Review – TWD: World Beyond is hit or Mississippi in episode 105

TWD: World Beyond gets wet but not wild in season 1 episode 5.

At the moment, the big conflict in The Walking Dead: World Beyond has been between the older protectors and the young group with the point of contention being continuing to New York or turning back around to go the Campus Colony.

That was once again the premise for this episode, using the Mississippi River as a point of no return for the journey. In an effort to get across, the group needs to find an alternate route since the bridges have been blown up by the government to prevent too much co-mingling.

This premise was a great reason for the survivors to build a raft, but building a steam engine powered by fingernail polish didn’t quite seem right. As many viewers likely did, I immediately reached for my phone to Google about using the polish to boil water and only found information about the polish remover. Anyway, since I obviously have no clue how to construct a steam engine, I’ll take the show’s word for it..

Since the Mississippi River isn’t that wide, it’s a bit surprising the survivors didn’t just put their clothes in a bag and swim across. There are points where the river is only 30 feet wide or less and would be a short swim to traverse. Still, it’s good to know this group can be handy enough to construct a raft and working steam engine.

An effort was made to finally give some time to Huck, who was still a big mystery coming into this episode. Her character talking frankly with Hope was one of the better parts of this episode, as was Hope learning that the woman she shot as a child was Elton’s mother.

This episode was a slow burn to set up a later conflict, but the show can’t afford to keep the episodes going at this pace. Ever since leaving the Blaze of Gory, the pace has been a bit of a question and the story taken some odd turns. More episodes like this and AMC may be risking losing some viewership among those who may not be fully invested in the characters.

However, it seems like the trip is going to keep heading toward New York to find out what is happening with Hope and Iris’ father and Felix’s companion. Eventually, the fate of Felix’s mother will eventually come out, but until then, fans will have to deal with more episodes dealing with stops along the path to The Empire State.

As a whole, this episode was another hit-or-miss effort for The Walking Dead: World Beyond which is tough since it’s following Fear the Walking Dead, a show that has been absolutely killing it in season 6. It’s still early for World Beyond, but it’s time to step on the gas pedal a little bit.