The Walking Dead: World Beyond, “The Blaze of Gory” was written by Ben Sokolowski and was directed by Magnus Martens. Remember how I said this felt like a CW show? Well, Sokolowski’s credits include Arrow and The Flash, though to be fair, a lot of his episodes were some of my favorites on Arrow, which was my favorite DC show for it’s first couple of seasons until they thought it should be more like The Flash and appeal to a younger demographic… but I digress…
This week featured flashbacks to Felix’s (Nico Tortorella) life before and up to the night the sky fell. Young Felix (Dawson Shea) was rejected by his father when he came out, so a really fitting storyline on National Coming Out Day. In following the kids, Felix takes the opportunity of going back to his old house. We don’t see it happen, but he tells Huck (Annet Mahendru) that he killed his parents – after sneaking away from her while he was supposed to be sleeping. And is it just me, or is “Huck” yet another too much on the nose name?
The kids meanwhile should be dead. The episode begins with Iris (Aliyah Royale) not killing her empty – and almost getting killed as she fall into a sewer on top of it. She stupidly breaks all the rules that we see Felix diligently teaching them – like refusing to accept help.
Hope (Alexa Mansour) seems to be looking for help – and leaving a trail for Felix and Huck to follow. She and Elton (Nicolas Cantu) share a moment and he explain that they only have about 15 years left before the human race experiences their own extinction event. This makes them endlings – and they both initially say that they are ok with that.
Elton manages to almost get killed by an empty – that isn’t empty but full of bees. Silas (Hal Cumpston) refuses to hit it. The kids make the brilliant decision to head for the blaze of gory – a huge tire fire that’s been burning for years and that attracts all the empties – because that’s a smart move, right?
I did like them finding a treehouse to stay the night in. I loved the touch of having them play Monopoly – and marvelled (sarcasm) at how the game looked brand new even after all these years – and being essentially out in the elements… I also actually did like Hope dropping “Big Mo” the bowling ball on the empty! Of course, when the others are asleep, Hope sneaks down and tries to kill the empty – which happens to be Bee-guy – and manages to almost parallel her sister’s lame effort when she fails to kill him and almost falls into a pool with him. Silas thanks her for trying to correct the mistake that he made….
Meanwhile, Huck and Felix really ought to have been able to catch up with the kids long before they got to the blaze of gory. Hope is remarkably the only one talking sense as she tries to dissuade the others from going that way. The others are determined it would take to long to go around, and Silas points out that if they go around, they’ll be caught and sent back.
We get another flash to one of Felix’s survival lessons. This time the lesson is to always know where you are going. And again, the kids don’t remember it. They manage to get through the empties to the fence only to find themselves still in the middle of the huge herd. And was anyone shocked or surprised? Elton suggests using a siren on the top of one of the buildings as bait to distract the herd, but Iris won’t hear of anyone staying behind to work the siren – they came in together and that’s how they’re going out.
Hope tells Iris that she’s not brave, but that she is proud of Iris and what she’s done. And of course, it’s obvious right then that Hope is getting ready to sacrifice herself. She looks at the walkie talkies and then goes off on her own toward the siren tower. I’m not feeling any anxiety over this as I’m positive that Felix and Huck are going to arrive just in time to save her. It’s surely too early to kill off any of the kids just yet!?!
In fact, I’m not finding a lot of suspense is being built up here. I’m just not buying that these kids are in any real peril. They are too stupid to still be alive and yet they are. I’m spending a lot of time figuring out in which order they will die… Huck and Silas are at the top of my list, but they could surprise us and take out Iris. Mansour gets the nod for best performance this episode despite her character stupidly going off on her own all the time… Carl anyone? What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
