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So far, the first season of Snowpiercer has been fine, an entertaining diversion but with only one very good episode to date. Well, that changes this week with the most outstanding episode the series has produced thus far, one that may send us barreling to the season finale in a couple of weeks. This week’s episode ‘The Universe is Indifferent’ is an edge-of-your-seat nail-biter with a truly shocking turn of events.
We’ve known since the series started that the Tailies have been planning a revolt to try to take over the train and break down the class system so that there are no classes. Mr. Wilford’s original idea for this ‘Great Ark Train’ was to keep the class societies as they existed on the planet before the deep freeze and everyone in the first three classes paid for tickets and had their places on the train. The Tailies were basically stowaways, forcing themselves onto the train as it was leaving the station just before everyone else on the planet died, so what kind of rights do they actually have in this carefully curated society? It’s certainly a question that resonates in society today with the issue of immigration. You can easily see the Tailies as illegal immigrants who forced their way across the border/the threshold of the train just to survive.
The Tailies have always been a thorn in the side of Melanie Cavill, but she never expected a revolt from the ticketed passengers as Third Class has been pushed to their breaking points after the murders of their own by LJ Folger and her bodyguard/lover Erik. The trial of LJ was designed to smooth things over by giving Third Class a seat on the panel rendering judgment but that all went sideways when they actually convicted her, forcing Melanie to send a message from Mr. Wilford that LJ would not serve time in the drawers. That was too much for Third Class and Melanie’s friend Miss Audrey, who then organized a work stoppage that was interrupted by the near derailment of the train in the last episode.
And now with Layton still missing and holding her secret, Melanie is pulling out all the stops to finding him and her latest plan focuses on his son Miles. She seems to have been planning to use Miles to keep Layton under control but now she really needs to put that plan into action by naming Miles as one of the train’s new engineers. The announcement is made while Layton and Josie are still enjoying a little private time in the doctor’s suite but now it’s time for Josie to get back to the tail before her absence is discovered. Layton warns her to not attempt to see Miles or else she’ll risk putting them all in danger.
Before Miles is escorted to the engine, his teacher gives him a gift of an orange from the class but after eating it he becomes ill, necessitating a visit to the doctor, the same one who gave Josie and Layton shelter. And Josie is there disguised as a nurse. And now the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place when we realize the revolt of Third Class is more widespread that we thought as not only the doctor is part of it, but so is Miles’ teacher. The orange was from Josie so they could get Miles alone and she could give him orders of what to do when he gets to the engine. Bennett Knox knows something is up when the nurse runs out of the room and disappears and that forces Melanie to move forwrd with her attempt to find Layton, going straight to his ex Zarah and threatening to terminate her pregnancy — having a baby on the train is a privilege, not a right — unless she tells who helped Layton escape from the drawer. Zarah has no allegiance to the tail anymore and when Melanie brings her there she wastes no time in identifying Josie.
While Melanie takes Josie to be interrogated, Ruth Wardell is being wooed by the head of security, Commander Grey. While Ruth thinks they’re having a lunch date, she’s a bit perturbed when the Folgers show up and then it becomes clear this is a set-up: they want to unseat Melanie, whom they feel has too much power, and install Ruth as the ‘voice of the train’ and the head of Hospitality. Ruth tries to hide her disgust because she is loyal to Melanie and the train and quickly excuses herself from the ambush.
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With Josie in the interrogation room, Melanie dismisses everyone including Officer Till who just knows that something terrible is about to happen. No matter what Melanie says or does, Josie refuses to tell her where Layton is so Melanie moves to the next step: torture. Connecting a hose to a port in the wall, Melanie freezes Josie’s right pinkie to try to get her to talk and when she still refuses, Melanie smashes the frozen digit. Losing control of herself, Melanie has to leave the room to go be sick in a bathroom which gives Till a chance to enter the room to find out what happened. She’s horrified by what she’s seen and tries to console Josie but they both know Melanie will be back any minute.
On her way back, Melanie is met in the corridor by Ruth who tries to tell her about the uprising in First but Melanie is in no mood at this moment to deal with what she believes is just a frivolous complaint from the Folgers. Ruth keeps trying to get Melanie to listen to her but she snaps back and tells Ruth she doesn’t care what the problem is, just do her job and handle it. Ruth’s loyalty to Melanie seems to evaporate in that moment, possibly setting up another more serious problem for Melanie to deal with if Ruth’s hurt feelings steer her to joining forces with the Folgers and Grey.
When Melanie returns to the interrogation room, she sees Josie’s entire right hand is now frozen and reacts just a bit too slowly when she realizes Josie is about to use that frozen hand to break free. The two get into a massive hand-to-hand fight with each taking control of the situation to a point. Josie finally manages to disconnect the hose from the wall which allows the freezing outside air into the compartment. Both women are struggling now but Melanie manges to break free and runs out of the room as the temperature drops precipitously, leaving Josie to freeze to death in the process, ordering the guards to take the body to composting.
Till is horrified and word spreads quickly to Third Class where Miss Audrey performs a solemn number as tears stream down teacher Miss Gilles’ face and Layton howls in anguish when Till delivers the news. So what happens next? Miles is now in the engine awaiting a signal but how will he get that signal with Josie now dead? He won’t be allowed to exit the engine but Melanie may still have some trouble in that area she’s not quite taking seriously just yet and that’s the other engineer Javi who has given indication that he’s not too thrilled with how Melanie, and by extension Bennett, are running things. The events of this episode seem to be setting up an explosive finale.
Snowpiercer airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on TNT.
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