Snowpiercer Recap: What They Died For

It has become clear that the last season of Snowpiercer traded its sci-fi tone to become a postapocalyptic western. New Eden is the archetypical frontier town, with people coming together despite hardships to build this little slice of heaven, and the International Peacekeeping Forces are the army of scoundrels arriving by train into town to wreak havoc and destroy everything. Now, the third-to-last episode teases the show’s endgame with the entire town of New Eden coming together to defend their home from the invading army, High Noon style. It’s the calm before the storm, a sweet episode of heartfelt reunions and talks about preparing for the worst, but after last week’s nail-biting episode, this is a bit of a letdown that significantly slows things down.

We start with Javi, who wakes up — alive! — after blowing up the bomb on the train tracks, clearing up the path for Big Alice to finally make it back home. They’ve gone through many hardships, but as Javi’s voice-over narration says, humanity’s biggest strength is that we can overcome obstacles by creating. Now, the most important creation in a decade, New Eden, is under threat. Though there are still doubts over whether there is merit to the Peacekeeping Forces’ mission, mostly due to Melanie and Alex staying behind to help it, Ruth convinces them that the Admiral and his people care only about power and control. They could run, take the train, and go back to circumnavigating the world, but they’d have to look over their shoulders forever. Granted, they don’t know that Nima’s plan will literally destroy the world (again!).

Meanwhile, Layton and Josie are still trapped in the train car right outside the silo, and with the power out, Layton is about to die — while Josie and Liana just chill with their cold-immunity powers. Right as things start to look grim, who would appear but Roche himself, wearing a Peacekeeping Forces uniform and riding a snowcat. How exactly did he make it to the silo? Don’t worry about it; the show certainly doesn’t care that much. What matters is that they all make it back to New Eden in time to have heartfelt reunions before the big battle. Particularly good is seeing Bess finally reunite with Audrey after she left Snowpiercer to warn New Eden about the Admiral, as well as Roche reuniting with her daughter and with Oz, who thought he was dead. It is after Layton catches Ruth up on what happened to Wilford and the Admiral, and the truth about Nima, that they decide the stakes are even higher than they thought. New Eden is not the only thing that will fall if Nima’s forces take Big Alice, but the world itself will fall — remember, Melanie deduced that the Gemini compound will literally burn the atmosphere and deplete all oxygen from the planet.

Since they can’t disarm the bombs, Ruth suggests moving Big Alice to the other side of town, so the silo army won’t risk setting off bombs and burying the tracks. They lock the track switch to force the army to enter the town themselves while barricading the city to do a bottleneck that forces them to go down the main street, where the townsfolk can ambush them.

While all of this is happening, Alex makes it to the Snowpiercer engine room and is surprised that Nima’s soldiers actually give her control of the engine — though she has no idea about what happened to Melanie and her confrontation with Nima. The man who froze the world lies through his teeth and evades every question and comment about Melanie and her whereabouts while suddenly keeping Alex at arm’s length from the Gemini project and research. She will be the engineer and nothing else. Thankfully, Alex is smarter than that, and she figures out that her mom is either dead or a prisoner.

In contrast to the war room meeting and planning in New Eden, Nima’s council room is chaotic and desperate. He is surrounded by two of the commandos, as well as Doctor Headwood, who somehow keeps getting bigger roles and power. Nima asks the soldiers never to wear their helmets and hide their faces in front of him, for they are heroes, and, for a moment, his mask slips, and he is not the scared, shy scientist who fooled even the Admiral but the conniving snake that successfully took command of the last military on earth. Their options are few and rather vague — either bury New Eden and kill everyone in town or send Alex to steal the train from them.

When the soldiers discover that Big Alice got moved, the options are further reduced. Though Nima refuses to send Alex, she insists on going in order to prevent the soldiers from mowing down the townsfolk. She can take the train calmly and without bloodshed, or so she thinks. Still, why exactly is Alex helping these people? She is aware that her research into the compound shows it won’t work, and she knows that taking away Big Alice will kill the town regardless.

For New Eden, it is time for good-byes and final preparations. Bess and Audrey take a walk through town and make plans for their future together, having a little house on the hill. Javi realizes he can jam the frequency that sets off the bombs and nullify them and gets working on it. The rest of the town gathers at the New Eden town hall, where it is not Layton or even Ruth, but Roche who does the final uplifting speech — by finally telling his tale of survival after being interrupted twice before. He recalls how he fell down a hole, twisted his ankle, and thought the end was nigh before being captured by some soldiers that brought him to the silo. Then, during the chaos of Layton and the others’ escape, Roche took the chance to make his own escape and climb up the silo before encountering five commandos — who he beat up on his own. He kept climbing and reached a garage, where he found … Bigfoot? The townsfolk laugh along and cheer Roche on, but is this the entire story? It seems far-fetched, even without Bigfoot.

Regardless, it works in getting the people riled up and distracted before the fight, while the main characters gather around and have their own little toast to pay homage to what they are fighting for. They fight for Zarah, for Ben, for the warriors about to sacrifice themselves for the town, for those they lost in New Eden and its creation, and for those who have joined them along the way and will inherit the town. They fight for New Eden.

But it’s too late. Alex and her commandos are already in town, earlier than anticipated and somehow without anyone noticing. What’s worse, one of the commandos is a sniper and starts shooting at people. Jocie is horrified that Alex is betraying them like this, but Alex says she has no choice — and if that wasn’t enough, the commandos make it clear they will kill Melanie if she doesn’t help them. The fight for New Eden, and the rest of the world, begins.

Tailie Thoughts

• Was Roche’s story real? Did the soldiers actually let him go? Is he a spy? We are too late in the game to be this vague, Snowpiercer!

• Was that the last we’ll see of Melanie? Was she here just to deliver the best episode of the season and then die in captivity off-screen? There are only two episodes left.