The Beacon
Written by Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
Directed by Michael E. Satrazemis
Directed by Michael E. Satrazemis
"What we're doing is nothing less than laying the foundations of a new civilization. We're making history."
— Victor Strand
In the aftermath of nuclear destruction, Strand thrives in the new world.
Tropes:
- Bait the Dog: Strand and Howard took Will on a tour of the compound, revealing its perfectly inhabitable, all after cleaning him and giving him a fresh meal and drink. Nonetheless, Strand initially decides he’s not worth saving and prepares to evict him.
- Born Lucky: As Howard explains, the weather patterns kept the fallout from hitting their base, meaning out of genuine luck, they ended up with the only inhabitable, untouched eden for miles.
- Character Death: Strand kills Will at the end of the episode.
- Disney Villain Death: A hero example. Strand throws Will off the roof of a multi-story tower. He’s dead on impact, and when his corpse is seen, his body has ruptured open, and the side of his face that hit the ground directly is a frayed mess.
- The Dragon: Howard serves as Strand’s right-hand man.
- Facial Horror: As noted above, Will’s face is reduced to ground beef by the impact from falling from several stories. His eyeball is about to pop out of his head.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Will puts together that Strand is looking for Alicia and uses “her” to refer to her, and Strand invokes this trope, realizing he knows who he’s looking for.
- Mythology Gag: Will’s eye being on the verge of popping out of his skull will remind longtime franchise fans of Glenn suffering a similar fate in the original comic and the mothership show.
- Never My Fault: Stand is implied to blame Morgan for Teddy’s success, when he had as much to do with it since his actions also wasted valuable time that could’ve been used to stop Teddy, who only succeeded moments before Strand and Morgan reached him.
- Orcus on His Throne: Strand contends that he doesn’t need to leave the tower now that he has a large group willing to do his bidding and plentiful resources. At the end of the episode, he says he can’t do it again because it could jeopardize his community.
- Properly Paranoid: Being forcibly abducted then given a hot meal and drink by a sinister man certainly causes Will to be skeptical of Strand’s intentions. It later turns out to be an act as he knew exactly who Strand was from the get-go, having been told by Alicia he wasn’t trustworthy.
- They Called Me Mad!: Strand contends that success is the best way to get back at someone, which is why he’s put so much effort into building up his tower community. He claims to want to prove how right he was about Alicia, and at the end suggests he wants to prove it to Morgan as well.
"Anyone who tries to get to me... is gonna have to get through them."
