Look. Listen. This review series has been pretty chock full of spoilers, but I have reiterated it for this episode in particular. This is going to have spoilers about the Rail Tracer. It’s actually perhaps the biggest spoiler in the show. So big that fans of this show actively go out of their way to avoid talking about it with people watching the show. Not here. So let’s just go!
1. The Woman in the Fatigues
We don’t just find out the identity of the Rail Tracer this episode, we also learn about who the mysterious woman in fatigues that was aboard the Flying Pussyfoot is. Her name is Rachel, an agent of the Daily Days. With a lot of her cards on the table, I can finally talk about her a bit more: She’s okay. Really, a lot of her purpose was to be a red herring. First, we think she’s Claire Stanfield when Luck and Firo talk at the beginning of the series. Then we think she’s possibly the Rail Tracer. But she ends up being neither. She’ll have an interesting moment with the Rail Tracer later, but yeah, there really isn’t a huge amount to her.
2. “Oh Dune, You Poor, Poor Faceless Bastard”
There really isn’t a whole lot in this one, but when Ladd finds the corpses in the conductor compartment, including the faceless corpse of one of his cronies, he, of course, goes over the top, including trying to interrogate the mangled body. Like always, it’s all about Bryan Massey’s delivery of the lines that sell the depravity and the drak lividity of the scene.
3. Okay, Let’s Finally Talk About The Rail Tracer
Alright. Last chance. We are going full spoilers now. If I have convinced you to give this show a shot, then stop reading now, go watch up to this episode, and then come back.
Ready?
Okay.
You remember the Young Conductor from episode 2? The conductor that had told Isaac and Miria the urban legend of the Rail Tracer? The conductor we all thought was the first person to die on board the train? Yeah, surprise! Not only is he not dead, but he is the Rail Tracer! Not only that, he is Claire Stanfield a.k.a. the assassin Vino a.k.a. the unofficial fourth Gandor Brother a.k.a. without a shadow of a doubt, the most popular character in this series, bar none. Only Ladd comes close to reaching his popularity. And I can kind of see why he’s absolute bat shit (as we see him interrogating Dune by grinding his body against the moving train tracks. He’s incredibly physically strong, and as we see throughout, a bit charming and simultaneously down to earth and insane! On top of all of that, he’s shockingly moral, going after the Lemures and Ladd’s goons and anyone harming the passengers. Also like Ladd, it’s all about fantastic vocal delivery, delivered by Jerry Jewell.
This twist, when I first watched it, got me shouting. I did not see it coming at all because up to this point, you completely forgot about the Young Conductor. That’s what makes it so good! We’re going to learn more about Vino (a moniker he received because his assassinations are incredibly violent as if the room was soaked in red wine) in the next coming episodes, but this is why this episode of the show is the best.
4. Oh Yeah, We Still Have Dallas and Everyone Else
We’re back with Dallas and his goons, being kidnapped by Szilard and ready for interrogation. However, Szilard has his own methods of getting the truth. Dallas and his goons have been injected with an imperfect version of the Elixir, allowing Szilard to devour one of Dallas’ comrades and learn the perfected Elixir is in the hands of the Gandors. After Dallas witnesses one of his friends be devoured, he’s pretty okay with making a deal with Szilard which… yeah, if I saw that first hand, I’d do a lot to get out of the situation I’m in.
5. The Little Boy Called Czes
Czeslaw Meyer, who we know is immortal, has been on the backburner a lot. But the last scene of this episode shows he’s no innocent. Nervous about other immortals on the train, he cuts a deal with Ladd Russo. He’ll pay Ladd to kill everyone on the train. It’s unnerving brutality, coming right off the bat of Czes trying to put up the guise of being a regular ten-year-old boy. However, this may be Czes’s undoing. Why? Because he didn’t realize that this conversation of putting the passengers in harm’s way was overheard by Claire.
Yep, not going to be a good night for Czeslaw. But that’s for another time.
