Summary
“Snakes in the Garden” can be a little alienating, but it leads to some exciting swerves that give Season 4 of Snowpiercer a lot of promise.
It has been more than two years since we last saw Snowpiercer, and the show has been through a lot since then, including an untimely cancellation by TNT and a surprise pickup by AMC to give the already-filmed Season 4 a new home. Episode 1 of that final season, “Snakes in the Garden”, doesn’t proceed with caution, instead rocketing ahead like no time has elapsed in between.
This will likely be a bit off-putting for those viewers who have understandably forgotten what everyone was up to in the Season 3 finale. A lot of time is spent here establishing a new status quo, especially in New Eden, the habitable (just) land that Layton led a gang of residents to while the others chose to remain behind on Snowpiercer.
New Eden Isn’t New – Or A Paradise
New Eden exists in Big Alice’s innards, but it’s a stationary commune where the residents can actually be outside, grow crops, and lead semi-normal lives.
There’s power coming from Big Alice, a functioning democratic government council, and a de facto mayor. This, we’re to understand, was once Layton, but is now Ruth. While Layton was a solid choice for a community leader amid a serious conflict, peacetime requires a different set of skills.
But that peacetime does seem to have dulled the community’s edges. The council mostly meets to play cards now, and there’s a sense of apathy building up amongst the community. There is also now a rift between the residents of New Eden and those still aboard Snowpiercer, especially since Layton hopes that the train will eventually circle back around and join up with the community. Many think that the passengers wouldn’t deserve the fruits of their labor when they didn’t elect to take the risk of settling in the first place, and it’s hard to disagree.
Oz Becomes A Prime Suspect For Sabotage
One person who is especially problematic is Oz, who strongly opposes the idea of Snowpiercer joining up with New Eden and in fact, believes everyone aboard is dead. This theory is compounded by him constantly hearing voices, the loudest among them LJ, who as we know choked to death on a glass eye (it’s a long story.)
Oz isn’t the only person who experiences visions, which have been used as a storytelling device commonly throughout the show. But it does shove him to the front of the suspect pool when someone begins sabotaging New Eden’s power and communications. New Eden might be relatively self-sufficient, but it’s still completely isolated and very much at the mercy of the weather.
The Premiere Saves Its Most Dramatic Swerves For Later
Josie is shocked by some of the late developments in the Season 4 premiere | Image via AMC
With so much relatively low-stakes community drama, it’s easy to imagine that Snowpiercer has softened in Season 4, but several events towards the end of Episode 1 kick things into a higher gear.
It begins with the arrival of Miss Audrey, who has been shunted down the tracks on a cart in the middle of the night, is half dead, and warns Layton that, “they’re coming.” But who is “they”? It’s someone with a snowcat vehicle, which means it’s someone from neither Snowpiercer nor Big Alice.
Wilford loyalist Dr. Headwood is in cahoots with these people, one of whom kills Layton’s ex-wife Zarah and steals their baby. This is sure to set Layton back on a violent path which may put him at odds with Ruth and the burgeoning community of New Eden.
The International Peacekeeping Forces
Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 1 plays with two timelines, and while it spends most of its time in the “present” in New Eden, it also flits back and forth to nine months earlier when the Snowpiercer crew had seen a rocket explode in the distance.
Ben and Till go out to investigate the remains, and they’re ambushed by heavily armed soldiers who lead them back inside. They call themselves the International Peacekeeping Forces and are the same group who stole Layton’s kid. Given they caught up with Snowpiercer much earlier, Oz’s visions of everyone onboard being dead might be true after all.
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