The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 Episode 6 Ending Explained
Last week on "The Walking Dead: World Beyond," tensions ran high as Iris (Aliyah Royale) tried to execute her plan to get Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Leo (Joe Holt) out of the Civic Republic Military's research base. The episode ended with Silas (Hal Cumpston), their getaway driver, being detained and it looked as though everything was about to go seriously sideways. However, at the beginning of "Who Are You?" we learn that things are even more complicated than they first appeared.
After reviewing the coded logs that Huck/Jennifer (Annet Mahendru) gave to Leo at the end of the previous episode, the Campus Colony Crew decides to forgo their escape attempt, not even realizing it had been thwarted. The logs reveal that it was actually a "large-scale chemical event" that killed everyone in Omaha and that the column of empties was just a scapegoat. They also lead Leo to a grim realization when he remembers that he once saw papers with the exact same V shaped logo on them in the possession of his girlfriend Dr. Lyla Belshaw (Natalie Gold).
The group hatches a new plan to try and get to the bottom of exactly what the CRM is up to and who at the research facility is involved. This sends friends-turned-enemies Huck and Felix (Nico Tortorella) out on a mission together to investigate Dr. Belshaw's lab. That reconnaissance mission is complicated even further by the arrival of an old friend of Huck's that "The Walking Dead" fans will also recognize: Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh).
Here's what went down on this very revealing episode of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond."
Jadis reunites with an old friend
After being introduced in last week's post-credits scene, we finally get to spend some time with Jadis.
During several conversations with Jennifer throughout the episode, Jadis (a name she admits to adopting after the fall of civilization) gives us some important backstory. She tells Jennifer that after creating and then losing her own community (the Scavengers) she was allowed into the Civic Republic after giving them something "very valuable," which we can assume to be Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). Jennifer trained and mentored Jadis after she joined the military which is how the two became friends. However, like her friend, Jadis is skilled in the arts of deception.
That's important context to keep in mind as Jadis is not at the CRM research facility on a social call. She is there as part of an official investigation. She won't clarify, though, whether Jennifer is the person she's investigating. Jadis keeps their interactions friendly but frequently makes allusions to wanting to help Jennifer prove that she's still a CRM loyalist. "The theater that helps you survive is hard to let go," Jadis acknowledges from a place of personal experience.
By the end of the episode, neither the viewer nor Jennifer quite knows where Jadis stands. Although she claims to be a CRM loyalist, Jennifer points out multiple times that Jadis is, at the end of the day, "an ambitious survivor." If Jadis is all in with the CRM, it could spell big trouble for Jennifer, who has now committed multiple acts of treason. But if "Jadis the CRM investigator" is just another character in her theater of survival, the dynamic could turn out to be more complex.
Dr. Belshaw shows her true colors
We learn two key details about Dr. Belshaw's past during this episode. The first is the fact that she used to work in the pharmaceutical industry, which included doing lab tests on live animals. The second is that she had a husband and daughter who died early on after civilization fell. She tearfully tells Leo that after they died, she experimented on their reanimated corpses in hopes of curing them. Both of these anecdotes reveal that behind Dr. Belshaw's warm personality is a rather cold and calculating scientific mind.
During a tense first dinner between Dr. Belshaw and the Bennetts, Iris gets upset over Dr. Belshaw's admission that she participated in experimentation on live animals. "I guess, in the end, it comes down to how much of your own humanity ... you're willing to sacrifice in service of the greater good," Dr. Belshaw says in her defense. If that sounds familiar, it's because Elizabeth told Hope almost the exact same thing during the Season 2 premiere while she explained why the CRM does what it does.
This all seems to confirm that Dr. Belshaw is not a Hope type, who is critical of the CRM, but recognizes that there are people within the organization doing good work. Rather, she is like Elizabeth, who sees the CRM itself as the thing that is facilitating the good work and views the collateral damage it takes to keep the military strong — in this case, 100,000+ dead Omahians — as an unfortunate sacrifice that must be made for the greater good.
There's still a lot we don't know about how Dr. Belshaw fits into the unraveling conspiracy, but it's clear now that she is not someone the Campus Colony Crew should trust.
Iris and Hope are at odds
After Iris gets snippy with Dr. Belshaw during dinner, Hope pulls her aside and the sisters have another tense discussion that illustrates just how divided they have become when it comes to their views on the CRM. Hope reiterates her belief that they can't discount everything that is being done at the facility because a lot of it could do some genuine good in the world. But Iris is having none of it.
"I killed one of them ... a soldier," Iris confesses. "I did it because he was an enemy. And I'd do it again because that is what they are."
There is a great irony in this scene that appears to be lost on Iris. Moments after admonishing Dr. Belshaw for her belief that sometimes we must sacrifice our humanity for the greater good, Iris proudly confesses that she, too, is willing to kill for her cause. She is so dedicated, in fact, that earlier in the episode when she was tasked with sending the group waiting at the Perimeter a note explaining that they were delaying the plan, she instead left a coded message revealing her intention to find out what the CRM did and then "burn this place to the ground."
The issue with Iris' turn is not that there aren't justifications one could make for her violent actions. The CRM massacred her friends and toyed with the lives of her family. But if she were to stop and really think about it, she might realize that she has more in common with Dr. Belshaw and the CRM than she knows.
Huck and Felix reconnect
With all the animosity that has formed between them since the revelation of Huck/Jennifer's double life, it can be hard to remember that when "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" began, Huck and Felix were pretty tight. We get a taste of that dynamic again this episode when they work together to investigate a seemingly innocuous underground facility that, thanks to some hacker work from Huck, they discover Dr. Belshaw has been visiting regularly.
As they head to the facility, Huck tells Felix a bit more about her actual history, including exactly what she did to be given her undercover assignment in the first place. Dennis (Maximilian Osinski) was leading a training exercise that went haywire, which led to him making a snap decision that ended up getting several people injured. While Huck believed his judgment was sound, she also knew that he had been drinking at the time, which would have gotten him in major trouble regardless. She tried to cover for him by saying she was the one who made the call and then tampered with the evidence to hide her lie. When she was found out, she was sent to Omaha to make up for her error in judgment.
The duo splits up, with Huck going off to sabotage the generators so Felix can break into the electronically locked door of the facility. Inside, he makes a startling discovery. Not only is it full of empties on cold storage that have evidence of experimentation, but also test tubes with the same V symbol from the Omaha papers, as well as a huge warehouse full of gas canisters with the same markings. Felix notes that the CRM still has a huge quantity of the substance that they used to eliminate the population of Omaha. That begs the question: who are they planning on using it on next?
The episode ends with a shocking death
While the others were working behind enemy lines, Elton (Nicolas Cantu) and the rest of the crew at the Perimeter were left waiting. They receive Iris' note when a CRM supply truck rolls through the town and the reaction to the violent screed is decidedly mixed. Although the Perimeter lives under the thumb of the CRM, not everyone on the leadership council is jazzed about the idea of an all-out war.
Ironically, it's the leadership council chairperson Indira (Anna Khaja) who makes the strongest case to back Iris and the others. As Elton reveals to Will (Jelani Alladin), Indira has a lot to lose should Iris succeed in literally burning the facility to the ground. It would mean the end of Indira's supply of kidney medication and most likely her death. While Indira doesn't seem concerned about this (at least not that we can see), Elton certainly is, and his reluctance to see the CRM destroyed could prove to be yet another hurdle in Iris' way.
And that's not the only potential hurdle. While trying to break into the facility to make contact with the others, Will and Dev (Abubakr Ali) are caught by a group of guards, and Dev is shot and killed. Dev himself wasn't the most dynamic character on the series, but now that we're firmly in the second half of the season, the stakes are high and the motivations of each faction are complex and intertwined. Even if Will is still able to make it into the facility, there's no telling what kind of chain reaction Dev's death will cause throughout the rest of the season.