'The Walking Dead: World Beyond', Episode 7 – 'Truth or Dare'

A little late in the day again but I somehow managed to spend most of the day asleep which was just what this Graeme needed after the last week. It's still Saturday though and that means it's time to take a look at what's happening in 'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' and more importantly, is it actually any good this week...? Because while there have been some good bits here and there, the season as a whole hasn't been up to much at all really, has it? Our intrepid gang of teenagers should be dead ten times over by now but the plot needs them to make it to New York State so make it they will; helped by no end of good luck, adult supervision and now, a truck with a tank full of gas and a map to help them on their way. All of us, on the other side of the screen, can only sit and wish that when the zombie apocalypse comes, it will be as kind to us as it is to them...

The destination isn't in sight yet but it has suddenly become a hell of a lot easier to reach with the acquisition of a truck and two new travelling companions. Trucks need fuel though and a quick stop for gas could prove fatal. And has one of the group just let his temper run away from him with fatal consequences...?

It's not a good sign for an episode (or in the case of 'World Beyond', the season as a whole) when the best bits are about things that happened, in the past, rather than what's supposed to be happening right now. That's the case with 'Truth or Dare' when we finally get a little look into the past of Huck, whose past has gamely resisted being delved into, until now. Not only does it shed a lot of light on why Huck is who she is, and why it took her so long to join a community, but it also gives us another look at how the 'zombie outbreak' was initially handled by the military. That's the kind of world building that the 'Walking Dead' franchise, as a whole, does very well; laying the failures of humanity out in a long road that leads us to where we are now. It's Huck's past that is the big reveal though, everyone has their dark secrets here (apart from Iris who is just too nice for any of that) and once you've seen her past play out, you can understand why Huck doesn't want to say too much about hers. It was touching though to see Huck use those experiences to comfort Hope. I still think that secret will come out but Hope needed to come to terms with it somehow and it's good that she has at least started on this road.

If only the rest of the episode was as good...

'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' has to be the only show where a truck is practically served up on a plate, to speed things up, and the show actually gets slower as a result... And more contrived. Imagine finding an underground carpark where you know fuel is stored and then splitting your team up to find it... Well, if you'd kept everyone together then the bit with the guy who'd been bit wouldn't have been as urgent would it? And then imagine basically having a drunken party in the middle of a zombie infested wasteland, with an admittedly quite cool art gallery in a truck but even so... It's basically another episode where people keep making stupid decisions that show them as people who clearly haven't lived through ten years of a zombie apocalypse, but the plot needs them to make it through so everything works out for the best. There's only three episodes left so I'll stick with it but this approach is really grating now.

The ending sets up a potentially nice little mystery for episode 8 but I'll be honest, I'm at the point now where I don't trust the show to really use it properly. Expect it to be tied up in the first five minutes and then we move on to more of what we got this week...

More of the same then from a show that really needs to sort itself out if it's going to deliver what it wants to (unless this is what it wants to deliver, god help us...) And it only has three episodes left in which to do this...