"Blood and Lies" is the seventh episode of the second season of AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond. It is the seventeenth episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 14, 2021, the same night as "Till Death", the fifth episode of the seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead. It was written by Sinead Daly and directed by Lily Mariye.

Plot[]

A member of the group becomes the target of an investigation. While some grow further apart, others begin to grow closer.

Synopsis[]

In a flashback, Lyla checks the vitals of a sedated test subject and tells her assistant that she will return after her dinner with the Bennetts.

Lyla dines with the Bennetts and confesses to Leo about the experiments she performed on her dead husband and daughter.

Lyla returns to her lab and observes the test subject through a window. The man, who is strapped to a gurney, tells her that she's going to hell. Speaking into her tape recorder, Lyla says they are proceeding to trial 6.0.

Lyla labels an empty vial, similar to the one Felix stole from her lab.

Dr. Bennett tests the material from the stolen vial and concludes that it's chlorine. Hope and Iris deduce that the CRM gassed Omaha and the Campus Colony with chlorine.

Lyla watches as the test subject is gassed to death with chlorine. CRM soldiers enter the lab and report that there is a problem.

Jadis interrogates Silas about his reasons for being outside the detritus terminal without clearance. Silas says he got lost. Dennis comes to pick up Silas and vouches for him. Jadis warns Silas not to make another mistake.

Hope hides the stolen vial inside a speaker in the bunker. She runs into Mason and claims she was looking for him to suggest they hang out. Mason says he'll be back later that night.

Lyla finds Leo at home and warns him that CRM soldiers are coming to bring him in for questioning. She says she knows that he and his daughters stole the vial, but says she pretended to have lost the specimen. She urges him to tell the CRM that she was an hour late for dinner the previous night. CRM soldiers take him away.

Iris and Percy kiss in Percy's room. Iris looks outside and sees soldiers taking Leo away.

The CRM soldiers grab Felix after he insists on accompanying Leo. Iris goes to find Hope, while Percy looks for Huck.

Iris finds Lyla and Hope waiting for her at Leo's apartment. Lyla offers to tell them everything they want to know, in exchange for the stolen vial. She says their father's life depends on it.

Jadis informs Huck that sensitive research material was stolen during the security breach. She brings Huck to the interrogation cell, where Leo is sitting at a table.

Lyla takes Iris and Hope to her lab and explains that she recently developed an injection that seems to delay the time between death and reanimation. She told the CRM that she needed a lot more test subjects. She says the CRM informed her and a colleague about a secret military operation that would result in tens of thousands of deaths. She insists they were horrified once they learned the truth behind the deaths, and that the CRM killed her colleague when he tried to report them. Lyla says that getting the vial back will save their father. Hope tells Lyla where it's hidden.

Dennis and Silas return to the culling outpost. Silas admits he wasn't lost when the CRM arrested him. Dennis says he already guessed that Silas went looking for his friends. He urges Silas not to mess up again.

Huck and Jadis interrogate Leo, who insists he knows nothing about the missing vial. Huck questions him about his dinner with Lyla. Leo tells them that she showed up an hour late, corroborating her story.

Iris admonishes Hope for telling Lyla where the vial was without first consulting her, but Hope points out that Iris wrote the dead drop note without consulting others. They see on Lyla's security feed that soldiers are about to enter the lab.

Huck asks Leo what he likes about Lyla. Leo describes his attraction to Lyla, but lets slip that he may no longer love her.

Huck privately tells Jadis her theory that Lyla is covering for Leo because she thinks he took the vial. Jadis orders soldiers to find Lyla.

Hope and Iris hide in the lab while soldiers search it.

Leo tells Jadis that he's not conspiring with Lyla. Jadis reveals that when Leo told Lyla about Hope's gifts, Lyla immediately told the CRM. Leo is surprised by this information.

The soldiers leave Lyla's lab after receiving word that Lyla has been found.

CRM soldiers bring Lyla to the interrogation cell. Lyla presents the missing vial and declares that Leo and his daughters stole it. She orders Jadis not to hurt Leo, saying he and Hope can help with Project Votus. She explains that she's on the verge of a breakthrough, and that her test subject has lasted eight hours without reanimating. Jadis agrees to release Leo so that he can help with Project Votus.

Lyla takes Jadis and Huck to her lab. To her disappointment, the test subject has reanimated. Jadis instructs Huck to set the empty loose on Lyla as punishment for her deceit. She also rationalizes that they have more leverage with Leo than with Lyla. The empty devours Lyla. Jadis enlists Huck in an upcoming tactical military operation.

Huck goes home and finds Percy waiting for her. She invites him to kill her but says there's something he should know.

Leo convenes with Felix, Iris, and Hope at home. Percy shows up.

Huck visits Dennis at the outpost and says everything they've done was for nothing. She informs him that the CRM is planning to gas 87,000 people in Portland, and that they have no way to send a warning.

Percy tells the group that the CRM is planning to wipe out Portland. Iris proposes they destroy the gas. Hope says they should also destroy the facility after first evacuating the scientists and their research.

Huck tells Dennis she can't fight the CRM alone. Dennis hugs her.

Percy privately admits to Iris that he wanted to kill Huck, but realized he would probably be executed if he killed her and would never see Iris again. They kiss.

Hope grabs a drink with Mason at the bunker and learns that his father is Major General Beale.

Silas returns from guard duty and finds Huck and Dennis kissing. Huck sees Silas and says they have a lot to discuss.

Other Cast[]

Uncredited[]

• S.J. Ovaska as Samuel Abbott
• Victor Dobro as Tucker
• John Luterman as Cohen
• Brandon Rush as Robertson
• Adrienne Holden as Lowery
• Delshaun Mcrae as Armadi
• Shane Carruth as CRM Soldier

Deaths[]

• Barca (Alive)
• Lyla Belshaw (Alive)
• 1 rat

Trivia[]

• First appearance of Cohen.
• First appearance of Robertson.
• First appearance of Lowery.
• First appearance of Armadi.
• Last appearance of Barca.
• Last appearance of Lyla Belshaw. (Alive)
• The title of the episode, "Blood and Lies", refers to Barca telling Lyla about the future being built from blood and lies.
• This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on November 7, 2021.
• This episode is played directly after the fifth episode of Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead.
• When Silas compares living at the culling facility to living in a junkyard, Jadis laughs and quips "you say that like it's a bad thing," in a reference to her time living at the Heaps as the leader of the Scavengers.

Episode Highlights[]

• Silas is released by Jadis after Dennis backs up his story about being lost. Jadis takes an interest in Silas as a possible future CRM soldier while Dennis admits that he knows that Silas lied, but he covered for him out of fear of what would happen to Silas otherwise.
• It's revealed that the CRM killed everyone in Omaha and the Campus Colony by poisoning them with chlorine gas. The herd was only a cover for the truth about what happened to the communities.
• Lyla Belshaw reveals that her work is about studying reanimation as it happens and that most of her test subjects were found bitten in the wild. She needed a lot more test subjects for a new serum and allowed it to be used on Omaha and the Campus Colony, although the CRM planned to do it anyway. The project, Project Votus, was set up by Elizabeth Kublek and Major General Johnathan Beale eight years before.
• The Civic Republic's government is unaware of what their military does outside of their walls and is not behind the CRM's inhumane and genocidal actions.
• Leo comes under investigation for the theft of the vial and reluctantly goes along with Lyla's plan to cover it up. However, after getting it back from Hope and Iris in exchange for the truth, Lyla betrays Leo and reveals the full truth.
• Under pressure from Jadis, Leo agrees to join Project Votus.
• With Lyla having failed the CRM too many times, Jadis has her killed by having Huck release Lyla's newest test subject, Sergeant Major Barca, upon her. The zombified Barca ultimately kills Lyla.
• Having earned Jadis' full trust, Huck learns from her that CRM intends to wipe out Portland using the chlorine gas and that it will happen soon.
• Percy attempts to exact his revenge upon Huck, but she talks him down and reveals to Percy and through him, the rest of the Endlings about what she has learned about the CRM's plan.
• Hope decides that the Endlings must destroy not only the gas, but the research facility itself and take the scientists and their research with them.
• Percy and Iris begin a romantic relationship.
• Mason is revealed to be Major General Beale's son.
• Huck reveals the truth to a horrified Dennis and enlists his help in stopping the CRM's plot.
• Huck is reunited with Silas for the first time since "The Sky Is a Graveyard", acknowledging that they need to talk while a furious Silas appears to consider attacking her in revenge for Huck framing him.