“The Eternal Engineer” was the most unsatisfying episode of Snowpiercer in this second season, if only because of the baffling decisions by Layton to simply give up. I know it’s probably to set up the final confrontation but still, it’s frustrating. Wilford screws over so many people that there’s no explanation for his survival at this point save plot armor.
The two-part season finale of this fast-paced story will air on March 29th. I hope that will relieve the discontent raised by “The Eternal Engineer.”
Let’s examine things point by point:
1. Layton needs to act. He does not.
Layton can build things. He first helped build the alliance among the denizens of the Tail through horrible hardship. He built a rebellion that should have served everyone on the train but for the unexpected presence of Big Alice. He’s built mutually satisfying relationships, with Miles, with Josie, and, to a lesser extent with Zarah.
So why has he so often been delegated to simply giving orders this season while everyone else on the train is in action? Even before this episode, I longed for that confrontation between Layton and Wilford, a confrontation has been put off until this episode.
A confrontation that completely fizzles in “The Eternal Engineer.”
Wilford caused a situation that required Layton to call on him to fix Snowpiercer’s engines. Wilford, of course, is eager to play the hero and save the day. The minute he fixes the engine is the minute he becomes expendable. This would be the moment for Layton to act, to take Wilford off the board by some trickery or perhaps an out-right attack. Layton already ordered one death this season. Why is he so reluctant to let Wilford leave unmolested? Why not just kill him?
Instead, Layton simply appears to give up. This decision is never explained, save that Layton apparently views himself as having failed. Perhaps Layton’s playing a long game. But why play the long game when the guy who is in your way is right there?
2. Wilford can only break things.
While Layton is a builder, Wilford is the destroyer. All season long, Wilford has been breaking things: the uneasy peace on Snowpiercer, the will of those who serve him, and the hope that the outside world might support life again.
Wrecking things is what he loves to do. It makes him feel powerful and important. In a crisis when he needs to fix something, yes, he can replace something, but only because he broke it first. His ploy works, it seems. He’s in charge. His smile at the end as he realizes the rest of humanity is reliant on him is chilling.
But how long until everyone realizes that Wilford’s order is an illusion? How long until a crisis happens that he cannot handle?
3. Icy Josie?
Josie is the one person who’s proven that she can’t be broken. She shows that strength of will again in this episode as she tests her new modified hand by sticking it outside the train. (Perhaps this isn’t the strength of will but indifference to death.)
However, no one else seems to know that Josie’s treatment worked as well as it did. Will she have to be the one to go outside and save Melanie? One hopes that it won’t come to that, given Melanie was responsible for her injuries in the first place. Then again, the writers do love to torture Josie and it would make an incredible scene.
4. The truth doesn’t matter.
Till discovered the truth of the murderous attacks on the Breachmen last episode. But in “The Eternal Engineer,” few believe her.
Instead, the train is full of people who only want someone to bring the order and the peace they had before under Wilford’s rules. Except for the Tailies, who know better than to give over the hard-earned freedom to a tyrant. The passengers, for the most part, turn away from the uncomfortable truth.
There is one big exception to this: Boki, the lone remaining Breachman. When presented with undeniable evidence of Wilford’s sabotage, Boki finally sees the light. He gives Layton a Wilford button. “Maybe you can shove it up his ass someday,” Boki says.
Continued belowIf only, Boki. If only.
5.The Eternal Engineer.
Lead Brakeman Sam Roche provides the opening narration tonight, pondering whether God, the “eternal engineer” has anything to do with what has happened or will happen to what’s left of humanity. There’s no answer to that question in this episode, save the majority of passengers are willing to put their fate in the hands of someone who wants to be a god, Wilford.
Roche’s reward for supporting Layton, for supporting flawed good over orderly evil, is seeing his family put in suspended animation in the drawers. That doesn’t bode well for his faith in God. Or for how the new petty god will rule his kingdom.
The final two episodes are titled “The Show Must Go On” and “Into the White.”
Not many clues in those names, save that it seems to point toward a very grim ending.
What do I want from the finale? Layton killing Wilford and taking back the train for the people would be perfect. But after “The Eternal Engineer,” I’m uneasy at how it will play out.
