By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
After Sunday, there would be no “beyond” for AMC’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The AMC limited series concluded its two-season run with an affecting episode that killed off two key characters, threatened to end a third, and dropped in a stunning blast from the distant past — all the way back to Season 1 of the mother ship. Who lived, who died, and who made a surprise cameo? Read on…
‘YOU’VE GOTTEN REALLY GOOD AT BEING A HERO’ | As “The Last Light” began, Jadis gave orders to jam all walkie-talkie frequencies for an eight-mile radius despite the fact that doing so would also hamper the CRM’s ability to communicate. At the culling station, Dennis — hey, he was alive after all! — made the fatal mistake of dreaming of a future with Huck. (We all know that any talk of tomorrow on a Walking Dead show is the equivalent of wearing a red shirt on Star Trek. Right, Percy?) When Iris, Hope, Silas and Elton arrived with the antibiotics for Dennis, it was determined that they needed to get three miles away to remain safe when the explosives went off. As for Huck, she said, “The people inside the CR don’t know what the military has been doing outside their walls. Dennis and I are going to make sure they do.” Before the kids took off, Hope and Huck shared what played like a moment of as close to forgiveness as they were going to come. “I’m proud of you,” said Huck, acknowledging that that might not be worth much, all things considered. At the last moment, Silas decided to stay behind. He was going to help Huck and Dennis, who clearly had become the sorta father he’d always wished he’d had.
In the field, Felix just arrived to help Leo and two scientists change their flat — the rest had gone on in truck No. 2 — when the CRM showed up with Newton leading the charge. Soon, Will joined the shootout, and Felix decided to lure away his nemesis by running. The ploy worked, and ultimately, Felix found himself cornered in front of a gate behind which groaned a pack of walkers. (Why not?) “You said you’d kill me if you ever had your chance,” taunted Newton, “so come on.” Rather than fight Newton, Felix opened the gate and released the walkers. Only after Newton was tuckered out did they actually go at it, with Felix ultimately spearing his opponent and getting away unscathed (as the walkers were too drawn to the dead man’s intestines to care about him anymore… apparently). Back at the culling facility, the kids all said so long to Silas, although Elton sweetly noted, “I don’t think this is goodbye.” Yeah, it’s not like Silas had been shot in the head like poor Percy! As Jadis received intel that tipped her off that the gas was in danger, Huck discovered that when the CRM jammed the walkies, it had also screwed up the detonators. So she sent Dennis and Silas to the emergency weapons cache to retrieve her a timer. Or so she said.
‘NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU, YOU’RE NOT ONE OF THEM’ | When Jadis landed at the culling facility with the CRM, she engaged in a confounding battle with Huck. Why confounding? Because in the middle of it, Huck threw the erstwhile Anne a spare weapon. Dubious strategy, that. Huck seemed to think that she could defeat her frenemy with insults. “This was always who you were,” she spat at Jadis. “You traded someone to get into the CR, right?” True, Jadis admitted. She’d had someone special — an A. (Rick shoutout!) But she’d said that he was a B so he wouldn’t end up in Elizabeth’s lab. Huck was just as bad, though, Jadis insisted. Maybe worse. Her intel had helped the CRM take out the Campus Colony in one fell swoop. Finally, their argument/brawl ended with Jadis fatally stabbing Huck with her free hand. Only then did Jennifer reveal that she’d used her pop’s watch as a timer. Jadis was seconds away from being reduced to smithereens. (Thankfully, she escaped with the CRM before the blast; I know Jadis has been written in a challenging manner, but I love me some Pollyanna McIntosh.)
As the explosion reverberated throughout its surroundings, Dennis saw the plume of gas from the house in which the weapons were stashed and knew why Huck had sent him and Silas away. Hope, Iris and Elton were still too close to the blast to be safe, but hurrah! Indira and Asha arrived in the nick of time with gas masks. Only — d’oh! — Elton moved to protect Hope from a walker and got himself badly bitten. (Damn it, where’s his corduroy when he needs it?!) Back at the weapons cache, the CRM descended on Dennis and Silas, so the older guy told his surrogate son to shoot him. He wasn’t going to make it, anyway, Dennis said. He was bleeding like a box of wine without a spigot. Silas should tell them that Dennis kidnapped him and he’d gotten the better of his captor. “Making them see you as a hero,” he said. “That’s how you live.” And in arguably the most poignant moment of the series, Silas tried to refuse but eventually did as he was told and shot his father figure. (Yes, I cried. Sue me.)
‘WE ARE THE LAST LIGHT OF THE WORLD’ | At the scientists’ hideout, Elton’s arm was amputated, and though it was touch-and-go, as you’d expect, he pulled through. Turned out, he’d also swiped the medication that Indira needed to retain her pulse. (If that didn’t get him a kiss from Asha, I don’t know what would.) Iris soon left with a group from the Perimeter to blow the whistle on the CRM in Portland. “All this, it didn’t change us,” she told Hope as she left. “It just showed us that who we are is who we were.” With that, they flicked each other the bird in a weirdly sweet throwback to days long gone. Then, as Elton voiceover’d a flash-forward, we saw Iris and her contingent arrive on the outskirts of Portland, we glimpsed Felix and Will’s happily ever after (they’d even adopted a dog!), we were shown Hope’s progress as the Doogie Howser of the post-apocalypse, and we saw Silas’ new life as a CRM soldier. No surprise, that, given that despite the fact that Jadis had known he was spinning the yarn Dennis had instructed him to, she’d taken a shine to him. “I can’t wait,” she said, “for you to see who you’re gonna become.” (Yeah, Pollyanna McIntosh could sell matches to someone who was on fire.)
In the city, Jadis approached Elizabeth, at first it seemed to offer her condolences over Huck. But as the lieutenant colonel began going on about how she’d done monstrous things for a civilization that she’d come to realize might never bounce back, Jadis laid her cards on the table. “Survivors find opportunity in calamity,” she observed. “They don’t break. They don’t let the weak become strong. They wait for the strong to become weak.” That’s what she had done. She’d seen the strongest person she’d ever met be rendered vulnerable, and she’d used it. (Yeah, I’m calling it; if Rick doesn’t turn out to be Beale, I’ll eat his Carl’s Judith’s hat.) “That’s what I’m doing now,” Jadis added — by having Elizabeth arrested for treason. The conniver guessed that the older woman had brought her in to be her fall guy, but with no friends, no kid, just ambition, Elizabeth had picked the wrong patsy. “Bill’s gonna have your head for this,” hissed Elizabeth. “Who do you think signed your arrest warrant?” shot back Jadis. (Yeah, Bill/Beale is totally Rick, right?)
‘THE DAY WILL COME WHEN WE ARE GOING TO BEAT THIS THING’ | Then, in the denouement following the closing credits, a woman stole into a dilapidated old lab and began copying files to a laptop. In one video that she watched, none other than Dr. Edwin Jenner from Season 1 of The Walking Dead was seen talking about the need for fresher “samples.” At first, he didn’t have much to say that seemed super significant, but nonetheless, she wanted to obtain his notes — and the man who came in after her did not want her to get them. Speaking French, he asked if she was one of the doctors? Oui. Was she a member of the Primrose team? No, Violet. Did she know where the Primrose team was? No, they hadn’t been here when “you all did what did,” they’d been at a conference in Ohio. She’d grown tired of hiding and had hoped they’d be at the lab when she returned. “They should be dead,” the man grumbled, adding, “We won’t jail them like the others, we’ll kill them.” And he scoffed at her hope that they might “end this.” “You started this,” he sneered even though technically we couldn’t see him sneer. “All the teams. Then you made it worse.” With that, he shot her and left, at which point she almost immediately reanimated and hurled herself with startling speed and strength at the doors of the French lab. So it would seem that there’s a new strain of mega-walkers that resulted from the scientists’ experiments!
So, what did you think of the finale of World Beyond? Grade it in the poll below, then hit the comments with your theories: Is Rick Major General Beale? Is this really the end of the story? I think not.
That finale was a waste of time
You’ve entirely missed the point of the post-credit scene about the faster, stronger, more dangerous walkers in France…
Yeah, they missed that. That’s gonna be interesting in them being more 28 Days Later zombies and not Night of the living dead zombies.
Are these for future tv series or those films, if they’re still even happening…..if they are, they are kind of like avatar 2-5 in that – kept us waiting so long for them that we don’t really care anymore. I can’t see them adding to the mothership as too much to get through in 16 episodes they have left. Fear too much going on too
You’re right, that went over my head. Fixed. (Tx for pointing out!)
Oh, this makes sense. You fixed it before I read it. I thought it was pretty much on point.
Yup. It takes a village to write a recap. ;)
Hopefully we still get the Ruck films. It would be interesting if he broke and was repurposed as Beale. Battling super Z’s on the big screen and then Michonne finds him…
Not my favorite show but it had its moments.
Garbage upon garbage. Pointless show. Hilariously bad.
.
Like we all know this second-rate show isn’t allowed to kill Jadis, so where was the tension supposed to be in that scene with Huck? Not to mention that it literally could not have been more telegraphed that the Huck character was meant to die in some redemptive gesture for like a season and a half now–and when the entire series is only two seasons long, that’s bad!
.
Awful characters. Just awful. The show had almost gotten me behind Hope after the first season and the beginning of this one, but by the end . . . nope, they just abandoned doing anything non-mundane with her. And Julia Ormond’s character just kind of . . . disappears, only to be passively arrested in an epilogue scene. Are you kidding me? Who wrote this! Have they ever seen a single episode of drama in their lives?
.
Will we ever see a member of this cast act in anything ever again? Other than Annet Mahendru and Julia Ormond, I mean. Pollyanna McIntosh too, if she counts. The rest of them, though. The kids. Over/under on it? Maybe Alexa Mansour. I’m not betting on the others. Future Real Estate agents, all.
.
Just awful!
.
Okay the zombies can be fast now and Rick is in Europe (like we all thought, because Andrew Lincoln is British and little else would keep Rick away from his family for so long other than an ocean). And CDC guy made a cameo on a tape (doubt he’s alive, because how? That CDC place blew up good and he was certainly inside it.). Big whoop.
100 % true. My thoughts exactly.
Spot on review/critiques, my thoughts exactly. The acting on this show was horrendous. And the writing was not much better. Just a bad show all around, I’m glad it’s over. And with Jadis on the show for the wrap up, and only a passing reference to Rick in the finale? I know it was too much to expect him to actually appear, but at least give us some hint as to where he’s been all this time, something! Yeah, he could be Beale, but more likely, they have no idea yet where he is or what he’s doing.
Hal Cumpston as Silas maybe one of the worst actors I’ve sat through watching for 2 seasons. He always had a really fake smirk on his face every single scene he acted in and it’s hard to fathom this World Beyond producer team even hiring this guy.
And Aliyah Royale as Iris – easily one of the worst, least likeable characters in the entire TWD universe. Every scene she was in season 2 she was just completely insufferable.
I won’t miss this show at all, but I sat through all 2 seasons just to have the content that was attached to the larger TWD universe. I have been a Fear TWD fan despite the iterations but the change in the show this year especially with Victor has me wondering how much longer I can suffer through Fear.
I sat thru 2 seasons as well. Kept hoping there would be a big reveal to go along with the original walking dead. Not really it turns out. I’m glad we are coming to the end of the whole series. It’s gotten too repetitive but I didn’t put in all these years to go now. Let’s hope we are happy when it’s done
Agreed. I am still kinda enjoying the mothership and I had been enjoying Fear more until this season. Turning Victor into an evil villain is just ruining Fear and World Beyond was never any good.
In fact, I stared to watched World Beyond, quit it initially, but got talked into going back really to have any TWD ‘canon’ so I didn’t miss anything. Kinda like making sure you watch all the Marvel shows (no matter how bad most of them are) and seeing all the movies so you’re not missing any larger canon. It’s a brilliant move by producers to get you to suffer through crappy content. World Beyond is the prime example of it. I am struggling to think of one character I didn’t despise on this 2 season waste.
The best part about the finale’ was that AMC didn’t 2nd guess their decision to end this after 2 seasons.
The poor writing was overshadowed by the terrible casting. Whoever cast this should go back to casting corporate training videos.
The only mystery that was left unanswered was ‘why the sisters wore such bad wigs?’ I guess hair care id compromised during the zombie apocalypse
[COMMENT REMOVED BY MODERATOR]
I find it hilarious that the Scooby gang can do all this.
this whole show was a waste. Like the scooby gang would have any chance.
Can’t wait for other episodes of TWDWB Would you please bring back more episodes thank you so very
We have this chat group on Facebook we continue to keep up with TWD from start to finish Very interesting group I am in Hope you will check us out We have some dislikes and some likes I’m Joe Thunderbolt Tuggle on Facebook Hope all of you drop in to see us We will leave the light on
Hopefully all this wasn’t for nothing. To me this whole show was plot points need to explain events down the line.
Thanks for your review! One point: you might want to research the best spices that go with hat. ;)
While it was strange (or budget/timing related) Beale was never shown, his 16ish year old son was. Rick could not have spawned him. Also, the rigid system framework was well established when he was captured. No way they would have given him that much power.
However, I guess it is possible that the real Beale was murdered and Rick is impersonating him with no contact with his “son” or most personnel. If that’s the case, it was not set-up well.
I don’t really like the faster French zombies thing. It’s out of place in TWD universe. They seem to be grasping at straws to milk the walking dead brand for everything they can. They already lost millions of fans by that way of thinking. If there was another zombie show done well with the faster zombies that had nothing to do with TWD I would give it try though. The first season of TWD CDC doctor talking about losing contact with the French lab is how they came up with this, but the creator of TWD said that they would never show what happened outside of America and it would just remain a mystery. I like that better. Sometimes things remaining a mystery makes it more interesting. I guess they technically already messed that up with FTWD going to Mexico but it’s still North America at least. I think they are going to keep messing up TWD so bad that they will have almost no one left bothering to watch any of their WD shows and if AMC ends up getting rid of AMC+ they won’t be able to justify keeping anything Walking Dead related just to make more content for AMC+.
FYI, Netflix has a 2season, waiting on if they get renewed for 3Rd is Called BlackSummer.
I was so bummed when Syfi Channel Canceled
“Z Nation” for lame Van Helsing, Truly Sucked!