ReganX

Before this episode, I wondered if Layton’s visions of New Eden might be the result of undetected brain damage due to to lack of oxygen in the first episode of the season. The calendar is more mundane, but I prefer it as an explanation over Layton having mystical visions. I will be disappointed if Melanie isn’t actually alive, but I’ll be more disappointed if Melanie is alive in a real New Eden. Very little happening in this episode. They only have ten episodes a season, and would do better to have fewer episodes than filler episodes.

I think that LJ doesn’t much care who is being killed or tortured, she just wants to do it, or at least to watch. She can’t seriously think that Layton would buy that she is loyal to him, or trustworthy, but I’d say that she knew that she’d be able to get away with killing Kevin, so she did it.

The only possible explanation I can come up with is that Wilford got so used to being pretty much worshipped by the Big Alice crew that, once he took a few minutes to favour Josie with his attention, he assumed that he had her devotion. He also let her interact freely with his crew, and she seemed to be getting along well with any of them that she interacted with, plus the Headwoods cured her frostbite injuries, so he may have thought that she would help for the sake of his crew, and feel some loyalty to them.

It’s hard to believe that this episode is as long as the others when so little actually happened. I wouldn’t have thought that a 10-episode season would need what is, effectively, a filler episode. The traditions around a birth seem pretty OTT. We’re to believe that the Tail has an established tradition for naming when, apart from Winnie and maybe one boy briefly shown in the Pilot, none of the kids look young enough to have been born on the train? As for Third Class’ tradition of the naming tree, while sweet, is it really plausible, given that reproduction is so restricted, for people to be so invested in the babies of the lottery winners? I’d have expected at least some resentment. Same goes for ringing the bells on the hour throughout labour. It seems like rubbing it in that this person gets to do what you are forbidden to do. Also, given how long labour can last, it seems a bit premature to announce that a baby is due on that day. Josie’s lack of sensation in various parts of her body is not something I expected, and not something that bodes well for the baby. Have the Doctors Headwood unwittingly engineered a baby without a sense of touch? I wonder what Pike’s longterm plan is. He can’t expect to be able to control the train by himself. At minimum, he’d need engineers onside, or they’d literally go nowhere. Josie learning about engineering makes sense, especially when she’s the only person who can go outside for repairs. No sign of Miles, even when life systems are involved. Did he die in the flu epidemic and nobody bothered to mention it?

It’s definitely revisionist history, and it is revised again later to show that there are established traditions regarding a birth. I suspect that the producers wanted to use the First Class cabin to give the main characters a private meeting place, but not to have Layton seen to accept the cabin as a perk of being the new leader of the train.

Snowpiercer had a baby lottery. People can’t just have kids when they want to, they need to have permission to conceive, and if Melanie is to be believed, permission to have a child can even be withdrawn during a pregnancy. I suspect that, like in Ascension, the baby lottery may be linked to population, so if somebody on the train (outside the Tail) died, somebody else would be given permission to have a child. It’s not clear if every class is subject to reproductive restrictions, or if First Class has the option of having as many kids as they like. Josie said that the women of the Tail were being sterilised, but it’s unclear if this was a surgical procedure or if they were being fed contraceptives through the protein blocks. The last child born in the Tail was born five years before the Pilot. I assume that this is Winnie, since I haven’t seen any younger Tailie kids.

It’s 1,029. There were 1,034 after Snowpiercer and Big Alice were connected in Season 2, then the Aquarium Car was destroyed, leaving 1,023 cars under Wilford and a 10-car pirate train. The pirate train decoupled four cars, so they’re down to 1,029. As for First Class, it was out of commission under Wilford’s regime, and all of the passengers were put to work, regardless of their original class or whether or not they were paying passengers or train staff. Wilford intended to reinstate it. The Tailies are probably still in limbo, to an extent. They might have more freedom of movement but may not have been assigned living quarters.

He transferred to Life Systems in Season 2, and wanted to be one of the first colonists outside. You’d think that Life Systems is an area that Layton would want to touch base with, if they are devising ways to live outside the train. Winnie is the only child character who is still in any way prominent. I’m not counting Alex or LJ, since the actresses are adults even if the characters are not yet 18. It’s to be hoped that they’re feeding Winnie well, given the number of calories she must burn running around the train delivering messages.

No. Alex mentioned that couples were split up. They probably started out with some dependents. Chances are that most, if not all, of Wilford’s crew were originally supposed to be part of Snowpiercer’s staff but were left behind when Melanie left without Wilford, and we know from Roche that at least some of the staff were able to bring dependents. If the same was true on Big Alice, there were probably some spouses as well as children prior to the Cull. I thought that it was a nice touch that Wilford used the book club as part of his decision-making process.

I’m not surprised. Wilford isn’t exactly a longterm thinker. Even with Snowpiercer, he prioritised his comfort and pleasure over longterm sustainability. The man built a nightclub and had genetic engineers shot. He was thinking of who would be useful to him in the immediate future, medium-term at best. Apart from the Headwoods, most of his crew are on the youngish side so, six years ago, he would have expected that he’d be able to get decades of work out of them. He’d also have been able to count on at least fifteen years before fertility became an issue. If they hadn’t retaken Snowpiercer by then, making a new generation would still be an option, though I doubt he thought that far ahead. He was probably certain that he would be able to retake Snowpiercer long before he needed to worry about a new generation. I can see why he would decide that it wasn’t worth keeping young children, who wouldn’t be able to work for years, and definitely not worth keeping them instead of productive adults. What interests me is that Wilford seemed genuinely regretful. Also, when Big Alice caught up to Snowpiercer, her crew was obviously living in very straitened circumstances. Apart from Wilford, they all seem to have lived a bit better than the Tail in terms of accommodation and food, but definitely worse than Third Class. Would they have survived if there was no Cull, and they had to sustain twice the number of people, with no facility to grow their own food?

It struck me that Layton’s lie is one that can very easily be exposed. If Martin is still alive, he was able to look out the window of his quarters so, while he doesn’t know the details of the measurements, he is definitely going to know that they didn’t travel to the Horn of Africa and stumble on a warm New Eden. Sykes will also have seen that they didn’t travel through any green area. The word of a First Class passenger and a Wilford loyalist may not count for much among Layton supporters, but a third of the train voted against going to the Horn of Africa, so they could be very interested in what Martin and Sykes have to say.

One of the young girls from the Tail chosen for apprenticeship at the same time as Miles was placed in the Drawers. She may still be there.

Jinju is still alive, as far as I know, but hasn’t been seen since Season 1. The Last Australian is still alive, but wasn’t in the last few episodes of Season 2, or in Season 3 so far. The other last Australian hasn’t been seen since then either.

Considering that Snowpiercer has to keep moving anyway, why not just head in the direction of the Horn of Africa? If it turns out to be warm enough to support human life, they can decide if they want to settle, stay on the train, or split up if there are enough people who want the train option to keep it running without those who want to settle. If it’s not warm enough to be survivable, they keep going.

Sounds like something he’d do. Or what if he did the opposite of the Icy Bob/Frozie treatment, so the baby can’t survive in anything other than a very warm environment? That would be one way to scupper Layton’s plan to find a survivable place, if the baby can only survive on Snowpiercer.