Connecting The Walking Dead, Season Two: The Last Light
By Liam O'Leary
World Beyond: Dennis’ Ideal Walking Dead Honeymoon
A good part of the finale of World Beyond was the tragic conclusion of Dennis and Huck’s story. The latter sacrificing herself to buy time to ensure that the Civic Republic Military’s supply of mustard gas was destroyed before it could be used to annihilate the city of Portland. The former eventually sacrificed himself to ensure that Silas could infiltrate the CRM rather than simply be killed for aiding them.
Before they parted, however, Dennis spoke to Huck about a place he envisioned them going. This location was somewhere far away from the Civic Republic in the event they weren’t able to warn the civilian government in time to put a stop to the CRM’s machinations. He talks about a little cabin in the Smoky Mountains, which belonged to the family of an old friend of Dennis’, who disappeared on one of the military’s “first resource runs” and was never heard from since.
Huh. A CRM soldier, who disappeared on a mission, and whose family had a cabin way out in the Smoky Mountains? Now, where have I heard that before?
Oh yeah! Beckett, Isabelle’s old partner!
In case you don’t remember, Beckett was first introduced to us back in the Fear The Walking Dead season five premiere, “Here To Help,” as a walker wearing mysterious armor and being the reason Althea first became curious about the existence of the Civic Republic. As we’d later learn from his partner, Isabelle, Beckett cracked after a run-in with walkers and forced her to put him down.
This is one of the first real connections between World Beyond and its fellow Walking Dead spinoff, Fear TWD, though, in hindsight, such a connection isn’t that surprising. When you think about it, with little more than a few hundred thousand living people in all of North America at this point in the Walking Dead timeline, it will make sense that people within the CRM would be familiar with one another. After going through the entire rest of the series without such a connection, the get one at the eleventh hour is a pleasant surprise.