The Big Issue Fans Have With The Latest Episode Of Walking Dead: World Beyond
Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: World Beyond
The teen protagonists of The Walking Dead: World Beyond are different than their counterparts on the other series in the franchise. They've spent much of the zombie apocalypse living in the relatively sheltered confines of the Campus Colony, the well-trained security forces of which have kept them from needing to hone their raw survival instincts and undead slaying skills.
Iris (Aliyah Royale), Hope (Alexa Mansour), Elton (Nicolas Cantu), and Silas (Hal Cumpston) may have determination and bravery in spades. But between the four of them, they can barely take down a walker. On top of that, their critical decision-making skills haven't always been exemplary. Case in point: This week's episode, "Shadow Puppets," in which the group meets a fellow survivor named Percy (Ted Sutherland). Percy claims to have been truck-jacked by bandits and promises to give the group a ride to Civic Republic headquarters if they help him steal his rig back.
If you've seen the teens in action, you may be inclined to advise them not to take on the task of organizing and executing a plan to do battle with potentially armed adversaries. And that's exactly what drove fans on Reddit crazy after the episode aired. Fans of The Walking Dead franchise had a lot to say about what they saw as a series of extremely dumb decisions from almost everyone on the show this week.
Fans thought the plan was a dumb idea from the start
Many Reddit users on the subreddit for The Walking Dead: World Beyond had a hard time with the believability of the group's plan to help Percy. And the issues started with their decision to do it in the first place. In a Reddit discussion thread for those who watched Sunday's episode on early access, user u/tiritto pointed out the poor calculation on the part of the group: "Let's go for a confrontation with other humans, who might be armed, while nobody in the team even knows how to handle a single freaking walker. What the hell could go wrong, right?"
There was also some disbelief that Felix (Nico Tortorella), the grown-up on the team has seen firsthand just how ill-equipped the teens are to handle something like this, didn't immediately put a stop to things. In the regular episode discussion thread, user u/AncientAssociation9 asked, "Why does Felix keep allowing these kids to dictate events. He is the adult, but he keeps letting Iris lead them."
Back in the early access thread, Redditor u/obitonye added, "I can understand that kids are stupid but what did Felix think?"
So, from the jump, fans thought the plan seemed like a generally terrible idea, and things didn't get better when they saw the group in action.
Fans also saw the twist that Percy was a con artist coming from a mile away
The character who pushed the hardest to go ahead with helping Percy ended up being the one who bungled things the most. Poor Iris has tried so hard to shake her goody-two-shoes image by taking more risks while on this journey, but fans had a hard time suspending disbelief while watching her very loudly and conspicuously break into the department store where one of the robbers was theoretically hiding to help Felix and Percy.
Responding to a comment about how poorly thought out her actions were, user u/beardlovesbagels wrote, "You mean expecting to take out a grown man with a spear whilst holding a flashlight or hiding with a flashlight pointed at the ceiling or closing the door loud as f***?"
When Iris did finally find Percy, it was revealed — to no one's surprise but hers — that he had set the group up. The story about the stolen truck was a ruse to steal the group's supplies, and the dead "bandit" they pulled out of it was Percy's uncle and accomplice (Scott Adsit). User u/obitonye said, "The first moment I saw this guy Percy I thought he couldn't be trusted...I can understand that kids are stupid but what did Felix think? That everybody is friendly and eager to help? So naive."
The cherry on top as Iris' decision to chase down Percy after realizing he had scammed her. What at first looked like it might be an actual moment of badassery ended with the hapless teen falling into a dumpster full of walkers. User u/picorisword said, "Iris rolling into a dumpster kinda sums up this show."
Reddit fans were pretty harsh on the Campus Colony Crew this episode, but they also had plenty of criticisms for Percy and his uncle.
Fans weren't impressed with Percy's con either
Even though a lot of the ire from fans were directed at the flimsy plan the show wrote for the teens, a few fans that the scheme cooked up by the con artists to be pretty dumb as well.
In the early access discussion thread, user u/ILoveRegenHealth posed the question, "Is nobody gonna talk about how dumb Percy and that Uncle's scheme was?" They went on to point out that the plan only worked because of luck on the part of the con artists: "You almost have to be 1/100 lucky for that to happen. And if Iris did her job, there would be no way for Uncle to get away if both Iris/Silas were watching the truck and bags."
User u/FilthyTrashPeople agreed, saying, "What's funny is the kid's con is absolutely terrible." For them, the plan's flaws began at the basic premise: "[H]e told them where the truck is. 90% of wasteland survivors would gank him and then go steal the truck en force."
Even though the Campus Colony survivors teamed up with Percy and his uncle in the end, Reddit users had a hard time rooting for anyone this week.