Why The Apartment Scene In The Walking Dead: World Beyond Means More Than You Think

Spoilers for The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode 3 to follow.

The third episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond picks up where episode 2 left off. Hope (Alexa Mansour) has successfully managed to lure the zombies away from the Blaze of Gory and regroup with her friends. The teens spend much of the rest of the episode dwelling by a scenic lake with some zombie attacks thrown in for good measure.

Revelations are brought to light as Hope decides it's a good time to tell Iris (Aliyah Royale) what really happened to their mother. Of course, that's just one of many secrets these teens need to tell one another. Shifting the perspective from adults to teenagers helps set World Beyond apart from other series within the Walking Dead franchise, and it's exciting to think of all the directions the show could take within its two seasons, especially with a terrifying villain on hand in the form of Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond). 

World Beyond still needs to provide further insight into its antagonist. While there's a lot we don't know, episode 3 provides some intriguing insights if you look closely enough. The end of the episode shows us Elizabeth's apartment, and there are some key details that give us a better idea of her character and the world of World Beyond.

Elizabeth's apartment is pretty extravagant. It's been outfitted with luxurious furniture and has large, pristine windows offering plenty of natural sunlight. More importantly, it provides a clear glimpse into the city outside. There's a lot we don't know about the Civic Republic Military (CRM), including the locations of the organization's bases. While none of the characters explicitly say where Elizabeth's apartment is located, one Reddit user has a good idea. 

In a thread discussing the scene in question, Redditor u/HeroesUnite guessed that the apartment is in Philadelphia. Other fans shared their own ideas within the thread, including one person believing the apartment is located in the Pacific Northwest due to the rooftop garden we see on a nearby structure. The intriguing aspect of all these ideas is that they all provide clues as to where the CRM may have taken Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) after abducting him. Has he been in Philadelphia for the last seven years? Hopefully, more clues pop up in future episodes of World Beyond that will let us know if u/HeroesUnite was on the right path. 

In addition to potentially narrowing down the location of a CRM base, the apartment also serves to highlight a key feature of Elizabeth's personality: her hypocrisy. We can see various posters on her walls. Most notably, she has an old World War I poster reading, "Self-Indulgence At This Time Is Helping the Enemy!" That kind of ideology certainly seems to fall in line with the CRM's mission statement, even though it appears Elizabeth has a hard time following it herself. 

The poster criticizes those who use more resources than they need when those supplies could go to the war effort. The same idea could apply to the CRM with everyone pitching in their fair share, which makes it a bit odd that Elizabeth's apartment contains bottles of Chardonnay. Her apartment is also filled with nice furniture and a working gas range, items that aren't readily accessible to everyone else in the CRM. In this one scene, we see how Elizabeth has taken certain luxuries for herself to indulge in.

Just one scene reveals so much about Elizabeth and the world she's created around her as head of the CRM. As World Beyond progresses, it will be interesting to see what other details the series adds to The Walking Dead's mythology.