Ryan Shoots First: Snowpiercer (S1) – Season Finale
It’s the epic two part finale of Snowpiercer, following last week’s revelations, uprising and twists we have the last 2 episodes. The show begins with Melanie in custody with members of the uprising all waiting to be executed. Melanie gives a bleeding man her handkerchief to help, cause again she is the hero. We see the execution of the paper maker from a few weeks ago. The process is especially brutal as you are hooked up to a gas mask that feeds the freezing air from outside into your lungs.
We see Grey and Layton regrouping following the first salvo deciding if to push forward or set their defenses. Grey plans to gas the entire train expect the rich people, the Fogels are especially brutal and super “Evil rich”. Bennett finds out Miles let LJ into the engine and is not happy but only grounds him to his seat. Pike shows up and tells Layton he is proud of him. Of course we saw last week he is all in on screwing over Pike. He kind of plays his hand though and tells him if he gives up his life everyone else can return to their cars in peace. Again people on this train would be awful poker players. Layton meets with his inner circle which of course tell him that’s a dumb idea and they can’t trust this new regime. Grey seems hell bent on gassing everyone. Strong boy is waking up and can speak mandarin? I don’t know if this is going somewhere or not. Ruth and Grey are going mad together and plan to kill the Folgers once they have gotten order. So it looks like Melanie is going to make her full on baby face turn as Ruth and Grey are the comic book villains now.
Speaking of Melanie she is taken to be executed but before the switch is flipped we find out Clay is undercover to free her. He has changed his tune after seeing Grey go mad. She meets Jinju in the tunnels who tells her to go back up the train as she heads down, likely to find Layton. Zarah and Layton confront each other as she has screwed him over for like the 15th time. She feeds him the “I did what I had to…” and tells him they are having a kid. Layton who has a lot on his mind has had his old girlfriend sell out his new girlfriend only to have his old girlfriend tell him she’s pregnant. Tough spot. Layton decides to give himself up… I mean after one battle you NOW realize “Wow these guys could kill all of us” I find it hard to believe this scenario over the last 7 years hasn’t crossed his mind.
Melanie has gone full Die Hard and is rummaging through the ventilation system while Pike delivers Laytons message to Grey. LJ encourages her parents to be at the surrender, I don’t trust her at all. She practically stares at the camera as she sets them up. Melanie gets out near the tail and gets her meeting with Melanie. She has a plan to separate part of the train and put Layton in charge once the dust has settled. She admits her way didn’t work maybe his will. Melanie gets through to Bennett to clue him into the plan while Bess gets to Roshe to agree with his reservations of course. Layton and Roshe head to surrender in the school room car cause in a train with 1001 cars everything happens in maybe 6 of them. The Folgers and Grey do their best to play war but Mrs. Folger makes a great point. Layton revealed all this nonsense about Melanie they should thank him. Anyway Layton takes a beating from the troops as Roshe puts the plan in place and pulls a gun on Grey placed their by the school teachers of course it turns into a dust up as Melanie separates the cars. The Folgers put two and two together but Grey has taken control just as Strong Boy and the others show up to save the day. Layton reaches his clamp but discovers the first car holds all the prisoners. He will need to sacrifice them to save the day. Layton tries to free everyone but cannot find the keys to free them. He tells everyone he is sorry and makes the tough decision to free the cars. Revolutions involve some tough choices. They make the switch sending the good for nothing rich folks off to die. The trains reconnect and Melanie and Layton reconvene, Melanie reveals she knew what Layton would find and he would have to make a choice. In a super twisted but true way she tells him “You want to lead? These are the type of choices you have to make”. BURN.
That wraps up episode 1 of the two part finale. The episode begins with Melanie once again addressing the passengers and confessing her lies. She gives up the train to the rebels announcing these are our revolutions 994 cars long. Layton takes the seat to address the train as it’s leader for the first time. The episode begins with the static we briefly heard in the last episode on the old radio. I’m sure this will be part of a big twist coming. Melanie tells Bennett she has something she needs to do. It just so happens tonight they pass through Chicago where the train started and it will celebrate a new train. So now that the train has freedom we discover keeping it and establishing new order is a whole new thing. Layton tries to talk to the various department heads to set up order. Something is going on with the signal feed and Bennett as he seems to be hiding something as Melanie heads to the night car to speak with Audrey. Melanie has one of those experience things and is facing her demons as she sees her daughter and the reality that she put her work and the train ahead of her, costing her daughter her life. Jennifer Connily is punching way above this shows weight class with her character. She is really good in this show and especially here, the complexity and layers she explores with the character is the star of the show. Layton reconciles with Zarah leading me to believe he really didn’t care about Josie.
Ruth and Melanie finally meet to hash out their issues, Ruth doesn’t think this whole democracy thing is gonna work and Melanie is coming around. Clay is still trying to locate the signal and Bennett seems really worried about what he may find. Clay tells Melanie about the signal and she seemed interested so whatever Beckett knows it appears Mel does not. The show appears to be taking the Game of Thrones approach of the penultimate episode being the big one and the finale being aftermath and setup. Layton is called to the train with the mystery of the signal and he is informed Pike is held out in first. Melanie starts to catch on that Beck is hiding something. Layton decides they need to slow down to stay in the radio signal. They get visual of what is a second train. Beckett reveals it is a supply train and they are coming up on the SnowPiercer fast. Melanie believes it is Mr. Wilford trying to board them. Layton takes a war party down train Ruth is super hype about these events. Nothing brings this new train together like a common enemy. The second train manages to successfully dock with them in a pretty cool scene. The bad train manages to hack the systems to try and take over the engine as the war party prepares for the breach. Ruth in a genius moment brings a choir of kids to the front lines and she has a gun. Layton tells Ruth to stand by him for when the doors open, front and center in what is in no way a setup. Melanie puts back on her breach suit to cut the uplink. Bennett is thinking of all the supplies available but Melanie is thinking of all the variables. Ben reveals he saw it on the sat this morning and said nothing cause he knew what her reaction would be. Once again Melanie goes into the frozen world to save the whole train. I would be interested in talking to a scientist though if it is so cold the body turns into a meat cycle in seconds how is it their suits and tools don’t freeze?
The other train takes over and brings the whole train to a stop. As the door in the tail opens we see an empty hall at the end of the hallway a young woman walks up. She tells them Mr. Wilford has taken over and they have 15 minutes before he freezes them all. The girls asks if Melanie is alive and reveals herself to be Melanies daughter Alexandra. She asks to see Mel who was thrown from the train when the brakes were halted. She wakes up in the snow bank outside the stopped train as the credits roll on season 1.
Dang, That was a pretty good finale but sadly I feel it may be too little to late for the show. SnowPiercer had a good season 1 but as I have mentioned many times in my recaps has struggled to find an audience. It has not caught on and maybe that is because people are in a funk right now but when a few months ago Tiger King took over the world it’s not like people are oblivious to pop culture. I am sure the show was crazy expensive and it remains to be seen how committed TNT is to keeping the show going. If it does not return it will be a big loss for Jennifer Connily who was the overall MVP of the season. Her portrayal of Melanie was terrific, her ability to make you sympathize with her, see her side but also come across ruthless and cut throat speaks to her range as an actress. Add that to her revelations and the twist at the end of the season and I would be lying if I said I didn’t care to see her development further.
All in all the show got pretty good after the drug out murder on a train episodes ended but by then was the hype over and people had moved on. I will keep an eye on the status of the show closely but if I had to place a bet right now I would say I do not think the show will be returning for a Season 2… and that sucks at least for Melanie who may never see her daughter.
