TNT
The road, or rather the track, to New Eden is fraught with unexpected danger thanks to the decision to make the journey on a secondary track. As the journey begins, Layton decides to hold a sort of press conference with Asha, which requires her to lie about what they can expect to find once they reach the warmth of New Eden, including green tress and grass. Later in the Night Car, LJ gives Asha some booze on the house and being overwhelmed by the entire situation alarms Till who is worried Asha is going to crack and reveal Layton’s lie. Asha assures her she does not have to worry about her spilling the beans.
But that is the least of the worries as Snowpiercer comes upon three old train cars blocking a piece of the track. According to Alex, these are cars that Wilford uncoupled simply to conserve energy. She knows that the cars are also clamped to the track and need to be manually unclamped, so she and Bennett suit up to head over to do the job. But Alex gets a visitor — Melanie! Or rather the ‘ghost’ of Melanie, but more accurately Alex’s own conscience playing tricks on her because she knows the truth about those three cars and she knows she has to tell Ben before he discovers the awful truth.
The incarcerated Wilford has been trying to determine where in the world Snowpiercer currently is and as the train comes to a stop, he’s finally pinpointed the location and he knows what lies outside. But he’s also surprised by a visitor – Mr. Roche, who has his own surprise for Wilford. Roche’s timing isn’t the greatest as Layton needs Wilford to tell them how to move the cars ahead of them. But Roche has snagged some drugs and a syringe, and before he knows it, Wilford has taken a needle to the heart, leaving him in critical condition. That also manifests the spirit of Melanie in his subconscious, haunting him about the choices he’s made to get where he is today.
With passage blocked and Wilford down for the count (don’t worry, he’s not going to die because Sean Bean isn’t taking any more roles in which his character dies), Layton may have another big problem on the train. Hoping to get people back to work and allowing them to choose their vocation, his old nemesis Pike isn’t having it. First he peppers Asha with questions about New Eden, seeming to disbelieve everything about this story Layton has concocted, and then confronting Layton himself. While Layton was off on Snowpiercer, Pike was basically the leader of the Resistance on Big Alice (along with Ruth), and he’s not feeling this power shift that’s putting him back under Layton’s command. With Ruth, however, Pike is a different man, coming through on his promise to her about getting a banana so they could enjoy some real Bananas Foster. While Ruth is somewhat ready to step back into her position as the Head of Hospitality, Pike is subtly working his way into her heart, even seducing her for a roll in the hay, most likely hoping she will be on his side when the new revolution begins.
And if he doesn’t have enough on his plate, Layton is given some information by Dr. Pelton that his and Zarah’s baby appears to have been subjected to some experimental gene therapy, the same type that was used on Josie to make her immune to the cold. Furious, Layton violently confronts Dr. Headwood, who drops a bomb on him — talk to the baby’s mother. He does and Zarah reveals she agreed to the treatment. Layton brings up the issue of consent on the part of the baby, but Zarah counters that she is the mother and has the right to give that consent. Besides, Layton was off on his own, so she made the decision to do what she thought was the best chance of survival for their child. And if Layton can’t live with that, then that’s on him, not her.
TNT
But now it comes down to getting those cars off the track so they don’t have to back the train up and add 23 days to their trip. Alex and Ben are moving through the cars and getting things in place to release the clamps, but ‘Melanie’ is pressuring Alex to tell Ben why she really came with him to do this job. She tries to tell him before he opens the door to the next car, but he is quicker than her words and he discovers the truth — dead bodies. Alex admits this was actually part of Wilford’s cull, leaving behind the ‘undesirables’ to freeze to death while they slept. This was Alex’s car where she hang out with her best friend Shiloh. She revealed how Wilford came in one night and whisked her away, leaving her friend behind. Alex didn’t know Shiloh was awake and saw her leave. But now she is here really to try to make peace with what had happened and spend a little more time with her frozen friend.
Unfortunately, Shiloh isn’t the only thing on the cars that’s frozen — the hydraulics for the clamps are frozen as well and it looks like this entire operation was for nought. With Ben ordering Alex to pack it up and get back to Snowpiercer, ‘Melanie’ comes to Alex again and reminds her that all she has to do is listen to the train instead of trying to force a solution to the problem. Alex gets into the zone and visualizes all of the mechanics of the car she’s in and realizes the problem with the frozen hydraulics. When Ben is insisting they get back to Snowpiercer, she manages to get the hydraulics working and the clamps are released. With Javi back in the engineer’s seat — but still battling his own ghosts, namely Wilford’s dog — he is able to get the train moving forward again to pick up Ben and Alex (he had to put the train in a slow roll backward since the engine has to be in constant motion. They nudge the newly freed cars out of the way and get back on track (no pun intended) to New Eden. But this may have been just a minor glitch on that path, especially if Pike is left to his own devices.
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