Life's Too Sports

The Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead: World Beyond launches with a flashback scene, as Leo and Kari Bennett look upon Iris and Hope as newborns, having already formed an unbreakable bond. (This scene proves particularly meaningful by the episode's conclusion.) A quick time jump now depicts Dr. Leo Bennett (who appears to be perfectly safe) sharing an evening meal with his colleague and life partner, Dr. Lyla Bellshaw. Elsewhere, his daughter, Hope, continues her journey to New York alongside Huck, having recently discovered Huck's deceitful intentions  -- in an emotionally-charged turn of events, Hope pulls Felix's gun on Huck, demanding to know her true identity. Alexa, cue the opening credits. Meanwhile, Elton and Percy (whose journey is hindered by a gunshot wound) make their way towards Silas' isolated living space to offer him a consoling truth -- Huck killed Tony  and shot Percy during his attempt to escape; thus, Silas is innocent . The newfound proof of his ...

Sunday's two-part season finale of The Walking Dead: World Beyond picks up directly following  last week's stunning revelation that Huck (or Jennifer, if you prefer) is actually the daughter of Civic Republic Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek. In their encounter, Huck ensures her mother that she's making progress with "the asset" -- meanwhile, Elizabeth reveals the intention behind her actions in the series premiere, having  provided Hope and Iris with a map to their father to keep things on course. A quick cut to present-day illuminates that Huck is intent on preventing the group from reaching their destination -- while the others sleep, her reckless driving renders their vehicle useless, and the group must depart on foot, seeking shelter and materials to patch a faulty tire. As they move towards safety, Felix recalls interviewing Huck upon her arrival at the Campus Colony -- in this fateful moment, he also met Will Campbell, a "more qualified" inte...

In Episode 1.07 of World Beyond , horror-struck viewers watched as a friendly game of " Truth or Dare " descended into a crime scene -- our resident magician, Tony, was found dead, with Silas and the presumed murder weapon resting helplessly nearby. Thus, this week's episode begins with Silas tied to a swing set frame as his traveling companions discuss his fate -- Iris and Elton believe that Silas may be innocent, while the others argue that frequent evidence of his violent tendencies cannot be ignored. (On a personal note, it seems rather odd that Percy, a grifter who hasn't proven his trustworthiness , is nowhere to be found. I'm hopeful that he factors into next week's season finale somehow.) Meanwhile, Huck returns with a plethora of Iris' drawings that Silas evidently plucked from Campus Colony garbage cans while performing his janitorial duties -- in Hope's mind, this revelation lands as an unforgivable offense. Nonetheless, Elton visits Silas t...

In last week's episode , our gang expanded by two members, adding grifters Tony and Percy to the mix en route to locating Dr. Leo Bennett somewhere within the CRM headquarters in New York. Thus, "Truth or Dare" begins by adding the finishing touches to our party of eight, as Felix and company roll up in their newfound transport to collect Huck, while she struggles with military flashbacks after collecting an EGA from a fallen empty. As Felix and Huck bond over their shared affinity for Mountain Dew, Tony uses his "magical insight" to locate hidden CRM fuel caches which promise to afford our gang the ability to complete their journey by vehicle. However, Iris takes Tony's discovery a step further, using a map given to her in the series premiere  by Elizabeth Kublek to uncover her father's precise location -- it appears that Leo Bennett is (visually) stationed at a "double-helix" DNA strand in Ithaca, New York. In celebration of their recent goo...

This Sunday's episode connects to its title almost instantaneously, as a rather cryptic introduction features Iris narrating the world's descension into chaos, juxtaposed with a cheerful shadow puppet show. (Don't worry, it makes sense by the episode's conclusion.) But first, let's rewind to the moment in which the group first meets Percy, a potentially untrustworthy " Madman Across the Water ". Initially, Percy informs our gang that he's alone, though his story seems to possess countless variations. Courtesy of Hope's blatant mistrust, however, viewers learn that Percy's truck was hijacked by a pair of men named Mike and Tony -- Percy confesses that he wished to hide the truth as his truck carries many barrels of refined fuel, its possession the comparative equivalent of "winning the jackpot". Following a heated negotiation, Felix and the four teenagers agree to depart with Percy to recover his truck, holding him to the promise of ta...

This Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond features the collision of many opposing forces, including differing opinions on whether our gang should return to the Campus Colony, their ongoing struggle to cross a river during a storm (with a horde of empties on the horizon), and Elton's relentless mental confrontation with his past. While Felix is convinced that the group should turn around (as he intends to keep his promise to Leo Bennett and protect his "sisters"), his so-called deceptive plans are foiled when Hope overhears him talking to Huck about swaying Elton to join their miniature mutiny. Eventually, Hope blows up on Felix, blaming him for allowing their father to leave with the CRM, accusing him of never acting like her (adopted) brother, and realizing that the time has come for her to grow up and care for herself. Yikes. Later, Felix tells Iris that Leo and Will have to be safe with the CRM -- evidently, Felix feels guilty, as he was supposed to a...

In last week's episode of the most recent  Walking Dead spin-off, Felix and Huck reunited with the four teenagers in their quest to rescue Dr. Leopold Bennett from imminent danger at the CRM headquarters in New York. However, the pair of young adults seem to possess a more realistic mindset than Iris, Hope, Elton, and Silas -- Felix insists that the gang doesn't know what they're walking into, remaining determined to keep them safe. When our party of six stumbles across an abandoned high school to conduct a supply raid, they split into three pairs -- Felix intends to convince Elton that their mission is foolhardy, Iris blows off Hope in favor of Silas, and Huck attempts to uncover the true meaning behind the trail that Hope left behind. As the pairs go their separate ways, Iris ensures Felix that she remembers their training techniques, quoting his statement: "It's all about avoidance." Hope soon echoes this sentiment, feeling that Iris has avoided speaking to...

Similarly to last week's "The Blaze of Gory" , this Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond does not provide much in the way of plot furtherance -- however, it does finish setting the stage for the dramatic journey promised in its series debut . While the first two episodes of this series focus mainly on Hope and Iris Bennett, episode three begins providing background information on the intriguing history of Silas, our resident "gentle giant". As Silas refuses to kill empties (carrying his friends' bags instead), it starts to become evident that a violent past threatens his present-day ability to survive outside the walls of their community. Throughout "The Tyger and the Lamb", Silas is greeted by flashbacks, including the audio from his sixth birthday tape, a conversation with Iris in her father's classroom, and the memory of an imaginative poem she once wrote. While it is unclear precisely what haunts Silas, another flashback ...

Last week, the series premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond generated a plethora of questions for viewers across the globe. And while Sunday's second episode didn't do much in terms of plot furtherance, it provided useful background information and helped illuminate a glaring issue -- despite Felix's training, this teenage gang is truly incapable of surviving outside the safety of their walls. The point is driven home almost instantly as viewers painfully watch Iris attempt to kill her first "empty" in completely inept fashion.  Later, Elton spray paints one of the dead, Silas fails to attack it, and Hope eventually lures it into a swimming pool and flips it off as though she's accomplished something remarkable. We're about a decade into the apocalypse now and nobody in this gang has ever killed an empty, which certainly doesn't bode very well for their survivability. Nonetheless, "The Blaze of Gory" does  feature some interesting chara...

On Sunday, October 4, AMC aired the series premiere of World Beyond , the third installment in The Walking Dead franchise. Though billed as a limited series (featuring only two seasons with a total of 20 episodes), World Beyond generated much anticipation throughout the fandom for a variety of reasons -- the most obvious being further knowledge about a three-ring emblem spotted on helicopters in each of the franchise's two established series. In "What Comes After" [ The Walking Dead : Season 9, Episode 5], protagonist Rick Grimes is rescued by a helicopter featuring this mysterious emblem -- an emblem that reappears in "The End of Everything" [ Fear the Walking Dead : Season 5, Episode 5], when Althea Szewczyk-Przygocki (better known as Al) encounters a woman named Isabelle with a top-secret mission. As the fandom has now spent two years wondering about the reoccurring emblem, World Beyond promised to address their curiosity while presenting the "comin...