Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 5 review: Baby Layton is on the way, but someone’s out to get daddy

3/5

Story: Zarah goes into labour three weeks too early and having her genetically-modified baby could cause her complications. Wilford appears to be on the road to recovery, although shaky, considering that he got a load of the chemicals used to put people under in the drawers to his heart. If that wasn’t stressful enough, Layton’s also got to be on high alert, because someone’s trying to take him out.

Review: Alright, we are mid-way into Season 3 and Snowpiercer is no closer to finding New Eden, the supposed warm spot that humanity can recolonize. There’s no sign of Melanie; we do not know for sure if she died because the cardinal rule of showbiz is that unless you’ve seen someone die or dead, you cannot assume the worst. And in Melanie’s case, we have not seen her die, she’s only presumed dead. But now that we know that Asha survived all those years at the nuclear plant, who’s to say that Melanie hasn’t? Jennifer Connelly, who plays Melanie, is still credited on the cast and it can’t have been to only appear as a hallucination to both Alex and Wilford, or was it? Even Ben seems to have finally accepted she’s not coming back and is getting it on with Josie instead.

This was an Asha-less episode, so, we remain just as clueless as we were a week ago about who she truly is. That woman is dealing with some serious PTSD, but why? Well, we couldn’t get into any of that because this episode was all about welcoming Layton’s genetically-modified baby. Trouble is, someone’s out to get Layton. First, a fire breaks out in the car in which people have been suggesting baby names hung up on a decorative tree and shortly after, an explosive device goes off near the seed bank, just as Layton gets there. Of course, Till manages to get him out in the nick of time, but there’s no telling if there will be more attacks. As Wilford tells Layton, “Someone really hates you.”

It could be Pike; he’s not happy that Ruth isn’t listening to him and leading the people on Snowpiercer and looks set to take out Layton and enforce a change in management. Are the makers dragging their feet to allow Wilford enough time to recover and stage another coup? That would be some seriously lame piece of writing if the power struggle is going to be concentrated between these two. New Eden is possibly where all the action’s going to be, so let’s get there, alright!

Verdict: Barring the couple of episodes in which the pirate train came back for Snowpiercer/Big Alice, this season’s been slow and not the most exciting – a sentiment echoed by fans of the show on social media too. Some of this may have to do with the fact that Melanie’s gone, Wilford’s temporarily out of action, and Ruth has been pushed to the side lines again. There was no news of Asha either, and we do need to know the truth about who and what she actually was. Layton is not the most interesting character on the show. So, come on, let’s move on to more engaging plot points.

PS: Baby Liana does make it into the cold world of Snowpiercer, now it remains to be seen just what the Headwoods' genetic experimentation on her has done to the little on.