Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 9 Review: The Show Must Go On
Mr. Wilford breaks out the top hat and throws a proper carnival for the people of his train. Bread, circuses, and orgies in the Roman tradition! Why wouldn’t it work on Snowpiercer?
The people got what they wanted. Mr. Wilford has retaken control of Snowpiercer, and with every push of a mop or scrub of a rag, the lingering reminders of Andre Layton’s class war disappear. No more anti-Tail graffiti. No more breechmen versus brakemen. Ruth, in her cold opening, describes it as the picture of efficiency. Everyone is going to work, food supplies are good, and things are working better than they have in a long time, so long as you don’t look too deep into what is going on behind the scenes. Wilford has taken power, and now he is actively working to consolidate control.
We have seen someone examining passenger records before; Andre Layton, when he was train detective, did a lot of research into the movers and shakers of the train, and was able to use that information for the betterment of the train. Wilford has pulled passenger records and confidential medical records, and is using that information for the betterment of himself. Unsurprisingly, he has plans other than just making sure dental care and vaccinations have been adequate on his watch, but the what of his plan will remain hidden throughout most of the episode until a climactic, disastrous dinner party. Ruth punches it home in the opening moments of the episode—Wilford’s order comes at a high price, and something awful is coming.
Wilford has only just reestablished himself as the man in charge, and Snowpiercer is already changing. Armed guards, like the old jackboots with guns, are roaming the halls keeping order. The freedom to move between classes? That’s on the way out too, with Wilford demanding a census to keep the Tailies in their place and to allow people to drop the dime on people who participated in Layton’s revolution. Roche and his family disappeared, and rumors are flying. The concerns of the passengers mean less to Wilford than the positioning of paintings on the wall in First Class; Roche is in a drawer with his family, and if you all settle down, maybe they will be let out. That won’t be popular, but when in doubt, throw the people bread and circuses.
In this case, Wilford is literally offering the people a circus. Technically, it’s more like a carnival, but cotton candy, rides, and a Punch and Judy puppet show about Melanie’s stupidity and death will probably distract people for a little while, which is all Wilford needs to finish picking out who is going to get to live and who is going to be purged from the train. He did it on Big Alice; why wouldn’t the same thing happen on Snowpiercer? And if that means running off supporters like Alex and damaging his relationship with everyone else on the train, it’s clear Wilford could care less about that. He’s out for public adulation when necessary, public fear if nothing else will work, and the occasional drug-fueled orgy in the engine of the train.
Things cannot change too drastically for the rest of the train, but Zak Schwartz and Kiersten Van Horne’s script makes it clear that things are starting to change for the worse on board Snowpiercer. Sure, there’s a brand new carnival car opened up to take everyone’s mind off of everything, but for most people, their day to day life hasn’t improved, and there’s now an undercurrent of fear throughout the train, unless you’re one of Wilford’s blissfully ignorant partiers in the engine. The Tail is back to being worse than, Third Class is getting squeezed, and Second Class is still working to make sure First Class doesn’t notice anything is different while Wilford plots a purge not seen since he halved the population on Big Alice.
Just the way Wilford’s security team pushes people around in the hallways, with even the normally strong-willed Ruth shrinking back out of their way, sets the tone for the new regime. Clare Kilner says a lot just with those few directorial choices, and the performers do a solid job of communicating that anxiousness and fear, particularly Mickey Sumner as Till and Alison Wright as Ruth. They both have feet in two worlds, with Till being Train Detective (a position Wilford is quick to point out he didn’t create and won’t need since there is no crime) and Ruth being one of two heads of hospitality alongside Kevin.
Both are aware of the tenuousness of their position, with Till being given the good advice of making herself useful to Wilford to survive the regime change. Sure, the train will not need a detective if all crimes are punished with immediate execution, but Wilford will need a conscience. He admits that himself (a great moment for Sean Bean, who is clearly having fun in this episode). Ruth, however, can’t change her nature. Melanie told Layton that he’d be wise to keep Ruth around, because Ruth was a straight shooter; it’s not a surprise that she ends up in the swamp right beside Layton, because she can’t give up hope, or betray her friend, and announce to the train that Melanie failed in her mission.
It’s not true, of course, as we hear Melanie reaching out to Javi on the radio, but it will not matter if it’s not true unless Melanie comes walking onto the train somehow. (That somehow will probably be Josie-related, given her newfound resistance to cold.) For the moment, Wilford is in complete control, but he is making many enemies, and those enemies are being put into position to conspire against him. The clock, for anyone in charge of Snowpiercer, is always ticking. Some just last longer than others.
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/snowpiercer-season-2-episode-9-review-the-show-must-go-on/Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 10 Review: Into the White
The only thing harder than stealing a train is stealing it back. Wilford faces threats from within and without on a chilling season finale of Snowpiercer.
For the fifth time in the history of the show, the titular train of Snowpiercer finds itself under new ownership. Wilford built the thing, and then Melanie (Jennifer Connelly) stole it. She ran it successfully for 7 years, until it was taken over by Layton (Daveed Diggs). Layton’s tenure was not nearly as successful, because a returning Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean) hooked up to the tail end of Snowpiercer and took the thing back over, sending Layton and Ruth (Alison Wright) to the compost heap for their troubles. Nevertheless, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and the one thing you can say about Andre Layton is that he doesn’t give up very easily, and he is very willing to get his poop-covered hands even dirtier during violence. And much like last time, he has help up train, and more of it.
So, after a tip-off from Javi (Roberto Urbina) via the sewer system, Layton and Ruth have a new motivating factor. Get the train back, and go get Melanie and the precious climate research she’s been working on. (That is in addition to getting the opportunity to stop sifting through human waste all day, which is its own reward.) Wilford, already a dictator, has absolutely no reason to let that happen and will risk just about everything to maintain his precious control, but people like Layton and Ruth have nothing left to lose, and are willing to undertake a very bold plan to wrench control of the train from Wilford and his goons. With the help of all the other little people Wilford has been stepping on along the way, of course.
That’s the thing about Wilford. Throughout his journey back to the top, he’s done very little to engender support from the sort of people he’ll need to run his train, like Ben (Iddo Goldberg, who has a pretty great fight scene) and Javi, or the people he’ll need to keep the population of said train under control without excessive bloodshed, like Till and Ruth. When you make enemies with the people who keep the lights on and keep the people happy, it is much more difficult to lead effectively, if only because they know exactly how to take over your train and all the little secrets about keeping it going.
That’s one of the clever things about the set-up for Layton’s and company’s move in Graeme Manson and Aubrey Nealon’s script. Layton can’t do any of it himself. He needs Ruth to get him out of the compost heap and to help him take out the goons guarding Javi. Alex knows the secret way into Wilford’s bedroom because she knows the trains like the back of her hand and she will be a good distraction for Wilford. They need Javi to run Big Alice and to talk to Ben about their plan. They need Ben on Snowpiercer to actually drive the thing.
Till grabs Audrey to use as leverage to keep Wilford in line until they pull their plan off. Bogie fights off guards and helps disconnect the emergency breakaway point behind the aquarium car. Layton’s original take-over was mostly about violence, with most of the people who matter to the train staying out of the way. This time, everyone important to the train pulls together, making Layton’s second revolution attempt a much more democratic version. Even the Headwoods play their part in the game, albeit unwittingly, when they let Josie free as the new replacement for Icy Bob.
All the pieces fall together because Wilford is the real enemy of the one hope the people on the train have of returning to a normal life somewhere in the world. Everyone on the train not named Wilford wants that; the only problem is, Wilford is the guy who can deny it to the group. The script is terse, whispered exchanged as they plan in secret, and big explosive scenes of Wilford yelling and slapping people, but Sean Bean is great at playing the character, particularly the shock on his face when Alex does her razor blade trick and gives him a little bit of his own medicine. Roberto Urbina also does some great work this week, as Javi is put into position as an unlikely hero who knows he’s not going to like what happens when you defy Wilford. Yet, he does it anyway because of loyalty to Melanie and the desire to see humans have a post-Wilford future. I would also be terrified of being beaten by goons and attacked by a dog and possibly tortured by a maniac.
The episode moves very quickly. Things happen, scenes move, and it only slows down just enough to let everyone get on the same page before it’s off to the next sequence. Clare Kilner does a good job of creating and sustaining that tension. There’s no ticking clock, but there may as well be as you can watch the chess pieces being moved in real time with guards heading this way and our protagonists heading in that direction.
People will be caught in the crossfire, and people will undoubtedly suffer because of this, but the move being made is logical, and the fact that they have to make the move or else lose all of their hard work and sacrifices makes the actions carry more weight as they happen. It’s bold moves all the way around, but the payoff is too big not to risk everything for.
Layton might not like killing, but he’s a killer. For the moment, he is spared from sacrificing a comparative innocent to achieve a bigger goal, but Wilford is not going to forget, or forgive, Layton putting Audrey in danger. There might be two trains for the moment, but those two trains will have to come back together again at some point, and then the battle for the soul of what is left of humanity will really kick into high gear.
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/snowpiercer-season-2-episode-10-review-into-the-white/Snowpiercer Season 2: Episode 9 (The Show Must Go On) - Spoiler TV Review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssRpV3VJ-3o&list=PL_nr8Aco25pNTxTYZkVyAnM9el-kHdt5B&index=19Snowpiercer Season 2: Episode 10 (Into The White) - Spoiler TV Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ76QdWJR8E