the woman was. Maybe the secret is eating her up and she simply has to tell him. I’m not sure it would be a kindness, however.
‘Shadow Puppets’ opens with what appears to be an animated segment with some narration over the top. This show loves its narration. It’s usually pretty sappy. In the end we realize this whole segment is a shadow puppet show that Tony and Percy put on for the kids and Felix. They’re teaming up and I guess a big shadow puppet show and some emotional music is just the thing for new compatriots. The kids watch on. The girls tear up. The shadowy images flicker and flit across the screen.
This episode was directed by Michael Cudlitz—Abraham from The Walking Dead—and I think he did a pretty good job with it. But like so much of the rest of this show, it’s just not terribly exciting material. Cudlitz does the best he can and the kids all do a pretty good job, too, but the material remains too flat. Maybe we’ve just covered this ground too much already. There’s nothing new and interesting enough about World Beyond to really make it stand out. The CRM stuff maybe, but that’s a very small part of the show at this point.
We have four episodes left in the first (and penultimate) season of World Beyond. It’ll be over by the end of November. I’m not sure enough has happened in six episodes to justify this show’s existence yet. What do you think?
