The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2 episode 1 review – “Konsekans”

The Walking Dead: World Beyond is back for the second and final season and the secrets are still plentiful, but there’s solace to be taken in that there are finally some revelations about what happened to the Campus Colony and what that means for the group now that they’ve been separated. “Konsekans” picks up where the season finale left off, and it opens the door for whatever is coming in the rest of the season.

World Beyond has been divisive among The Walking Dead fans because it’s loosely tied to the story happening on the flagship series and it follows a group of people who are so different from the survivors on TWD and Fear the Walking Dead, but that’s what I like about it.

It’s nice having a new perspective, and the shift to a group of people who have been living in relative safety for the past ten years presents a very unique perspective. After the season premiere, their perspectives have shifted and we see that everything has changed now that they don’t have a home to return to. Not only do Iris and hope have to find each other, but they have to figure out what to do after that happens. If it happens.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond season premiere adds to the mystery

“Konsekans” starts out with some unsettling information. In a flashback to the days just before Monument Day, the celebration in the World Beyond series premiere, the CRM destroyed Omaha. They detonated bombs around the city’s perimeter wall and used their helicopters to lead a massive herd of empties toward the city.

It’s safe to assume that the same measures were enacted at Campus Colony, too.

Elizabeth, the CRM lieutenant, doesn’t acknowledge these details when she tells Hope what happened, rather she blames the unstoppable herd. Felix and Iris, however, learn from Will that the CRM was spotted salvaging materials from the two communities so he paints a very different picture.

No matter what, their futures are all uncertain now that they have nowhere to go once this mission is over.

Though Hope went with the CRM willingly to protect her sister, Elizabeth doesn’t trust that she’s fully invested in this mission. She doesn’t care if Hope hates the CRM, but she needs her head to be in the game so she leaves Hope in the ruins of Albany for a night to discover how hard it is to survive on her own. The night of terror, exacerbated by the hallucinations Hope suffers after hitting her head, make her realize quickly that she has to play along with the CRM, at least for now.

At the end of the episode, Iris sneaks out and kills a CRM soldier nearby. For someone who struggled with killing empties, killing the soldier is almost too easy, and it cements her resolve to do whatever it takes to rescue her sister.

I’m a huge TWD fan and I love World Beyond because it’s taking risks and showing what’s going on in other areas of the apocalypse. It’s a culture shock because this group hasn’t been wandering from place to place for ten years trying to find food and shelter while fighting off new enemies.

However, they’re at a huge disadvantage because everything is so new to them and they don’t have the experience that characters on TWD or Fear TWD have…and that’s ok. It’s more interesting watching them figure things out late in the game. It’s something that hasn’t been shown before and since it’s a wholly original concept there’s no canon that needs to be followed. That makes it fresh and interesting.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond airs Sundays at 10pm ET/PT, with new episodes available a week early for AMC+ subscribers.