Snowpiercer season 1 episode 2 recap: Prepare to Brace

Snowpiercer Episode 2 intensifies the stakes on the everlasting train.

In Snowpiercer Episode 2, Andre Layton susses out more clues about the train murders. But he hasn’t forgotten his primary agenda—get information about the structure of the train to help the Tail revolt.

Easier said than done—Layton has a constant escort, his partner from the Front, Till. Despite the situation, he finds himself in, Layton must get the required information to his people. All without compromising his position with the Head of Hospitality, Melanie Cavill, who is secretly Mr. Wilford, the creator of the forever train.

Snowpiercer Episode 2: Retributions for the Tail

Content warning: Discussion of violent bodily harm

In episode 1 of Snowpiercer, a group from the Tail took it upon themselves to fight the front—three of them were fellow conspirators with Layton and he encouraged them to turn themselves in so they could revolt from the Front. They are sentenced and stored in the drawers.

But another revolutionary was a little girl, who made her way through the bodies and battle to open doors. Unfortunately, the Tail made it past just one car. And now it’s time for retribution.

The Front wants to set an example to avoid any further uprisings—they will take the arm of the little girl. The Front may look civilized—they certainly dress the part—but they are monsters within.

The child’s mother will not stand for it and she takes responsibility for her actions—as well as the punishment.

Viewers of the Snowpiercer film will know what comes next—a device is attached to the upper arm of the woman, that locks into a window in the hull. Her arm is then thrust out into -117 degrees, freezing almost instantly. When the arm is brought back inside, the frozen appendage is shattered. The woman is in so much agony that she isn’t herself anymore. Her daughter hides in her older brother’s arms.

But the family’s suffering doesn’t end there—the woman becomes incapacitated with a raging fever and the Tail don’t exactly have their picks of medication.

The son takes it upon himself to do what he can—he performs favors for the security in the Front. In return, he doesn’t even get the medication his mother needs—he is given Krono, a narcotic drug. At least it will help his mother stop feeling so much pain.

This is the first mention of Krono on the show, but it certainly won’t be the last.

Snowpiercer Episode 2: First Class Problems

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The speed of Snowpiercer has been causing avalanches around it. Cavill’s engineers insist the train be slowed down, but doing so will mean less power for the cars, causing blackouts that passengers will not stand for. Because even the most minor of inconveniences is the end of the world for the Front.

Having learned of the uprising in the Tail—which was nowhere near them—the Front is incensed and horrified. Cavill has her hands full dealing with the spoiled fools who demand answers—and who have somehow found out about the murder, as well as that a man from the Tail is investigating it. She really needs a win today.

But that’s not going to happen. A large-scale avalanche smashes into the train—the bulk of the cars make it through, but one is hit particularly badly.

The cattle car—with two butchers in charge and several cows—is breached when one of the butcher’s tools cracks a glass window. The cold weather freezes everything in moments—a massive supply of food and fuel disappears in an instant.

Cavill’s day just keeps getting worse but she cannot afford to let anyone know of the losses. Morale could be a huge issue and lead to more incendiary problems.

Instead, to conserve energy on the train, Cavill agrees to slow down the train and rolling blackouts—starting with the already beleaguered Tail. Cavill has a very strange—read: unfair—the concept of balance.

And there’s yet another fallout of the accident—there’s an apprenticeship program in the Front where children from the Tail are picked for a ‘better life’. Three children are chosen because of the accident—but one gets the feeling that this apprenticeship isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Snowpiercer Episode 2: More Clues Present Themselves

Meanwhile, Layton is doing his best to be a detective and a spy. It’s not easy, but he’s doing his best. Especially since he’s surrounded by people with no experience at all.

Nikki Genêt (Madeleine Arthur), the suspect in the previous murder from a couple of years ago—who was sentenced after a brief hearing because Mr. Wilford wanted swift justice—is being brought out of the drawer to be questioned.

It isn’t going well—not only is Nikki delirious from being in stasis so long, but parts of her body seem to be rotting. Will she survive the process? Considering nobody knows what they’re doing, it will be astounding if she does.

And that’s not the half of it—the coroner on the Snowpiercer has less than a year’s experience in the field. She joined shortly before the world ended and is stuck in the role forever. She’s never done an autopsy before and has no clue what to look for.

When Layton and Till go to examine the remains of the new victim, Sean, there is little information about what killed him and how his limbs were severed. Layton has to do all the thinking himself—he comes to the conclusion that Sean was tortured, and that his limbs may have been severed for food. The Tail used to survive on each other, he says—much to the muted shock of his audience. But is Layton simply trying to shock, or is there truth to his words? We’d rather not know.

Tracing Nikki’s whereabouts before the first murder becomes Layton’s new priority—he is taken to the Night Car, a nightclub-esque setting which turns out to be less seedy than Layton assumed.

This isn’t a place for people to bond in carnal fashion—it’s where the passengers come to relive the world they have lost. Layton’s former wife, Zara (Sheila Vand), shows him how it works—and Layton remembers their time together and how they eventually married. They rekindle their bond in the room and Layton learns that Sean might have been a spy for the Front.

Clues like this are what Layton needs right now—particularly after he makes a daring attempt to get information to the Tail. Having stolen a pen and a wire, Layton draws out a map of the train on a piece of cloth.

When a few Tailies from sanitation are being marched back, Layton causes a ruckus that distracts the guards long enough for the map to get into the right hands. Layton is left a bloody mess, and Cavill is furious.

But Layton has a trick up his sleeve—if Sean was murdered for being a spy, Mr. Wilford desperately needs to know what Sean gave away before his eventual death. But they aren’t going to find that out without Layton’s help. He’s on thin ice, but he’s still in.

Final Thoughts on Snowpiercer Episode 2

In two episodes, the class divide of Snowpiercer has been made clear—the second episode eschews the heavy-handedness of the first, and it works better to pull the viewer into the world of the show.

I do feel that the relationships are being rushed—there is an entire season to establish them but viewers are being told how much people love each other. Show, don’t tell, is not this series’ motto, and that’s unfortunate. The film let the relationships blossom organically—which made pivotal character moments that much more powerful.

The second episode revealed another glaring issue with the show—Daveed Diggs is having to do the heavy-lifting in terms of representation. The majority of the cast is overwhelmingly white, and even tertiary characters introduced in this installment failed to cover the many ethnicities of the world.

Hopefully, as Layton sees more of the train, more representative individuals will emerge.

What did you think of Snowpiercer Episode 2? Do you think Layton is closing in on the actual killer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Snowpiercer is currently airing weekly episodes on TNT.