Review – TWD: World Beyond episode 106 is a nesting doll of an episode

World Beyond puts on some shows in season 1 episode 6 titled “Shadow Puppets” with odd results.

Have you ever wanted to watch a show inside a show inside another show? If so, The Walking Dead: World Beyond has you covered in its sixth episode. Actors acting as actors while putting on a show sounds interesting, but it isn’t quite as great as it seems.

One of the most difficult things about this show is the pacing. While the show is steadily moving toward New York, much of what is shown each week seems largely inconsequential to the bigger picture and sometimes feels a bit outlandish at times.

This week, viewers got to learn about two new characters. Percy and Tony are two con men who take advantage of people’s kindness to rob them using an extremely elaborate plan that makes them outnumbered and relies on the other groups to make mistakes.

And mistakes were plenty during this week’s episode. Nobody checking to make sure Tony was dead was one thing, but him taking the thud of being pulled from the truck and landing on the ground had been a bit of a gamble. Tony pretending to be dead only to grab the supplies while Silas was distracted and drive off again seemed like it had a low percentage of success, yet the duo pulled it off like professionals.

Of course, Tony being a magician and con artist helped him get away with everything in this episode, but it was how much the group believed Percy and felt sorry for him that led the duo to not leave the group behind to be devoured by walkers in an alley and return with their truck to save everyone.

Once safe, there is a tense moment where the group holds Percy and Tony at gunpoint, only for it to somehow turn into a moving picture show featuring shadows as if they were at a movie in the park on a summer’s night.

To have the two characters pretending to be what they aren’t only to put on a show and take everyone out of the dangers around them is an odd situation. While the truck will definitely come in handy, the addition of these two characters doesn’t seem to add a lot to what is already a complicated dynamic.

Throughout the episode, it is teased that Hope will tell Elton about his mother, but it never happens. She changes her mind at the last moment and what will eventually be a huge plot point in the future is once again put on hold. It’s a tease, but also frustrating from a viewer’s point of view.

Meanwhile, Silas is no doubt crushing on Iris and doesn’t like how she seems to have an interest in Percy. His contention for him if the flirting continues might be something to watch down the road as the story unfolds.

But that’s what The Walking Dead: World Beyond seems to be doing every week. It teases some big things coming but then holds off on it and forces fans to wonder if it is coming next week. Eventually, there will need to be some payoff for viewers who are holding their interest in these storylines, but for now, it feels unrewarding.

The situation with Iris in the walker-filled dumpster was different, but watching walkers swimming around in trash isn’t something you see on TV every day. That was by far the highlight of the episode.

For a show to have two miniature shows inside it, more should have happened. It’s great to learn about characters and set up the future, but these teases need a payoff and it can’t just be at the end of the season. The Walking Dead: World Beyond needs to give fans something meaty to sink their teeth into and this episode just didn’t feed the zombie craving. Maybe next week, right?