Snowpiercer season 3 episode 9 review: A big celebration is short lived

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Snowpiercer season 3 episode 9, "A Beacon for Us All."

For one brief moment, the majority of Snowpiercer’s passengers are content and united thanks to a shared vision of a hopeful future in a world beyond this locomotive. 

Layton’s (Daveed Diggs) faith was returned at the end of last week’s episode and the overall mood on board the train is rather jovial. Their detour through poisonous volcanic gasses to find the long-lost Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) has paid off and the episode kicks off with a daring rescue mission. However, the leading figures who have wrestled control from Wilford (Sean Bean) will soon regret how much they shared with Melanie about where they are headed.

Before the engineer becomes the ultimate party pooper we see how Melanie survived using a supply of suspension drugs in lieu of food in a maintenance vehicle not meant to be used for habitation. It has been more than six months since Wilford left her to die and part of the reason she is still alive is through sheer determination. "I’m super stubborn," Melanie jokes to Alex (Rowan Blanchard) during the emotional mother-daughter reunion. Both actresses portray the enormity of this moment and it's safe to say they aren’t the only teary ones. 

"I kept you alive in my head," Alex tells her mother of the imagined conversations that got her through tough times. It never felt like Melanie was truly gone as a viewer and it was more of a case of "if" not "when" she would make her return. There is a danger that waiting until the penultimate episode could make it anticlimactic, but her choice toward the end of "A Beacon for Us All" ensures this is far from the case.

It has been so long since Melanie was part of this group (remember she was off doing solo research before Wilford abandoned her) it's easy to forget how fraught some of her relationships are — not to mention the shifts in dynamics since she left. 

Ruth (Alison Wright) was Melanie’s best friend until the original lie about Wilford being on the train was proved to be false. Ruth was still cut deep by this betrayal when it came time for the research field trip. But this is all water under the bridge and Ruth is instead focusing on the next stage in their lives. 

As the head of hospitality, Ruth organizes a final hurrah to coincide with the last time the train will pass the pyramids, which are still standing strong. This event is for everyone, although I am not sure how far the remaining 246 bottles of champagne will stretch. Unfortunately, while Ruth plans this bash, Melanie begins to look at the data they have gathered to support the Horn of Africa/New Eden habitable environment theory. What she sees does not match the unparalleled enthusiasm everyone else is experiencing.

If one person can understand deceiving the entire train it's Melanie. After she has apologized for the time she put Layton in the drawers (not that she knows the after-effects of the suspension drugs), she brings up the great lie he has now constructed. Referring to this as a kind of empathy, she is quick to note that keeping the passengers in the dark takes away their power. Later she remarks that everyone is seeing positive results in the data because they want to believe. "Positive thinking’s great, just not if it replaces critical thinking," is her sober assessment of the situation. The cracks are beginning to form.

For someone who has been solo for more than six months, she isn’t too overwhelmed by the steady stream of people she plays catch up with. Beau Ben (Iddo Goldberg) is giddy she is back and tells Layton he shouldn’t waste time telling Josie (Katie McGuinness) how he really feels. Unfortunately, while the rest of the train is getting loved up, Josie still holds Layton at an arm’s length. Her reasoning is he will have too much on his plate in building a new world to be sidetracked by romance. This feels like a flimsy excuse to keep them apart for contrived drama's sake.

Elsewhere, Till (Mickey Sumner) and Miss Audrey (Lena Hall) are embracing a new phase of their relationship. There is a concern at first what Till is feeling is a residual effect of Audrey’s therapy. Audrey notes she has never felt it like this before and there is a sweet giddiness to the early stage of this romance. There is an element of questioning how quickly Audrey switched from being a Wilford defender to a version of her former self, but the last few episodes are also a reminder that Audrey wasn’t always a villain. 

One character who is unlikely to change is LJ (Annalise Basso), as she will always put her priorities first. Oz (Sam Otto) was more than aware of LJ’s selfish and sadistic streak when he married her, so it's hard to feel too bad for him when she pulls a knife on him. She doesn’t follow through but Oz knows the threat is not an empty one. 

He tells Roche (Mike O’Malley) his wife is working with the other Wilford acolytes. She is part of the poison delivery system that leads to the deaths of the Brakemen who are meant to be guarding the great engineer, by offering them a cigar, the perfect delivery system for this toxin.

Earlier in the episode, Wilford and Melanie have a frank conversation about the holes in Layton’s plan. They are in agreement on the shaky data, but Melanie plays into Wilford’s hand when she publicly announces (mid-party) that Layton has never been to New Eden. Suddenly the train is split down the center again when it comes to two different ideologies. Zarah’s (Sheila Vand) theory about Wilford wanting Melanie back so she can cause chaos has come to pass. 

With one more episode of the season, it is more fraught than ever.