Remember when Layton’s biggest character trait was that he used to be a cop? How far our boy has come. After he became a revolutionary leader and a rallier of troops, there was a big risk that Layton would turn out like many real revolutionaries — always looking for a fight and unable to sit still. Although the season premiere made it seem like Layton was able to let go of his command and feel content to just be part of a larger council, we are back to Layton the rogue fighter who takes charge without thinking.
We see this in the opening scene when Josie has a flashback to her and Layton’s early days running things in the Tail section, where they helped people who got injured, and Layton managed to have people calm down and feel hopeful. The difference is that, at least before, he fought for the benefit of the entire Tail section or the train at large. Now? He cares only about Liana, everyone else be damned, and that makes him dangerous.
As Big Alice approaches Snowpiercer, Layton plans to be stealthy and take the Admiral by surprise. Ruth is not so optimistic, as the Admiral has trained soldiers with guns, and they outnumber the rebels. Perhaps if they were to rally the passengers, they could fight back, but Layton is not interested in that. As he repeats several times in this episode, he is not here to lead a revolution and rally the Snowpiercer passengers. This is an extraction. Of course the Admiral knew that the Big Alice team was here and tries to appeal to Layton, inviting him over to breakfast, denying that they are kidnapping his child, and reassuring him that the soldiers are “friendlies.â€
Granted, “friendlies†do not fill their “welcome wagon†with toxic gas, especially not a new variant of the gas that — according to Nima — won’t just knock Layton and his companions out but kill them. Nima reminds the Admiral that they can’t kill these people, as it violates their agreement with Melanie, but the Admiral doesn’t care; what’s a few more dead when they already lost 40 workers? The rift between the soldier and the scientist continues to grow, but the Admiral is done with the niceties, and he is finished with Nima questioning his actions. When Nima is told to get down and do 20 push-ups as a reminder of “how this partnership works,†it seems like the doctor finally snaps. He finds Ben in his prison box and asks how he can disable the gas in the welcome wagon; he will not support another killing.
Except it’s not necessary because Layton and Josie enter Snowpiercer from the outside, jumping from one moving train to the next while smartly skipping the welcome wagon and going straight to the second car. When they drop down, they quickly realize just how bad things are. Once again, Layton lets everyone down with his selfishness when a crowd forms around him and asks if he’s here to liberate him, to which Layton says no: Only after his daughter is safe (and probably at a safe distance) will he come back for his friends — and not a moment sooner! In order to help the two get to the undertrain to sneak past the checkpoints, a fight breaks out and we get a classic claustrophobic Snowpiercer fight scene.
Unsurprisingly, things don’t go so well. Layton gets down to the undertrain and comes across Nima, who explains what they’re trying to do: retrofit the train to launch rockets from within and create new, interconnected climate pockets like the one in New Eden. But just as soon as it looks like Nima will genuinely help, he rats Layton out and leads the Admiral’s men to them, though thankfully not before Layton manages to escape. As for Josie, she rescues Tess (and immediately lies and tells her Audrey is alive and well), and they even find Josie’s son, but it doesn’t take long before guards overpower them. Josie is captured and taken to the Admiral, who finally admits that they do not have Liana, but he knows where she is and offers the obvious trade of Liana in exchange for Big Alice.
When the Snowpiercer makes a turn onto an unknown track, Ruth has to make a decision between leaving Layton and returning to New Eden or keep going, and she decides to go into the belly of the beast.
This was probably not a good choice, as the people of New Eden are having a terrible, no good, very bad time. There is a severe storm that comes out of nowhere and threatens to kill them in half the time they thought they had before Big Alice needs to return. Javi, who has taken a bigger leadership role now that Layton is away, decides not to withhold information from the people during a town meeting, saying that the power grid is about to collapse and they either ration power or die. Roche, on the other hand, values calm over trust and simply tells the town that they will be okay as long as they stick together.
After Roche asks the town to keep their eyes peeled and look around the hills, Oz comes in and reveals that he found a hand — frozen and severed. Javi and Roche initially doubt the poor guy and ask if he copped the hand off himself. While Roach and Oz go investigate where they found the hand, Sykes helps Javi study it, and the two realize that the hand has a chip like the one Javi has on his own hand to open the doors of Snowpiercer. The hand belongs to one of them. As for Roche and Oz, the latter starts hearing voices again while Roche vanishes into thin air up in the mountains. Things are not looking good.
Tailie Thoughts
• It is a little on the nose that Tess’s favorite movie is RoboCop.
• The Admiral’s men are separating parents from their children to prevent revolts? A car full of imprisoned kids? Never stop being topical, Snowpiercer.
• What exactly is going on with the Admiral’s soldiers? It seems the reason they all constantly keep their helmets on is that they were experimented upon and were left horribly scarred with frostbite, their lungs messed up and requiring the suits to help them breathe like snow-themed Darth Vaders. Is this connected to Wilford’s ice mutant?