The Civic Republic Research Facility, or simply CRRF or the New Beginnings Academy for its academic wing, is a location that appears in AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
Ithaca, New York[]
Known as the Ithaca Underground Research Facility, this facility served as a government-funded educational research lab, that housed experiments in dark matter and neutrino physics. This facility location was ideal for these experiments, as the shafts and rock stability shielded them from cosmic radiation from the sun (as it was located on the site of an old diamond mine). The facility also contained a welcome center for visitors and field trips.
Post-Apocalypse[]
Two years after the outbreak, the Civic Republic of Philadelphia thought that this educational laboratory in Ithaca, New York would be suitable for them to establish an outpost, more specifically a research facility. Many scientists from the Civic Republic, Omaha, and Portland were brought to the research facility to further the CRM's research on the walkers. Six years later, doctors Leopold Bennett, Samuel Abbott, and another man were invited to the facility to join Lyla Belshaw in her work.
Season 1[]
"Brave"[]
Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek tells Hope and Iris that their father is teaching at a CRM research facility in New York State. Elizabeth provides the two girls with a coded map to its location.
"The Wrong End of a Telescope"[]
Lyla is working at the Civic Republic's research facility in New York State while enjoying lunch at her desk. She records her observations as she studies test subjects who have been experimented on, particularly her former colleague from Portland, Oregon, Dr. Samuel Abbott. After she finishes taking her notes down on Dr. Abbott's condition and response to therapy treatments, she gets ready to study the next test subject. While the next test subject is being prepared for her, she takes a look at a picture frame on her desk where she is standing happily with Dr. Abbott, Dr. Leo Bennett, and another scientist.
"Shadow Puppets"[]
Lyla is alone at her desk looking at the photograph of her, Dr. Bennett, Dr. Abbott, and the other scientist when she takes out Dr. Bennett's research from her desk drawer. She opens the manuscript to find a note from Iris and Hope to their father. She then receives a phone call from Lieutenant Colonel Kublek and confirms that Dr. Bennett and his security detail will not be a problem.
"Truth or Dare"[]
With the help of Tony Delmado, Iris finally figures out how to decode the map that Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek had given her to the facility. The map reveals that the research facility, which is represented by a DNA strand on the map, is located in Ithaca, New York.
"In This Life"[]
In a flashback, Leo Bennett and Lyla Belshaw enjoy a romantic dinner together in Leo's apartment at the research facility. Leo talks about Hope's remarkable brilliance and his concerns about the sudden departure of Dr. Samuel Abbott for Portland despite Samuel enjoying working at the facility and training young minds.
In the present, Lyla prepares herself to inform Leo that Hope will arrive within 24 hours, but Leo expresses his suspicions about the CRM, Samuel's sudden departure and Will Campbell's failure to return from his scouting expedition. Leo asks Lyla for her help to prove that they are being lied to by the CRM.
Season 2[]
"Konsekans"[]
In a flashback, Will Campbell expresses concern over the communications break with Omaha to Frank Newton, later causing Frank to take Will and Romano on a mission to supposedly investigate the breakdown but in reality, to kill them. Will manages to escape, but Romano is killed by Frank.
In the present, Felix and Iris discuss scouting the facility while it's dark and seeing for themselves what they're up against. Will pulls out the layout of the facility that he was drawing up and explains that while he wants Hope and Leo safe from the CRM just as much as they do, there's nothing that they can do just yet. While Felix is impatient to act, Will warns him that the CRM has got guards, patrols and long-range security. Just getting within a mile of the research facility is dangerous and it won't tell them anything that Will doesn't already know. This is about the long game, not just getting those that they care about back. It's about not just how they get in, but how they get Hope and Leo out and where they go after and the safety of not just themselves, but the people of the Perimeter who are giving them shelter. One wrong move means the end for all of them.
Hope is later brought to the research facility after a detour to the ruins of Albany with Huck warning Hope that she must keep a secret what the Endlings have discovered about the CRM. Huck insists that the research facility is safe and good for everybody as long as they play by the rules and don't stir shit up. Hope is reunited at long last with her father in his apartment at the research facility.
"Foothold"[]
While Leo, enraged by the CRM's manipulations to get his daughters to New York, tries to get the CRM to bring Iris and Felix to him, Hope explores and takes notes on the facility's security. Hope is given a tour by Lyla Belshaw who explains its pre-outbreak history and the research that is being done into both how to stop the infection and to get rid of the already existing undead. During this time, Hope is caught sneaking around by Mason Beale whom she befriends and Hope later expresses surprise to her father at how there aren't more guard towers and attack dogs as she had expected there to be.
"Exit Wounds"[]
Hope observes the high level of security at the research facility while on a run. Later, she attends class with Dr. Terry Ellis and suggests yeast fermentation as a possible solution to accelerating empty decay. At the invitation of Mason Beale, Hope attends a party with the other students who live at the research facility. Mason reveals that while he and some of the others come from the Civic Republic itself, some of the others are from Portland.
At the same time, Huck's successful mission gets her reinstated to active duty at the research facility. However, Huck struggles with the things that she was forced to do and to reconnect to her husband Dennis. With Leo pressuring her to find Iris and Felix, Huck agrees to secretly take Hope to the Perimeter to see them, sneaking her out in a Humvee borrowed from Dennis.
"Family Is a Four Letter Word"[]
Silas spots a brochure with a map to the research facility on Dennis' bulletin board and attempts to use the map to find it. However, he is stopped by Webb, Grady and Tiga.
After failing to convince Iris and Felix to come back with them, Hope and Huck return to the research facility where Hope finds a gift from Mason outside of Leo's apartment and Huck witnesses her mother making an address to the Civic Republic and Portland about the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony.
"Quatervois"[]
Based on Hope's theory regarding yeast, Leo, Lyla Belshaw, Terry Ellis and Amanda Siegel have identified three strains of yeast that they believe with some augmentation, could gravely accelerate necrotic decomposition. Siegel tells Hope that, while there's still a lot of work to be done, it's sparks like this that will light a path to a new world where the dead have been neutralized as a threat. While initially excited about the discovery, Hope asks to speak to her father alone and reveals to him the truth about everything, including that the CRM was responsible for the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony. While both Leo and Hope agree that the research facility is a prison, Hope wonders if it's also the future. Hope doesn't mean the CRM, but the researchers themselves and their research.
At the same time, the rest of the Endlings plan to infiltrate the research facility and escape with Hope and Leo. To this end, Iris, Felix and Percy, disguised as Elton, have Indira turn them over to the CRM under the guise of having been captured. Under interrogation by Elizabeth Kublek, the three claim that they had been captured by Indira and her people and had shown them the map that Elizabeth had given to Hope and Iris and told them that they were looking for the research facility. With Iris, Felix and Percy's stories matching Indira's, Elizabeth allows them to stay, and they reveal their escape plan to Leo who eventually agrees with it. However, although Silas Plaskett is supposed to pick them up at the Detritus Service Terminal, he is captured by CRM soldiers led by Corporal Diane Pierce, foiling their escape plan.
Suspicious of the CRM's activities, Huck breaks into her mother's safe and steals coded transmissions related to Project V. Huck shows Leo the coded CRM transmissions which prove that the military brought in the walkers that overran Omaha and the Campus Colony. Huck points out that the letters and numbers aren't a part of the CRM code and Leo recognizes them as the coding system for test subjects. Huck doesn't know how it all fits, but some of the people killed in Omaha and the Campus Colony were being used for research, research that Huck thinks is still being done right here in the research facility. Huck needs Leo's help to figure out what the hell's going on and who's involved so they can stop it.
Lyla is brought Sergeant Major Barca as her new test subject by Jadis who reveals that Elizabeth has been recalled to the Civic Republic indefinitely, leaving Jadis in charge of the research facility.
"Who Are You?"[]
From the coded transmissions that Huck stole, Leo determines that the CRM used some sort of large-scale chemical weapon on Omaha and the Campus Colony and guesses that the V at the top of the documents refers to a project of some sort at the facility. At the same time, Jadis reveals to Huck that she has been sent to do a security audit at the facility by Elizabeth Kublek.
After realizing that Lyla is involved, Leo invites her to dinner as a distraction and has Felix and Huck search for answers. The two discover daily trips that Lyla makes to a seemingly-empty area of the facility on Sublevel 7. In order for Felix to get in, Huck blows the research facility's power generator, creating a blackout. Felix discovers that the room is a cold storage with frozen empty test subjects, vials of the deadly gas that the CRM had used and a large stockpile of gas cannisters containing it. However, the backup generator kicks in, trapping Felix in cold storage until Huck manages to reprogram her key card so that she can open the door.
After learning of Indira's illness and receiving a message from Iris that they are going to burn the facility to the ground once they get answers, Will attempts to sneak back in with Dev's help. However, the two are found nearby by a CRM patrol and Dev is killed while Will escapes.
"Blood and Lies"[]
As Lyla Belshaw kills her newest test subject, Sergeant Major Barca, Leo Bennett tests the vial stolen from Lyla's lab and discovers that it contains a variant of chlorine gas. Leo, Hope and Iris realize that the CRM had used the chlorine gas to wipe out Omaha and the Campus Colony and Hope hides the vial in the Bunker.
After Dennis Graham backs up his claims of getting lost, Silas Plaskett is released by Jadis.
Having discovered the theft, the CRM searches for the missing vial, interrogating Lyla and Leo. In exchange for the return of the vial, Lyla takes Hope and Iris to her hidden lab which not even Leo is supposed to know about. Lyla reveals that her work is on studying reanimation as it happens in live test subjects, most of whom were found already bitten in the wild. Having apparently made a breakthrough and needing a lot of test subjects, Lyla and Dr. Samuel Abbott were informed of the operation against Omaha and the Campus Colony and given the chance to test their formula out in the field against the victims of the genocide. Samuel had tried to reveal the truth to the Civic Republic's civilian government and he was killed for it, becoming one of Lyla's test subjects. Although disgusted by all that she learns, Hope directs Lyla to the vial's hiding place, before she and Iris are briefly forced to hide from searching soldiers amongst the empties in the lab.
With Lyla having apparently had a breakthrough with her research due to how long Barca is taking to reanimate, she leads Jadis and Huck to her lab. However, Barca has already reanimated by the time that 7 hours 48 minutes have passed which is rare, but not unusual. With Lyla having failed the CRM too many times and Leo posed to take over her work, Jadis orders Huck to release Barca upon Lyla. Despite Lyla's pleas for her life, Huck cuts Barca free and she and Jadis watch as Barca chases Lyla around before finally biting her in the neck, killing Lyla. Jadis reveals that she intends to frame Lyla's death as a lab accident and that she knew all along that Lyla had been covering up for Leo. As a result, Jadis had used Huck to help her install Leo as Lyla's replacement while testing Huck's loyalty by having her be the one to interrogate Leo and release Barca to kill Lyla. Calling it a productive day, Jadis feels that it's only fair that Huck should be debriefed on the entire scope of the project. Jadis wants Huck to be a part of it as she has earned it. Huck is surprised to learn that there's more and Jadis reveals that the destruction of the Campus Colony and Omaha are all a part of a tactical military operation. What comes next won't be easy, but it will secure their future for centuries to come.
Lyla brings the vial to Jadis, but she reveals the truth about Leo stealing it and about Project Votus to him. With her experiments having apparently finally had success, Lyla leads Jadis and Huck to her lab where Barca has reanimated before eight hours have even passed. With Lyla having failed the CRM too many times, Jadis has her killed by having Huck release Barca upon her which Jadis then frames as a lab accident.
With Huck having gained Jadis' trust, she reveals to Huck that the CRM intends to use the chlorine gas stored at the research facility to wipe out the 87,000 people living in Portland. Huck warns the rest of the Endlings through Percy and visits Dennis at the culling facility to enlist his help. Upon learning of the CRM's plan, Hope decides that they need to not only destroy the gas, but to destroy the entire research facility itself and get away with the scientists and their research.
"Returning Point"[]
In a flashback to two years ago, Indira and her people construct the research facility's globe sculpture. After Indira reveals her kidney failure, Elizabeth Kublek offers to secretly supply Indira with the medical supplies that she needs to survive from the facility which Indira accepts.
In the present, Leo informs the other scientists of the CRM's genocide of Omaha and the Campus Colony as well as the murders of Lyla Belshaw, Samuel Abbott and Romano and the scientists agree to join the Endlings. However, Jadis becomes suspicious of their activities based on the server's report on the lack of power and water usage in the labs, suggesting that the scientists aren't working, and that Leo might've let them in on the secret.
On Jadis' order, the civilian population of the research facility is evacuated and the Endlings, the scientists and their security details retreat to the facility's biocontainment unit, accompanied by an abducted Mason Beale. Jadis initiates a full lockdown of the facility, seemingly trapping the Endlings in the biocontainment unit which the CRM can't breach for a few hours until the server reboots and the lockdown can be lifted. However, the Endlings' escape plan is put in jeopardy when Brody arrives and warns Jadis of the support that Indira has been giving to the Endlings, causing Jadis to dispatch Sergeant Mills and his team to wipe them out. However, Mills and his team are stopped thanks to Will Campbell, Dennis Graham, Silas Plaskett and Indira.
Once the server reboots, the facility's lockdown is lifted and Lieutenant Frank Newton and his team breach the biocontainment unit. However, four of the soldiers are killed by an explosion and they discover that the Endlings had purposefully taken advantage of the facility's own security protocols to keep the CRM out as they broke into the old mining tunnels below the research facility and escaped, using the explosion to collapse the entrance that they had created behind them in order to keep the CRM from following them. Learning that the scientists have stolen all of their data and wiped it from the servers completely, Jadis dispatches fireteams led by Corporal Diane Pierce into the mining tunnels with orders to kill everyone on sight.
"Death and the Dead"[]
The Endlings' rebellion continues as they escape into Lyla Belshaw's lab and send a number of the empty test subjects, including Samuel Abbott, into the tunnels. The empties are put down by the CRM fireteams, but some have C4 attached to their backs while the Bennetts, Felix and the scientists detonate, killing the fireteams sent after them.
Having made a point, Leo contacts Jadis and reveals that they're holding Mason Beale hostage. Despite Jadis' attempts to talk Leo down with logic, he refuses to have anything more to do with the CRM after the destruction of Omaha and the Campus Colony and demands that the two biggest transport trucks that the CRM has be backed up to service entrance near Guard Gate 1 with full tanks of gas and no tricks. Jadis reluctantly complies and Felix performs an inspection of the trucks to confirm that Jadis kept her word. Leo departs with the scientists, making it appear that everyone left while in reality, Hope, Iris, Felix and Percy remain behind with the captive Mason.
At the same time, Silas and Elton gather a massive herd at the culling facility using Dennis' music and use firecrackers to lead it to the research facility. With Dennis severely wounded, Silas decides to continue on to the research facility rather than breaking off to meet up with the others.
Following the departure of Leo and the other scientists, Hope and Felix visit the cold storage area of the facility to destroy the gas with C4. However, they discover that Jadis has cut the power, unleashing the empty test subjects that were kept in cold storage. Hope and Felix put down several test subjects, including a reanimated Lyla Belshaw, but discover that the gas is gone and realize that Jadis had anticipated their actions and had it moved. Unable to find the gas and with Mason insisting that he doesn't know where it is, Hope, Iris, Felix and Percy decide to make their escape.
Outside, the herd, numbering around a thousand empties, begins to overrun the research facility, having been undetected as the patrols in the direction that the herd comes from had been redirected into and died in the tunnels. The herd quickly overruns the CRM's checkpoints due to it being too numerous for them to counter and the CRM is unable to reach their helicopters to drop disruption charges on it.
Upon reaching the facility, Silas and Elton sneak in to search for antibiotics for Dennis. Silas is confronted by his former coworker Webb, now a CRM cadet, who quickly deduces that Silas is one of the insurgents that they're searching for. However, Elton subdues Webb before he can kill Silas and the two are able to find the medical storage room, stealing the antibiotics for Dennis and the medicine that Indira needs for her kidney failure. Recovering, Webb attempts to break into the room, but he only succeeds in drawing attention to himself and is devoured by empties that break in through the hallway window. Surrounded, Elton comes up with the idea of him and Silas rolling the Perimeter's globe sculpture down the hill as an escape method and they successfully manage to escape, rolling over a number of empties on their way down the hill.
Preparing to escape in a Humvee that Percy had stolen the keys to, Hope, Iris, Felix, Percy and Mason are confronted by Jadis, Huck and a number of CRM soldiers, leading to a standoff. Communicating over a private radio channel, Iris confronts Jadis about the CRM's genocides in Omaha and the Campus Colony and she reveals that "two years ago, the CRM's modeling revealed that the Alliance would soon become a drain on the Civic Republic's resources. Omaha, the Campus Colony, Portland... had become too reliant. They'd never be fully self-sustaining. So, it was only a matter of time before thousands faced a famine of devastating proportions. At best, those thousands would have died slowly. At worst, disease and conflict would have spread through the Civic Republic itself, and then? The light of the world... extinguished forever. Death wins. We made the choice to spare them that by ending it quickly for them so that there could be a chance for humanity to survive. What we did to your home was mercy." Jadis adds that the CRM had extracted all assets, including 10,000 children and the brightest minds such as Leo and Hope and brought them to the research facility to continue contributing. However, the rebellion compromises and threatens to destroy everything that the CRM has worked for.
As empties begin to close in on the group, Felix is forced to open fire on them, allowing Mason to break free and escape, sparking a firefight between the Endlings and the CRM. Huck joins Iris and Felix in killing the soldiers and holds Jadis at gunpoint, but Percy is killed while chasing after an unrepentant Mason. After Iris talks Hope down from killing Mason, the sisters and Felix flee in the Humvee. Jadis offers to give Huck a 5 to 10 minute headstart if she lets Jadis live. With empties closing in on Mason, Jadis rushes to his rescue as Huck makes her own escape in a jeep.
Subsequently, the Civic Republic Research Facility is completely overrun by the undead, forcing the CRM to retreat to a basecamp. Jadis contacts Major General Beale for reinforcements to take the facility back and to get him to step up the planned attack on Portland now that the CRM's plans have been compromised.
Season 1: The Ones Who Live[]
"The Last Time"[]
The research facility appears in a flashback as Major General Beale tells Rick Grimes as a part of the Echelon Briefing how the CRM had used to supply test subjects to CRM-run research facilities.
Inhabitants[]
- Webb (Cadet)
- Dr. Lyla Belshaw (Researcher)
- Dr. Samuel Abbott (Researcher)
- Mills (Sergeant)
- Barca
Formerly[]
- Will Campbell (Security Detail to Dr. Leopold Bennett)
- Betts (Captain)
- Murrow (First Lieutenant)
- Diane Pierce (Corporal)
- Cohen (Commando)
- Robertson (Commando)
- Lowery (Commando)
- Armadi (Commando)
- Tucker (Soldier)
- Nolan (Soldier)
- Dr. Leopold Bennett (Researcher)
- Dr. Amanda Siegel (Researcher)
- Dr. Ebersol (Researcher)
- Dr. Terry Ellis (Professor/Researcher)
- Verschuren (Professor)
- Marjorie (Librarian)
- Hope Bennett (Student)
- Mason Beale (Student)
- Ian (Student)
- Iris Bennett
- Felix Carlucci
- Anne (Warrant Officer)
- Jennifer Mallick (Staff Sergeant)
- Frank Newton (First Lieutenant)
- Percy
- Romano (Security Detail to Dr. Leopold Bennett)
- 274 unnamed researchers, students, and personnel
- Many unnamed CRM soldiers
Deaths[]
- Samuel Abbott (Alive and Zombified)
- Dev
- Barca (Alive)
- Lyla Belshaw (Alive and Zombified)
- Brody
- Webb
- Percy
- At least 24 unnamed CRM soldiers
- Several unnamed people (Alive)
Appearances[]
World Beyond[]Season 1[]Season 2[] |
The Ones Who Live[]Season 1[]
|
Trivia[]
- In "Quatervois", the facility is referred to as the New Beginnings Academy in the Civic Republic Tribune. It's also stated the academy currently holds 204 enrolled students.
- Filming for this location took place at the Maymont Nature Center in Richmond, Virginia.