Wilford built the train and recruited the rich investors personally. Layton freed the third class and tail from the oppression of first class and installed something that looks like democracy if you squint. Melanie kept the train running for years without help, kept relative peace between the factions, and served as the public face of normalcy. It’s not a surprise that the train’s populace would start to pick sides, with die-hard Wilfordites like LJ (Annalise Basso) working against the interests of both Melanie and Layton, while Melanie and Layton come to a train-splitting ideological difference.
The script, from Audrey Nealon and Michael Kraus, does a good job of establishing the whys for Melanie’s betrayal of Layton’s dream. Alex might have talked herself into believing it over the months, and the rest of the train followed suit, but if the Great Engineer Wilford thinks it’s risky, and the science itself is almost as iffy as the track leading to the Horn of Africa, it’s not a surprise that Melanie will do what she needs to do to keep the train safe and damn the cost to Layton and his associates who kept his lie alive. It’s well done because it doesn’t skimp on the affection; everyone’s glad to see Melanie until she decides to seal herself and Javi into the engine and let the train know that Layton’s been selling them wolf tickets. The hype of New Eden is very real, but New Eden itself might not be, and the trip to New Eden is risky enough that the train might not survive it even if it is habitable surface area.
One of the better elements of the show is the way that director Christoph Schrewe and the post-production staff makes such good use of music to create tension. We know Melanie is alive, we see her slowly getting closer and closer to running out of chemicals to keep herself asleep and wake herself back up, and we know that Snowpiercer is right on her tail, but there’s still a lot of tension as the crew manage to hook up the scaler and bring it on board the train. It’s not the sort of show where a screw-up like this can kill a main character, and yet the environment is created where that feels like a risk and while the characters are competent, there’s still an element of risk in what has to be a pretty dangerous rescue mission.
Things seem to only get more tense as Melanie wakes up and starts putting together just where the train is, what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it. At least there’s the chance for the reunion moments to breathe between Alex and Melanie, Ben and Melanie, Layton and Melanie, and so on. Jennifer Connelly lifts anything she’s on, and her reunion scene with Rowan Blanchard and Iddo Goldberg is a beautifully done bit of acting on her part, and her scene partners don’t disappoint. Ditto her more fractious meetings with Sean Bean’s Wilford and Daveed Diggs’ Layton, both of which feel awkwardly real in terms of their energy and allow Diggs’ natural charisma to shine through as he tries to sell Melanie on his plan. Schrewe has a good hand with the performers.
Melanie’s concern is couched well enough that the third-act twist is actually a successful twist. Everyone seems caught by surprise by it, and she has a core of supporters that she can tap into, just like Wilford when he engineers his own escape. As we’ve seen during Ruth’s stint as a revolutionary leader, Snowpiercer is surprisingly easy to disappear on, which is a surprise considering it’s an enclosed space with no exit save death. If anyone can find a place to hide, it’s Wilford, and if anyone can track down a hider, it’s Layton, but both of them have Melanie and her supporters to deal with at the same time.
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