Episode 6 gives us the return of some old characters and the death of another.
This is a review and recap for “Snowpiercer” Season 3 Episode 6, “Born to Bleed.” Spoilers below!
During Zara’s pregnancy arc, I kept wondering why it seemed Layton had forgotten his other child. If you recall, Miles was the kid that Josie and Layton essentially adopted while living in the tail. He doesn’t appear in season 2 but did appear this week!
As such, it appears the rule of having a smaller cast on shows (due to COVID-19) has started to lift, thankfully! This episode also saw the return of Lights, another tailee. Who else will reappear? Aside from LJ’s dad’s eyeball, of course.
The Downfall of Pike
Other than two small subplots I’ll mention at the end, this entire episode was devoted to our demolition man Pike and his inability to move on.
As he says in his intro, “Wound fester, they rot; they don’t go away.” The wounds here are Pike’s hurt feelings and anger at what he perceives is a betrayal on Layton’s part.
The episode starts with Pike being summoned into Layton’s chambers to be part of his security detail. When it’s just Pike, Layton, Zara, and (real baby, not animatronic) Liana in the car, Layton receives a call from Till, who pierced together info from Lights to determine that Pike had made the bomb.
Of course, Pike was holding Liana at the time, so he uses her as a shield, and eventually shoves her at Zara and takes off.
After a harrowing chase ending in another concussion for Layton, Till and Layton search Pike’s room and find the bomb recipe in his bed. Ruth arrives, and they ask her why she’s so invested in Pike, and she admits that they hooked up. Layton and Till’s reaction to was:
Because Ruth still cares about Pike (or at least his muscles – dude is RIPPED), she heads to his fox-hole. He’s there building a bomb but also talking with Asha (who was hiding down there to escape “all the people”). Asha does not deny Layton’s lie about New Eden, which cements Pike’s anger when he finds out Ruth was in on the deception.
Ruth tries to convince Pike to turn himself in, but he refuses, so she leaves to tell Layton.
To give Miles something to do, he and Josie suggest Layton invite Pike to perform “Old Ivan’s Way,” a method of justice from the tail. It involves hashing out your differences or fighting to the death.
I’d hoped Pike would let it go, but that wouldn’t be in character. So, after Pike explains that he didn’t like being Layton’s errand boy and performing his dirty work, as well as the lie about New Eden, Layton tries (rather half-heartedly, it seemed to me) to apologise. Pike doesn’t buy it, so they call for the fighting shanks and have some stabby-stabby. Somehow, despite Pike’s height advantage, dem muscles, “crazy-man” strength, and having nothing to lose, Layton wins.
Layton is left to contemplate the body, and his concussion kicks in again, showing him more of those New Eden trees.
Two side stories are happening while the Pike-Layton drama unfolds.
Audrey
Audrey bribes LJ to get her in to see Wilford. Surprising to her, Wilford is no longer the conniving, power-hungry, ball-crushing man she loves but willing to work with Layton to rebuild society outside the train. Audrey leaves in a huff.
Alex and Roche
Roche is in psychiatric care. Good thing they designed Snowpeircer with a padded cell.
He is wrapped up in his dreams for revenge and can’t see past his rage. His wife, he claims, was his balm, and now that she’s dead, he has nothing to ground him. So he refuses Ruth’s attempts to convince him to “snap out of it.”
Alex approaches Carly (Roche’s daughter) in the food car and throws on the charm to befriend her. They bond over what they’re missing out on (as new adults who should be galivanting about Europe) and Alex’s attempt to murder Wilford. Alex then arranges (by extorting the doctor) for Carly to meet with her dad. Carly and Roche share a nice father-daughter moment and Roche agrees to work on his emotions.
The episode ends with Ruth, Till, Carly, and Roche getting drunk. As one does.
With Pike gone (R.I.P.), what new problems will arise on the train? Is Wilford’s “playing nice” all an act? Will we see more of Miles? Is Alex interested in Carly for more than just friendship? Will Ruth find another unhinged man to date? Will New Eden pan out? And more importantly, will Till do something badass again, finally?
The next episode airs on March 7 / 8th!
