S01.E06: Trouble Comes Sideways

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Layton lays track for revolution. Melanie faces an engineering emergency that threatens every soul on Snowpiercer.

Airing Sunday, June 21, 2020.

 

[Christina]

So, Zarah's pregnant. Do we know when the boyfriend was killed? Are we looking at a paternity question with Layton? This murder investigation that allowed them to be together was only days, right? 

I can suspend belief for a lot, especially when dealing with a show like this, but I'm going to have a hard time believing she knows she pregnant after only a couple of days and I hope they are not going to try and sell me a paternity dispute. 

Other than the scene of the trains rocking back and forth, which I found nifty, this episode was meh to me. Melanie is Mr. Wilford, we learned the reason for the drawers, Layton and the woman whose name I don't remember finally had sex, and Melanie is trying to set up something with kid. I'm guessing we were supposed to see how dangerous and risky it was for Melanie to fix the hydraulics, but there was no question she was going to pull it off just in the nick of time, so eh. 

If there wasn't only four episodes left this season, I'm not sure I would keep watching because I don't care about most of the characters. I like that the pacing keeps moving and doesn't drag out things like LJ's trial and the reason for the drawers, but I'm losing interest and this is the type of show I enjoy. Maybe I'll just wait and binge the last episodes because sometimes that helps. Or stop watching it so late when I'm tired.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Other than the fairly unnecessarily long sex scene, I thought it was a fairly solid episode. Yes, you knew she would save the train, but it was still fairly suspenseful. I like how Melanie's morals are ambiguous; she's not a mustache twirling villain. 

I can't imagine that baby isn't Layton's.  The science may not be there, but it's this show. 

[showme]

So Melanie is not just a pretty face, she actually does the heavy lifting. She is kind of amazing actually.

[BingeyKohan]

I still feel like they could be doing more with the Ruth character. I thought when she was scrambling through the binders for the emergency message to read over the intercom she'd find something incriminating about Melanie. Speaking of - I got the sense she is grooming Miles the way the original Mr Wilford might have once groomed her? Although I assume since her morality is a little ambiguous her immediate play with Miles will be to use him as a pawn to keep Layton in line.

[Chaos Theory]

To be honest I came to the show for Alison Wright who plays Ruth and I really enjoyed her speech as the Alt-Voice.   I half expected Ruth to be killed off my now and I will be super disappointed if she doesn’t survive the finale.  I love her true believer faith in Mr. Wilford.

I also thought that this was a super thrilling episode even though almost all the outcomes were set in stone.  Of course the train was going to get fixed.   Of course all/most of the cast was going to survive.   That was never really the point.   I was kinda worried about the little girl in the tail though.  And I am super worried about Miles.

Melenie almost literally said she was Wilford this episode and people are still insisting it can’t be her.   I think that is the entire point.  Would anyone follow a young woman onto a lifesaving train?  But a rich dude even one you never actually saw?   Buy a ticket sight unseen.   
 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[Ziggy]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

Melenie almost literally said she was Wilford this episode and people are still insisting it can’t be her.

There are still some in consistencies, though I'll be the first to admit I may have missed some details (I always do).  The two guys (Bennett & Javi) in the engine had a conversation at the very beginning of the episode.  Javi says, "When she first took this train, she says we'll follow his (Wilfred) order."  That doesn't necessarily mean that Wilfred was once in charge of the train and she took it over, but it does allow for the possibility.  Then again, Layton did call her "Mr. Wilfred," as did Bennett in the first episode.

I guess the show is being deliberately vague about the details.  I don't know, but I have to say, Melanie is really starting to freak me out with regards to what she is willing to do to people in order to maintain control.

[iMonrey]

While Layton and Josie were getting busy, all I could think of was how much he must reek. I mean, he spent the better part of the day vomiting black goo and he certainly hasn't brushed his teeth, and it's been days since he's been hosed down too. Yuck.

 

[Ziggy]

43 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

While Layton and Josie were getting busy, all I could think of was how much he must reek. I mean, he spent the better part of the day vomiting black goo and he certainly hasn't brushed his teeth, and it's been days since he's been hosed down too. Yuck.

 

Me, too.  Black teeth!  That was all I could think about.  Ick!

[rmontro]

11 hours ago, Christina said:

Melanie is Mr. Wilford

I'm not sure that has been cleared up at all, she could have been an engineer/designer working for him.  Someone in the episode said that "Mr. Wilford is not on board", I can't remember who it was, I think it was one of the guys who works in the locomotive cab, but I can't recall for sure.  Something could have happened to prevent him from boarding, something may have happened to him later, he could be on another train that we don't know about. 

It's also possible he doesn't exist, but we certainly haven't been told the whole story yet.  Just like the story behind the drawers, we're just getting bits and pieces. 

This episode was unimpressive IMO.  I didn't care about the danger of derailing, it's too early in the series to get rid of the train, we knew it wasn't going to happen.  We got to see how people reacted to it, so that was okay.  Just not all that interesting.    

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, Ziggy said:

Me, too.  Black teeth!  That was all I could think about.  Ick!

The black teeth were gross, but the tail is pretty dirty, right? I remember Josie getting hosed down when she got her new job, but I don't think they were bathing much in the tail. So they may be used to a certain amount of funk.

(I saw "The Mountain Between Us" and all I kept thinking during the sex scene between Kate Winslet and Idris Elba is that they'd been in a plane crash and been outdoors the whole time. They had not bathed for however long that was - I think it was weeks - and they must stink.)

1 hour ago, Ziggy said:

I don't know, but I have to say, Melanie is really starting to freak me out with regards to what she is willing to do to people in order to maintain control.

It's interesting to watch this show during this political moment.

[Netfoot]

Not terribly impressed by this episode. The seized brakes/failed hydraulic nail-biter was OK, despite the certain knowledge that the train would be saved in the end. But there seemed to be little advance made to the overall plot.

2 hours ago, Empress1 said:

The black teeth were gross, but the tail is pretty dirty, right? I remember Josie getting hosed down when she got her new job, but I don't think they were bathing much in the tail. So they may be used to a certain amount of funk.

(I saw "The Mountain Between Us" and all I kept thinking during the sex scene between Kate Winslet and Idris Elba is that they'd been in a plane crash and been outdoors the whole time. They had not bathed for however long that was - I think it was weeks - and they must stink.)

It's interesting to watch this show during this political moment.

I read a sci-fi novel where a time traveler was "doing the business" with a beauty from the past. While on the job, he observed a small millipede-like creature crawl out from behind her ear, run over her forehead and vanish into her hairline. It didn't put him off his stroke....

Once, crossing the channel (Dieppe/Newhaven) in a storm, I observed a lad trying to pick up a girl standing at the rail. He had a good line of chat, begging for kisses, etc, and I think he must have been successful in the end. But I didn't stick around to see how he fared. Because every so often this girl would hold up a finger to interrupt her swain while she vomited profusely over the side. He didn't seem to mind....

I guess if you're horny enough, you ignore, uh, trivialities.

[blackwing]

I thought this episode gave us some new information.  We learned that Melanie designed the train and is in fact the chief engineer.  Still not sure why she went under the train instead of English Boyfriend.  He has longer arms and wouldn't have been dramatically flailing at and missing that cable.  She could have easily have directed him with that camera.

There are 400 Tailees onboard.  We were previously told that 70% of the train consisted of Third Class and Tailees.  Since there are "3000 souls" onboard, that means there are 1,700 Third Class. 

We got confirmation that the Third Class people are also non-ticketed.  They work for their place on the train.  I think Melanie's speech to them was a good reminder to Third Class that they also did not pay for their tickets, and they have to work for their place.  I don't follow Third Class' strike and why they thought it would work.  They said they would just walk off their jobs?  OK then, nobody is there to run the train, the train breaks down, everybody dies.  I guess maybe they are counting on First Class thinking that living as equals with everybody on the train isn't as bad as dying.  I really am not sure, some of these people, like the Folgers, seem like they would view both options as being equal.

I keep confusing Audrey and Zarah.  Audrey seems to be one of the Third Class ringleaders.  I think Melanie should make her exchange places with a Tailee for a day and see if she thinks things in Third are bad.

The Drawers are to put people in suspended animation so that they can repopulate the earth when the train fails.  This I don't understand... if the train fails, then there is no power, and without power to maintain life support, the people in the Drawers die I would think.  Also, at least some of the Drawers are being used for punishment, as we saw with Nikki Genet, and those three revolutionaries that got Drawered.

This episode increased my like for Melanie (she's just trying to do what she can to preserve order and keep the train running) and Till (she's a good person, torn between her loyalty to the train and her feelings about what is right).  Meanwhile, I found myself increasingly disliking Layton.  I think he's supposed to be the portrayed as this story's hero but I'm not sure what he's going to do now that he learned more information from Melanie.

Hate Ossweiler.  Why is this man even still on the train?  He pretty much created the illegal drug culture on this train and yet he's still allowed to be part of security?  He should be in a cell somewhere.  

Am I supposed to feel sorry for the lady who lost her arm?  Not sure what the significance was of repeatedly showing that little girl looking big eyed and waifish and innocent.  

We learned that Javi, the second engineer, also knows that Melanie is posing as Mr. Wilford.

6 hours ago, BingeyKohan said:

I still feel like they could be doing more with the Ruth character. I thought when she was scrambling through the binders for the emergency message to read over the intercom she'd find something incriminating about Melanie. 

6 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

To be honest I came to the show for Alison Wright who plays Ruth and I really enjoyed her speech as the Alt-Voice.   I half expected Ruth to be killed off my now and I will be super disappointed if she doesn’t survive the finale.  I love her true believer faith in Mr. Wilford.

...

Melenie almost literally said she was Wilford this episode and people are still insisting it can’t be her.   I think that is the entire point.  Would anyone follow a young woman onto a lifesaving train?  But a rich dude even one you never actually saw?   Buy a ticket sight unseen.   
 

 

I for one, cannot stand Ruth.  She's in some position of power as the #2 Hospitality person.  I can't stand her condescension and I hate how she utterly fawns over the First Class passengers.  I get that it's her job, but her unwavering loyalty to the Folgers puts me off.

And I don't think anyone ever definitively said that "Melanie cannot be Mr. Wilford".  I think what people have said is that it seems pretty clear that she is, at the very least, posing as Mr. Wilford.  I continue to believe that at one point there was a Mr. Wilford.  He appears to have been known to some of the First Class passengers and they know his voice.  If Melanie has been Mr. Wilford all along because "people won't listen to a lady engineer", then why keep up the charade of splicing together past speeches to make it sound like a new speech?  If he never existed in the first place, then why not have English Boyfriend be the voice of Mr. Wilford?  Would have been a lot easier.

I continue to think that Mr. Wilford is a real person.  Melanie is his Chief Engineer and designed the whole train.  After what she said about the Drawers being a way to prolong life, I believe more than ever before that Mr. Wilford is in a Drawer.  He has some kind of health condition and he's hoping to ride out the Freeze in a Drawer, and once something happens to Unfreeze the world, they can revive him and get him the medical help he needs.

3 hours ago, rmontro said:

I'm not sure that has been cleared up at all, she could have been an engineer/designer working for him.  Someone in the episode said that "Mr. Wilford is not on board", I can't remember who it was, I think it was one of the guys who works in the locomotive cab, but I can't recall for sure.  Something could have happened to prevent him from boarding, something may have happened to him later, he could be on another train that we don't know about. 

It's also possible he doesn't exist, but we certainly haven't been told the whole story yet.  Just like the story behind the drawers, we're just getting bits and pieces. 

I think it was Layton that said that, he told Josie I think.  It's evident that Javi knows he isn't around.  I can't tell if Ruth knows or not.  She seemed to tell Melanie that what she did (commuting the sentence of Lilah Junior) was not a good thing.

 

Oh and after complaining last week about the abundance of male butts on this show, this week I think we actually got boobage from Josie.  I think I might have actually seen nip!  Was kind of surprised that boobage could air on basic cable... usually basic cable is just butts butts and more butts.

Edited June 22, 2020 by blackwing

[iMonrey]

Quote

Someone in the episode said that "Mr. Wilford is not on board", I can't remember who it was, 

It was Layton telling Josie. I'm leaning towards "Wilford is a real person, but he's not on the train." Rather than "he never existed." Just based on that particular line of dialogue. 

Quote

I keep confusing Audrey and Zarah.  Audrey seems to be one of the Third Class ringleaders. 

Zarah, Josie and Audrey all have a very similar look, and it's confusing. I don't know why they cast three primary female characters with actresses that look so similar. And I don't even have a good grip on who, exactly, Audrey is supposed to be. I've spent half the season thinking she was Zarah all decked out for work (hair, makeup, etc). I vaguely recall she had something to do with Nikki, the girl who they took out of the drawer, and that's about it.

[blackwing]

7 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Zarah, Josie and Audrey all have a very similar look, and it's confusing. I don't know why they cast three primary female characters with actresses that look so similar. And I don't even have a good grip on who, exactly, Audrey is supposed to be. I've spent half the season thinking she was Zarah all decked out for work (hair, makeup, etc). I vaguely recall she had something to do with Nikki, the girl who they took out of the drawer, and that's about it.

I believe Audrey runs the Nightcar, or at least she seems to be the chief bartender.  Audrey was friends with Nikki Genet.  Audrey seems to have some position of power, she seems like she is friends with Melanie, or at least Melanie is willing to treat her as somewhat of a power player.  I'm unclear on why Audrey is considered Third Class, while Jinju, who performs a similar role but for the First Class passengers, is Second Class.

Zarah runs the meditation center, which I thought was also part of the Nightcar.  She is Layton's ex-wife, or ex-fiancee, or something.  She was sleeping with Sean who got his penis cut off by Erik and Lilah Junior.  Zarah is now pregnant, and yeah, count me among those upthread who would not be surprised if it's Layton's baby.  I mean, it's been years since he saw her, they reconnected and he slept with her two days ago, and she already knows she is pregnant.  There's no way that's Sean's baby.

Josie is a fellow Tailee and I'm not exactly sure what her role is.  She was close to Layton in the Tail but they never said why.  She was Miles and Miles' "Tail mom" but they never explained why or what happened to his biological parents.  She switches places with Astrid who is in Food Services in Third but they don't explain why her.  I'm sure Josie is now also pregnant due to Layton's amazing Tailee sperm.  She and Zarah can compare notes and have a dual birth.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

The Drawers are to put people in suspended animation so that they can repopulate the earth when the train fails.  This I don't understand... if the train fails, then there is no power, and without power to maintain life support, the people in the Drawers die I would think.

I don't think it's to do with the train failing. It's to do with preventing failure.

If a calamity sweeps the train, like Legionnaires' disease or Bat Soup sickness (or some other threat), people in the drawers are supposedly safe. Once the threat has passed, those remaining have a genetically diverse pool to draw from to keep the depleted train going. And a diverse set of skills too.

Yes, it would appear that the Drawers are being used as a punitive measure, But there are supposedly 12 cars of drawers, equaling 400 'berths', so we are told that punishment is not their primary purpose.

[BingeyKohan]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

 

I continue to think that Mr. Wilford is a real person.  Melanie is his Chief Engineer and designed the whole train.  After what she said about the Drawers being a way to prolong life, I believe more than ever before that Mr. Wilford is in a Drawer.  He has some kind of health condition and he's hoping to ride out the Freeze in a Drawer, and once something happens to Unfreeze the world, they can revive him and get him the medical help he needs..

I tend to agree. I sort of think Mr Wilford is a rank as much as a person, though it benefits the train for everyone to think it is the same continuous person. There was a real MW then Melanie took over the rank and I think she sees Miles as someone who could hold the rank after her. Even if it was a real person (actually him and not Melanie) then rational people would be wondering about succession planning. Who leads after he dies of natural causes? Or maybe they think he is an AI and they actually prefer that to thinking he’s a human.

[edhopper]

I have to suspend a lot of disbelief, but a few things are starting to bother me. So the rich get to be up front because they pay for it. But with what? The World is dead. There are not banks or hedge funds or off shore accounts, and even if they had bags of cash, what good is it without Countries to back the worth. looks like the true parasites, using up more than their share of the resources.  (yeah, I know that is the point of the movie and the show). The show may address this more, but you would think the rest of the train would get this before 7 years. What are they doing for the train that Melanie can't open a door and boot them off. Leaving a better functioning train, better equipped to survive.

And did they really need Melanie to just reattach a loose coupling?

[Mr. Sparkle]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

Oh and after complaining last week about the abundance of male butts on this show, this week I think we actually got boobage from Josie.  I think I might have actually seen nip!  Was kind of surprised that boobage could air on basic cable... usually basic cable is just butts butts and more butts.

I was looking, and it appeared that they airbrushed out the nip in question. I didn't erase it from my DVR yet, so I'll check again. For research purposes, of course. 

[Dowel Jones]

Shakespeare would have a field day riding on this train.  It's like all his plays rolled into one.

What is with this statement by Melanie that 'we have to maintain the social order' for the train to survive.'?  A more perfect example of social Darwinism would be hard to find.  I think Wilford Industries must have conducted some in depth studies of the potential passengers (and not just their wealth) to collect such a bunch of weak willies and backstabbers to populate this luxury excursion.  After seven years of deprivation, Melanie can walk into 3d class with only three guards and easily dominate (yes, that was intentional) the scene.

I find it very unlikely that, out of three engineers that know anything about the train's workings, two of them are down in the undertrain, exposing themselves to life threatening danger.  Wouldn't it have been better to have an entire cadre of trained engineers and such, just for redundancy?  I get that the intent was to show Melanie's capabilities, but, come on.

I also find it very odd that no one in the design, manufacture, or marketing of the train questioned why there were 18, I think, cars made up of nothing but essentially coffins.  And also, with a limited agricultural production area, why would grain be allocated to alcohol production? 

[AnimeMania]

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

I'm sure Josie is now also pregnant due to Layton's amazing Tailee sperm.  She and Zarah can compare notes and have a dual birth.

I think the train authorities did something to keep the Tailies from having children.

4 hours ago, edhopper said:

And did they really need Melanie to just reattach a loose coupling?

I think the cable allowed whatever that was to be controlled by the train's computers.

Possible mild spoiler:

Spoiler

Strange that the Tailies call them Bug Bars, since they haven't made the big reveal on the TV show that the Tailies food was made from bugs.

Mr. Wilford might have put himself in one of the drawers as a way to wait out the boring part of the journey, to be awakened when they start colonizing the Earth again.

5 hours ago, edhopper said:

I have to suspend a lot of disbelief, but a few things are starting to bother me. So the rich get to be up front because they pay for it. But with what?

They paid their money when it still had value, enough value to build the train and the (Hundred Thousand?) miles of track. They brought a ticket, so they get to ride the train till they reach their destination. If you sign a contract to do a job at a certain price, can't come back at the end of the job and say you want more money because the job was way harder than you thought it would be.

4 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I find it very unlikely that, out of three engineers that know anything about the train's workings, two of them are down in the undertrain, exposing themselves to life threatening danger.  Wouldn't it have been better to have an entire cadre of trained engineers and such, just for redundancy?  I get that the intent was to show Melanie's capabilities, but, come on.

That is a TV Show thing, I don't know how many times I have seen shows where a scientist should be using their brain and science to find a way to kill a monster, instead they grab a gun and crawl around hunting the monster with all the rest people. Why pay other actors to be on the screens when your stars can do the exciting thing themselves, whether they are qualified are not.

[Dowel Jones]

7 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

If you sign a contract to do a job at a certain price, can't come back at the end of the job and say you want more money because the job was way harder than you thought it would be.

Except in professional sports, of course.

[rwlevin]

12 hours ago, blackwing said:

She was Miles and Miles' "Tail mom" but they never explained why or what happened to his biological parents.  She switches places with Astrid who is in Food Services in Third but they don't explain why her.

His father and sister didn’t make it on to the train before the doors closed and his mom was tossed off the train. This happened in the first episode. Josie and Layton act as his foster parents. I just hope he doesn’t get brainwashed by Melanie.

i feel bad for Astrid. Now she’s all stuck in the tail and has no idea what’s going on.

[blackwing]

7 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I think the train authorities did something to keep the Tailies from having children.

I think the cable allowed whatever that was to be controlled by the train's computers.

True... I could have sworn it was mentioned perhaps in one of the earlier episodes about how they aren't allowed to freely reproduce?  Or am I making this up?  Because that little waif girl that they kept focusing on (the one whose mom got her arm frozen and then died in this episode) seems younger than 7 years old.  I still wouldn't put it past the show to somehow have Layton be an exception.  I'm still thinking that the train will soon have two mini Laytons, because viva la revolution and all that.

I think the hydraulics failed on that car and it was tilted at a dangerous angle... if that car had tried to cross the bridge like that the train would have derailed.  I believe that cable was reconnecting the hydraulics system.  As soon as she connected it, the hydraulics kicked in and the car righted itself.

2 hours ago, rwlevin said:

His father and sister didn’t make it on to the train before the doors closed and his mom was tossed off the train. This happened in the first episode. Josie and Layton act as his foster parents. I just hope he doesn’t get brainwashed by Melanie.

Ah, got it, I missed that.  Thanks for the explanation.  It does seem that he is getting groomed to be a future leader.

[tennisgurl]

I knew that the trail wouldn't actually be derailed, but I still thought the sequence was quite intense, and while Melanie certainly is very morally grey, she is also pretty damn badass. I may doubt the morality of what she does, but I dont at all doubt her commitment to the train, and I sure cant call her a coward unwilling to get her hands dirty. She isn't just a mustache twirling villain, she does things that are morally grey or even full on awful because she thinks its for the greater good of humanity, and while I dont approve of, say, putting people on ice as a backup plan in case the resources in the train dry up or a sickness starts taking people out or whatever and the people on it die, especially if they didn't sign up for that, I can at least understand.

I still tend to think that Mr. Wilford was real at some point, but that he either died or is in cold storage right now, and that he left Melanie in charge. In fact, I lean more towards that, he is currently in the freezer so that in case something goes wrong, there can still be someone in charge. 

3rd might be sated for now in the post "we didn't die!" euphoria, but there problems haven't gone away, and LJ is still around to cause trouble. I get that they are working to earn their keep on the train, but that doesn't mean that its ok for rich people to just murder them and get away with it!

I hope that the doctor cleaned the sheets, not only is sleeping in other peoples sex sheets sound nasty, but Layton just got out of cold storage and was hacking up blood, that cant be sanitary. 

Miles was wearing train pajamas. Heh. I also love that the school was apparently having some kind of train based career day with the ice guy as the guest speaker, or just explaining to them the day to day functions of the train. The teacher is one of my favorite minor characters, she is just so perky in the midst of all of this post apocalyptic drama. 

The almost derailment also gave a few humanizing moments towards more jerky characters like Ruth and Tills corrupt partner Oz. 

Edited June 23, 2020 by tennisgurl

[BingeyKohan]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I hope that the doctor cleaned the sheets, not only is sleeping in other peoples sex sheets sound nasty, but Layton just got out of cold storage and was hacking up blood, that cant be sanitary. 

All I could think about (besides this show's need to linger a little too long on sex scenes) was that poor doctor and the cabin she would be getting back from them after they were done with it. Talk about bad Airbnb guests!

[iMonrey]

Quote

There was a real MW then Melanie took over the rank and I think she sees Miles as someone who could hold the rank after her.

Wait . . . are you saying that Mr. Wilford is the Dread Pirate Roberts??

[BingeyKohan]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Wait . . . are you saying that Mr. Wilford is the Dread Pirate Roberts??

As you wish!

[Ziggy]

20 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I don't think it's to do with the train failing. It's to do with preventing failure.

If a calamity sweeps the train, like Legionnaires' disease or Bat Soup sickness (or some other threat), people in the drawers are supposedly safe. Once the threat has passed, those remaining have a genetically diverse pool to draw from to keep the depleted train going. And a diverse set of skills too.

Yes, it would appear that the Drawers are being used as a punitive measure, But there are supposedly 12 cars of drawers, equaling 400 'berths', so we are told that punishment is not their primary purpose.

I think Melanie also said something about having enough food and water (she's always talking about balance).  If the population is too high, placing a few more people in the drawers will mean more food and water to go around.

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, Ziggy said:

I think Melanie also said something about having enough food and water (she's always talking about balance).  If the population is too high, placing a few more people in the drawers will mean more food and water to go around.

With all the people who have died since the TV show started, the drawers should be about empty by now.

[Tachi Rocinante]

I still think the majority of drawers are reserved for the First Class asshats.

[Tabasco Cat]

On 6/22/2020 at 1:56 AM, Christina said:

If there wasn't only four episodes left this season, I'm not sure I would keep watching because I don't care about most of the characters. I like that the pacing keeps moving and doesn't drag out things like LJ's trial and the reason for the drawers, but I'm losing interest and this is the type of show I enjoy. Maybe I'll just wait and binge the last episodes because sometimes that helps. Or stop watching it so late when I'm tired.

I started out planning to DVR the entire season so I could binge it over the summer. But even with cable AND Amazon Prime video, there are nights where there's nothing on at all that interests me. So I started DVR'ing and mini-binging every 2 weeks. I'm with you on most of the characters either aren't compelling or interesting. I'm holding out for LJ to get some sort of gruesome punishment and will be disappointed if we don't get it by the end of the season. Everyone else... meh. I am definitely losing interest in everything else.

[Ziggy]

6 minutes ago, Tabasco Cat said:

I'm holding out for LJ to get some sort of gruesome punishment and will be disappointed if we don't get it by the end of the season.

They're definitely doing more with LJ's story.  Did you see the way she flicked the butter dish off the table?  The look on her face was disturbing.  I'm very curious!

[ccphilly]

Jennifer Connelly has a rockin bod-I can't believe she's almost 50.  She looks great.

[seacliffsal]

I know we're supposed to just suspend a lot of rational thought during this show, but it's really hard for me to swallow the logistics of the train as in some scenes, it looks like an average train width while in other scenes the cars look exceptionally large.  So, I really paid attention during the scenes showing the entire outside of the train and it just doesn't make sense to me.  Oh well.

I'm losing so much interest in this.  Melanie is an interesting character (IMO), but I don't find Layton that interesting or compelling.  I do like some of the supporting characters, but as another poster wrote, it's hard for me to tell the differences amongst some of the female characters as they all have a similar look.  I guess I just don't care that much about a potential revolution (overthrow those in charge of the train and then who will run it [Miles is probably too young...]).

I've deleted this from my DVR but may still watch.  I was so excited about this show but am not caught up in it or even that interested in how things turn out.

[Netfoot]

On 6/23/2020 at 11:42 AM, tennisgurl said:

I still tend to think that Mr. Wilford was real at some point, but that he either died or is in cold storage right now, and that he left Melanie in charge. In fact, I lean more towards that, he is currently in the freezer so that in case something goes wrong, there can still be someone in charge. 

Well, I note that

Spoiler

both Wikipedia and IMDb now state that Mr. Wilford is played by actor Sean Bean and is featured in all 10 episodes of Season #2.

 

[Ziggy]

44 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Well, I note that

  Hide contents

both Wikipedia and IMDb now state that Mr. Wilford is played by actor Sean Bean and is featured in all 10 episodes of Season #2.

 

Spoiler

Also episode 3 from this season.  Was that the episode where Melanie spliced together a "speech?"

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 6/26/2020 at 3:59 PM, Netfoot said:

Well, I note that

  Hide contents

both Wikipedia and IMDb now state that Mr. Wilford is played by actor Sean Bean and is featured in all 10 episodes of Season #2.

 

Thank you! I was waiting for someone to say this. This show needs a spoiler topic. 

ETA: There is one, and I wasn't paying attention. 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Superclam

[formerlyfreedom]

Folks, let's please take the future episodes discussion over to one of the topics with the Spoiler tag, and stick to the episode in here. Thank you!

[FoundTime]

I watch this on demand, starting because I was wondering if I wanted to commit to it and there was just too much else on Sunday nights that I wanted to watch. That's still working for me; I can check in when I'm in the mood and not clog up the DVR. But it was kinda funny during this ep's sex scene because I realized I didn't even know what network it airs on, in terms of current standards for that kind of thing.

I feel like Mr. Wilton was/is a real person who maybe had The Big Idea for the train, pulled together the funding, then hired Melanie to design it/make it work. If this is set in the near future, though, it's kind of depressing for the show to imply that she wouldn't be taken seriously as an engineer/leader who just happens to be a woman. She has to act in this "hospitality" role where she's almost perceived as the (highly capable) assistant who has access to the man who everyone else thinks is actually in charge. Maybe that's already been glaringly obvious to everyone else 😆

[AnimeMania]

59 minutes ago, FoundTime said:

I feel like Mr. Wilton was/is a real person who maybe had The Big Idea for the train, pulled together the funding, then hired Melanie to design it/make it work. If this is set in the near future, though, it's kind of depressing for the show to imply that she wouldn't be taken seriously as an engineer/leader who just happens to be a woman. She has to act in this "hospitality" role where she's almost perceived as the (highly capable) assistant who has access to the man who everyone else thinks is actually in charge. Maybe that's already been glaringly obvious to everyone else 😆

The whole setting seems severely anachronistic and futuristic at the same time. The trains systems are futuristic with computers and such, but everything else seems anachronistic. LJ and the killer had tons of record albums and a record player, when a MP3 player would have a better selection and take up way less space and weight. Nobody seems to be using computers or cell phones, the Nightcar seems to be stuck in 1930's Germany, the rich people still get dressed up to take their meals. Everybody seems to be stuck the way they were when they first boarded the train.

[AryasMum]

On 6/22/2020 at 6:49 PM, Superclam said:

I was looking, and it appeared that they airbrushed out the nip in question. I didn't erase it from my DVR yet, so I'll check again. For research purposes, of course. 

It was very odd. It almost seemed like she had nipple covers.

On 6/23/2020 at 12:12 AM, AnimeMania said:

I think the train authorities did something to keep the Tailies from having children.

I think the cable allowed whatever that was to be controlled by the train's computers.

Possible mild spoiler:

  Hide contents

Strange that the Tailies call them Bug Bars, since they haven't made the big reveal on the TV show that the Tailies food was made from bugs.

Mr. Wilford might have put himself in one of the drawers as a way to wait out the boring part of the journey, to be awakened when they start colonizing the Earth again.

They paid their money when it still had value, enough value to build the train and the (Hundred Thousand?) miles of track. They brought a ticket, so they get to ride the train till they reach their destination. If you sign a contract to do a job at a certain price, can't come back at the end of the job and say you want more money because the job was way harder than you thought it would be.

You certainly can. And what recourse do the first class members have?  They use far more than their share of resources, they treat people like shit, they’re harboring a murderer, and the law seems to live primarily in third class. What good do their riches serve the current, post-apocalyptic world?  They’re soft, lazy, selfish, and entirely useless. 
 

Melanie runs this train with an iron fist, but the rich are in the extreme minority. I guess Lilah could file a lawsuit from her new home in the tail. 🤷‍♀️

[Mr. Sparkle]

21 minutes ago, AryasMum said:

It was very odd. It almost seemed like she had nipple covers. 

That's what I saw. Either pasties or they were digitally removed. Either way, there were no discernible nipples to my eyes. 

[Netfoot]

38 minutes ago, AryasMum said:

They’re soft, lazy, selfish, and entirely useless.

Depending on your point of view, so are my parents.

Or at least they were. (They are no longer with us.) Soft because they were elderly. Lazy because they had worked their entire lives up to retirement, and didn't feel like working any more. Selfish, because they believed that what they had earned for themselves in the past should not be denied them in the present. and entirely useless because they were no longer productive, and no longer contributed to the tax base.

But I don't see reason enough to eliminate them, or deny them the fruits of their labours in retirement.

[AryasMum]

50 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Depending on your point of view, so are my parents.

Or at least they were. (They are no longer with us.) Soft because they were elderly. Lazy because they had worked their entire lives up to retirement, and didn't feel like working any more. Selfish, because they believed that what they had earned for themselves in the past should not be denied them in the present. and entirely useless because they were no longer productive, and no longer contributed to the tax base.

But I don't see reason enough to eliminate them, or deny them the fruits of their labours in retirement.

This show is based in a post-apocalyptic world, and class warfare. It has nothing to do with law and order in the real world, or kicking mom and pop out on the streets when they retire. It would be more along the lines of the French Revolution if one would even try to bring it into the real world. 

[marcee]

With regard to the drawers, we're told they are meant for suspended animation to keep the species going (I was under the impression, that was in the event the train failed) - which is what the list is for. However, they're not being used in this capacity yet as they're still experimenting with it... it's being used as punishment AND experiment. No one in the drawers is MEANT to stay in the drawers yet, so I doubt Mr. Wilford has been drawered. Just my 2¢.