#I didn't really say about LJ threatening hubs with a knife but it was getting late and I gotta wake up early tomorrow

[coffee-in-that-nebula]

!Spoilers! Snowpiercer: S03E09: A Beacon for us All [my usual review]

So, the latest episode of “Snowpiercer” was the most interesting of this season so far and this only happened for one obvious reason: Melanie is back. But it’s not only that, it’s also Connelly’s energy and acting skills that kinda saved the day, so ty for that.

Well, the episode was better, but we cannot say it was perfect or even as good as the most episodes of the two previous seasons. The plot issues are still here and the characters... are still kinda off, you know.

First of all, Melanie’s rescue and return felt rushed to me and also I believe it happened kinda... quickly? I mean, season 3 is kinda slow and it’s been dragging a lot, like an entire episode was literally wasted on Layton’s dream - and I still can’t get over that btw. And yet, besides all that, Melanie was rescued quickly and with no drama by Josie. We also got a *very* quick flash-back, where we saw how Melanie survived for all these months. Everything was going fast at the time and the writers acted like they wanted to cover a possible plot-hole in the possible safest way. And that was the question we would all have: how did Melanie survive?

Still, I really wanted to know more about all the months that Melanie spent away from Snowpiercer. I wanted to know more about her thoughts, feelings and fears. I also didn’t want to see that “3 days later”. I wanted to know more about her condition whey they found her and I would enjoy to know about Alex and Ben’s first thoughts and feelings. I know that these are kinda a matter of taste (and I apologize if they seem unimportant, lol) but there was much dedicated time to Wilford’s hospitalization. I just would enjoy if Melanie’s rescue and healing process had more time.

I guess I know why that happened. It seems that Melanie came back only for one reason: to move the plot forward. Although, before I talk about that, I’d like to talk about some other things first.

- I enjoyed Layton and Ben’s interaction much more than I thought I would. I’m not seeing a brotp, but it was nice they had a moment after all the time they’ve spent together maintaining Snowpiercer’s engine and moving the train forward.

- I’m glad that Josie and Ben are not really a thing. I didn’t like it when it happened and yeah let’s say that the fact that it happened out of desperation and loneliness kinda makes sense. I’m still not entirely convinced that those characters would act like that (especially Josie) but oh well.

- Layton’s love confession was out of place. Entirely. Except he dies in the next episode, which won’t really happen, since season 3 proves that Snowpiercer = Layton. Layton confessed his love to Josie for typical reasons in this season: pretty much someone told him to, so he did it. It’s exactly the same thing as when WIlford informed Alex that Melanie is alive. It’s the same as when Wilford told Melanie about the plot-hole of New Eden. It’s just like when Layton told Asha to say to everyone that she saw New Eden and so she did! But oh damn, the writing of “Snowpiercer” used to be more complicated than that. To be fair, though, I enjoyed Josie giving Layton the cold shoulder.

- Bess x Audrey is a big MEH. I mean Bess has a kinda bad taste in women (Jinju wasn’t an angel either) but AUDREY? I don’t really get it. I know that Bess needs to heal, but I believe that she also knows what type of person Audrey is. I don’t believe she would fall for her, not at all, but like, *that* easily. That feels rushed too. There was some kind of build - up but I didn’t expect to see Bess enamored with Audrey like that. As for Audrey... I plainly don’t trust her. She’s a chameleon tho and she wants badly to survive. She got really disappointed by Wilford’s weakness too and I believe she’s been searching for some new kind of authority in her life or something.

And now about the whole Melanie situation:

Melanie starts going around on Snowpiercer only to find out that she’s missed a lot. Everyone has pretty much continued with their lives, Alex is too busy having some kind of social life, Ben stares at her like a puppy (at least that didn’t change), Layton is too busy being the leader of the train and everyone looks forward to going to New Eden. Nobody really cares that much about what Melanie went through and nobody really asks her much about that [which is also weird]. The one person who *really* talks to her is Wilford. He even looks at her.

What’s the conclusion of all this? Wilford played everyone like a puppet, he convinced the crew to save Melanie only to apparently use her for his plan. There are two things that really don’t make any sense here:

The first one is that Melanie didn’t really question him. Also from the promo of the next episode it seems like Melanie and Wilford will cooperate which also doesn’t convince me.

The second one is that Ben and Alex are so convinced about the existence of the New Eden. Where did their critical thing go? Oh, well...

At least, Melanie took over Snowpiercer in like 10 minutes, which is the most convincing thing of this episode.

So, for the season’s standards, it was a good episode. But season 3 is not a good season. The plot is questionable and there is very inconsistent character writing, which is the biggest problem with this season and of course it affects Melanie’s return too.