DISCLAIMER: This recap of the Snowpiercer episode “Bound by One Track” has spoilers. Prepare to brace and proceed at your peril.
Welcome back, passengers of the Eternal Engine! Snowpiercer returns with a poignant, character-driven outing and the highly anticipated return of Jennifer Connelly. Granted, we see Melanie as a “spirit” of sorts, but I’ll take whatever Connelly I can get.
“Bound by One Track” serves as a stark reminder that our cast finds common ground in their pain. This episode’s theme is “trauma.” The writers give the main characters the freedom to explore their respective traumas. From Javi’s PTSD following his attack and Asha’s survival trauma to Alex working through her complicated feelings for Wilford and revisiting the loss of her best friend, Snowpiercer gracefully and artfully delves into the human psyche and mines nuance.
Ready to dig deep into “Bound by One Track”? Let’s get to it.
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We open with Alex (Rowan Blanchard), providing the opening narration for this episode. She revisits her memories, good and bad, and touches on how they all haunt her. Melanie (Connelly) materializes as a figment of Alex’s imagination, allowing Alex to talk through her feelings. It’s interesting how Melanie’s spirit and Ben help Alex parse through her convoluted emotions by “talking it out.”
Ben (Iddo Goldberg) calls Alex to the engine, and Melanie joins her there. Alex learns that a handful of train cars impede their path. They’re the ones Wilford let loose all those years ago to cull “dead weight” passengers.
Meanwhile, Pike (Steven Ogg) observes while Layton (Daveed Diggs) and Asha (Archie Panjabi) spearhead a meeting in the first-class dining car. Pike asks Asha to describe New Eden — are there trees? Plants? Insects? However, Ben urges Layton to meet him in the engine, cutting the meeting short.
Layton encourages Pike to choose a vocation since they’ll soon move to land. But Pike, being the loose cannon he is, skirts past Layton’s request. He doesn’t think too fondly of Layton after the latter “abandoned” the train.
On another note, we learn Mama Grandé and both of The Last Australians died from the flu! Snowpiercer continues to lose people left and right.
Next, Alex and Ben tell Layton that these stray cars will require an engineer or two to remove them, considering they’re locked onto the tracks. Alex wishes to go alone. Still, Ben refuses, volunteering to go with her and letting Javi maneuver the train.
Bess (Mickey Sumner) finds Roche (Mike O’Malley) passed out on a couch in the Night Car, so she escorts her former boss to his quarters. Roche and Bess encounter Roche’s daughter, Carly (Esther Ming Li), packing her belongings angrily and leaving her father.
It’s abundantly clear that both Carly and Roche mourn the loss of Anne, but their grief paths differ severely — Carly has an understandable penchant for anger while Roche wanders listlessly.
Roche asks Bess to take him to the drawers, where Anne died. He needs closure.
Alex receives another visit from her mother’s spirit while preparing for the trek outside to the lone train cars. Melanie knows the real reason Alex volunteered for this mission, and it’s connected to her past. Javi (Roberto Urbina) takes the wheel, and Alex and Ben embark on their trip to Snowpiercer’s obstacle.
Ghost Melanie sits next to Wilford (Sean Bean) in his cell while he obsesses over the train’s location. I love that Melanie appears to both Alex and Wilford. Wilford looks pitiful, slight even — a stark difference from the man who luxuriated on top of the world mere days earlier.
Meanwhile, Layton lays next to Zarah’s (Sheila Vand) bulbous, pregnant belly, fantasizing about New Eden and whether his visions speak the truth. Zarah believes him, but will Layton’s lie about Asha come back to bite him in the ass?
Ruth (Alison Wright) buys back her teals for her first shift with Hospitality again. Pike waits for her outside her quarters with a gift in tow. It’s a banana! He persuades Ruth to join him for a date, wherein they’ll share a bananas foster. C’est romantique!
Asha struggles with reassimilating into society. She endures sensory overload, and it’s obvious she has severe PTSD. Layton gently encourages her to take it slow. Dr. Pelton (Karin Konoval) discloses medical records for Zarah and Josie to Layton. When Layton left six months ago, Wilford edged Dr. Pelton out in favor of Dr. Headwood. Headwood injected Zarah with the same substance as Josie — a cold treatment.
Javi incessantly sees Wilford’s dog, Jupiter, the beast who attacked him. My poor baby Javi.
Meanwhile, Ben discovers Alex’s reason for joining the train mission. We see frozen corpses in a room full of bunk beds, and one of them, Shilo, was Alex’s childhood friend. Ben questions whether Alex is stable enough to carry out the task at hand, but Alex asserts she can do this.
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She tells Ben (and Ghost Melanie) a harrowing story regarding Wilford’s cruelty and how he tested passengers on stamina, intellect, etc. He even separated families. Wilford believed they needed to dump the “useless” Eternal Engine occupants for the sake of the “chosen ones'” survival. He culled those who didn’t fit the bill. Alex was chosen while her friend Shilo wasn’t.
Bess leads Roche to the drawers, leaving him to mourn the loss of his wife. We see Roche surreptitiously pocket a syringe and the substance used to put folks in stasis when they’re drawered.
Asha hits up the Night Car and, initially, enjoys herself. That is until the lights and sounds become too overwhelming. Asha retreats to one of the rooms wherein Audrey used to heal those with mental trauma. Bess finds Asha crying on her knees and offers to escort her back to her quarters.
Layton visits Dr. Headwood (Sakina Jaffrey), who explains that her cold treatments will work. Layton chastises her for not allowing him and Zarah to consent to these injections. Headwood counters that he should ask Zarah about it.
Meanwhile, Ruth and Pike enjoy their bananas foster while reminiscing about the good ole days. Ruth surmises he was a chef before The Freeze, but Pike refuses to divulge his past. Layton and Zarah argue about the cold treatments, with the latter defending them. She reminds Layton that she’s this unborn child’s mother, and he constantly puts himself in danger.
Alex continues to work through her trauma with Ghost Melanie. Ben and Alex unlock two clamps securing the train cars to the tracks, but one of the clamps won’t budge. Javi calls Layton to the engine to update him regarding the situation.
Ruth and Pike get it on somewhere on the train, end-of-the-world style. Hey, at least they’re finding happiness amid the pervasive, continuous deluge of apocalyptic drama. Pike believes Ruth should run Snowpiercer, not Layton.
Alex informs Layton and Javi that Wilford would know what to do about the clamp conundrum. As much as it pains Layton to rely on Wilford repeatedly, he calls the latter for advice.
Roche dresses for his return to Lead Brakeman status, and he relieves the brakeman standing guard in front of Wilford’s cell. Suddenly, Roche opens the door to Wilford’s compartment and stabs him in the heart with the black suspension fluid.
Layton rushes to Wilford’s side and tries to keep him alive. Bess arrives, and Layton orders her to escort Roche out of the brig. Layton tells Javi to bring Ben and Alex back to the train.
However, Alex’s determination to solve the clamp problem keeps her firmly in place. Ghost Melanie helps her express her feelings. Alex tearfully admits that she misses Wilford because he taught her how to be an engineer. But Alex also loathes Wilford and wishes he’d die. Ghost Melanie embraces her daughter and gently reminds her it’s okay to miss and hate Wilford.
God, this scene hit home for me. For me, I have an estranged, abusive parent, and I simultaneously miss them and hate them. I’ve discovered that my feelings toward them aren’t black and white; they’re a heaping helping of gray. Blanchard knocks it out of the park here. Melanie’s quote also shook me to my core:
Face him. Face all the things that haunt you. It’ll set you free.
Alex walks through the process as if Wilford was with her, hearing his voice as she pieces together the solution. Thankfully, Alex figures it out, and we see the third once-immovable clamp move. Our engineers shift the loose train cars off the tracks.
Layton returns to Zarah’s quarters with a newfound outlook on the cold treatments dilemma. Ruth exits Pike’s bed and prepares for her first day back as Head of Hospitality. Alex and Ghost Melanie stand over an unconscious Wilford while he recuperates in the med bay. Ghost Melanie remarks about how fragile he looks. Alex sits beside him in silence.
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You could say these characters are bound by one track, which is trauma. Besides Alex, Javi and Asha, even Wilford touches on one of his many transgressions and assesses how it affects Alex, someone he views as a daughter. Ruth and Pike come together and find solace in each other amid their pain.
For me, Blanchard and Connelly’s scenes stand out in this episode — enthralling, nuanced, and gut-wrenchingly visceral work from both of them. If they can’t revive Melanie, the Powers That Be should have Connelly guest star in at least a few episodes a season as a spirit, guiding everyone on their respective journeys.
“Bound by One Track” is, in my opinion, the best episode of the season thus far, bolstered by solid performances, clever writing and relevant exploration of trauma to which we can all relate.
Snowpiercer airs Mondays at 9 pm on your TNT affiliate.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
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