Snowpiercer – Season 4 Episode 6 “Bell the Cat” Recap & Review

Bell the Cat

Episode 6 of Snowpiercer begins with us cutting back 11 months earlier. Narration from Wilford lets us know that the fulcrum is apparently the pressure point and the most important tool in an engineer’s arsenal. This coincides around the time that Wilford was saved from the ice, and this analogy is used to show how one small item can change the course and make the world of difference.

The Admiral is here to greet Wilford when he awakens, and he believes they can work together for the good of the future. However, as we know Wilford doesn’t play nice with others, and he only has his own agenda.

In the present, Wilford has been getting dizzy spells and when another hits him here, he decides to go see the doctor. Dr Headwood warns that he needs to keep his wits about him around the Admiral, and points out that the ruthless leader came sniffing around lately looking for answers.

Wilford manages to use his charisma to rouse the troops in the canteen, but as he starts breaking the rules, smoking his cigar, the Admiral shows up and lays down the law. He takes Wilford’s cigar and makes one of the poor men hold his hand out while he burns it. When all the soldiers head back to their stations, the Admiral makes an example of Wilford, and forces him to head down to the sublevels on a sample run with the troops.

In a separate part of the facility, Alex and Nima discuss Mel’s whereabouts. According to the logs, she left the facility to go and check the temperature at various altitudes and it also says she should be back by now. She’s not, obviously, and Nima is quite vague about this. To keep Alex busy, she’s forced off to go and do some repairwork.

When the subject turns to Layton, we cut to Layton himself as he’s captured by a whole bunch of people with scars on their face. These guys and gals were experimented on and Layton tries to empathize with their plight. However, he’s left tied to a chair when the Admiral’s soldiers arrive carrying food rations. Remember the samples? Well, these are the people they’re getting samples from. And naturally, there’s a little mutiny going on after they get what they need. One of the soldiers, called Wolf, makes sure Wilford is kept downstairs. And who should be end up face to face with? Yep, Andre Layton.

While Layton beats him to a pulp, Wilford has a knife and he stabs the guy, managing to break free and race away. With Wilford gone, Layton’s cut is a nasty one and the perceived leader of this ragtag group, Kari, has just the injection needed to patch him up.

While she works on him, we learn that this was actually a Peacekeeping Lab back in the day. Their task was to try and reverse the effects of the CW-7 but there was a chemical leak, hence the burns. They’ve been down there for 3 years and haven’t found a way to get out. In fact, they’ve resigned to their fate and pretty much given up, with the samples just part and parcel of their daily life. 

Layton goes hunting for Wilford not long after, and finds him locked up in one of the rooms. He’s fiddling around with the wires (a call-back to his engineering brilliance and what we heard at the start of the chapter) and he discusses their current predicament. He apparently did his best to hold back the Admiral from a full-scale assault on New Eden, but Layton refuses to listen. In fact, he tells the guy that he’s not getting out of this in one piece.

Speaking of pieces, Alex finishes her repairs but speaks to Nima in confidence over what she’s seen. It would appear that the bay door hinges are actually damaged. She knows this car has been breached lately and that it was manually uncoupled. Unfortunately, Nima is forced to reveal that Ben has passed away. He also eventually reveals (thanks to Alex’s brilliant deduction skills) that his research means they need a live test subject to test if their compound works, and that involves using Alex.

Meanwhile, those onboard Big Alice realize they’re in a sticky situation. There isn’t much in the way of resources and they need to stay calm as it could cause a riot. Ruth and Till are well aware of this, and the latter encourages the leader to speak up and give the people a rousing speech. However, Ruth struggles to get her words out and subsequently walks away. Ben’s death has hit her hard and she has no words, and eventually this leads to them all paying tribute to Ben by carving his initial into the train.

We then cut to the frozen wasteland, where Oz has gone off the radar. Javi tries desperately to get through to him but he refuses to come back until he’s “found it”. But what he finds is a tent with Whiggins inside. He brings Whiggins back to New Eden, where we learn that he’s missing a hand, and that’s whose hand was out in the snow. Now, last we heard the guy had switched sides like a turncoat, but he claims he’s not seen Roche and he’s not on their side anymore either.

Whiggins is clearly shocked and jittery. Osweiller decides to spend the night with him to try and get the guy to open up. In secret, Oz wants to go with Whiggins and join him, believing he doesn’t belong in New Eden. In fact, he even offers his Nightcar service to sweeten the deal. And that, of course, is his massaging… and tickling?

Anyway, this is enough for Whiggins to admit he did reveal some details about the group but when he found out about Zarah, he got spooked. He jumped from the snowcat with his bag but his hand got stuck in the treads and then he passed out. He was just left in the snow to die and he even had his grave dug. However, there are multiple graves up on the mountainside, and this is what caused the avalanche. As we know, Oz has been hearing voices so everything is starting to slot into place now.

Back in the facility for now, Wilford and Layton form a loose alliance to work together with the intent of bringing down the Admiral. The key here is to get Liana back of course, and with Wilford the key to all this, Layton doesn’t really have much of a choice. However, Layton does enlist Kari’s help to get the elevator shaft open. However, they’re caught off-guard when it’s Alex, not the guards, who shows up on their floor.

Meanwhile, a rattled Oz heads back to New Eden and breaks the bad news to the council. It turns out that there are a whole bunch of bombs panted up on the mountainside. The whole place is rigged to blow and if they all go off, it’ll bury New Eden completely.

The Episode Review

Snowpiercer continues to deliver compelling drama and this week we learn more about the sub facility and exactly what they’re all doing there. Not only that, but understanding Wilford’s place, and how the Admiral is actually way more intimidating and ruthless than he is, really opens things up in the best possible way. The show has always excelled with its antagonistic threat and season 4 is no exception. 

There are a lot of characters in this series now though and at times, it does feel in danger of careering off track (no pun intended) and feeling rather messy and stretched thin. We still have Mel to return in order to help “complete the mission” and her involvement could well tip the scales, depending on how things play out. It’s fair to say that this series definitely needs some more character deaths to ramp up the tension, but whether it will or not, remains to be seen.