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There are five more episodes left of World Beyond to finish the first season. “Shadow Puppets” is one of those episodes that has great directing and cinematrography. But it falls flat when it comes to the dialouge and some of the character’s actions.

What did not make any sense at the first five minutes, is how the cliffhanger on the previous episode is resolved. Percy approached them with a weapon and Felix stops him from behind. Then Percy said that he will now leave. What was the point of revealing yourself if you were going to leave. Iris is ready to trust anyone that tells her a false story and believe every word they say. I find that ridiculous that they are easy to trust anyone.

But they got a harsh reality later on when Percy and Tony almost drove away with their belongings. Speaking of Tony, it boggles my mind that nobody else checked his body to see if Tony was really dead. Felix should have been the one to have done that. I also want to bring up the ending scene. While it did not made me blow a gasket like that dance scene did, the shadow puppet show should have happened inside. There is no reason to have loud music outside while everyone is sitting down and not paying attention to see if there are any sights of the undead around. There is no excuse for that scene to happen the way it did at all.

There are some good moments that I liked. The scary moments really brought my anxiety up. And I believe the sense of urgency worked better for this episode than the others. Specifically when they were all helping Iris out of the dumpster. I was made to believe that she was going to get bit by the undead for a second.I also want to praise Michael Cudlitz for directing the episode because the cinematrography felt sharp and differernt than all of the previous episodes. Especially when Felix smashed the mirror in which he thought was the empty that he had to kill. Also, bonus points for making Tony act like a walker when he got up for a few seconds to trick the viewers.

It is getting close to the point where Hope will reveal that she killed Elton’s mother. The guilt is coming out of her whenever they are talking about his mom. Hope will have the feeling to confess that she did kill her within the next few episodes, or she will let it slip out by accident to another character. How Elton will react, will be intriguing to see.

Although not enough information was revealed at the post-credit scene, it seems like CRM is aware of Hope and Iris’ arrival. What could happen to their father is up in the air for now. Maybe CRM might have him as a test subject before their arrival, or have him stationed somewhere else. Since the truck that Tony stolen is property of CRM, it can make their trip much faster. Putting my criticisms aside, I thought that “Shadow Puppets” is a decent episode and better structured than the previous two episodes.

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After last week’s disastrously bad episode, World Beyond has finally found it’s footing. “Madman Across the Water” made up for it in a great way. The memories of a cringe dance sequence followed by a wolf that served no purpuse has erased from my memory. On this episode, there was a sense of urgency, suspense, and danger that the group encounters.

The strongest praise I will give is Elton. Nicolas Cantu’s performance on “Madman Across the Water” is his best perfomance on World Beyond so far. That is because of how well his flashback scenes were used to enhance the character. Watching Nicolas portray Elton on this episode compared to the last four is night and day. I say this because for the first four episodes, Elton was a character that was trying way too hard to fit in with the rest of them. Since everyone was forced into a situation where they had to adapt, Elton came off more human than robotic.

The dialouge for most of this episode reminded me of how ridicilous most of the dialouge was on some of the season 8 episodes of the main show. Did we really need to see Iris break up a verbal fight just so she can have this giant speech? Felix is older than all four of them. He should have showed more authority towards Iris at that moment. Felix also should remind all of them that they have no idea what they are in for because this is not a trip to disneyland. It is dangerous out there.

I will admit, that I was jumpy when that thunderbolt hit that shed. When that happened, the tension rised when the empties started to arrive.

The scene with Hope and Elton towards the end is building towards something. Little pieces like this that will come to play in later episodes. Hope now knows that she shot Elton’s mom and when the time comes for her to tell Elton that, I would like to see how he will react. It made me gasp once she seen the photo and I am sure that everyone reacted the same way.

The most interesting part of Elton’s flashback scenes, is his last one. After the military left the museum, Elton found a map that lead him to the Campus Colony. I wondered how the characters ended up there. And I am happy to see at least one of the characters go there.

The final moments of the episode really made me look forward to the next episode. They were all in a situation that could cost them their lives. And this is their first test on how to survive a bad encounter because people are worse than the undead. What worked on this episode better than the last episode, is the task of building a boat with the resources they had. Although the scripting of the dialouge is questionable, the setting and urgency of needing to get something done in a quick time mattered more than dancing in a school gym.

Overall, I enjoyed “Madman Across the Water” for what it was. This is the first strong episode that did not have CRM attached to it at the end. “Blaze of Glory” also did not have a CRM scene, but there were huge inconsistencies that took me out of the moment. Next week, we will see how they all deal with a threat.

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In all my years watching The Walking Dead franchise, this episode has to rank up there as one of the worst in between the three shows. I know that I was extremely critical on “Swear” and the Season 2’s mid-season premiere, but this episode is worse than the both of them.

If you were to tell me that I would see high school dancing in the universe of The Walking Dead, I would have said “no way that would happen.” But surprise, it happened here. I get what they were going with for the characters to reimagine what high school would have been like, but this is not what fans tune in to see for a horror genre show. It worked on Stranger Things with that school dance. But this is not Stranger Things. That moment with Iris and Silas is a top tier level of cringe that I will not erase from my memory. All of this happened after they both had a drink of 10 year old soda.

When you see viewers online say that World Beyond is like a CW show, they will look at moments like that school dance scene to back up their claim. The scene did nothing but insulted my intellegence.

What was the point of having that wolf heavily featured? For the majority of this episode, that wolf was either hiding, eating empties, or just looking around. So how did Hope and Huck deal with that wolf? by casually walking around it. And you will not hear it again until it scares Iris and Silas. Again, what was the point?

There are minor things that I did like however. Felix and Elton getting to know more about eachother, and the flashbacks with Hope and her dad. Hope really tried to reason with her father to not go with CRM and he insisted on going. It also gives Hope more of a motivation to search for him too. And Silas is still traumatized from his arrest. Now that it is known what he possibly did, Silas and Iris talk about it. He even questioned Iris if she believed those rumors. Iris assured Silas that it does not matter what they think. I seriously hope that these two do not become a couple.

My biggest problem with this episode, is that there was potential with some of the things that are in that school. But it turned into a glorified bottle episode that had me yawning more than it had me excited. Everything that you seen before the credits rolled, will not matter outside of the plot of Hope and Silas. Sure, there is character development. But it was no substance to blend in with the ridicilous plot and pacing. A complete waste of time.

I like Wolrd Beyond so far. I really do. But the most interesting parts about CRM should NOT be saved until the end of the episode. Why? because it is a bait and switch tactic towards the viewers. Three of the four episodes so far ended with something CRM related. And when the next episode began, it does not follow up on the previous ending. At least we now know what “A” and “B” means when Jadis saved Rick.

This is one episode that I will not look back on at all. That is, unless it somehow connects to the future episodes. It is almost halfway through the season and I think that things really need to pick up. I do not do star ratings for episodes. But if I did, it will get a whopping minus 4 stars.

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If there are ways that I can describe “The Tyger and the Lamb”, I would say “really good.” Of the three episodes that has premiered so far on The Walking Dead World Beyond, this one is the best of the three. I said this because it addressed some of the issues from last week’s episode, and gave us more to look forward to on the next episode.

The strongest plot of “The Tyger and the Lamb” is Silas’ backstory. Well, a slight backstory. Silas was arrested for a violent crime on his flashbacks. During those flashbacks, Silas is introduced to Felix and Iris for the first time. So it is safe to say that he was not there that long before they all went on their first adventure. I am really interested to see more of what he did that lead to his arrest.

I also liked how we were able to dig deep into his state of mind when he was listening to the recordings of his grandparents. Silas must have been tramuatized from what he did. He even does not miss his mom when Iris asked him. On the surface, Silas might be seen as a weird teenager by the rest in that community. But I believe that there is something inside him that is very dark that is beyond the eye.

This may be me, but when Hope was inside that factory with that one empty, Something came to my mind. Remember that scene on Halloween when Michael Myers was going after Laurie in the closet? That jump scare scene with that empty and Hope reminded me of that particular scene in Halloween. It did caught me off guard so I liked it!

The action really picked up the tension later in the episode. Hope came up with a good plan to lure the empties using the giant horn. The strategy worked. But for christ sakes AMC, why cut away during an F-bomb moment with Hope? The sense of struggling to fix that thing would have been a better scene if it did not cut to black the way it did. Other than that, it was good to see everyone take down those empties with more caution now than how they were trying the last episode. I believe it is because there was an urgent matter that was ahead them and due to the fact that Felix was there. He did teach them, so they had to put what they learned to use.

In that same scene, Hope and Iris got into a little bit of trouble. They both almost got devoured by empties that are taller than they are. Hope and Iris saved eachother. But the key part of interest here, is that Hope told Iris the truth about the night their mom died. She told only that part of the story, but left out that it was Elton’s mom that she killed. Iris does not know that yet. When she does, it could cause a great rift. An emotional scene in my eyes.

The last six minutes of the episode told us more about CRM than any other episode of the entire franchise outside of the Season 5 premiere of Fear The Walking Dead. First, a map is in view. But this map has something interesting. When you look at the colors, you will see that the blue is friendly and the red is not friendly. The arrows also displays the positions and how they could attack. While the map will need further analysis, it is interesting to note.

Elizabeth really shows how powerful and driven she is. Especially with the propaganda that is plastered on the walls of her apartment. One of the soldiers named Barca, told Elizabeth what she did to that community was wrong. Elizabeth sees it in another way as she seen them as a threat. Elizabeth also stated that they have over two hundred thousand people that are part of the Civic Replublic Military. she also said that they are the last light of the world and reassigned him to the Health and Wealfare Complex.

This scene is interesting because it gave more context to what might have prevented Rick Grimes to leave CRM. The only way to know how, is when those movies premieres in a few years. One would think that the massive group is helping everyone. But there are bad things going on behind the scenes. The more there is to find out about CRM, the more dangerous they are.

As an episode as a whole, I really enjoyed it. I am starting to think of this as an standalone show than a show to think about the Rick Grimes movies. It is good to throw a little bit of CRM from time to time. I do feel however that there should be one episode dedicated to that mysterious group in the future.

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