Snowpiercer season 4

 So after being in limbo, the fourth season of Snowpiercer has been taken up by AMC.

 

 

 

So let's ride this train again for the final 10 episodes in the series.

And it begins again where we left off, with the place not frozen... they saw the rocket in the atmosphere, and set out to explore what is happening.  Ben and Till are captured while looking for the wreckage by the International Peacekeeping Forces, led by Anton Milius and whom also have taken over Snowpiercer.

The series then jumps forward nine months, with Layton and Josie now having a relationship but also being member of the settlement's, New Eden, council.  While Layton is heading an effort to repair the bridge, not everyone is fond of Snowpiercer returning.  A badly hurt Audrey arrives on a track scaler, warning them that someone is coming while strange events that look like sabotage occur in the settlement.

Liana is kidnapped with the help of mrs Headwood, Zarah tries to stop them and is thrown from a cliff, but before she dies she can manage to give Layton a message of what happened and he vows revenge.  In a flashback it is shown how ruthless Milius can be to get control of Snowpiercer, whom he lets dock in an underground bunker in Djibouti.  There dr Nima boards, telling them how his research team have found a way to undo the freeze, but they need the train in order to spread it globally, causing Melanie to struck a deal until she learns later on they want to ambush New Eden to get Big Alice as well, causing her to send Audrey to the settlement.

Layton tries to take Big Alice to go after Snowpiercer, but he will be on a very short schedule as it has consequences for the colony's power supply.  They set out after the train, and when they catch up Josie and Layton board Snowpiercer.  Back at the camp, Sykes and Javi find evidence there might be spies amongst them.  Layton is caught by Milius, who offers to him the trade of Liana for Big Alice.  At the silo it is revealed that Wilford was saved by Milius men and he is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.  Ben sacrifices himself when the others manage to break out and reboard Big Alice, in order to seperate the trains by the manual controls, whom are outside in the cold.  

Another flashback goes back 9 months, even before the founding of New Eden, as Milius and his men find Wilford.  In the present, Milius tries to have Layton and Wilford kill each other, but they reluctantly form an alliance to be able to escape.  Melanie returns as Alex figures out the chemical to break up the freeze, named Gemini, might be toxic and causes her nosebleeds.  It is also shown that 3 years ago, Milius had the reseachers poisoned, including his wife, to rise to power in the project.  In the present, Melanie has serious concerns about Gemini, based on the data she gathered.  Gemini causes atmospheric erosion that at first will create warmth spots, but then strip all life of Earth.  Wilford confronts Milius, freezing him to death beofre commiting suicide by poison and revealing all he knows to Layton.  As Nima hijacks Snowpiercer to set his plan in motion none the less, as he turns out to be the scientist that caused the freeze in the first place, as well as Alex's biological father.

 

Nima prepares to invade New Eden to retrieve Big Alice, which has safely returned there.  During the battle, Nima steals Big Alice but as the inhabitants discover the soldiers carry no bullets they overcome them swiftly.  Nima disables Big Alice, as the fight on Snowpiercer itself continues.  nearing the ocean, the train goes off the rails and deploys caterpillar tracks, which the passengers had to build during their time being captured to reach the launch point.  Nima finally realizes his error, allowing himself to freeze to death but the missile can't be stopped and launches.  But Alex had removed the control compartment screws, making it fall off and the systems freeze to pieces, causing it to fall harmlessly onto the ice.  

 

 

The survivors all settle in New Eden, unknown how long the warm patch will last, as Snowpiercer has to continue making revolutions with a skeleton crew.  As everyone celebrates, a patch of flowers is zoomed in far away from New Eden, suggesting life might be returning an Earth startes warming again on it's own...

 

And so this rather fine series come to an end.  We won't know if and when Earth does warm up again, or how the lives of the passengers pan out, but that doesn't matter to be honest.  This was a fitting conclusion to a series I enjoyed watching and I'm glad the final season has been finished in the end after months in limbo.