Warning: Review may contain spoilers!
The Walking Dead: World Beyond 105 – Madman Across the Water
The road to New York lies across the Mississippi River but even without a boat, the kids plan to forge ahead. Unable to get them to change their minds Huck and Felix accelerate their divide and conquer strategy before there is no turning back. Felix tries to reason with Elton to see things in a different light but he’s hesitant to commit to anything just yet.
Madman Across the Water spends most of its runtime focusing on the group’s attempt to cross the Mississippi. The first order of business is finding something make the journey in. This leads everyone to an old warehouse in search of materials that they can use to refurbish some of the not so seafaring vessels they found by the water.
Flashbacks crop up again this week and this time its Elton’s turn to reminisce. Memories of his mom and dad just before the dawn of the apocalypse give us a window into what his family life was like as well as the origins behind his scientific curiosity. The trauma, which is the genesis of the fears he carries with him in the present, is also highlighted and comes into play later on in Madman Across the Water.
As the group sets out to MacGyver a boat problems arise when Hope realizes that Elton might be working with Felix to sabotage their plans. Things get heated and loyalties are tested with Hope and Iris’ plan coming into conflict with Felix’s pledge to protect them. The spat also provides some insight into Huck’s past and the trials she’s been through.
The real clash amongst the group is generational. Hope and Felix have different motives for their actions and while both are valid, Felix and Huck have the advantage of a broader perspective due to their age.
A lightning storm on the horizon, an inoperative boat and a hoard of empties coming their way pushes the fractured group to put aside their differences and work together. With the empties closing in, Elton is forced to face perhaps his greatest fear in order to give everyone a chance to survive.
The bonding experience the group goes through in Madman Across the Water galvanizes them but a last minute reveal threatens the rip apart everything they’ve built so far. Hope is pushed into the complexities of adulthood, something Felix and Huck have tried to shield her from. Hope’s life lessons are just beginning and it won’t be long before Silas, Iris and Elton will be pulled into that vortex.
