Snowpiercer 3×10 Review – “The Original Sinners”

The Season 3 finale of Snowpiercer, titled ‘The Original Sinners’, offered a predictable solution to Layton vs Melanie as the two decided how to save humanity.

I have to say that as a whole, Snowpiercer Season 3 wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous two seasons. The pacing felt a bit off and certain character arcs were ignored. I think the third season should have been shorter. Certain storylines were dragged just to reach that 10-episode mark. But oh well, it is what it is. Here’s to hoping the fourth season offers something better.

‘The Original Sinners’ opened with a double narration from Layton and Melanie as they thought about their roles as leaders. Both of them had ended up lying to the passengers they were supposed to take care of. Their intentions involved keeping everyone safe, but they still lied big time. Now both powerful personalities were at an impasse. I liked what Layton said about how the fate of humanity couldn’t be decided without some kind of war.

The finale had Melanie and Layton trying to gain support for their respective causes. Melanie, not trusting the science Layton and his crew had collected, wanted everyone to remain on the train before more concrete scientific conclusions could be reached. Layton, on the other hand, wanted to take the chance and lead the people to New Eden even if the track to the Horn of Africa was dangerous.

I understood where Layton was coming from. As a Tailie, he knew how dark things could get. The Tailies had been trying to survive on severely limited resources for years. For them, the slightest chance of being able to leave the train, no matter how risky, triumphed continuing to live on scraps. With Layton gaining the full support of the Tailies, they were ready to fight to the death to reach New Eden.

Melanie tried to get Ruth to stay with her, but Ruth refused. Ruth had put in a lot of effort to redeem herself. She wasn’t going to fall into her old ways during such a time. I always liked Ruth being part of Layton’s team, and I was glad she didn’t stay around with Melanie even though the two were friends.

With Melanie needing support, she decided to form an alliance with Joseph. Even Ruth called her out on such a decision. But desperate times called for desperate measures. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when Melanie shared her terms and conditions with Joseph. The way Melanie thought Joseph could be trusted was kind of laughable. Joseph’s all about creating chaos if he’s not in control of the train, even if it meant he would be the last person remaining inside Snowpiercer.

One of the things I was looking forward to was Joseph’s reaction after he realized that Audrey had moved on from him and was in a relationship with Bess. We did get a quick scene involving Audrey saying no to Joseph’s request to play the piano. However, the writers didn’t do much with those two after that. I really wanted to see Joseph throw a tantrum and verbally attack Audrey for choosing someone like Bess over him.

‘The Original Sinners’ made it clear that no one would know peace unless Joseph was taken off board. I’m glad Melanie realized that, too, and worked with Layton to have Joseph exiled from the train. I still have no idea why they didn’t just outright kill him, though. Joseph’s going to appear again to cause trouble down the line. I have a feeling he’s somehow involved in the missile (which I’ll get to in a bit) Melanie saw during the final seconds of the episode.

As for the predictable solution to the conflict between Layton and Melanie, I think many fans had theorized that Snowpiercer and Big Alice would separate again. That’s exactly what happened in the finale. Layton and Melanie allowed the passengers to make their own decisions. People were free to leave with Layton to New Eden on Big Alice or remain on Snowpiercer with Melanie.

While the resolution was predictable, I was surprised by Bess deciding at the last moment to remain on Snowpiercer so she could be with Audrey. I really thought she was going to keep being part of Layton’s crew. I’m looking forward to seeing what the writing team decides to do with Bess in the greenlit Season 4 because she really didn’t have much to do this time around.

Talking about relationships, Josie and Layton decided to become a couple. Good for them! However, I was sad to see Miles deciding to stay on Snowpiercer because he wanted to become a better Engineer by learning from Ben and Melanie. Similar to Bess, I hope Miles gets a bigger role in Season 4. He’s supposed to be very close to Layton and Josie, but we really didn’t get to see that during the current season.

Alex’s farewell to Melanie was kind of nice. There was no way Alex wasn’t going to New Eden. Let’s see how her friendship with Carly will progress. I won’t be surprised if the two become a romantic couple down the line.

The goodbye that didn’t elicit any kind of emotional response from me was between LJ and Oz. The writers really couldn’t make me feel for those two as a married couple and I’m glad Oz found the strength to walk away from such a relationship. As for LJ choking on her late father’s fake eyeball, I’m not sure if she’s actually dead. While I didn’t like LJ as a character, I do feel having her die in such a manner would be a waste.

Anyway, with Layton and the rest of the passengers on Big Alice reaching New Eden, I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of community they will create off the train. Are there already people living in the area? Hmmm.

As for the big cliffhanger, we got a three months time jump to see Melanie noticing (from a distance) a missile being shot toward the sky and exploding. At this point, I feel that the missile was launched by Joseph because he wanted to prevent the weather from growing warmer and basically mess with Layton and his people in New Eden. But I could be wrong.

Perhaps there’s someone out there who had been occasionally shooting weather-changing missiles at the sky to make the Earth warmer and that’s why New Eden was able to exist?

I have to say that while I found Season 3 of Snowpiercer to be a bit lacking, the cliffhanger’s got me intrigued for the fourth installment!

Other thoughts and opinions:

• The mystery person Dr. Headwood had been treating was revealed to be Boki.
• I was worried about Ruth trying to face an altered Boki on her own. It’s a good thing she had a plan.
• Dr. Headwood and Boki going to New Eden with Layton could lead to something quite interesting as far as Dr. Headwood’s experiments are concerned.
• Oz needs to find himself a nice man to settle down with.
• Ugh!!! At Zarah having private conversations with Joseph.

What did you think of ‘The Original Sinners’? Are you excited about Snowpiercer Season 4?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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