Yahoo Movies The Walking Dead: World Beyond recap: Silas' past still haunts him
Dalton Ross Previews the Latest ‘Walking Dead’ Story ‘World Beyond’ and Detangles the Original Series’ Confusing New Schedule
EW Executive Editor at Large, Dalton Ross, discusses the current status of 'The Walking Dead,' what to expect from the season finale and 'The Walking Dead: World Beyond,' and more!
Hope said something to Silas in the treehouse last episode: even if you made a mistake in the past, it "doesn't mean it has to follow you around forever." That's easier said than done. As the teens fight their way out of the Blaze of Gory, Silas is still dealing with memories from his past, of the violent act he committed and all the whispers he heard around Monument High.
The first flash we see is a younger Silas sitting in the back of an ambulance. His hands, which are sprinkled with blood, can't stop shaking. He lashed out at a man, punching him over and over again, crying as he did so. This may have been his father, though it's not explicitly said. The kids wake up to Hope speaking over the walkie. She instructs them to make their way to an office building situated in front of the hurricane siren. She plans to head up top and turn it on to distract the dead while the others make for the exit.
Silas still can't bring himself to attack anyone, even if that someone is an empty. He volunteers instead to carry everyone's bags, but with the smoke from the tires obscuring his view, he easily loses the others. He comes across an empty that he mistakes for the plaid-shirted man in his dreams and instinctively attack. But when Silas realizes it's just an empty, he pauses.
Silas' uncle was the one who sponsored him to join the Campus Colony, as we learn through another flashback, which means he gets a fresh start. Silas doesn't want to attend Monument High, though Felix says that option is always open to him. Instead, he wants to work with his uncle. He still ends up at Monument High, working as a janitor and cleaning the floors. He tries to drown out the mean words from the students by blasting his CD player, but every so often those words slip through. One day, while cleaning Leo Bennet's lab, he encounters Iris, who had left behind her homework. She accidentally drops a poem she wrote about a tiger and a lamb, which Silas has kept this whole time in his locker as a token.
Macall Polay/AMC
In the present, the kids make it to the office building and scour for any supplies. Silas finds cans of Chef Boyardee, saying he used to ask his mom to get them for him when he lived in Omaha. When Iris asks if he misses his parents, he quickly snaps back "no!" A moment passes and he clarifies, "sometimes." The episode is sprinkled with audio recordings of voice messages left for Silas on his birthday by family members, but none from his mom or dad.
Elton calls for Silas to help with a stuck door, and when he pushes it open, they find Felix and Huck inside. They are shocked to learn it was Iris' idea to sneak out and go after her father, and although Felix wants to go out in search of Hope, Iris tells them they already have a plan. Silas believes he knows why Hope left in the night to go towards the siren. He thinks she feels guilty for something she did in the past, citing that private moment between them in the treehouse. While Huck's being cruel and taunting Silas with his own rumored reputation, Hope makes it to the roof and finds the siren. The crank, however, is busted. So, she has to take the machine apart and put it back together. She's able to manually rev up the siren, which allows the others to run towards the exit. Hope makes her way there herself, but trips climbing down the building's ladder and slightly injures her ankle. As the dead chase her, she leads them through an oil spill and then lights it ablaze with her lighter. Hope reunites with the group but is accosted by two empties stuck together. Iris comes to her aid, which is the first time she actually kills an empty—when her sister is in danger. In the commotion, one of the empties gets hit and falls into a fence, toppling it and the stacks of tires behind it. Silas throws himself underneath so the others can rush towards the exit, which they do, but not before Elton has to rush back to grab his backpack. We later learn his late mom's unfinished manuscript is inside and he hopes to finish it one day.
While resting by a nearby dock, Felix and Huck make plans to return the kids to the colony, but the kids don't want to go. That includes Hope. Even though she left clues so Felix could follow, she did so only to make sure they stayed alive. She still wants to find her dad, especially having fought with him before he left with the Civic Republic. So, instead, Felix and Huck decide to protect them on this journey until they can come up with a better option.
In private, Hope finally confesses to Iris the true story of their mom's death and how she killed the pregnant woman. She didn't want Iris to look at her differently and she blames herself for the incident. They both hug it out, hoping, as Hope told Silas, to not let their mistakes follow them. As they head out to continue their journey, Iris cozies up with Silas. She bandages his hand and he shares his blanket, draping his arm over hers.
In the final moments of this week's episode, we learn a couple more things about the inner workings of the CRM. The camera brings us inside the secret Civic Republic city, where Col. Kublek is enjoying her gorgeous apartment, complete with gas stove, refrigerator, sink, espresso machine, television, polished furniture, and overhead fan. It's a city with 200,000 citizens and access to energy, running water, medicine, transport, schools, manufacturing, and, in terms of the bigger picture, culture, and law. A poster on Kublek's wall reads, "Self-indulgence at this time is helping the enemy."
While looking over a map of some kind, Kublek receives a visitor: Sgt. Major Barca. He feels guilty for how the CRM exterminated the Omaha colony. The official narrative is that they were neutralizing a threat. Kublek argues they would have become a threat, even if they didn't appear to be one, but Barca doesn't believe that. She feeds him soup while they wait for a knock to come at the door. When it does, there are two helmeted soldiers waiting to remand Barca to the CRM Health and Welfare complex, where he is to reside there until he's deemed fit to return to service. Though he would be transferred to a more labor-oriented position. Barca doesn't believe he'll ever be ready to return to service. If that's truly the case, Kublek says he will never leave the complex.
As he's carted away, Barca shouts at Kublek that their whole "light of the world" dogma is a lie and asks if she thinks about the lives they took that day at Omaha. When she's left alone again, Kublek turns on all the appliances in her apartment, perhaps to drown out her own thoughts. It doesn't work. Instead, she sits alone and cries.
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