Snowpiercer Review: A New Life (Season 3 Episode 5)

Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 5, “A New Life,” braces for the birth of Zarah and Layton’s baby as attacks start popping up.

This episode feels somehow both centralized and also unfocused. It all orbits around the impending birth and that makes everything else feels somewhat muddled by comparison. So much of the episode has to deal with Zarah and her birth that there isn’t a lot of time for anything else.

To its detriment, however, “A New Life” still attempts to cram a lot of the ensemble into it, which might otherwise be fine but there’s not a lot of room to breathe here. All of the episode doesn’t really meld together as one very well and gives it a weird disjointed feeling as a result.

The crux of “A New Life” ultimately comes down to: how much do you buy that Pike would come after Layton in this way? Its success rises and falls depending on how the viewer takes that. You need to really believe that Pike’s frustrations are to a level that he would go on a fiery rampage. 

If this were the version of him from the first season, then it would be very easy to see. At that time, he was a foil to Layton in many different regards. He pushed, needled, and even betrayed Layton to come out on top. His character has been recalibrated since then, though.

Now, while he is still prickly, he has also been a major supporting figure within the rebellion and has been incredibly helpful to his own suffering when the need has arisen. He is certainly the mold of a certain archetype, such as Sawyer from Lost or Murphy from The 100, a jerk that you root against in the beginning but finds redemption along the way.

To that end, it’s also a part of the trope that a character like Pike slips back into old habits. Dies that specifically make sense for him?

It’s certainly possible that it could. The main thing is about how much it feels that it’s earned. It’s easy to see how the ramp up of his hostility towards Layton is meant to reflect this but it’s still difficult to see that trajectory.

A move like this all comes down to motivations and that isn’t clear here. You can see it in broad strokes but not beyond that.

More than that, there aren’t any consequences  for him. At the end there isn’t any bite to it, making it severely underwhelming. He is allowed to let go of his vengeance, a move that isn’t allowed to other people on the show.

What did you think of this episode of Snowpiercer? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Snowpiercer airs Mondays at 9/8c on TNT.

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