Snowpiercer Season 4 Episode 5 Review: The Engineer

A final goodbye, anxiety-inducing plot twists, and another no-show for a fan-favorite character make Snowpiercer Season 4 Episode 5, “The Engineer,” an intensely thrilling but somewhat mildly disappointing mid-season outing.

After linking Big Alice with snowpiercer and being brought to a secret military compound, Layton searches for Liana, Josie is treated for her injuries, and Alex seeks as much truth behind the changing climate as possible.

Meanwhile, Milius delivers jaw-dropping news of Wilford’s involvement in their quest to save the world.

Not Dead Afterall

While Wilford’s resurgence to the series is a shocking discovery for the narrative and how the season will progress from here, it’s not much of a surprise for fans.

After how open-ended Wilford’s departure from the train was, it’s always been assumed we’d likely see him again, but it was a fun hope to dream he had either run out of food and starved to death or frozen to death. However, his death could never be that easy, given how detrimental his character is to the core of the series.

That said, bringing Wilford back is honestly a diabolical decision. Layton already has enough villains and obstacles in his way this season. It feels like overkill to make Wilford another factor when they’ve already been cut down and forced to suffer exponentially.

Undoubtedly, his return is of some significance that will directly affect the season’s trajectory. The ending moments with Headwood performing a blood transfusion on Josie with Wilford’s blood confirm this, but it doesn’t take away from how exhausting his presence is.

A Worthy Sacrifice

In his quest to help those closest to him escape the clutches of Admiral Milius, Ben delivers one of the season’s most emotional moments.

Down to the wire and with the existence of New Eden hanging in the balance, Ben makes the selfless decision to manually uncouple the two trains, requiring him to step outside without a breach suit.

Just like Zarah’s, Ben’s death is an unanticipated one, making it that much more gut-wrenching. From day one, Ben has been a constant driving force for the series, playing a crucial part in everyone’s survival at any given time, no matter which side he’s actively fighting for.

One of the factors that make his death even more devastating is his inability to achieve his mission of reuniting with Melanie. His sole guiding light this season has been the thought of Melanie helping save the world and being able to experience it together.

Instead, he makes the ultimate sacrifice in the hopes of his friends prevailing and beating the evil aboard their train. The least the series could have done in his departure is to allow him to see Melanie, even for the briefest moment, so that he could know she’s alive.

Another No Show

At this point in the season, continuing to keep Melanie away feels detrimental to the series.

Following in the footsteps of the prior season, where we only saw Melanie for three episodes, this final season is banking the livelihood of everyone on the success of Melanie’s research into the vastly changing climate.

However, we don’t see that research developed or acted upon on screen as we should. Instead, all of the critical, life-altering data that determines whether we’ll see anyone survive the season is happening off-screen, and it’s a major blow to the season’s developments. We need to see these play out on screen rather than being told about it.

Even if Jennifer Connelly was overflowing with projects at the time of filming and had minimal time to dedicate to the series, there could be quick scenes in passing of her continuing her work. It almost feels as if there’s barely any effort made to include her character more.

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With Alex, Layton, and Josie remaining aboard the snowpiercer, Till, Ruth, and Miles back on Big Alice, and Ben dead, the momentum for the series’ final episodes is increasing rampantly.

Stray Thoughts:

• There seems to be some tension between Wilford and Milius. I hope that slowly evolves in the backend of the season, either leading to Milius taking him out or him allowing Layton to kill him once and for all.
• Although it’s nice to have an episode that isn’t constantly jumping back and forth between timelines and such, I wish we’d see New Eden at least once on “The Engineer.”

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

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Snowpiercer airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.

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