Major spoilers below for the Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, so be warned!
After facing a months-long delay before finally debuting in October, AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond faced a few growing pains throughout its first season, which is definitely par for the course with this franchise. Going into the two-part finale, however, the spinoff found its rhythm in laying out character development, hectic situations, and game-changing narrative twists. And by the time Episode 10, "In This Life," had concluded, I so wanted the second (and final) season to already be here to answer all the questions I now have.
While some of the story laid out in these final two episodes was relatively straightforward, such as Elton's mental break, showrunner Matt Negrete and his creative team gave viewers a lot to mull over while waiting for new episodes to arrive in 2021. So let's put on our thinking caps, our speculation gloves and our pondering shoes as we lay out the biggest questions from The Walking Dead: World Beyond's Season 1 finale.
Is There More To Hope Than Just Her Super-Smarts?
With a brain for science, math, patterns and more, Alexa Mansour's Hope is clearly a chip off the old block by way of her father Leo. But is her inherent genius really all that Julia Ormond's Elizabeth and the CRM are hoping to exploit? I can't imagine that there would be THIS much secrecy involved if the group simply wanted to employ Hope for her mental talents. Is it possible she's "special" for some other reason? Could it be that her blood is possibly the key to developing a cure (even if the cure probably won't be very successful)? I'm very suspicious.
What Is CRM Elizabeth's Overarching Goal?
As hinted at in the question above, Elizabeth's tactics fo getting Hope to her father's lab have been extremely sketchy, since it wouldn't have been that hard to transfer Hope without placing the "expendable" label on Iris, Felix, Elton and Silas. Or without wiping out the entire Campus Colony. Or any of her other hardcore antagonistic actions. Someone interested in further the future of civilization shouldn't be that invested in eliminating so much of it, so what are Elizabeth's endgame plans here, and are her motivations actually reflective of everyone else at CRM?
What Does Felix Learn From Will's Group?
Honestly, the final scene in Episode 10 was rather maddening, and not in the best of ways. Somehow, in the middle of a random wooded area, Felix and Hope managed to cross paths with a masked (?) group led by Jelani Alladin's Will Campbell, Felix's former lover who left with Leo to join CRM's security detail. (Even if Will was specifically looking for Felix and/or Hope, that was WAY too coincidental a meet-up for my tastes.) And rather than offering up any concrete information, Will simply said "We've got a lot to catch up on," before the credits rolled. Sure, he probably had too much info to share in such a short time, but anything would have been better than nothing.
What Happened To Silas After He Was Taken Away?
Thankfully, The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed that Drunk Silas was not responsible for murdering Scott Adsit's Tony, as Huck was guilty for that and Percy's gunshot wound. That revelation had a strange effect on Silas, who chose not to keep trekking with Elton and Percy, and instead allowed himself to be caught by the CRM squad that was on the prowl after seeing the fire he'd started. But what actually happened to him after that? Will he be in custody when Season 2 kicks off, perhaps leading to further links to Andrew Lincoln's Rick and other franchise characters connected to the CRM?
How Many More Secrets Is Huck Hiding?
Viewers are well aware that the apple didn't fall far from the tree where Huck and Elizabeth are concerned, considering Huck killed off her military unit in the same way Elizabeth took out so many other people. So it made macabre sense to learn that they were indeed related. But was her and mum's big plan the final secret in Huck's mental lockbox, or does she have other heinous transgressions that are yet to be revealed to viewers? I suppose she might also have some secrets that are positive in nature – such as hoarding a huge supply of Mountain Dew – but I doubt it.
How Will Leo React To Hope And Iris' Situations?
After being shown in flashbacks earlier in The Walking Dead: World Beyond's first season, Joe Holt's Leo Bennett showed up in the current timeline, where he was confirmed to be in a smoochy-smoochy relationship with fellow CRM scientist Lyla (Natalie Gold), who seems to be more firmly aligned with Elizabeth. The fact that they're hiding their Hope plans from him doesn't bode well. I'm sure he'll be ostensibly pleased to know he'll see one of his daughters soon, and will probably have similarly strong feelings about Iris being considered non-essential, though on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.
Is Percy Sticking With The Group In Season 2?
Ted Sutherland's Percy was kind of a dick when viewers first met him, and he was a lot easier to listen to after Elton found him unconscious. In any case, the injured Percy revealed Huck's guilt in his uncle's death, which was important, and then he seemingly stuck with Elton after Silas was apprehended. So does that mean he'll still be around as part of the core group in Season 2, or will he have already struck out on his own by the time the show returns in 2021?
Where Is Rick Grimes?
To be sure, both Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond have provided interesting updates and subtext for the CRM, which existed in The Walking Dead proper as "that mysterious helicopter group." But even though viewers have seen inside at least one of the group's research facilities, and it's been confirmed the CRM has been running research tests on walkers, we still technically don't know anything more about the specific whereabouts of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes ahead of the planned films. I guess that's not too surprising, but I honestly did expect a post-credits sequence to tip a (cowboy) hat to Rick's story.
Realistically, I also have some questions about what Lyla has been up to, and whether or not Percy and Elton could possibly survive on their own for very long, but those weren't quite as pertinent as the ones above. Hopefully the showrunner and cast offer up some more clues during the winter hiatus to clue fans in on what's coming next in Season 2.
The Walking Dead franchise is now all wrapped up on AMC until next year, at which point fans will get to watch the final six episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10, the back nine episodes of Fear the Walking Dead Season 6, and Season 2 of World Beyond. While waiting, head to our Fall 2020 TV premiere schedule and our Winter and Spring 2021 TV guide to keep track of all the big shows coming in the future.
