The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 Episode 2 Ending Explained
Contains spoilers for "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" episode "Foothold"
The Bennett sisters are back.
In the premiere episode of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" Season 2, Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Iris (Aliyah Royale) both doubled down on their mutual desire to take on the Civic Republic Military. "Foothold," the second episode of the season, sees each sister learning more about how the organization operates.
Hope is adjusting to life at the CRM's research facility, which includes meeting her father's new girlfriend, Lyla (Natalie Gold). Like Jennifer aka Huck (Annet Mahendru), Lyla is betting that if she shows Hope all the good work the CRM is doing to cure the world of the undead plague, she will get the young woman on board. Hope, of course, has other plans and uses her facility tour to try and gain more intel.
On the outside, Iris is becoming even more radicalized against the CRM. She is convinced that the organization needs to be brought down but before she can make any meaningful move against them, she needs to get Felix (Nico Tortorella) and Will (Jelani Alladin) to take the leap with her.
This episode also reintroduces us to another former Campus Colony resident. We haven't seen Silas (Hal Cumpston) since he turned himself over to the CRM at the end of Season 1. When we touch back in with him, we learn more about the extent of the CRM's operations and dig a little deeper into the past of one of the series' most enigmatic characters.
Hope makes the rounds at the CRM
Although it's only Hope's first day at the CRM, she wastes no time in doing reconnaissance and making notes about the security at the facility. There is one major hitch that might make it difficult for her to do anything undetected while on the campus, though. Hope is the new girl on the block and everyone seems very aware of that fact.
As she walks around her new home, Hope notices people stealing glances at her as she goes by. Later, while on her tour with Lyla, she tries to sneak into a room marked "Authorized Military Personnel Only," only to be caught by a young man named Mason (Will Meyers). He immediately recognizes her as "the new girl ... who was flown in yesterday."
Hope and Mason have an obvious flirtation going on, but while Hope is known for being impulsive, she also doesn't appear to be taking her eye off the ball now that she's behind enemy lines. When Mason asks for her name, she tells him, "You said it's a pretty small place, which means you probably already know."
He confirms this to be true by replying, "See you around, Hope." This is a small but potentially revealing moment, as asking Hope for her name when he already knows it is a manipulation. It's the type of thing that under normal circumstances, wouldn't seem like too much of a red flag. But considering how much manipulation Hope has endured thus far in her experiences with the CRM, she will likely keep her guard up around Mason, regardless of whether or not she thinks he's cute.
Iris and Felix prepare for war
While Hope scopes out the situation inside the CRM, Iris pushes forward with her plans to take on the organization from the outside. The morning after her revelation that the CRM was behind the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony, she manages to convince Felix and Will. They come around to her theory but trying to work with the members of the community they are hiding out in is a different story.
Iris and co tell the leadership council of the Perimeter — the former artist colony turned survivor settlement on the outskirts of the CRM's research facility — about the CRM soldier Iris killed and their plans to right the situation. The council is extremely apprehensive, and when Elizabeth arrives for an unannounced visit, we can see why. As Iris, Felix, and Will hide, we get a sense of the kind of relationship the Perimeter has with their highly-militarized neighbors. While the community enjoys its autonomy for now, there's no doubt that should the CRM discover they are harboring fugitives, it would be a major catastrophe for the Perimeter.
The group manages to sneak away undetected and then execute their plan to cover up the death of the soldier Iris killed and throw the CRM off the scent of Will, who they are actively searching for. After bagging a walker and dressing it in Will's coat, they pose both bodies at the bottom of a bluff, leading the CRM to assume that Will and the soldier died in a scuffle.
Later, Iris and Felix shore up their agenda going forward. While they don't know how and they don't know when, both are now fully committed to bringing down the CRM and undermining the influence it has on their world. Or, as Iris puts it bluntly, "This is war. Even if they don't know it yet."
Silas gets conscripted
Now that he's fallen under their custody, the CRM has assigned Silas to an unglamorous work duty. His new home is a bit like the correctional facility from "Holes," except instead of digging, Silas and the young men who work there are charged with killing and disposing of walkers. This isn't just a pointless task, though. As Dennis (Maximilian Osinski), the man who runs the facility, explains to Silas, they are part of an effort to completely eradicate walkers from New York State, also known as an "experimental mass culling."
In last week's episode, we got more insight into Elizabeth's motivations, specifically that she sees herself as a person who makes hard decisions in service of the greater good. While the CRM is still, in many regards, a shady organization, "Foothold" paints a much more complex picture. Through this walker extermination facility and the work being done by Leo (Joe Holt) and Lyla (which we'll cover in a moment), the organization is making meaningful strides in its mission to eliminate the threat that walkers pose to humanity.
There's another twist to this particular storyline. As Dennis gets ready to drive away for the night, he takes out and gazes at a well-worn polaroid. It's a picture of him embracing Jennifer, both dressed in military uniforms. The kids at the facility were chiding Dennis earlier for having a "secret lady friend" at CRM headquarters. However, Jennifer has spent a lot of time away pretending to be Huck, and it's not clear yet what the status of that relationship is and how it will affect the dynamic of the season.
Lyla tries to win Hope over
Back at the research facility, Lyla manages to do something that Jennifer/Huck failed to do last episode. She shows Hope some of the research that her father has been doing and for the first time, it appears that Hope understands the complexity of what is going on. Leo has made enormous strides, the most notable being his research into a fungus that could eventually be used to infect and kill walkers on a mass scale. The look of admiration on her face while she watches a video of her father explaining his work seems to imply that she does have a deeper understanding of what's at stake.
But Lyla isn't exactly a neutral party in all this. She confirmed last season that while she does appear to have genuine feelings for Leo, she is collaborating with Elizabeth and keeping secrets from him. Above all else, Lyla appears to have an allegiance to the work that is being done to solve the walker problem and save humanity. She's a dedicated scientist and, as the CRM is making the research she does possible, she has a certain amount of loyalty to them, as well. However, when she has a debrief with Elizabeth at the end of the episode, she does appear to be uncomfortable with her role as a double agent, something that might prove to be significant down the road.
In fact, everything seems on the verge of becoming more complicated when Hope gets the chance to talk to her father after the tour. Leo can tell there's something Hope is withholding from him and he demands to know what it is. Is Hope about to reveal Iris' location? Or will she keep her father in the dark? It looks like we'll find out next episode.