TNT
Snowpiercer returns this week to the frozen world and Layton’s lie about New Eden. Meanwhile, Asha is beginning to fit in with some gentle handling from Ruth — even when Ruth learns Asha has been pinching food — and has found her place in hydroponics, helping grow plants and food for the passengers. I was surprised to learn that the train still has a car full of poultry — not that we’ve seen it — so it’s good to know they’re getting some kind of protein after the loss of the cattle car and the aquarium. Asha has found it difficult fitting in, and when confronted by Ruth about the food theft, Asha related her story about life in the reactor, and how she had to poison everyone (new information) and watch her nephew die of cancer. I think Ruth is pretty sure now that Andre’s New Eden isn’t real but if it gives people hope, she’s going to play along.
But with Wilford’s hypothesis that the track switching signals are Melanie, which Alex reports back to the engine, Layton decides to detour the train once again to try to rescue her. The only problem is the small vehicles that travel along the tracks and send out the switch signals run perpetually and the one they are tracking could be empty … or could be holding Melanie’s lifeless body. There really is no guarantee that she’s alive, but maybe the two day delay in getting to New Eden will allow Andre time to figure out what to do if what Wilford regards as a folly turns out to be just that.
So Snowpiercer switches tracks and it isn’t long before a device Asha is carrying starts blinking and sounding an alarm. She takes it to the engine and explains it is an atmospheric detector, and there is something bad ahead of them. While they try to decipher the various toxic chemicals the device is detecting, Layton looks out the windshield and sees a gigantic orange cloud. The first thing he thinks is that Wilford knew about the toxic cloud and sent them on this wild goose chase on purpose. Ben slows the train down and Layton has Wilford dragged to the engine (where he finally gets to meet Asha). He assures Layton he did not know about the cloud and reminds Alex they’ve traveled this track before and nothing was there. Apparently it is volcanic, and if it gets into the train it will be lethal. Wilford assures them the atmospheric scrubbers can handle the chemicals, and the train is also built to withstand the corrosive compounds in the cloud. They should get through safely. But just in case, all non-essential passengers are ordered to shelter in place until they make passage through the cloud.
This gives Till and Miss Audrey a chance to bond. Audrey seems to have shaken off the spell she had been under with Wilford, and admits that what Till said to her was true, that she’d have to hit rock bottom before she could find herself again. She’s there, and if the rumor of Melanie being alive is true, she really doesn’t want her to see her at rock bottom even though she likes it. When the order to shelter in place comes, Till offers Audrey her cabin and then tries to find a way out of sharing the cabin with Audrey. But the engine is under control so she can stay put. But Audrey the empath knows that Till is torturing herself over who she was and who she fears she will become again, and works her magic to get Till to release her past and embrace the person she is now. Could there be more than just a friendship developing between these two?
The lockdown also afforded LJ a chance to barge her way into Dr. Headwood’s medical car, wanting to get information about Mr. Wilford. LJ is terrified her arch-nemesis Melanie will be back and make her life hell, even though Oz is certain that as the proprietors of the Night Car now, Melanie will have nothing to say. But the doctor manages to turn the conversation onto LJ, asking what her blood type is. Next thing you know, she’s injecting LJ with a local anesthesia and taking a tissue sample from her thigh with what looks like a cheese slicer. She told LJ to avert her eyes, but she watched … and enjoyed the pain a bit too much. But what is Headwood going to do with that sample?
Zarah pays a visit to Wilford to let him see the baby, and maybe pick his brain a little about this detour. She even allowed him to hold Lianna, which had me on the edge of my seat because as he questioned Zarah about the baby showing any signs of their ‘intervention’, I though for sure he was going to drop her off the balcony in the library to see if she could sustain the fall. Luckily he did not.
TNT
But the trip through the toxic cloud did produce an environmental disaster on the train. For the most part the scrubbers worked, but in one car the filters were completely corroded and the air intake was jammed so they couldn’t get it closed from the engine. It would have to be done manually, so with heavy-duty radiation suits at hand Layton and Asha go to take care of the issue. Sadly, the poisonous gas killed a lot of the plants she and the farm crew had been growing, but even worse was the fact that the opening to the air intake was too small for either of them to fit through with their suits on. Andre said he would take his suit off and do it while Ben yelled at him from the engine not to. Before Andre could make a move, Asha whacked him with a crowbar and took her suit off.
Climbing into the small opening, Asha struggled to get the intake closed but she did (with the help of that same crowbar), but her exposure to the toxic fumes proved fatal. As she faded away, she asked Layton to tell her about New Eden, and even though he said it was all a lie she begged him to tell her what it was going to be like. It was a tragic end to a character we barely got to know, but at least the lie of New Eden, and the knowledge that Layton’s vision came from a calendar in Asha’s reactor bunker, has died with her. Layton doesn’t know if they should even continue on that particular journey, but Ruth assures him that it is the right thing to do. But first … they have to catch up to that swiftly moving vehicle to see if Melanie is indeed alive.
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