The Walking Dead: World Beyond – Family is a Four Letter Word [Review]

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 204, FAMILY IS A FOUR LETTER WORD.

On this week’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Huck faces her past, Iris tells Hope what she has missed, Elton learns a secret, and Silas has a decision to make.  Will thirsts for revenge be satiated?  Will truths come out?  We are about to find out.

DOWN BY THE RIVER

Huck’s journey with the World Beyond Campus Colony crew started when she washed ashore on the river banks near the Campus Colony.  With two broken arms, Huck was barely alive.  From there, we know that Huck infiltrated the colony, and she made friends with Felix. In the present day, Huck reunites with Iris and Felix in Perimeter.  Indira is understandably worried about Kublek. Huck assures Indira that mama doesn’t know about this trip.  Will watches from a hidden spot since CRM believes he is dead.  Also on the sidelines?  Elton.  When Elton sees Hope, a panic attack overtakes him, and he heads into the woods.

With a knife drawn, Felix demands answers from Huck.  Huck asks Felix and Iris to go with them back to the RF and play dumb about all their CRM knowledge.  Iris is, understandably, NOT having it.  When Iris mentions Omaha, Huck admits Omaha was overrun.  Huck says that the army was unable to mobilize in time to save Omaha or Campus from the migrating horde of empties.  Iris accuses the CRM of sabotage.  On some level, Huck must know that Iris is dead on.  But Huck is in denial because that means her mother would have had to authorize the deaths of 100,000 people.

Huck throws in Silas as bait to get Iris on board with the RF idea.  Huck explains that Silas is at a nearby culling facility.  Desperate to believe that Huck can bring the band back together, Huck begs Iris to return with her, Hope, Felix, and Silas.  Suspicious, Iris asks for a private chat with Hope.

UPDATES

Hope tells her sister that their father has a girlfriend and is working hard.  When Hope mentions that she understands the importance of their father’s work, and she mentions Mason, Iris nods.  At this moment, Iris knows she is on a different path than Hope.  Hope begs Iris to return to RF because she is afraid that Leo will get himself in trouble if he does not hear from Iris.  Iris says she can’t go with Hope.  

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT

While Iris takes her sister aside to talk some sense into her return to RF plan, Felix plays babysitter with Huck.  On Huck’s walk, she tells Felix that Will died on a recon that went bad.  Felix keeps his emotions in check for a second, then he opts to hit Huck over the head.  While Huck is down, Felix grabs a nearby empty and holds it barely above Huck’s face.  Felix explains that he won’t kill Huck now, but he needs to know what it would feel like when the time comes to do it.  “Enjoy your walk.  Jennifer,” Felix spits out.  

On the way back to camp, Felix spots Percy leaving the armory.  After a quick convo with Will, Felix realizes what Percy plans to do.  Will and Felix tear off after Percy.  Unfortunately, Will is forced to reveal himself to Huck in order to block her from the view of Percy’s sniper rifle.  Percy takes the hint and goes home.

Will tells Huck the truth about his “death,” and that it was an ordered execution to cover up the truth about Omaha.  Huck now makes explicit her doubts about the sabotage of Omaha by saying that she can’t believe her mother would do it.  As Felix rightfully points out, Huck spent her whole life lying to people.  Why would Huck believe her mother was not a liar too?

FUNKY LITTLE SHACK

While Elton is out on a walk, he finds an old hunting blind.  Inside is medical equipment with CRM labels.  Asha meets Elton when he exits the shed.  Elton is eager to share what he found, but Asha begs Elton to keep her secret.  Asha explains that she needs regular dialysis and that no one can know.  Elton promises to keep Asha’s secret, and he confides to her that he was rattled by Hope’s appearance.  When Elton tells Asha that he had believed his mother and sister were alive somewhere, Asha reminds Elton that the body lives on in nature.  Why not their conscience as well, posits Asha.  Asha urges Elton to talk to Hope and clear the air.

GOODBYE TO YOU

Still shaken by the news about the Omaha sabotage and the attempted murder of Will, Hope asks Iris if there is anything else she should know.  After a moment, Iris says no.  Apparently, the news about Percy and Elton is a bit too much to add to the pile I guess.  From nearby, Elton watches Hope say goodbye, but he fails to muster the courage to reveal himself.  Iris promises her sister that she will find a way to reunite their family.

After Felix has a stern talk with Percy about the rashness of his actions, Felix meets up with Will.  Felix is anxious about the repercussions of Huck’s visit.  Will believes it is in Huck’s best interests to keep quiet about Will, so he refuses to leave when Felix asks him to run away from Perimeter.  Regarding the culling outpost, Will tells Felix that he thinks he knows where to find Silas.

Percy visits Iris in her room to confess to his actions from the night before.  With hesitancy, Percy tells Iris that his thirst for revenge against Huck had been almost overwhelming.  Iris is understanding, but Percy shakes his head.  Percy admits that his actions had been short-sighted and thoughtless because they could have gotten everyone killed.  When Percy mentions Iris in particular, she leans forward and kisses him.  After a moment, Percy stops himself, and he leaves.

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A CULLING PARTY

The hottest club in the apocalypse is the culling station.  With fireworks popping and metal music blaring, all the empties are ambling over to partake of the minefield.  The group of boys go outside the gates to retrieve an empty with a beacon strapped to its back, and they retreat back behind the safety of the walls.  When Silas spends a fair portion of the exercise in a preoccupied state, Dennis tears into him.  The yelling comes from both a place of concern and likely a leftover bit of frustration from Huck’s rejection.

Dennis takes Silas back to the office to finally stitch up the open wound on Silas’ hand.  Later that night, Silas returns to take a map and supplies from the office.  The other teens catch him.  The boys throw Silas into a maze filled with prom decorations and parts of parade floats.  Silas attempts to outwalk the empty he runs into, but the path dead ends.  When Silas turns to face the empty with his bat, he sees the empty has about a dozen friends.  

Still loathe to get violent, Silas goes to work to preserve himself.  After taking out most of the empties, Silas realizes the remaining ones have metal tethers to the walls.  The boys step out and reveal that this is a test.  This is a training room filled with empties that do not have working mouths or teeth.  The boys urge Silas to stay and work up the ranks into the CRM with them.

Silas makes another attempt to escape later, but this time it is Dennis that catches him.  Silas explains that he wants to leave because he is afraid his friends do not know that one of their traveling companions, Huck, is a killer.  Dennis tells Silas to believe that his friends are strong enough to deal with a woman named Huck.  It seems a bit of a longshot that Dennis has not heard about Jennifer’s alter ego, but I don’t suppose Huck and Dennis talked much when they first reunited.  Dennis warns Silas that he only gets the one warning, and he hopes that Silas will choose to stay.

A BUTTON ON THE DAY

The episode puts a button on all the story threads.  Asha tells Indira that Elton will keep her secret because he does not know that Indira is the one that needs the dialysis.  Web is promoted out of the culling station.  Mason sends a Jenga piece to Hope with a request for a rematch.

In the media center, Kublek records an in memoriam message for Portland about the Omaha and Campus tragedies.  From the corner, Huck watches her mother affect sadness.  After the broadcast, Huck asks Kublek about a roster of the survivors from Omaha.  Kublek’s eyes darken real quick.  Kublek reminds Huck that she just got past the repercussions of her last bit of bad judgment.  Kublek warns Huck not to make any more bad decisions, and she tells her to stop digging.  

As Kublek walks away, Huck thinks about what Felix had said about Kublek being a liar like her daughter.  Huck then flashes back to when she prepared for her undercover mission to Campus.  Huck slit her own cheek.  Though Kublek seemed horrified by Huck’s cheek wound, she barely flinched when she held Huck down for an officer to break both of Huck’s arms.  Kublek is a complicated woman, to say the least.

WORTH WATCHING?

This episode is definitely the start of Huck’s turn away from the CRM.  Until now Huck has been loyal to her mother.  Despite previous actions in favor of mercy, Huck keeps going back to please mommy dearest.  With the news about the sabotage of two colonies and the intentional hunting of Will, any ability that Huck had to partition her instincts from her duty is starting to fail.  Deep down Huck has known what her mother is, but she has been unwilling to admit it.  The groundwork has been done for redemption for Huck, but some of her actions can’t be forgiven.  In the end, Huck will have to answer to Percy at the very least.

The rest of the episode is still about setting up the final chapter of the series.  Hope maybe a bit more willing to give CRM a chance to save the world, but Iris’ path is definitely one of revolution.  CRM is doing vital work for the preservation of humanity.  But at what cost?  Can the CRM be saved with different leadership?  Or is the whole system rotten to the core?  Let us hope some of these questions will be answered by the remaining episodes.

ODDS & EGGS

• The training room at the culling station is called “The Parade”
• The stitches on Silas’s hand popped but he did not get undead blood in the wound.
• Neither Asha nor Elton were wearing his TuffyStitch.

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