There’s no turning back for the Endlings on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. In “Madman Across the Water,” Hope (Alexa Mansour) learns of Felix (Nico Tortorella) plans to turn the group around as Elton (Nicolas Cantu) has flashbacks from the Night the Sky fell.
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The group makes it to the Mississippi river and the bridge is blown up. They will need a boat to geta cross, but there are just pieces of boats around the bank of the river. Iris (Aliyah Royale) thinks they can remodel a raft to get across. Hope reminds everyone of the warehouse they passed. There might be stuff there that they can use to build the boat.
At the warehouse, Iris finds a box of nail polish but she doesn’t see the flammable sticker on the box. Everyone splits up to look around and Elton starts having flashbacks about his childhood. The Night the Sky Fell, his mom Amelia (Christina Brucato) dropped of Elton with his dad at a museum. Before she left, he looked at her bracelet, in particular at a red bead. He wants to give his sister a bracelet just like his mom’s.
BUSTED
The gang finds enough stuff to finish the boat. Hope is optimistic that they really can get across the river and find her dad. Then she overhears Felix and Huck talking about their next move to convince everyone to go home. And the fact that Elton is working with them.
Hope confronts Elton and he admits that Felix has some good points about turning back. Felix was actually going to steer the boat to Omaha. It’s his duty to keep the kids safe. They aren’t even sure that Dr. Bennett is in danger. Hope and Felix start arguing and Iris stops them. She yells at Felix and Huck, telling them to get on board or get out of the way.
Huck tries to calm Hope down. She admits that at first she wanted to the kids to turn around. Now she thinks the trip can do them some good. We find out that Huck was found floating in the Missouri river. When she got to the Campus Colony, everyone started calling her huck. She spent a lot of time in the wild by herself. She almost gave up a few times, but she learned to push through and be strong. Huck thinks the kids can learn the same things on this journey.
A STORM IS BREWING
Felix asks to talk Hope alone, but Hope is really frustrated with Felix. She reminds him that der dad took him in and tried to make him a part of the family but Felix pulled away. After Dr. Bennett left, Felix acted like she and Iris were a burden. She’s mad at Felix for not stopping her dad.
The engine they built isn’t working. Silas (Hal Cumpston) remembers that the nail polish box said flammable. He and Elton are volunteered to retrieve the box. There is another storm coming, so they have to hurry.
Felix and Iris are out looking for more supplies. Iris asks Felix about his plan. She’s not mad, but disappointed that he would try to stop them. She finally asks what he thinks, and he avoids the question. then says he thinks that Dr. Bennett and Will are safe. He has to believe that because he was supposed to go with Dr. Bennett, not Will. He stayed because Dr. Bennett asked him to. And now he’s not there to protect them if they aren’t. The storm is getting closer so they head back.
MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER
Elton and Silas empty the nail polish into buckets. Silas wants to know why Elton would turn on them. Elton starts rambling about not wanting anyone to die, even though death is inevitable.
When the chaos started, Elton’s dad put him in a box to keep him safe. His dad left to find a safe way home. He gave him the triceratops horn as a weapon.
Iris stops and says her skin is tingling. Felix tells her to get down as lightning strikes a street lamp. the lamp falls into a building and empties emerge from the building.
Hope and Huck are still working on the engine and it explodes. The empties hear the blast and turn toward the river. Felix and Iris warn everyone about the empties. They are running out of time.
Elton and Silas run to beat the storm. Elton falls, spilling the nail polish. He says he didn’t do it on purpose. Silas just smiles and helps him up.
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
Hope cuts her hand on the engine as the boys finally appear. Iris pours the polish into the engine and it starts working. But then the polish ignites and the engine breaks.
The empties catch up. Felix grabs some fishing line and uses it to tie to the trees. The girls discover that a belt came loose. Only Elton is small enough to fit under the boat, but he’s claustrophobic. The thought causes Elton to remember being in the box. He takes a deep breath and climbs under the boat. Elton lists off the planets to keep himself calm. He remembers hearing the empties outside of the box. He finds the belt and fixes it. Elton gets stuck under the boat and starts screaming. He looks at the screwdriver in his hand and remembers his father’s words that it will keep him safe.
Felix tied enough fishing line to hold the empties for a little bit. The empties break through, but only one at a time. The empties start going around the fishing line. Hope and Iris run to help Felix hold off the empties. They run back to the boat and have to pull Elton out from under the boat. They have just enough time to push the boat into the water, but it’s heavy. Felix finds a board and uses it to push the boat up off the ground and everyone else pushes it toward the water. They make it just as the empties reach the water.
THE EAST SIDE OF THE RIVER
Later that night, Hope asks why Felix didn’t ditch the boat. He says it wouldn’t do any good. The Bennett sisters are so stubborn. Felix comes clean and says it wasn’t just about a promise he made to her dad. Hope knows that.
Huck tells Felix that they need to divide and conquer. They don’t know anything about the east side of the river. She’s going to walk ahead to do recon to see what danger lies ahead. She promises to be back. If anyone can survive the wild, it’s Huck.
Elton can finally breathe after his ordeal with the boat. He remembers the last time he saw his parents and starts to cry. He thumbs through the manuscript and starts writing.
When he was a kid, he heard gunshots and soldiers. They didn’t know he was in the box. He stood up and opened the box. Young Elton walked out of the office and finds his dead father. He grabs a bag and starts walking. He found an evacuation flyer and headed for the campus.
REVELATION
Hope joins him to make sure Elton is okay. He tells her about the night the sky fell. His dad told him not to be scared, because he wasn’t. His dad was scared, but he did what needed to be done. He was brave because he was scared, not in spite of it.
Hope says she wishes she could have met his parents. They had to be pretty cool to make Elton. Elton admits that he thinks his mom could still be out there with his sister. He looks at her picture in the manuscript. Hope sees the photo and realizes … she killed Elton’s mom.
They hear something move in the woods. Everyone grabs a weapon and Iris goes to check it out. They see someone emerge in dark clothes and a stick in their hand.
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Photo Credit: Macall Polay/AMC.com
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