Warning: Review may contain spoilers!
The Walking Dead: World Beyond 109 – The Deepest Cut
The Deepest Cut begins with the group torn apart. With Silas and Elton off on their own, Iris, Hope, Felix and Huck make their way to New York. With Huck behind the wheel of Tony’s truck flashbacks of her rendezvous with Elizabeth come to mind. There is a heavy dose of mystery and deception going on and Elizabeth is the puppet master behind the grand plan. It’s strange hearing Elizabeth call Huck by her given name Jennifer but it adds to the layers of deceit that’s been crafted for so long.
A blown tire, courtesy of a purposeful and deft maneuver on Huck’s part puts everyone on foot. Making their way through the dark more flashbacks fill in the gaps surrounding Huck’s first moments in Omaha. Meanwhile Elton struggles to come to grips with the world as he knew it crumbling at his feet. He takes out his frustration on his mother’s manuscript but the outburst leads him to a new discovery.
For a series that has often moved at a glacial pace, the first few moments of The Deepest Cut has more action, twists and reveals than a string of consecutive episodes. Finding refuge in an abandoned retirement home, Huck begins to work on Iris. Following through on Elizabeth’s plan, Huck plants seeds of doubt in the youngster in an attempt to sabotage the group’s trek to New York. Complicating matters is a deep gash on Felix’s leg that gets worse with every passing moment.
Elton’s journey takes the largest steps in The Deepest Cut. Discovering Percy and faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, he’s forced to question things and in the process becomes more proactive than reactive. Still retaining the essence that makes him unique his moment of truth mixes his analytical gifts with a physical element that nudges him into adulthood.
Felix occupies the bulk of the flashbacks creating an ominous feeling about his future. Watching all that he sacrificed in the past to stay behind and protect the girls makes it all the more difficult when his injury forces him to let them continue on their own.
Huck’s mind games splinters the group in unexpected ways. Although her physical sabotage is devastating the psychological land mines she’s planted are now beginning to go off. The wedge that has she created between Iris and Hope develops a little too quickly though. The same goes for Hope’s intuition kicking into overdrive seemingly out of the blue. These events should have been hinted at to greater extents in earlier episodes to make the character’s reactions seem a little less forced.
That being said The Deepest Cut is the best episode so far of World Beyond’s maiden season. There are several questions that still remain unanswered. What are Elizabeth’s plans for the asset? What or whom is she trying to reunify? The season finale might provide some answers and if it is able to maintain this episode’s momentum then there is a chance that World Beyond can move into its second season on a high note.
