The Walking Dead: World Beyond Turns Jadis Into a Villain

November 21, 2021, 11:00pm

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond, “Returning Point.” The Walking Dead‘s Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) is at the point of no return on World Beyond. Six years after trading Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) to the Civic Republic Military for admittance to the Civic Republic, former Scavengers leader Jadis returns as Warrant Officer Stokes on a mission to “create a new era on this planet.” Carrying out orders from the shadowy CRM Major General Beale and Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond), Jadis must quell a rebellion to protect Project Votus and the “last light of the world”: the Civic Republic.

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While Bennett sisters Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Iris (Aliyah Royale) plot their escape from the CR Research Facility where Dr. Lyla Belshaw (Natalie Gold) studied test subject “As” under Project Votus, Brody (Lee Spencer) puts The Perimeter in Jadis’s crosshairs when he reveals community leader Indira (Anna Khaja) is harboring CRM fugitives.

Determining the neighboring Perimeter poses a threat to the Research Facility, and thus the security of the Civic Republic, Jadis sends soldiers to the former artist colony. In a walkie-talkie talk with Indira, Jadis recalls how her own community of artists was exterminated by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)’s top lieutenant Simon (Steven Ogg) and the Saviors on The Walking Dead.

“I was like you once. Leading a community of artists, but they never really stood a chance — as yours don’t now,” Jadis says of the Scavengers slaughtered in Season 8 of The Walking Dead. “Larger, more powerful communities overtake smaller ones. It’s become their responsibility to. They’re ascendant because they’ve adapted, equipped themselves for survival, not just in might, but in seeing the world for what it is… and what it must be.”

But Indira can’t see it, says Jadis, “And that is why we can’t let you live.”

As Jadis’s unit prepares to fire on the group of hostiles that includes Indira’s teenaged daughter Asha (Madelyn Kientz) and Elton (Nicolas Cantu), CRM Staff Sargeant and mole Jennifer “Huck” Mallick (Annet Mahendru) tries to call off the firing squad by reminding Jadis that The Perimeter provides a service and is a resource.

“Eliminate them all,” Jadis orders. “Leave no one alive.”

The Perimeter is spared when Will (Jelani Alladin) opens fire on the CRM, starting a firefight with help from reinforcements Silas (Hal Cumpston) and ex-CRM soldier Dennis (Maximilian Osinski). At the locked-down CRRF, Iris and Hope take Major General Beale’s teen son Mason (Will Meyers) hostage as leverage to escape with Dr. Leo Bennett (Joe Holt) and other scientists through old mining tunnels beneath the facility.

In the aftermath, Jadis confirms the escapees wiped all data and their research of the CRM’s reanimation study Project Votus.

“They’re trying to take it with them. This isn’t just an escape plan. This is a rebellion,” Jadis says. “The Civic Republic stands to lose every scrap of knowledge and progress that we’ve built since the end of everything. This could be the second end.”

Jadis stations soldiers at every tunnel exit with shoot-to-kill orders for the Bennett family and the scientists. “Eliminate some to traumatize the many. They’ve been safe for too long. They’ve forgotten too much,” says Jadis. “This is an opportunity to make them remember.”

Season 2 reveals the CRM used green liquid chlorine gas as part of a tactical military operation to wipe out Omaha and the Campus Colony, killing a total of 110,000 people in the elimination of communities that could threaten the Civic Republic.

The rebellion’s mission now: stop Jadis and the CRM from committing the genocide of the 87,000 survivors of Portland, Oregon.

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 premiere Sundays on AMC.