The group make it to the Mississippi, and may not make it any further.

This is where the rubber hits the road, as the show’s two principal power groups meet and work out how to be around one another. On one side, the Bennett girls and their friends, on the other, Felix and Huck. As this episode shows, there’s a lot of common ground between them.

The Bennetts first. This is an interesting episode for Iris and Hope because it’s here that their force of personality and unity of purpose gets a little threatened. Felix and Huck are older, more competent, calmer and think they have the moral high ground. The Bennetts… are two teenage girls and their not quite friends walking 1100 miles across country to a father who may not be alive. The confidence begins to fade this week, and the pair of them find themselves having moments of doubt.

What’s interesting is that those moments of doubt are paid off here as Elton cheerfully signed up for Operation Go Home, it goes public and the group spend the entire episode doing a lot of internal auditing over whether they want to go ahead. The kids all being, well, kids, there’s a lot of introspection and awkwardness here. Nicholas Cantu is fantastic as Elton here, and the collision between the rational, scientifically minded kid who just wants to do the right thing and the emotionally driven mission he’s tagging along on is nicely handled. Neither side is wrong, neither side is right enough and the tension builds all the way to the ending as everyone is forced to pitch in to get the boat across the river working.

This in turn leads to some nice moments for the other side of the group. Hulk opens up a lot here and her already fun character is simultaneously given welcome context and some surprising new questions (where is she off to for two days?). Elsewhere Felix finally comes clean about why he’s so sure the girls’ father is fine because he was supposed to go with him, was told to stay and sent his boyfriend instead. He has no choice but to believe they’re fine, and has no choice but to push on.

Verdict: The show has taken some criticism in other locations for its pacing but I’m honestly all for it. World Beyond is a novel not an open ended series and setting the world and characters up is vital at this point. Not only do the character beats work but the glimpses of the CRM, and the ‘“A/B” testing they’re doing clearly shows there’s an endgame in place. One I’m quite happy to see unfolding as this calm, self aware, kind and precise show continues to unfold. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart