Snowpiercer – Season 2 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Keep Hope Alive 

Episode 5 of Snowpiercer Season 2 begins with Bob writhing in pain and growling maniacally as Josie writes a note in a vial and stuffs it in tool bag ready to be brought back to Snowpiercer. Just like in the first season, she’s being used as a messenger.

This time though, her message warns Layton that Iceman is getting ready and Wilford will make his move soon. The experiments continue but as the two scientists leave the room, Bob offers some words of encouragement to Josie, telling her not to internalize the pain.

On Big Alice, Wilford listens to Audrey’s music while struggling to concentrate. He hastily calls a book club meeting as Alex and the others rush up to see him. They’re all suitably uneasy as Wilford quickly asks questions about the book and its themes.

While there, Audrey receives an invitation to join Wilford onboard Big Alice for dinner. After reading the letter, she tells Layton and the others that she can cope with this as they set out to use her as a spy. If she can tamper with the electrics on the bridge, they may be able to listen in to everything that’s going on too, which would be a big coo for Snowpiercer.

Bess Till arrives at Layton’s and isn’t happy about trade continuing between the two trains. Layton reveals that he has a spy onboard and that’s why they need to keep trade going. Given Lights’ fingers being chopped off, Till doesn’t think this is a good idea and implores Layton to see reason; they have their own problems onboard Snowpiercer right now. Instead, Roche and Layton tell her to take a break and a breather.

While trouble continues to brew in the Tail end of the train – namely between Terence and Pike – Audrey arrives on Big Alice and speaks to Alex up in the bridge.

Back on Snowpiercer, Till takes some me-time and winds up drinking with Osweiller. Only, that drinking looks set to kick off when Breachman arrives. Thankfully, the Pastor shows his face too and takes her off to do some fighting; a way to drive out Till’s internal pain and work though her problems.

Layton and the others run into a problem. They haven’t received a scheduled ping back from Melanie and suspect something may be up. In fact, they suspect the worst.

Ruth decides they should lie to the train (“a lie for hope” is how she eloquently names it) which is certainly ironic given the lie that brought them to this very moment. This lovely throwback to the first season, where Melanie lied about Wilford being onboard, shows that sometimes you really do need to lie to keep order.

Layton realizes that Terence is doing his best to try and blackmail Josie and uses her against them. This, of course, could cause massive problems for their trade with Big Alice – and Josie’s reliability. In order to deal with this, Layton turns a blind eye as Pike kills Terence. Following this, Pike shaves his hair off completely; a symbolic sign for shedding the old and welcoming the new.

Back on Big Alice, the two mad scientists begin experimenting on Josie as she does her best to cling to her humanity. Further up the train, Wilford and Audrey continue to grow closer together as Audrey does her best to find out what he’s up to. Wilford propositions her though as he admits that he wants her to stay with him on Big Alice.

He menacingly touches her leg and whispers in Audrey’s ear as she looks on uncomfortably. We then cut back to the Snowpiercer as Layton realizes the plan is going badly wrong. Word from Josie claims that the Breachmen are in danger, as Layton hurries to see Boscovic. While he’s okay, the rest of the Breachman are murdered in cold blood. Boscovic has no idea what Layton is on about, claiming that he’s not plotting for Wilford.

As alarm bells wail, it seems like Josie’s messages have been intercepted as Wilford stands with Audrey at the entrance between the two trains. He asks Ruth to step over and join him which she declines. In a sign of contrasting fortunes, Audrey decides against heading back to Snowpiercer.


The Episode Review

Snowpiercer returns with a really dramatic episode, one that sees those inside Snowpiercer start to turn on one another thanks to Wilford’s influence. Terence’s death is certainly shocking but definitely not unexpected given Pike’s mood these past few episodes.

Meanwhile, Bess Till continues to feel like a bit of a spare part, with very little to work with beyond her investigation on the train into Lights’ fingers being chopped off. This is obviously nowhere near as interesting as the murder investigation in the first season and just feels like busywork to be honest. Of course, it could also have more significance later on in the story so we’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.

Meanwhile, Snowpiercer goes all “Game Of Thrones” on us as the Breachmen are all completely butchered and murdered on the back of paranoia and suspicions bubbling up in the train. It’s been coming for a while and now everything spills over in the most devastating way possible.

And what of Audrey too? Is she going to defect and stay by Wilford’s side? Or is this all part of her master plan? Seeing Ruth make her choice and stay onboard Snowpiercer is a great touch for her character and shows where her loyalties lie.

While the show hasn’t always been smooth sailings, this episode is definitely one of the best across the two seasons.

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