Good morning and welcome to the last review of Snowpiercer for a while, given no date has been announced yet for the premier of season 2. With the airing of episode 9, “The Train Demanded Blood,” and episode 10, “994 Cars Long,” Snowpiercer season 1 wraps up the rebellion and looks to the future of the train, and so we have an extra-sized Ten Things To Know today.
And about that ending: despite anticipation of what looks to be a juicy plot development, I’m not certain this was the way to go at all.
But first, let’s check in on the rebellion, the good, the tragic, and the transformations in Snowpiercer episode 9: The Train Demanded Blood
1. Moral Equivalencies
The show does a great deal of heaving lifting to create a moral equivalency between the choices Layton makes in this episode with the choices Melanie made for her idea of the good of the train. See, they did the same thing, they sacrificed lives to save the train as a whole. Melanie by stealing Snowpiercer itself from the immoral Wilford and, in this episode, Layton by having to decouple cars that contain the enemy but also chained prisoners who cannot be freed in time.
I’m uncomfortable with this. Melanie’s original theft of the train can be viewed positively but then she simply ran the train mostly as Wilford had set it up, for seven years. She did make sure the Tail had subsistence food, but she ordered people executed, arms cut off, had people stuffed into drawers, all in order to preserve the status quo. She had the time to figure this out but she proved incapable of it. Meanwhile, Layton is stuck with a ticking clock and a clear choice that if he doesn’t decouple the train with prisoners, everyone on the whole train dies. Plus, the security forces also on that part of the train have clearly earned their fate, especially Nolan Grey.
In other words, Melanie kept propping up a broken system for a long period of time, while Layton made a split-second choice that, in the end, was no choice at all.
2. We See Who’s Evil
Never had a clearer line been drawn in the sand between good and evil than over the suggestion to gas the rebellious half of the train to death.
Let’s start with Layton, our moral touchstone of Snowpiercer’s ninth and tenth episodes. Layton shows, over and over, in “The Train Demanded Blood” that he’s willing to sacrifice himself before letting others be hurt. Pike, at the end of the last episode, said Layton would surrender because he couldn’t stand continuing to lose people. Pike certainly nailed it. Layton is faced with continuing the rebellion or he can surrender, be killed, and the rest of his people will live. If he won’t surrender, Nolan will gas the rebellious part of the train, not caring who is killed by this action.
Layton considers fighting until Zarah tells him she’s pregnant and that she betrayed Josie to save their child. It’s a hokey subplot (as I said before) but this solidifies Layton’s choice, and he agrees to be executed if it ensures the survival of his child and everyone else. Faced with an enemy who can commit mass slaughter, Layton can’t let it happen. Bess would have chosen to fight on because, I suspect, she knows that giving Nolan a victory is as good as dying anyway.
Nolan Grey is the chief villain here, as is his new lady-love, Ruth, because they’re united in the idea that the train needs order. Their type of order, of course. Nolan must be in charge. Ruth, however, is clearly unhinged, as we see later. Meanwhile, the Folgers show off their evil colors. “We’re overpopulated as it is,” says Lilah Folger. Husband and murderous daughter LJ are completely okay with this.
3. Melanie’s Transformation
“I thought I could strip Wilford away, shed his rules one by one and, finally, his mask, until he was just a logo on the wall,” Melanie confesses, not long before her scheduled execution. At this point, she’s still wearing her pristine teal hospitality uniform. That’s when she says the line that gives the episode its’ title: “The train demanded blood.”
Continued belowWe witness the gruesome fate that awaits her and the other prisoners: being strapped to a chair and be forced to inhale air that freezes the lungs. “Lung of Ice,” it’s called and while it’s gruesome, it’s a unique worldbuilding touch. But Melanie is saved, as are the rest of the prisoners, by the arrival of the rebels. Now it’s time for her to atone and that is showcased in her wardrobe changes.
Melanie crawls to the back of the train, through ducts that are barely large enough for a person, shedding her teal jacket as she goes. She enters the greenhouse train, bathed in its light, a nod to being reborn. By the time she arrives to speak to Layton, she’s sweaty and dirty, like the rest of the rebels, and her hair is down. Eventually, Melanie changes into the blue of rebellion, and, again, by the beginning of the tenth episode, she’s dressed as an engineer, like Bennett and Javi. No more teal for her, ever.
4. The Ticking Clock
A literal ticking clock always adds tension to events and we’ve got three of them in this ninth episode. Two are stopwatches held by Layton and Melanie, while one is upfront, in engineering, with Bennett. They’re part of an elaborate plan to decouple the part of the train occupied by the security forces come to accept Layton’s surrender. This will split the train into three segments: the head, the seven cars in the middle, and the Tail. The idea is that the head will pass a junction, which will then be swapped so the jettisoned cars go off the other way, thus allowing the Tail to reconnect to the head. I’ve no idea if this would work from an engineering standpoint but it makes for an intense sequence.
The clock numbers are all in red, as is the switch to flip the junction. Once Melanie decouples the train from the back, Layton has to do it from the front, and he gets there by surrendering to Head Brakeman Roche, who delivers him to Grey. Yes, it’s the old fake surrender gambit. Surprise, it doesn’t work because Grey is formidable, but the plan is saved by the cavalry rescued from the drawers. But, wait, there’s more, as Layton reaches the decoupling switch but hesitates because he sees his fellow Tailies on one of the cars. He attempts to rescue them but they’re chained up. No key, and no time. Layton’s grief at having no choice but to let them die is visceral.
5. The Chilling Images
I haven’t given this show enough credit yet for how it uses the inside and outside of the train as symbols for isolation and emotional pain. But even a beginning student in cinematography could interpret the messages between the shots of Melanie staring at the rest of the train as she decouples the end. Later, it shows Melanie in the window of the decoupled car from the outside, staring out into the snowy abyss. Melanie, alone in her choices, isolated inside and out.
Layton, too, receives the same visual treatment as he decouples the section of the train behind him. But instead of staring, he collapses as the train with the security forces but also the prisoners fade into the distance. Later, we see Melanie and Layton staring at each other from their respective cars as they draw closer to recouple. Melanie’s expression never changes. Layton’s face is full of what he’s done and had to do, and he confronts Melanie with knowing the prisoners couldn’t be freed in time. She doesn’t shrug it off but she’s cold, like the train itself. Layton isn’t, not yet.
And so we go onto “994 Cars Long.” Big spoiler in that episode title, show! And I’m going to do the same by leading off with the big reveal that leads us into season 2.
6. Winter is Coming!
Sorry, when I see images of Sean Bean surrounded by cold and snow, I couldn’t resist. (Hey, I could have said “One does not simply steal Mr. Wilford’s train.”)
Yes, season 2 will feature the return of the now-present Mr. Wilford, as seen by this teaser trailer that aired at the end of the episode. How did he get there? First, let’s check-in on how all our characters are doing in the face of the rebellion’s success.
Continued below7. Bloody Rebels
In a deliberate choice, Layton and Bess are still in their blood-splattered clothes, and still have blood on their faces from the victory won at such cost. More than a few times, I said “people, get thee to a shower!” Meanwhile, Zarah is cleaning her hands, almost obsessively, a Macbeth allusion to being burdened by Josie’s death. On the opposite extreme, as noted above, Melanie wears an engineer’s uniform. Ruth, by contrast, remains in her pristine teal, a sign of her refusal to accept the success of the rebellion.
“Citizens of Snowpiercer, my name is Andre Layton.” Layton’s idea of one train is to create a council to put together a Constitution to create a democracy that will rule the train. I rather like this idea of political infighting as the different classes try to hammer out a form of government that might work. What a messy solution, what machinations and counter-moves could happen from this. Season 2 could be a story of the pitfalls and possible successes of democracy. Oops, but, probably not so much now that Mr. Wilford has shown up to be Layton’s antagonist of season 2. I’m kinda bummed about that.
8. I’ve Got Your Picture, He’s Got You
In an emotional and stunning sequence, Melanie finally takes her turn in the Night Car’s therapy session, revealing that when she stole the train, she had to leave her daughter behind as well. It was either surrender the train or wait, perhaps in vain, for her daughter to be there. This is what haunts her. This choice is a fascinating contrast to Layton’s choice to surrender himself and be executed so his child will live.
But, more, the haunting notes of Patsy Cline’s “She’s Got You,” a song in which a woman mourns the loss of her greatest love to another man, play over this scene. Cline’s songs are always evocative but not only is the tone perfect for this sequence but the lyrics also haunt two other scenes in the show. The first is Zarah and Layton’s looking forward to the birth of their child.
The second, however, is more on the nose, as Melanie’s daughter, Alexandra, makes a grand entrance at the end of the episode. Melanie had her photo but, all the time, Wilford had Alexandra herself.
This episode is lousy with more great symbolism. Others include Oz and LJ, now lonely losers, sitting and peeling an egg together under what suspiciously looks like a cross, and Pike’s wearing of a fancy coat, another wardrobe touch meant to symbolize transformation.
9. Big Alice!
Yep, all season long, there’s been another train out there. A prototype of a supply train that somehow the resourceful Mr. Wilford manages to get running. Big Alice makes an incredible entrance, first glimpsed across the ice. But the most ‘whoa’ moment of its appearance is when it almost becomes a breathing dragon of iron, spitting red as it attaches to Tail of Snowpiercer, almost devouring it.
Bennett made it possible for Big Alice to catch-up, trying to hide its existence because he believes Snowpiercer needs its resources. So now everyone in engineering has betrayed everyone else. Javi betrayed Melanie. Melanie betrays Bennett by going outside alone. Bennett did this. And Miles, of course, helped in the rebellion.
No one is more excited for Big Alice’s arrival than Ruth, who has become truly unhinged. First, she denounces the idea of democracy as “utopian twaddle.” Next, Ruth is in the hospitality room, putting make-up over her dark circles. Once again, the camera shots showcase her isolation, viewing her from the circular windows. But the clearest sign of her having completely lost any sense of reality is her arrival in the Tail *with a children’s chorus* to greet Mr. Wilford properly. Layton, bless him, recognizes the madness in this and he’s kinder to Ruth than she probably deserves, given the havoc she’s wrought on the Tailies.
10. How Inclusive Is This Story?
As I ponder what Snowpiercer will become in season 2, I started to wonder about the implications of all the story choices in season 1. I’ve always been somewhat unhappy with sympathy for Melanie, given her support of a broken system, and its parallels to so many white women supporting a broken system in real life. But, on the flip side, there is the starring role for Daveed Diggs, a dynamic performer who portrays Layton’s moral core so well. And there are lots of complex, fascinating female characters as well, with Bess, Ruth, Audrey, and Josie.
Continued belowBut the women of color don’t fare so well. Zarah is relegated to being part of Layton’s story, with the focus on wondering if he’ll forgive her and the soap-opera plot of a pregnancy. Jinju, too, is seen more through the eyes of her love interest, Bess, at the end. She is responsible for a huge chunk of the train’s food supplies. But while we saw what Bess was doing during the rebellion and how she’s grown, we don’t have nearly as much insight into Jinju herself. Even Jinju’s insistence that food supplies be used well is more a part of her fight with Bess than a plot of its own. By contrast, Roche, the Head Brakeman, seems to get all the great lines, and Pike, too, clearly is showcased in his small amount of time on-screen.
Where are the Black women in the train? I’m reminded of another show with a diverse cast, Into the Badlands, that nonetheless did wrongly by its one lead Black female character. And now season 2 will focus on Mr. Wilford, who’ll take up a lot of space and story, and also Melanie’s reunion/issues with her newly arrived daughter, Alexandre.
We’ll see what happens in season 2, for which we only have a “coming soon” and a teaser trailer!
