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The Walking Dead: World Beyond 1.03 Review – ‘The Tyger and the Lamb’

October 19, 2020 | Posted by Katie Hallahan
The Walking Dead World Beyond The Tyger and the Lamb
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The Walking Dead: World Beyond 1.03 Review – ‘The Tyger and the Lamb’  

This week on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, the sins of the past weigh heavy on the minds of Silas and Hope in particular as they all struggle to escape the Blaze of Gory.

The plot: Hope radios her sister and friends to tell them her plan of starting the siren once she’s partway there, refusing to back down from the plan and intending to escape along with them once she’s done so. The kids are found by Felix and Huck inside an office building, lead there by Hope’s trail of breadcrumbs, but Iris and the others refuse to tell them where Hope is, insisting they won’t put them in danger as well. Despite some setbacks with the siren, Hope is able to get it going, drawing the walkers to the building where it’s located, and herself slipping down the side access ladder. She’s nearly caught by walkers, but Iris saves her and both girls make their first walker kills. Silas abstains from fighting, opting instead to be the packhorse for the group, and helps hold back a collapsing wall of tires long enough for them all to get out from the smoke-filled field. The kids refuse to give up their mission and go home despite Felix’s urging, so he and Huck decide to travel with them to keep them safe until they can convince them. Meanwhile, in whatever city the CRM has secured, Lt. Col. Elizabeth Kublek is visited by one Sargeant Major Barker, who is haunted by what they did to the Campus Colony. He’s eventually taken away to the Health and Mental Wellness Complex until such time as he’s ready to serve again. He says he won’t be, calls her claims a lie, and after he leaves, she goes back to her maps, though she silently cries over them this time.

First, let’s talk poetry. If anyone’s still wondering why tiger is spelled with a y in the title, it’s because of the poem used in the episode: “The Tyger” by William Blake, which uses the Old English spelling. Anyone else get English class flashbacks from this one? The poem admires greatly the dangerous beauty of the tiger, and wonders at the same time how such a ferocious beast could possibly have been made. How, upon seeing how deadly and terrifying it was, did its creator still complete this animal and give it life? How could the same creator that made this make something as gentle as a lamb? Overall, what it’s getting at is that eternal question of why and how does the duality of good and evil co-exist, how do beauty and violence co-exist?

It’s a little basic, or at least, the approach to it feels that way, but I think that’s again because this show has a different approach to the TWD apocalypse. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to approach this question through a classic poem, the exact kind which high school students would study. Hope and Silas are the two characters grappling with this general idea, albeit not in such direct terms. But both have violent acts in their past that they’re struggling to come to terms with, to reconcile what they’ve done with who they are or want to be. And in the final scene, we see the same struggle in Barker and possibly in Kublek at CRM, though this is a very different sort of struggle given they are adults who murdered thousands.

We never quite get the full story with Silas, but we do see him atop some unseen figure, furiousy punching them; being arrested with bloody hands; and his life at Campus Colony as he struggled to start over, his past still haunting him and souring any reputation he might have. We hear the recorded greetings from his grandparents encouraging him, messages of love, of faith, though they hint at some known difficulty he struggles with. Silas later admits that he’s most afraid of himself, and obviously he’s well aware of his strength and his capacity to harm. Whatever sent him past that point before, he doesn’t want to go near it again, opting instead to play packhorse to the group and leave the killing of walkers to others. My guess is that maybe Silas fought back against someone abusing or otherwise provoking him, but it’s hard to be sure. Whatever it was, it’s clear that it wasn’t so cut and dry since he was sent away rather than just being jailed or something like that. Seeing him also recognize that he’s found a group of people he feels he can trust, or at least, a place that feels right to him, was a nice turn to see at the end. I don’t really believe that he can continue on avoiding violence of any kind, obviously, not in this world. But for his sake, for now, it’s nice that he’s still able to pace himself on getting there.

Silas’s developing friendship with Iris is also nice to see. The kids’ relationships in general are enjoyable to watch as they develop, in fact. They all knew one another, but aside from Hope and Iris they weren’t close, and the growth of their friendships is believable. I do feel like they’re hinting early on at potential romantic pairing offs with Hope and Elton and Silas and Iris, with traumatic revelations to come at pivotal moments, no doubt. Hope and Iris’s sisterly bond is still center stage here, however, as it should be. The actresses and characters play off one another as siblings very well, from the moments of obvious running jokes over the walkies, to the tearful confession Hope makes to Iris about their mother’s death and her actions that night. I have to admit I was surprised Iris didn’t jump right away to absolving Hope of what she’d done, though I was glad she didn’t push her away for it. It is a lot to take in, to be fair.

Hope seems to have found some of her own absolution in risking her life and coming close more than once to losing it. It was vague all along if she intended this to be a suicide mission or not when she started out. I don’t think she did, but I do think that subconsciously the thought was there. Or at least, the notion of making this a test of sorts, to prove her worthiness of survival to herself. And it’s fine by that that’s the closest she comes to it, we get enough characters actively seeking redemption via death on TWD as it is. I think that moment of her and Iris making their first walker kills to save one another is the real turning point for her deciding to come clean to her sister, though. Maybe she’s finally seen that in this world, killing can be necessary to save someone you love. While what she did as a child didn’t save her mother, it arguably saved her own life, and it was far from a true, adult, conscious choice. As Iris says, they were just kids, the world was ending, they weren’t ready for any of it. It truly isn’t fair to judge what Hope did that night. She and Silas, they are more than their worst moments.

On the other extreme, however, is Elizabeth Kublek. First, this scene shows the stark difference between her and the Campus Colony survivors. She has so many amenities, a gorgeous view, safety…but she’s alone. With no one to share it with, no true companionship like that group has for one another.

The man under her command, Barker, makes very valid points about what they did and being haunted by it. They’re fully grown adults, people in power, people who actively claim to be in this to save the world and light the way for the future of humanity. And yet they just slaughtered at least 9,653 people (thanks TWD wiki) who were in no way a threat to them! Kublek argues that they were going to become a threat, but I’m with Barker, I don’t see how that’s possible. I’m sure Kublek has her reasons that she believes, and I’m interested to hear more about CRM, their philosophy, and so forth, but yeah, lady, you’re a straight up mass murderer. Interesting, then, that she doesn’t kill Barker but sends him off to this ‘Health and Mental Wellness Complex’, and that she also sheds tears at the end. Are they for losing Barker’s loyalty and faith in her and in CRM? Or are they for the murders she feels compelled to have committed? It’s unclear at this time.

Also unclear is when this group of survivors will learn of their colony’s fate, when and how their paths will cross with Kublek once again, and how they’re going to get all the way to New York from Nebraska. And last but not least, at the end of the pilot Kublek was told that her troops couldn’t find “her” anywhere, which she was glad to know, but which “her” was that? Iris, Hope, or Huck?

What did you think of tonight’s episode? What do you think Silas really did? And what’s going on with CRM?

Quote of the Week:
I got a good laugh out of this one. After not understanding the phrase “haul ass”:
Elton: “Haul ass, yeah, I got it now.”
Felix: “Oh, my god.”

Gripe of the Week:
Elton, your diehard hipster ways are going to get someone killed.
Also, writing “Campus Colony Survivors” is too wordy, but I also really don’t want to give on calling them the Endlings!

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Good balance of character moments and action in this one, though the plot only moved slightly forward. I do feel like now that all the survivors of Campus Colony are together, we're finally moving past the opening chapter of this show and, I hope, ready to get into some more plot. But the second half of the Blaze of Gory setpiece made for some good character-revealing moments and moved said characters along on their arcs. Plus we got another good glimpse at the CRM, which I am apparently downright thirsty for, so, there's that! All that said, not the most amazing episode in the TWD universe of even of a mostly teen ensemble show I've ever seen. The show continues to show promise, and I hope it really surprises and wows me sometime soon. For now, this was still good, though.
legend