Warning: SPOILERS for World Beyond episode 2.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode 2, “The Blaze of Gory”, ends with Hope leaving the group and heading off on her own. The new Walking Dead spinoff has been off to an interesting start with the Civic Republic seemingly taking over the Campus Colony and Hope and Iris going off into the world with their friends, Elton and Silas, searching for their father, Leo Bennett. But no one told them how tough the journey would be.
First they were met with a zombie that Iris had trouble killing, and it was only just one. Next they found another zombie that stalked them to a tree house, which Hope managed to get rid of but not easily. And then there’s the zombie with a bee hive inside its head, which is further proof that The Walking Dead‘s spinoff shows are taking bolder leaps with their zombies than the main show is. However, the biggest obstacle in the group’s way is the Blaze of Gory, a burning tire pit with seemingly thousands of zombies in it.
Hope, Iris, Elton, and Silas manage to get through a part of the Blaze of Gory in episode 2, but they still have a ways to go in episode 3, so they decided to camp out for the night and take another stab at it the next day. But Hope left in the middle of the night and went out on her own – where did she go, and why? Hope leaves because she believes this journey is something she has to do on her own, which is why she killed the zombie under the tree house earlier rather than wait for everyone else to wake up.
Tying back into what happened the night of the outbreak – the same night that Hope killed Elton’s mother, innocent of the fact that the woman was Elton’s mom – Hope feels that she must trudge through the world alone. She feels that what they’re doing is unnecessarily endangering her sister and her newfound friends. Of course, she won’t be able to get far without them catching up to her – or without their help, because she, too, is inexperienced when it comes to the zombie apocalypse.
In fact, the promo for The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode 3 shows Hope struggling to make it past a group of zombies and appears trapped inside a warehouse, with zombies attacking her from a vent. How all of this plays out remains to be seen, but Hope isn’t too far ahead of her friends and, of course, Nick and Huck, both of whom are trying to bring the group home.
