Recap: ‘Snowpiercer’ Season 4 Ups The Stakes Considerably In Episode 7

Snowpiercer has never had a shortage of villains. In Season 4 the Big Bad honors have vacillated between Milius and Wilford, but Episode 7, “A Moth to a Flame”, does away with both of them in favor of a new and unexpected threat.

Let’s be clear — this is the best episode of the season by far, in all of the ways that have made Snowpiercer great since its early peak. And it also ends by bringing almost everyone back aboard Snowpiercer itself, although with some pretty serious complications preventing a happy reunion.

Milius Is Even Worse Than We Thought

We knew Milius wasn’t exactly even keel, but his insistence on being a force for good slightly obscured how much of a nutter he really is. But the opening of “A Moth to a Flame” makes it clear. In a flashback set three years in the past, we see how he acquired leadership of the IPF — by betraying and poisoning his own wife.

Former Admiral Kari Chang is the woman with the extensive facial scars that Layton was hanging around with in Episode 6. That was the fate Milius left his own wife to, and he keeps her picture on his desk as a reminder of what true betrayal looks like. This is not someone who can be trusted to do the right thing.

Melanie Is Back

The good news in Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7, is that Melanie is back. But she isn’t coming back to any good news of her own. She deduces immediately that something is afoot, and later has to learn that Ben sacrificed himself to decouple Big Alice from Snowpiercer in Episode 5.

But at least Melanie is reunited with Layton and Alex, although unfortunately, Wilford is still around. However, he does at least do the gang a solid by telling Layton where Josie and Liana are being held. Layton is able to free Josie and talk Dr. Headwood into handing Liana over, which is a surprisingly simple resolution to this subplot given how much has been made of Liana’s captivity thus far.

But, as we’ll see, there are bigger things to be worrying about.

Milius Meets His End

Just as we learn how potentially dangerous Milius can be, “A Moth to a Flame” kills him off. Or, more accurately, Wilford kills him off.

To be fair, Milius started it. Sick of Wilford’s efforts to take control of the train, Milius leads him down to the frozen fourth floor to die an agonizing death, but he doesn’t account for Wilford having developed a treatment for the cold which essentially makes him immune to the elements (much like Josie and now Liana.)

Wilford catches Milius by surprise and rips out his helmet filter, exposing him to the elements. Rather smugly, Wilford watches him freeze to death, taking his helmet off completely for dramatic effect. It has taken a while and plenty of scheming, but Wilford is finally back in control of his train. Or so he thinks, anyway.

Snowpiercer | Image via AMC/Netflix

A Bridge Too Far

A brief deviation here to check in on New Eden and Big Alice, since it turns out things aren’t going well for either.

As we learned earlier in the season, the ridges around New Eden have been rigged to blow by the IPF, which is terrible timing since Big Alice is due to arrive. New Eden is likely to lose power at any moment, which will consign everyone there to a freezing-cold fate, and Big Alice is their only hope. But if the train rockets along the tracks it’s liable to set off the explosives unless they can be found and disarmed.

So, with Big Alice waiting nearby, that’s exactly what the remaining leadership tries to do. At the very end of the episode, Javi finds one of the explosive devices, but during his efforts to disarm it we see from Till and Ruth’s perspective a big explosion mushroom up from the tracks. Is Javi dead?

Nima Is The Real Big Bad

Following Milius’s death everyone is able to make it back to Snowpiercer. But there’s just one problem — according to Melanie and Alex’s tests, Gemini isn’t ready to launch. It’s eroding the atmosphere and will eventually irradiate what’s left of the world. And yet Nima is almost aggressively determined to launch it anyway, adamant that his calculations are correct and that he will save Earth as planned.

It’s actually Wilford who gives away the root of Nima’s obsession. He manages to sneak aboard Snowpiercer from the outside and is confronted by Layton. Realizing the end is near he lights up a joint laced with poison, and uses his final moments to reveal that Nima froze the world in the first place when he launched CW-7.

While this is happening, Nima is proving his villain bona fides by knocking Melanie out with a gas grenade. It seems like he’s going to launch Gemini regardless of the possible implications, and now he has complete control of Snowpiercer and the remaining IPF forces to do it.

Speaking of which, Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7 ends with one of those soldiers decoupling the last couple of cars, leaving Layton and Josie trapped in the tail — right back where they started.

The story continues in Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 8, where all roads converge on New Eden.