Snowpiercer - "Prepare To Brace" - Episode 2 Review
Ok fellow passengers I'm back from a secret mission for Mr. Wilford and ready to discuss all things Snowpiercer. Let's get back to the tracks!
The Tailies still have it rough after their failed revolt and are forced to clean up their own bloody mess. Ruth from Hospitality demands an arm for punishment and OH DAMN! plans to take off one of the little girls who helped in the insurrection. Thankfully the girls mother volunteers instead and Ruth applauds her for her fortitude. The goons get her arm wet and then stick it outside the Snowpiercer to freeze it completely solid. They pull it back in and smash it with a sledge hammer! Yowza! That's gonna sting. A brutal form of punishment for sure. Can you imagine taking limbs off people in todays day and age?
Melanie/Mr. Wilford is in her room as Snowpiercer is hit by an avalanche. She talks to the engineers in the steering car and disagrees with one of their requests to slow down. Evidently they need the heat the speed produces to keep them all alive. Full steam ahead. She performs the daily announcements as Layton and Roche talk to the guard he saved. They give him breakfast as they chit chat. They still hate each other and each others class, which is sweet.
Melanie talks to the passengers in first class and calmly explains the situation. She tells them everything is under control and even puts one of the ladies in her place reminding her that on the train "everyone's a suspect".
Layton travels to the Chains and finds the man who initially found the body. He's resistant to talking to Andre but Layton tells him Mr. Wilford made him the Train Detective so he better spill his guts. Very Noir-ish cop stuff going on here. The fellow admits he found him under the grating. Layton tries to find out some more about inter-car train movement for his cause, but Roche shuts him down.
Melanie meets with her friend the chef diver and the Doctor. They are bringing accused murderer Nikki out of deep sleep in the Drawers, but she's having some issues recovering. She's groggy and non-responsive. The Doctor promises she'll be OK and begs Melanie not to let Mr. Wilford shut down the Program.
Layton enters the Night Car. A traincar that's been transformed into a Night Club atmosphere where, it looks like, anything goes. Kind of as if Burning Man was squeezed into a rectangular prism. The club manager is performing an emotional song for her audience and when done, takes Layton to a private area for a private show. In front of multiple full length screens he meets up with his ex-girlfriend/fiance and has a session with her. She takes him on a journey of the mind that culminates with the two of them getting it on in the secluded room. She explains to him later that the murdered man got train perks. The kind of perks that come from the front of the train. From a friend.
At the victims autopsy Layton and former Detroit Police Officer Till examine the body along with a different Doctor who used to be in the Navy and diagnosed PTSD. They notice strangulation marks and evidence of blood pooling. They also notice saw marks on the body and get to the suggestion that maybe the butchers are also cannibals. Uh oh. Beef of Sum Yung Guy's gonna take on a whole new meaning in the meal car.
Layton and Till head to the cow farm car but the butcher won't let them in. He's actually very jerkish to them, immediately garnering suspicion. They later find the chopped off limbs of their victim in his freezer but it's all for naught as another avalanche, and a metal cow tool?, destroys the cow car, freezing all the bovine left in the world. Well at least the last beef ribs in the world will stay good for a nice long while.
Melanie realizes this is a major problem and a tipping of the precious balance she works so hard to maintain. They'll no longer have the meat, the milk, the fertilizer, the methane, or the cultures that the cows produce for them. Uh Oh. And an unknown source of possible disturbance is brewing as well. Layton manages to get his pieced together map of the train he's concocted to one of his fellow Tailies that is working Sanitation. The Revolution continues to brew.
