One reckless decision in ‘Snowpiercer’ Season 4 Episode 5 derails the show’s legacy
Contains spoilers for 'Snowpiercer' Season 4
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Five episode in, and 'Snowpiercer' Season 4 threw the show's legacy out of the window to keep up with the dragged-on drama. The latest season, streaming on AMC+, has already been garnering mixed reviews as fans on social media feel that the narrative is getting unnecessarily complicated, with too many mysteries being introduced at once, making it seem chaotic and disorganized.
This season has introduced a new antagonist- Admiral Anton Milius (Clark Gregg) from International Peacekeeping force. After hijacking Snowpiercer, he now wants to take over Big Alice as well. All was fine until Episode 5 of 'Snowpiercer' Season 4 where the protagonists made some reckless decisions which were the last thing we expected from them.
Andre Layton is blinded by love for Liana in 'Snowpiercer' Season 4
Three seasons of 'Snowpiercer' dealt with serious themes like class divide. Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) led major revolutions to establish equality within the last remaining survivors on the Earth. From being a passenger of the lowest class, he stood up against Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) and Joseph Wilford (Sean Bean), and emerged as a strong leader.
However, this season has taken a major twist, especially when it comes to Andre. His only mission is to save his daughter Liana who was kidnapped by Milius's soldier in Episode 1 of 'Snowpiercer' Season 4. Since then, he has gone completely off the rails. He endangered the lives of hundreds of people at New Eden to save Liana. And let us remind you, he is the man who tearfully sacrificed the lives of his dozen friends in a previous season for the greater good.
We agree that things are different now. He is now blinded by the love of his child, which brings us to question the acts of Ruth Wardell (Alison Wright) and Alex Cavill (Rowan Blanchard).
Ruth Wardell made the worst decision of her life in 'Snowpiercer' Season 4 Episode 5
While we can still expect Andre to make questionable decisions, we fail to understand why Ruth and Alex decided to give up Big Alice. Ruth's only purpose to board Big Alice was to ensure that the engine returns to New Eden on time. However, with her decision to give into Andre's request, she has endangered the lives of the newly established society at New Eden. This is very unlike Ruth, who was always loyal to the train, and not to any leader.
What happens ultimately is that they regret their decision almost immediately. Milius takes them into the captivity at his military bunker while ordering the train for departure. It turns out that Ruth and Alex's decison to connect the engines was the most stupid choice ever made in the history of 'Snowpiercer'. Melanie, Andre, Ruth- these protagonists were known for always choosing to serve humanity, even when it meant sacrificing what or whom they loved the most.
Melanie always chose to save the world over her daughter, Alex. Andre and Ruth had similar values until Season 4 spoilt it for us. They decide to save one life in exchange of the lives of hunderds of people, who'll freeze to death.
On top of it, this decision leads to the death of one of our favorite characters from the show. Ben (Iddo Goldberg) sacrifices himself to reverse Ruth and Andre's mistake and helps Bess Till (Mickey Sumner) detach Big Alice from Snowpiercer. Though our hearts broke, it was also a relief to see that atleast there was someone who didn't disappoint us, ever!
Even after all this chaos, Andre still hasn't been able to rescue Liana while Ruth and Bess are running out of time to reach New Eden before it's too late.
'Snowpiercer' Season 4 Episode 5 is now streaming on AMC+