Snowpiercer – Season 4 Episode 1 “Snakes In The Garden” Recap & Review

Snakes In The Garden

Episode 1 of Snowpiercer season 4 starts with Bess and Ben heading off on snowmobiles, where they find some sort of metallic wreckage on the ground. It seems to be a satellite of some sort but as they radio through to Snowpiercer, they don’t receive a response. Unfortunately, it turns out to be an ambush. The pair do try to run but before we find out their fate, we cut forward to Layton.

We’re 9 months later after Snowpiercer and Big Alice have parted ways and this new beginning sees survivors outside Big Alice starting anew. Of course, with this little community, its been tough going to grow food and generate power – not to mention communicate with Snowpiercer – but they remain hopeful that this will be the right way forward in this new world.

Javier speaks to the group outside and explains that they have about a week before the Snowpiercer reaches radio range. The atmospheric conditions aren’t helping their signal, given it’s all over the place and unpredictable. Ruth is still here too and she’s actually part of the Council Chair too. She’s an influential part of this community, but she reinforces the issues they’re currently dealing with in the cafeteria. Layton remains optimistic though.

The thing is, a lot of people are grumbling and revolting over the idea of their perceived paradise. Given the weather and the litany of problems they have, it’s clear that not everybody is onboard with their current plans. One of those happens to be Osweiller, who ends up in an altercation with Boki while they’re trying to fix up the bridge. Oz has issues; he’s drinking and apparently getting more and more unstable as the days go by.

In fact, Oz is hearing voices and that’s perhaps hardly surprising given he has a tent on his own, away from the community atop the mountains. 

At the council meeting, Alex is missing but the rest of the group decide to live a little, drinking and playing cards. As for Alex, she finds herself wrestling with a nosebleed while also checking the seismic data up on an adjacent train carriage, higher away from the main refuge.

Unfortunately, everything goes awry when the generator turns off. Javi heads out to fix it up, but it seems like its been intentionally sabotaged. In the dead of night, he hears the sound of rocks moving, as it seems like whoever is out there, is trying to remain undetected.

Anyway, fast forward a day and Javi manages to get through to what appears to be Snowpiercer on the radio. There’s only a bit of static but it’s enough for Javi to cling to this bit of hope. Given Josie went out to check on the relay earlier on in the episode, he believes this is their chance to communicate with the other train. When Alex shows up, she shrugs off his suggestions and remains fixated on her work.

With Snowpiercer seemingly 6 or 7 hours away, they not only need to sort the relay but also finish work on the bridge. When Layton checks on the workers by the bridge, he finds out that neither Oz nor Boki have shown up to work. It seems Boki may have been at the engine room earlier on, with eyewitness reports that he left with a big crate of goods.

All of this drama is unbeknownst to Josie of course, who shows up at the relay and finds that the whole thing is in pieces. She brings parts of the wreckage back to the group and Layton says the quiet part out loud – it seems this is sabotage. With the dissent in town growing, it makes sense that some would let their frustrations spill over. Layton speaks to Ruth in confidence and believes this could be linked to Snowpiercer coming back.

“Resentment is a powerful thing,” Ruth says, pointing out that their whole community and idea of sacrifice may not be sitting well with everyone in town. She knows this feeling, given they worked hard to grow what they have and then to see everything ripped away, it kinda parallels her own journey from working in luxury onboard the Snowpiercer, to now being leader of the rebellion groups.

Layton certainly doesn’t regret the choice here, given he gets to spend more time with his daughter, Liana, but it’s a heavy weight to rest on Ruth’s shoulders, given what’s going on right now.

Layton heads up to see Alex to check on her. It turns out she sent Boki off to the edge to get her data on seismographic and geological readings. In other words, to check on earthquakes. The community have been experiencing small earthquakes lately but there’s something here that doesn’t make sense to her.

Boki heads off to the edge with Alex’s pet bird, Mr Sprinkles, and sends it off on its way. However, Josie overhears an ominous sound while up there and races back down the mountain.

Layton, back in town now, finds an ominous package sent on a track scaler down the tracks to him and the others. It’s Audrey. She’s in a rough way and simply retorts “they’re coming” in her weakened state before passing out.

A bit further up the mountain, Zarah heads up to check on Oz. He claims he’s not crazy but he has been hearing LJ’s voice on the wind and it’s driving him insane. Zarah gets cold feet and rushes back to the community, but whether Oz is actually telling the truth and hearing a female voice or not is up for debate.

Back in the town hall, Ruth takes the floor to address what’s been happening. She thanks them all for their help in completing the trestle bridge and goes on to discuss their issues.

However, everything is thrown into turmoil when Layton shows with Audrey. Midway through working on her though, the power goes off. Layton realizes that there’s someone already in the community and they’re responsible for what’s been happening.

Unfortunately, it turns out Dr Headwood is part of the rebellion. We find this out just as Josie returns and tells Layton that she didn’t see a track scaler. She saw a snowcat. They don’t have one of these, nor does Snowpiercer, so it seems to be a separate insurgent group out there.

They arrive too late as Layton finds Roche knocked out by Dr Headwood and a strange trooper that looks dressed like one of the marines from Warhammer 40k. The same group we sae earlier on that sport rat symbols on their helmets and ambushed Bess and Ben.

Zarah runs into them on the mountain but we don’t see the outcome of what’s happened. Josie shows and finds Zarah on the ground, blood-spattered and in a rough way. It seems like she’s been thrown off the mountain and landed hard on her back. She does bring up that Liana has been taken and who the culprits are, but unfortunately she passes away.

Zarah is brought back into town, just as Layton looks set to take off with volunteers to search the hills. With Liana gone too, it seems like the old Layton is needed to try and fight back here.

As the episode closes out, we cut back to see snippets of what’s happened to Bess and Ben earlier in the episode. They were taken back to Snowpiercer, where the leader appears to be a guy called Admiral Anton Milius. He claims to be part of the International Peace Keeping Forces and they demand to be taken to Mel.

The Episode Review

So at the end of this episode we find out that there are more survivors out there and that Snowpiercer is kinda going the route of the seasons for The Walking Dead. We’ve got another big bad to grapple with, alongside a new community that’s been upended and sabotaged. The plot works well to keep things ticking over for the most part, although it would have been nice to see more of the Snowpiercer train and what’s been happening with these guys.

However, by the end it’s obvious why given we now know that there’s a new group onboard the train and seemingly taken over. There’s plenty to whet the appetite though and the teases that we’re going to get the old Layton show up and lead the forces alongside Ruth is a nice touch, especially given this is the final season.

We’ll have to wait until next week for the big drama but so far, things get off to a decent start.