Snowpiercer 3×02 Review – “The Last to Go”

Snowpiercer season 3 episode 2, titled ‘The Last to Go’, was about Layton and his crew figuring out their next step in their mission to find a place for humanity to restart again.

One of the things I liked about ‘The Last to Go’ was that the writers didn’t drag out the Snowpiercer getting ready to reconnect with Big Alice. Layton and his team talked about the need to reconnect near the beginning of the episode and by the closing moments, the Snowpiercer was already running on a track parallel to Big Alice. The next episode’s likely going to focus on Joseph trying to stop the Snowpiercer from attaching itself to Big Alice. A battle will be fought.

I get that Layton has Audrey and Joseph doesn’t want any harm to come to her, but then again, Joseph won’t go down without a fight. He’s going to think of something to take Layton down. I’m here for the narrative moving at such a fast pace!

Even though Joseph’s initial plan to stop Layton didn’t work, I still appreciated that he had come up with a good one. Turns out, he had his engineers work on creating an EMP bomb. The strategy was to direct an EMP blast toward Snowpiercer and stop it in its tracks. Joseph’s always thinking of something and that’s what makes him such an interesting villain. Yes, he’s got an ego. But he’s very smart and always has a plan within a plan. With Pike, Lights, and Strong Boy working together to throw the EMP bomb off Big Alice, I’m looking forward to seeing what card Joseph will play next. 

‘The Last to Go’ also had Ruth facing Joseph and revealing that she had been the one helping the Resistance on Big Alice. Again, I’m here for the narrative moving at a quick pace. The writers could have easily dragged the plotline involving Joseph trying to figure out who was leading the Resistance for a couple more episodes.

While Ruth’s been working for Layton, she wasn’t always on the good team. Back in season one, she was quite willing to uphold Wilford’s rules, even going as far as punishing people by having their arms frozen off. I liked how the current episode had Ruth face the reality of what she had done in the past. It was her turn to experience the same punishment she had handed out to others.

The reveal that Joseph never intended for the ports (for placing a person’s arm outside the train to be frozen) to be actually used made for an interesting piece of information. It showed that Ruth had allowed power to get to her head as she walked around Snowpiercer as Head of Hospitality. However, I have to say that I wouldn’t put it past Joseph to lie to Ruth to mess with her. I do feel that if circumstances were different, Joseph would certainly have used the ports to punish those disloyal to him.

‘The Last to Go’ finally gave LJ and Oz something to do. For some reason, Oz decided to propose to LJ and she said yes. Joseph using their wedding to put on a show and gain support from the public was such a Joseph thing to do. While LJ enjoyed all of the attention, Oz was displeased by Joseph taking over his wedding. However, he was unable to stand up to Joseph.

With Oz yelling at LJ and calling her out on all her conniving, I wonder if Oz will begin to break away from LJ and Joseph once Layton and his crew come back. I get that Oz’s more or less in love with LJ. But he needs to see sense because she’s responsible for having a couple of people killed just for the fun of it during the first season. Also, her loyalty to Joseph will likely get Oz in trouble down the line.

The scene where Joseph came to talk to Oz before the wedding ceremony was… it was something! Joseph’s skilled at manipulating others by using psychosexual means. The way he squeezed Oz’s crotch and then asked Oz to do the same to him made for a weirdly intense scene. Pain and sexual tension emanated from the screen as Joseph told Oz to get his priorities straight. The wedding was going to happen and Oz needed to get with the program. Joseph had big plans for the couple.

As for the mysterious woman that Layton rescued in the previous episode, her name’s Asha. Apparently, she and a bunch of other people were able to survive inside the nuclear plant when the world froze. However, they were attacked by marauders. Asha’s the only survivor. She hadn’t interacted with another human being for four years (if I remember correctly). Josie mentioned that Asha had radiation poisoning. I’m unsure if Asha’s health will indeed deteriorate in upcoming episodes or if Josie’s diagnosis was false.

Asha knew of Joseph and couldn’t believe that she somehow made it onboard Snowpiercer. Due to Asha being impressed by Joseph’s work, it will be interesting to see if she will continue standing with Layton or walk over to Joseph’s side when the two meet.

‘The Last to Go’ also showed Layton trying to make sense of the vision he had. After going through a couple of books, he realized that his vision had shown him a Dragon Blood Tree. Coincidently, the tree grew in the area that Layton and his crew wanted to visit next to see if that particular location had temperatures suitable enough for humanity to exist outside the train.

I liked Layton’s conversation with Bess when he told her about his vision. As of right now, I’m siding with Bess. I highly doubt Layton received a divine vision. It’s very likely that he had read about the Dragon Blood Tree in high school or something and said memory popped up when his brain was trying to think of something hopeful to prevent Layton from dying in the previous episode.

Season 3 of Snowpiercer is off to a very strong start. Fingers crossed that the pace doesn’t falter in the coming weeks.

What did you think of ‘The Last to Go’?

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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