Snowpiercer‘s second season is finally upon us and we’re very excited to get back into one of our favorite shows of last year.
When we left off with Melanie, Layton, and the rest of the 994 cars of the last(ish) bastion of humanity known as Snowpiercer, a second train had mysteriously tracked them down, latched on to the rear of the train and broken through.
The first person we saw come through the breach was a young woman named Alex who identified herself as Melanie’s long lost daughter. Mix that in with some suspenseful teaser trailers showing us Sean Bean as Mr. Wilford, and we soon realized that Season 2 would be a whole new exciting power struggle.
Watched the first episode of Season Two of Snowpiercer. It rocked. I hope the rest of the season is as good. pic.twitter.com/hPZ6c4ZV5q
— Scott M. Baker (@vampire_hunters) January 26, 2021
The rest of this post contains heavy spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1. You’ve been warned!
This first episode opens with a shot of Melanie still walking around in her protective suit outside of the trains. A voiceover from Layton describes that they’re now in the eve of their 19th global revolution in Snowpiercer, and now that the 40-car Big Alice train has connected to Snowpiercer, the tail section has been renamed to The Borderland.
After rushing around gathering items for Mr. Wilford’s own personal scavenger hunt from the luxuries of Snowpiercer, we get an idea that Big Alice doesn’t quite have the same amenities as her larger sister. But we’ll soon see that it may have much better technology.
Cut back to Melanie outside the train and we see that her suit’s rip is causing her a bit of frostbite pain while she climbs under both trains to attach a sticky bomb. She then decides to hop onto Big Alice instead of Snowpiercer as they just start to get moving again.
While Melanie is on the second train, she talks a great deal with Wilford about how he was able to survive, track her down and eventually make the move to connect the trains. “I want my train, Melanie,” Wilford says as his patience for formalities becomes exhausted.
Meanwhile, back on the main train, Layton reveals to the passengers that he’s putting his democratic project on the backburner as they focus on getting free of Wilford’s stranglehold. He tells everyone that Martial Law is in effect, which doesn’t sit well with everyone.
Melanie gets treated by Big Alice’s medical staff, also known as The Headwoods, who show off a new synthetic tissue gel they invented that will heal up wounds with hardly a scar.
And finally, to close out this episode, we see the tailies doing what the tailies do best: start a revolution. They’re able to bust through to the second train and fight their way through the first car before “Icy Bob” comes in to show that Wilford is not messing around. The behemoth of a man pushes the tailes back with a little help from some outside air vented in, and curiously enough, we notice that the -70-degree air does nothing to the man.
Theories and Predictions
So with all of this in mind, here are a few early theories I have:
- Melanie will rise up with Alex to eventually dominate.
- The falling snow and the sun breaking through the clouds in the final scene both indicate a warming trend. Maybe the deep freeze is letting up and we’ll see a thaw in Season 3 that will lead to them finally getting off the train.
- Icy Bob is obviously immune to the outside cold, and if we consider the synthetic tissue gel used on Melanie, it’s clear that Wilford’s crew has developed some frighteningly advanced biotech that may play a major role in Season 2.
- Wilford’s harbored hatred of Melanie will cause him to be reckless (as we’ve already seen with his command to Alex to kill everyone on Snowpiercer) but it may also spell his demise. It’s not lost on me that Sean Bean plays characters that die early, so I’m predicting that he won’t make it to the end of Season 3.
Everyone has secret bets going as to how long Sean Bean’s character will live on #Snowpiercer pic.twitter.com/3dgwCVzuy3
— Ellys’s Folklore Evermore 🦋 (@TVPartyPlanner) January 25, 2021
And in true Snowpiercer tradition, this episode had some great quotes. Here are a few of my favorites:
Melanie to Mr. Wilford: “Wow, your train has dimmers.”
Layton: “A 40-car parasite does not call the shots around here; Snowpiercer does.”
Melanie to Mr. Wilford just before Alex enters the room and proves her wrong: “You can’t hurt me any more, not really.”
Pike to Big Alice passenger: “Me make trade.” Passenger’s retort: “We’re speaking English, douchebag.”
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