Photo: David Bukach/AMC
It’s been two years since we last saw the Snowpiercer braving the elements, but the postapocalyptic drama is finally back for one last round as it reaches its final station. In case you don’t remember much about the show — which was scrapped by TNT, despite season four being already completed, until AMC swooped in to release the final season — this is an adaptation of Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette’s 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige. The graphic novel was previously adapted by Bong Joon-ho in 2013 as his first English-language film, Snowpiercer.
Though not a direct adaptation of either, the first season of Snowpiercer was quite similar to the feature film — the leader of the Tail section of the Snowpiercer, a train that goes around a postapocalyptic frozen world over and over, leads a revolution to get his people better living conditions while unveiling a conspiracy at the front of the train. Except the show quickly started telling its own story, one that was as silly and cheesy as it was earnest and poignant, with plenty to say about revolution, class warfare, and the hardships of leadership. It also gives us a giant mutated man who is immune to the cold and looks like Solomon Grundy.
Season three ended with Daveed Diggs’s Andre Layton — the former detective turned revolutionary leader of the Tail — splitting the remnants of humanity into two groups. Half stayed on the Snowpiercer, living as they previously had, happy to stay on board until the train eventually falls apart, while the other half followed Layton onboard Big Alice (a second train belonging to Sean Bean’s Wilford) to a small spot in the Horn of Africa that is warm enough to sustain life.
This is where Snowpiercer begins its fourth and final season. The premiere, “Snakes in the Garden,” actually has a nonlinear narrative that moves back and forth between shortly after the end of the previous season, specifically the moment when the Snowpiercer encounters a rocket exploding in the distance, and nine months later, when those who split up have already properly settled on what they call New Eden.
After three seasons stuck in a train’s enclosed confines, it is eerie and exciting to see Snowpiercer spend so much time outside. We see vast landscapes, as well as a big and thriving settlement in New Eden. In the past nine months, the survivors have built houses and buildings; they actually have crops, grow their own blueberries, and bake their own bread. Alex (Rowan Blanchard) has even figured out how to use Big Alice to generate power for the whole settlement while on low idle. Things seem to be going very well. The people have a democratic government and hold regular town-hall meetings. (Even if the council often meets just as an excuse to play cards.)
Perhaps most impressive is how New Eden has changed both Layton and his enemy turned ally Ruth Wardell (Alison Wright). For Ruth, who started out as Snowpiercer’s primary torturer before realizing the error of her ways, it is very satisfying to see her become a leader and a mayor of this community. Wright continues to be a highlight of the show, showing a deep concern for her people’s well-being and an ability to remain cool under pressure (unlike Layton). Meanwhile, the season opener shows Layton was actually capable of stepping down from being leader following his controversial lie to the passengers in season three. The show (and Layton) recognizes that revolutionary leaders don’t necessarily make for good peacetime leaders and that managing a resistance and an army is not the same as managing a town. Wilford himself recognized Layton’s skill as a salesman and a public speaker capable of convincing others to join him in his endeavors, but the last time Layton was left in charge of the remnants of humanity, he ended up stealing a train and killing a bunch of people in the process, so this works out better for everyone.
Except, unsurprisingly, there is trouble in paradise. Even if the people of New Eden have it much better than they did on either of the trains, they don’t exactly feel unified when it comes to sharing their paradise. Layton has some of the passengers work on repairing the train they broke to reach New Eden in hopes that Snowpiercer can join them, but people like Oz (Sam Otto) strongly oppose this idea, and there are concerns that New Eden won’t have enough space — let alone food — to support both sets of train passengers. Should they even share? After all, the people of New Eden took the risk and faced potentially freezing to death to find this warm spot, while the people of Snowpiercer chose to leave them and move on. If they took none of the risk and did none of the work in building this place, why should they get the reward? This is the core of Snowpiercer, a show that — from its very beginning — has tackled the politics of survival and how to slow down the apocalypse while knowing you have to eventually choose who gets what share of the resources.
Making matters worse, someone is sabotaging New Eden. First they disconnect the power supply, then they smash the communications relay. The episode actually plays with whether this is a human threat or something else with the camera slowly creeping in on New Eden and stalking Layton from the shows and above the settlement. It is not the first time Snowpiercer hints at the supernatural, of course, given that last season played with visions quite a lot. Several characters get visions of Jennifer Connelly’s Melanie, while Clayton gets the idea of heading to the Horn of Africa to find shelter from a vision of a tree he had after falling down a nuclear reactor. Add in Oz hearing voices of unseen people speaking Gaelic for some reason and you’ve got yourself a nice little mystery that echoed the murder investigation of the first season.
However, there’s not a lot of time to dwell on whether the incidents at New Haven are some divine punishment or sabotage from an angry citizen, because the sight of Lena Hall’s Miss Audrey on a track scaler warning everyone on New Eden that “they’re coming,” as well as the arrival of a snowcat (a vehicle not present on either the Snowpiercer or Big Alice), makes it clear this is a very human threat. Unfortunately, by the time Layton figures it out, it’s too late. Dr. Headwood (Sakina Jaffrey) conspires with a heavily armored soldier to steal Layton’s baby, and in the process, they murder Zarah (Sheila Vand), Layton’s ex-wife and the mother of his child, by pushing her off a cliff.
After all of this, we return to that day nine months earlier when Ben (Iddo Goldberg) and Till (Mickey Sumner) go outside the Snowpiercer to investigate the rocket. It turns out they are ambushed by the same heavily armored soldiers who would kill Zarah nine months later, who invade the Snowpiercer to find Melanie. Welcome back, Snowpiercer! We are on board for another round of mayhem.
• Dr. Headwood, being a devout follower of Mr. Wilford, clearly hints at his involvement in stealing the baby, right? After all, he had her experiment on the unborn baby and gave it resistance to cold for unknown reasons.
• The soldiers, each of whom has a different animal theme, are led by a menacing Clark Gregg, who announces himself as a member of the “International Peacekeeping Forces.” Of course, someone who arrives at your home with a death squad is clearly exuding “peace.”
