'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' Review: Wafer-thin and cliched, 'Shadow Puppets' is purely for show's fans
Spoilers for 'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' Episode 6 'Shadow Puppets'
What's life without faith? Although the line is as cliched as it can get, the phrase does make sense when you're trying to stay alive during a zombie attack. 'Shadow Puppets' may have one of the flimsiest plotlines ever. After five episodes, it introduces a new character who plays hogs the limelight for the majority of the episode just to actually dish out another moral science lesson: "If you can be anything be kind."
Cutting to the chase, the group meets Percy (Ted Sutherland) a survivor, who looks and defines shady, but the teens, especially Iris (Aliyah Royale) treats him as their own. Needless to say, it's predictability all the way as the new guy on the block is nothing more than a cheat. The introduction is pretty lame as well. Percy uses a large twig trying to scare the group only to be caught off-guard by Felix (Nico Tortorella).
Except, instead of being sent off, he's welcomed and fed while he rattles off a cockamamie story that Hope (Alexa Mansour) sees through. His story: Robbed by a couple of guys and he intends to find them. His truck, which served as his means of escape from the zombies was stolen by two people.
Iris & Co strike a deal to help him out and in return, he would drive them to New York. Little do they know, it was Percy's plan to rob their supplies. The hunt to get the truck back is a failed mission as Percy and his two friends just make away with the group's supplies. There is a twist though — They come back. It does appear that humanity exists at all.
And they all have Iris to thank for as her act of kindness was worth it. It ends with a shadow puppet performance, just another thing that you can expect from 'World Beyond'. There is not a lot to talk about as the storyline is wafer-thin. The question that we'd now be asking is: Will these kids ever encounter a formidable threat? Certainly, the empties are no more than the odd bursts of horror and the real enemy happens to be the harsh world they're living in.
That the episode might earn a few brickbats shouldn't come as surprise. The CRM gets cameo appearances every other episode and much of the season so far has all been about the teens trying to stay alive and growing up at the same time. This one's strictly for 'World Beyond' fans only.
'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' airs on Sundays at 10 pm ET on AMC.
