TNT
Ready or not, and no one was ready, but Zarah’s baby is on the way. The question is will the birth also end in a death? Andre has been none-too-thrilled with Zarah’s decision to allow Dr. Headwood to perform very experimental gene therapy on the fetus, and if he/they knew what Josie is now experiencing from the same experimental treatment — a total loss of feeling (demonstrating this for Bennett with a compass point to the thigh) — Zarah may have thought twice about what she chose to do. Andre now is going to have a whole lot of ‘I told you so’ conversations … that is if Zarah (or he) survives the birth process. And to make sure there’s no funny business with Headwood, Layton has Till bring Dr. Pelton to Headwood’s medical car to keep an eye on things. One major issue Zarah begins to experience right off the bat is a dangerous drop in her own temperature, which Headwood said was expected, but no one believes this is normal.
Unfortunately, Layton also has some other issues brewing on Snowpiercer that he has to deal with, even though Till assures him that she has things under control (but he’s also grating on Zarah’s last nerves so she kicks him out before she loses her cool). Up train, Pike has paid a visit to Ruth, seeing her in her Hospitality uniform again, but still trying to woo her back over to the side of the Rebellion. Ruth may feel conflicted, but she also feels like she has a place on Snowpiercer again and a return to normalcy is just what she needs. And with word of the impending birth, she jumps into action making the announcement to the passengers that a new life is coming to Snowpiercer, and every hour on the hour until the birth, she will have ceremonial bells rung over the intercom system as a sign of hope for the new arrival.
Further back on the train, a special tree has been set up where the passengers can hang a piece of paper with a suggestion for the baby’s name — even though tradition has held that a new baby would be named after the closest city to the train but … Winnipeg? That doesn’t seem to float with Zarah. But after she went into labor and was whisked away, it was time to light up the tree and light up it did, sabotaged to catch fire, an obvious message to Layton that some on the train don’t hold him in very high regard. Till discovers a frayed, exposed wire and ethanol as an ignition source so she’s got a few suspects in mind including Miss Audrey (drowning her sorrows at a noodle bar) and the ‘psychopathic redhead’ in the Night Car, LJ Folger-Osweiller. Audrey is too drunk to have pulled off anything like that, and Os and LJ assure Till and Layton that their ethanol supply is tightly regulated to the teaspoon, and they can check the books if they want. Os has another lead for them, though, another group that is basically running a moonshine operation. Paying them a visit, the guy assures Layton that all of his supply is in check but Till notices the liquid in one of the jars is cloudy. He tastes it — water. There are several more, much more than anyone needed to set a tree on fire, so now the question is who is it and where will they strike next?
TNT
It doesn’t take long to find out because there is a report of another fire on the train. When Layton and company arrive it’s just a pot on the floor of a car. But a high pitched beeping alerts them to something much worse — a bomb, which is strong enough to take Layton and Till off their feet but luckily did not cause much damage or a derailment. But Layton needs to get to the bottom of this and there’s only one person who holds the answers: Wilford. Luckily, he’s beginning to wake up after Roche injected his heart with the juice they use when putting people in the drawers. Alex has been reading to him to keep his brain from turning to much, but she’s just as soon let him die. Unfortunately he’s not much help pinpointing the firebug, but he does recover enough to be taken back to his quarters where he is confined, alone.
Javi and Sykes are also attempting to do some inventory because Bennett doesn’t trust Javi yet as an engineer after his last performance. The poor guy is still suffering some major PTSD from Wilford’s dog attack, and he’s not too happy to be forced to work with Wilford’s former right hand (or is it left hand since Kevin was the right?). But she’s had her own experience with that dog and sharing her story helps the two of them bond and may help Javi emotionally in the long run. But when they get back to counting, Javi makes a terrifying discovery — a lot of explosives are missing.
But a baby is not waiting for any of this, and Layton manages to get back to Zarah as the birth is imminent. While her temperature continues to drop and she weakens, Andre jumps into action, positioning himself behind her to help keep her warm and to push. Zarah doesn’t think she’s going to be able to do it, but Andre basically wills her the strength and their daughter is born. Zarah has settled on the name Lianna, and when Andre asks what it means, Zarah says their daughter will give the name meaning. Luckily, Zarah’s temperature returns to normal and Ruth makes the big announcement to the passengers. While Bennett and Josie were doing some ‘bonding’ of their own, he blows the train’s horn to signal the birth and shoots off a few fireworks in celebration of the new life on Snowpiercer.
And after her talk with Till, who basically told her to get her act together and maybe she’d be able to get back to a place where she was before Wilford’s return, Audrey picks up a guitar and starts singing ‘A Thin Line Between Love and Hate’. (And if you don’t know, Lena Hall is an accomplished singer and Broadway performer, originating the role of Nicola in Kinky Boots and winning a Tony Award for the role of Yitzhak in the 2014 revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and she released a solo album in 2015, Sin & Salvation: Live At the Carlyle.) While she sings, Pike is caught off guard, standing at the doorway listening to her voice and the lyrics. It seems to almost be too much for him as he leaves and makes his way down a corridor, stopping to throw something on the floor — it appears to be a detonator — and smashing it with his foot. Of course Pike was the ringleader behind the earlier attacks, but was Miss Audrey singing enough to make him turn over a new leaf?
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