TWD World Beyond season 1 episode 4 recap

Follow all of the action with our recap of TWD: World Beyond season 1 episode 4

TWD: World Beyond “The Wrong End of a Telescope” begins with Elton trying to speculate about the location of CRM in New York. They might have made a wrong turn, and as Felix points out they’re low on supplies and it’s about to rain.

Nevertheless, they push on. Iris says that CRM is referred to as the “Hidden City” because no one knows where it is. She always thought they would be underground, but that’s not possible. Elton agrees, because they grow their own crops and refine fuel and fly around. That means they must have a big space and a large population, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s where Dr. Bennett is being kept.

Elton sees the messages from Dr. Bennett as a concern but he’s actually more grateful that they haven’t taken over by now. Hope isn’t so sure, despite Huck’s assertion that there are treaties and protection agreements. Felix points out that they trade with them, too. They don’t know anything, he continues.

Felix pulls Huck aside and points out that they’re traveling East but they should refuel in Omaha, which is North. Huck knows that the girls aren’t changing their minds, and Silas is on board, but they can’t figure out why Elton went with them and Huck suggests they see if they can use him at all.

Iris sees an abandoned high school and they decide they can use it as a shelter from the rain. “I’ve never been inside a real high school before,” Iris says.

After a brief animated flashback, we see that Iris is reading an old yearbook with happy students having normal lives. They’re going to use trophies to collect water and then they decide to find supplies. Iris does an impression of Felix’s lessons, then she and Silas split up, leaving Hope and Huck and Felix and Elton. Hope had wanted to talk to Iris, but Iris seems happy to be going off with Silas.

Hope finds a pair of sunglasses in a locker and teases Huck for wearing them, but Huck presses her on why she led them to her. Hope says she got second thoughts about the whole thing, and she’s not going to open up to Huck until Huck stops sounding like her father.

In a flashback, Hope arrives in Dr. Bennett’s office to find that he’s hard at work instead of being at a meeting with hr principal. Then he had class, and then he decided that Hope deserved to be there because she set off stink bombs to get out of class. He wants to know why she set them off, but she insists they were time released stink bombs that took her two weeks to make. When he doesn’t seem impressed, she says at least he did good with Iris. He goes on to say that the adoption agency said she and Iris shared a crib even though they weren’t siblings. Her parents realized they would protect each other. He loves Hope unconditionally and hates that she doesn’t know how exceptional she is. As she leaves, he asks about her formula for the stink bombs and he’s impressed.

Back in the present, they find a sign that has been pulled down and wonder if there is a cache of supplies hidden.

Elton watches as Felix picks a lock. He’s impressed. They go inside the room and look for things to gather water in. Elton takes a picture and Felix asks him about it. He can see that science is his thing. Felix asks why he’s not back home doing research. Elton (rightly) says that there is nothing like being out in the world learning firsthand instead of learning in books. And it bonds you to the group, he continues, noting that he now knows all sorts of things about the group that he never would have known before. Felix can’t fault his logic.

They step out into the hall with their gear. Felix spots a trail of blood that hadn’t been there before. Felix is on high alert as he tries to call through to the others, but there is no answer. As they walk away, an empty crawls out of a room but is dragged back in by some kind of growling creature.

Iris and Silas find the gym, which had been set up for a dance. There are empties at the door. There’s a banner for the Sadie Hawkins dance and Silas decides that she must have been a student. When Iris finds some paintbrushes, she laughs that they’re not very practical but he disagrees, putting them in her backpack.

As they leave, they find that the door is stuck because of water damage. They discover that the batteries in the walkie are corroded.

Hope asks Huck about her parents and her past. She had been in the army so her dad must have been proud. Huck says relationships with fathers are complicated.

Hope has another flashback of when her father says he’s going to go with the CRM, calling them good people. He insists that they should be trusted, even though she points out they won’t tell anyone where they’re going. Dr. Bennett sees the opportunity to teach as too good to pass up. She thinks that the world is over, and she promises that she will be better if he doesn’t leave. He realizes what’s happening and says she’s not a screw up. He hasn’t had a chance to talk to her about so much stuff. “Big stuff, but not bad stuff.” Bennett tells his daughter that he found a way to communicate with them and he talks about the system with the printer. She doesn’t see why he is going to share it with Felix but he calls Felix family. They hug.

The bloody trail leads down the hall. Elton suggests drawing out the creature, but Felix doesn’t agree. They find an empty in a locker and Elton has a flashback to an early time. He’s claustrophobic. Felix uses the chance to tell him he’s not ready to be out there, that none of them are. Eventually they will have to confront things that they might not be able to fight.

Felix shows Elton his tattoo and says it’s a reminder of everyone he lost, including his parents. The person who taught him to pick locks is someone he can’t lose. He needs Elton to convince everyone to turn around. He just wants him to think about it.

They follow the blood to a room that is overgrown and there is a cluster of dead empties in a pile. They realize that whatever did it might not be alone.

Silas finds sodas in cans under the bleachers and Iris notes that she’s never had soda in a can. She wonders if they knew how good they had it back then, and Silas asks if she had them back at the university. She did, but she feels like she had been living for everyone else. She would have gone to more dances, she says, and wouldn’t have been afraid to have fun. He asks about art and wonders why she didn’t do more art. And now she’s a leader. She points out how different he is. Silas knows how people talked about him, and how it used to play in his head over and over again. She reminds him of the promise he made to play a song when it was safe. He hands over the headphones and she listens to the song, which was his grandmother’s favorite.

Huck and Hope press on. They see a wolf and Huck goes to shoot it, but Hope stops her.

Iris is busy thinking about women and ball gowns. Silas reveals his grandmother took him to a ballroom dance class when he was four. She wants him to show her, but he swears he doesn’t remember. They get into position and start dancing, or try to. “We got this,” Iris says, and soon they’re dancing across the floor. Soon they’re in an animated dream sequence dancing with other students in happier times.

Hope wishes the wolf would leave, but Huck knows it stopped for a reason. Hope thinks it’s defending its young. They move slowly, and eventually they make it past. The wolf doesn’t move.

Felix can’t get through to anyone but Elton spots Silas and Hope in the gym. Felix tells them that something is roaming the halls and wants them to stay there until he gets back.

Hope tells Huck that she can’t turn back now. She knows Huck was trying to get her to turn back, but Hope now sees the conversation with her father differently. She’s thinking of the wolf protecting its cubs and wants to get to her father so they can help him.

They come upon a food supply. Huck kills the empty in the room while Hope packs up supplies.

The empty outside the gym is persistent. They hear a low growl and suddenly the growling comes from a vent in the gym. Iris knows they have to kill the empty, so she opens the door and Silas gets past, then she runs out and they lock the empty inside.

Outside in the hallway they discover a flare that they can use to see where they’re going. They can hear an empty and soon a group of empties come out at them, but they manage to escape. They keep going and more empties follow them, but they won’t be able to outrun them all.

As Huck and Hope stock up, they can hear Iris’ voice and realize that she’s on the other side of the door. The empty approaches and Silas says they always keep coming. Iris pushes it, and Silas kills it. He has flashbacks to people saying his mom testified against him, and that he should be in jail. SIlas goes into a killing rage as Felix and Huck manage to open the door. Elton tries to stop him but Silas pushes him away. Felix yells at him as he punches the empty, and Silas stops. “I’m sorry.”

Later, the sisters talk and Iris apologizes for missing out on so much. They should have talked about the night their mom died. They would have supported each other. Elton plays with the flashlight and ices his shoulder, telling Felix and Huck that he’s worried about Silas.

Huck leaves, and Elton asks Felix what his plan to return would be. Felix says that they could get around the BOG and even if they couldn’t they could get to Mississippi.

Silas is covered in blood when Iris finds him. She says everyone is ready to go, and he thinks they should leave him there. He’s upset that he hurt Elton. He knows Iris heard what they said about him. He wants to know if she thinks he killed his dad, but she says it doesn’t matter. She says she might have been able to do it, but he saved them twice and that’s all that matters. As she walks away, she sees a student dead on the floor with purple hair.

Felix asks if Silas is ok, and Elton says he is. Elton gathers them together for a group photo. He’s now going to document living people too.

WORLD BEYOND BONUS SCENE AFTER THE CREDITS

Stay tuned after the credits as we see a woman with a CRM tattoo on her hand noting the results of a study with a test subject. There’s a photo on her desk with Dr. Bennett on it. She’s talking about his reaction after receiving plasma and how long the transformation took. She says his name was Dr. Samuel Abbott of Portland and she calls for the next test subject as she pauses to eat her sandwich. As the camera pulls away we can see that there are dozens of test subjects, aka walkers/empties, tied to boards and houses in a special containment field.

The next test subject is Test Subject A403, and as the scene fades away we see that the photo on her desk is of Dr. Bennett and Dr. Abbott, suggesting that they are being used as test subjects.

TWD: World Beyond airs Sundays immediately following Fear the Walking Dead on AMC.