In this video I discuss the things I liked and didn't like about Melanie's flashbacks in Snowpiercer S2E06 'Many Miles From Snowpiercer'. "Nothing's more important than order."
I think many world leaders and important people think that a train 2-3 stories with an “eternal engine” was a ridiculous idea and wasn’t taking it seriously.
I think governments didn’t nationalise the train due to a combination of secrecy about the train and governments thinking they could overcome the crisis (possible in a reference to how current governments feel they can deal with climate change without actually doing that much about it), what’s harder to suspend my disbelief for is that somebody didn’t try to destroy the train tracks in anger of not being on the train.
I concur i have my own theory that the Warm Spot they are headed to is another bunker (A government or group that did overcome the crisis) and that we are going to meet the new villians at the end of the season. I got it from Ashas Wierd behaviour looking at chess pieces and the fact that she acts as if snowpiercer is a fantasy like it wasnt going around 2.7 times a year and Mr Wilfords train as well...
I feel Mr W is more than just a villain, he’s a complicated man, a tyrant yes but he’s has a plan and he’s willing to share that plan, something that neither the other protagonists have or are willing to do. All that being said I am happy they did episode 6 cause it made me understand that actions of M with was necessary to make me sympathise with her as a protagonist, even if it didn’t make me forgive her crimes.
I study physics so every time I watch the show (and I'm obsessed about it) I keep telling my self that the train isn't eternal and it works with a somekind of a nuclear engine
I personally think the nightcar is older then the train itself as we see in Audrey's flashbacks that there were parties there before the freeze. I also think Wilford and Melanie always knew that CW-7 would never work and have been preparing before it was spread. I do think the scene were she leaves Wilford could have been better done.
True but Snowpiercer was a luxury liner before the freeze. And Melanie says to Wilford in the flashback “your working on your brothel” not “building your brothel”. Wilford was probably just making sure that the night car would last in the final weeks before the Freeze i.e. repainting, new furniture, varnishing surfaces and conditioning curtains and making sure that the back rooms were going to last :)
the departure date of snowpiercer was kept a secret and the trainstation was heavily guarded. until the last moment it wasnt public info who got on and who not, that meant many had still hope to get on and be nice. then rumors started about the departure and protest and riots started outside the trainstation. snowpiercer wasnt supposed to go for an extra few hours, even days maybe. but they had to go early because of the breakthough and ypu know why(the rest is history).
You're being a bit too both-sidesy with this. Wilfords compromises were to Melanie and Melanie alone. It wasn't out of a concern for the future of humanity. He recognises the utility of a cooperative Melanie and does his calculations based on how much power he's willing to part with to get at least some of her on his good side. All of Wilford's behaviour is consistent with what you'd expect from a very rational narcisistic psychopath. You're conflating his rationality with concern. Him managing to keep big alice in one piece all this time was just so that he could ultimately take back control of Snowpiercer where he had properly planted the machinations of an uncontestable rule in advance. That he decided to kill all the geneticists when Melanie gave him the ultimatum is also rational, because he deduced from that the threat Melanie posed to his power. I think Melanie could have saved the geneticists if she had an air tight ball squeeze, for instance sabbotaging the train in a way that required the expertise and presence of the genticists to rectify. Malanie definitely has her flaws as season 1 reveals though, don't get me wrong. That said, unlike Wilford who does it purely for the power, Melanie genuinely believed albeit wrongly that a heavy handed approach was necessary to achieve good outcomes. At that point she'd already had to come to terms with all but a few thousand people having to die including her own daughter, just so she could save a bunch of rich people (who are responsible for the freeze in the first place) on a glorified luxury cruise. Her hand had already been forced to make impossible decisions, a few more wouldn't have made much of a difference. I wouldn't say she was ever evil from the start, she was doing what she had come to deem necessary for the survival of the train. Layton taking the train over however, was proof that she was wrong to take a heavy handed approach because ultimately it destabilised the train and her one goal was to protect it. So it makes perfect sense for her actions to reflect that in season 2.
Also, they did have months before it freezes too much that nothing can live. After Snowpiercer left Wilford, he retrofitted Alice, which took couple of months and he waited until Melanie was half a world away to start his engine. So the world is still habitable.The train was running as a “Luxury Dreamliner” years before the freeze- Big Alice was the supply train for this Dreamliner- which explain the docking mechanism (Snowpiercer has only one stop, it would have to cycle back to Chicago if it needs parts). Wilford retrofitted the Dreamliner into Snowpiercer in secret, as only Wilford’s friends made it to the train- NONE of the world’s politicians made it, so the government ofc didn’t know.
It's actually a fan theory that Wilford and the Big Alice passengers holed up in some sort of shed while retrofitting Big Alice, like making the grabbing/coupling mechanism, as well as fixing her, as it is also a theory that Big Alice was also supposed to circle the Earth like Snowpiercer, but that she was broken down at the time of the freeze.
Great video mate plz keep doing sp videos this series is absolutely awesome and listening to everybody’s POV on the episodes and characters is really interesting , excellent work buddy
Whoa, the whole “Melanie’s character is inconsistent and becomes unrecognisable in the second season” is bs. Melanie the head of hospitality from the first season is a persona, an act, that’s not what she actually is. It’s not just for the others, sometimes she actually needed to become this kind of a person to deal with things but it’s still a mask. But now that she doesn’t have to pretend anymore this persona is gone, nothing surprising about that. What actually bothers me is how did she suddenly become the head of hospitality if she was supposed to be an engineer and it’s pretty safe to assume that some people on the train knew about this. Especially if it wasn’t premeditated. Like wasn’t there an actual person who was supposed to be the head of hospitality? And how did she know how to do the job if she never studied for it?
Exxxactly! Actually for me that's one of the biggest flaws in season 1... We got the woman, who is brilliant politician and PR persona during the day... And brilliant engineer in the night :/ It's just totally unrealistic, that Melanie handles with no bigger problems roles for whole team of people with totally different skillsets... And on top of it - at the start of season she excels in every topic people with more experience than her, like Wilford and Ruth :/ At least at the end od the season it backfires on her, but we can't deny that for 7 years she perfectly handled multiple roles, and very demanding roles both physically and intellectualy :/
It’s possible she taught herself the role of head of hospitality in order to be see how the passenger are doing and to be able to perpetuate the lie of Wilford being on the train
In the scene with that old russian lady at the episode, when Till heads there to show her the button with the Wilford mark on it, you can see at a moment there's a journal page from before the freeze, and in that page Wilford referes to the train as "Big Alice" not snowpiercer, this might be a thing to reckon on future episodes, and Wilford might have been trying to cover the real meaning and purpose of the train
yes, mainly because in the latest episode it's proven that he wasn't only a engine making super rich CEO, the own infinite motor of the engine was made by a Tech industries that is spoken about, he was probably owner of many companies, or his core company was based on building itself to sustain many areas of society, much like Amazon
The whole thing about “Melanie is an inconsistent character” is wrong. In season 1 Melanie did things not out of power but because it was what she thought was necessary to be done for the overall survival of the train, I don’t think that makes her a villain, where as Wilford’s actions are purely out of power and control. In season 2 it makes complete sense why her attitude would shift because she has come to terms that her way obviously didn’t work and she even admits that several times throughout season 2. To me, I think that Melanie is a truly remarkable character to be able to realize her way was wrong and give up lead of the train and also help Layton stay in charge. It shows that she really isn’t concerned about power at all. The last point I want to bring up is that Melanie was willing to sacrifice her life by journeying to the research station alone to retrieve data. To me Melanie is a hero and I view her as someone who was ultimately selfless and cared very much about the preservation of humanity. Also I don’t think that Wilford cares at all about the preservation of humanity only about his wellbeing and maintaining power over everyone else. And he proves that when he doesn’t go back for Melanie who completed the mission and retrieved vital information that could be used for the future of mankind itself.
Dude everything this guy says is wrong and I could sit and list why but I just don’t care. I’m just glad other people are also not taking him seriously. He has such an odd take and omits information to fit this wilford isn’t so bad argument. I swear, if he didn’t sound so sincere I’d think he was trolling.
Malanie is an anti-villain. Someone who does what she thinks is right through nefarious and sinister means. Her actions might’ve been what she thought was best for the train, but her means do not justify the ends in season one. Don’t forget the underhanded tactics she enlisted within her arsenal to maintain control of the train. She backstabbed Layden when he finished his work in fear of him revealing her secret. She maintained the status quo of classes instead of letting the tallies be a part of the train. She abandoned her daughter for what she thought was best for the train. Really, Melanie is someone who has a good heart, but does terrible acts for what she thinks is best.
I think another thing that changed her would have been after she lost control and was imprisoned and about to be killed. She was there with the tailies and was being treated like one. People that she had never been able to emphasize with became human to her. She saw first hand the terror her system was inflicting on people. Also her believing she was going to die would be a life altering event in and of itself. Looking death in the face that way can really change a person.
Wilford didn't care about the number of people saved so much as he cared about saving himself and his way of life. The surface level concessions are to paint the train as an Ark to the public by Wilford and by time- he might have even a lottery or alluded to one to keep it safe and at best he saw it as a way to play god and control the entire world. I figure as far as governments go they probably had their own plans that they considered better and safer than the train. I also think the train was leaving earlier than originally schedule (maybe the planet got colder faster than people expected) and Melanie left even earlier still than re-planned. That's part of why it wasn't stormed earlier and why some Snowpiercer staff weren't there yet. People were waiting to jump on at the last minute but thought it wasn't leaving until later. The ones there like Layton either found out about the early departure or simply went early and had been there waiting. Big Alice I think was planned as a companion train but wasn't finished due to the cold setting in faster than expected but Wilford used it as best he could as his last resort.
yeah. I agree. The second season is pretty much retconning and ignoring things left and right - Melanie and Ruth of the first season where basically completely different characters. They where both clearly villains. And both where meant to be counterparts to the characters from the movie (Melanie is basically more Wilford than the actual Wilford in the show. And Ruth is basically just Mason only without glasses) However this season basically ignores all their crimes. Ruth just gets an unbelievably fast redemption. Because somehow all it takes to get away with cutting of a woman's arm (Just minutes after threatening to do it to her 10 year old daughter) is apparently saying sorry and showing only the bare minimum of regret. Meanwhile the show makes no attempt to actually show Melanie have a redemption quest. Instead she just gets told that she always did the right thing and that she no longer has to feel quilt for anything (Cause what's more heroic than cutting of fingers and leading a tyrannical regime against the lower class). Even stranger is that none of the characters actually seem to be pissed at them. Melanie and Ruth where horrible people in the first season. But when season 2 starts everyone forgives them within the blink of an eye. - Oz and Lila get treated like comic relief characters. Despite the fact that Lila was a serial killer who cut of people's dicks. And Oz went around being corrupt and selling drugs. While also dealing in sexual extortion. It's also strange to me how nobody seems to be mad at Lila. Like the first season there was a riot out there for people who wanted her dead. Yet come to season 2 and nobody seems to notice her. - The show completely ignores the storyline they set up with the drawers. It seemed to be implied that Melanie was genetically brainwashing/gene altering people in order to ''Fix'' them (She seems to have the mentality that people are like machines and can be fixed. This might have originally been her plan to get out of the Wilford personality. Seeing how she wouldn't need it once she ''improved'' people). I think season 2 just ignored this storyline once they decided they wanted Melanie to be a saint. - Josie was clearly dead in the first season. I genuinely do not believe the writers meant for her to return. - Snow piercer is much less vulnerable this season. In the first season it seemed like anything could go wrong with it. But the minute Wilford the bigger threat shows up the show decides it's no longer a problem. - I'm honestly not completely sure whether or not the whole Wilford and big Alice plotline was meant to happen from the start. It felt so rushed and out of nowhere. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a last minute writing choice
I agree with a lot of your points. But there is a Season 3 approved and being made, too. So perhaps some threads will make more sense in S3. I too am mystified as to how nobody cares bout LJ, anymore?! That doesn't make sense.
Not to mention Zara and Layton being all buddy buddy 🙄 and where the hell is jinju tills ex partner plus if you do the math it’s not Laytons baby now I get it’s probably poor writing but the timeline does not add up she got pregnant and knew to fast from the time they had sex from the time she finds out it’s impossible we even get confirmation of how long Layton was out of the tail and most women detect around 6 weeks Zara’s on an apoctoliptic train and knows in 2 eps after she has sex I honestly hope wilford stays around another season and Layton goes
I am so agree with you...but I dare to say, I think Josie ist going to be used as Ice Bob. The woman who heal her, told her...we need you need to rest, now more then ever. Because they are loosing Bob. Now Josie found out, she can deal with low temperatures.
Ahh but this is the running problem with the world today. It is his train but it belongs to the people that keep it going. Kinda like big business and the employees that think they run the show because they work there.
They probably had moths before the frees to prepare. But probably only Melany and Wilford knew that there could be a serious consequence to the earth cooling plan, but no one really listened or took them serious. Would also not be surprised if Wilford purposely cool down the earth to get power. So they designed Snowpiercer as an ark train for the worst case scenario (and had moths of time to prep). In the pilot they did say “only the visionary mister Wilford foresaw the future and prepared the big ark train”, Suggesting Wilford knew it far in advance Big Alice was probably not ready at that time yet. It was meant to resupply snowpiecer without having to stop snowpiercer. After being left behind Wilford did prep that train for departure (or already had it ready in case Melany betrayed him). Maybe the people of big alice needed to be in a draw until they reached snowpiercer (to save energy, food etc.)
I think when Snowpiercer was first conceived, it wasn't supposed to be this great ark train it became. I think it was originally supposed to set the stage for a new line of trains to be powered by perpetual motion. After news began to spread that the CW-7 was freezing the, Snowpiercer was retrofitted to be the ark train it became in the series.
What I don't understand is how people didn't destroy snowpiercer. So you are trying to get in, and then wilford haves your family killed, so wouldn't you gather a group and blow up a couple of tracks? The train goes in circles after all. One busted track and the whole train derails and gets fucked.
Why would you blow up the last civilization on earth lol? I know ppl are heartless but thats a whole other level. And keep in mind there were hundreds of guards mowing down civilians, perhaps they successfully killed all of them.
Nearly All of your holes in the "big alice was part of the original plan" theory can be explained, big alice was a secret to the public, stored in a warehouse near chicago, supposed to depart shortly after snowpiercer with the rest of the staff and some extra parts, nobody was talking about alice in the engine scene because it was a secret of utmost importance, it was supposed to connect to snowpiercer within a few years, Melanie expected to be able to outrun them since snowpiercer has a faster engine, so after a few years of not seeing them on radar she assumed they were all frozen, thats why she was still surprised after 7 years
I thought something was off with Melanies character this season, I just couldn't put my finger on it, but I think it could be that the change in her happens so quickly which makes me question it a bit. Weirdly this episode is a bit of a blank for me, I think I watched it after getting home from work at 5am so didn't "watch" it rather than look at the TV for an hour. Nice breakdown though, I'll have to rewatch it now - which will be good seeing as Wilford now has the train.
Shame it's a 2 week wait, and tbh this is gonna feel a little rushed/disappointing if the Wilford thing is dealt with in one episode of a finale and doesn't lead in to a season 3 plot line.
He needed to travel to the main gate (which was close to the tail). I assume his walkie talkie didn't reach that far so he needed to give his Jacks orders in person. idk
@@thetwotrainstheory8895 Still, considering the situation outside, it was very risky to go to begin with. Plus he knew a lot about the engine (so should have known Ben was lying) and knew Melany was probably not on his site anymore. Almost seems like he left the train, knowing he would probably be left behind (maybe cause he knew they would need the extra parts of big alice eventually). But still he looked very shocked and judging his performance though the season he probably didn’t see it coming
I think big Alice was a part of the plan because in the flasback where they are drinking champain in the engine car u can see big alice dockes in front of them tha means that it was built at the same time as snowpiercer
I actually didn't think about perceiving Wilford in this way until you explained it- and that definitely makes me see him from a different light as well! I will say though, some things you point as holes in the plot probably aren't holes imo- Melanie told Ruth in S1 that she left Wilford to die trackside, there was no mention of the train leaving early or anything like that. Moreover, I think the fact that it wasn't Melanie's choice to leave behind Alex plays a major role in her guilt for leaving her daughter to die that we saw towards the end of S1, because she probably feels like a mother who failed to protect her child. I think the way Melanie's changed over seasons makes a lot of sense to be honest, with the secondary factors being the leaking of her Wilford secret and Layton's revolution, and the primary factor being that her daughter is very much alive.
In 2 weeks the 2hr season finale we may see a 3rd train ice breaker because it was this time last season that big Alice came into existence after a revolution of a sort so we may be seeing another train also remember Melanie was left behind so if there was a 3rd train she could take that also remember the fact that wilford was left behind this time she was left behind the story is very similar to season 1 as we have noticed
A flaw with the show is water the train was built before the freeze but it receives water from the ice on the outside of the train if the train was originally designed for people to travel the world before the freeze then how would they get water if they are traveling on the train without stopping for 135 so there is a flaw with that
Seems like Wilford has these sudden drops in energy from time to time like someone with borderline personality disorder. People like that are inconsistent. Jekyll and Hyde style. Also, I loved how Layton referenced Tito's luxury train that was built in 1959.
It is now coincidence that Wilford appeared after 7 years when the world was starting to warm up and also CW-7 is maybe "Climate Control Wilford - 7 Years". Also he killed the geneticist only to have more Jackbots onboard???? which is actually weird and is going against the idea that earth is warming up. So maybe he used a shell (decoy) company funded by him and influence the government in order to start the worldfreeze in the first place. It is also known by now that he is obsessed with controlling everything and anyone so why just not reset the planet to begin with ??
The effort you put into these videos is incredible. Your videos really add so much depth and make me enjoy the show even more. I really appreciate the hard work that must go into these.
I like that explaination. It just bothers me that it's not made clearer. I'm hoping season 3 will explore more of the origins of the Big Aliceans. Especially Sykes.
I think the show poses a really interesting question. It shows us that to be a leader, you so often need to make decisions that people don't like. But you can choose to regret it and try to get the best out of a bad situation (like Layton and Melanie), or you can lean into it and chalk it up to the duties of a leader. (Like Wilford) But the question is, who's the more effective leader?
@@thetwotrainstheory8895 I hear you good point but I much rather have a empaths for leaders so we're not constantly cleaning up a narc's mess lol 😂😂😂👍💪
@@thetwotrainstheory8895 excellent point about being able to regret actions as a leader. Sadly, I think Wilford is the more “effective” leader - so in that sense he is better as he is better at getting people to follow him and make plans. But the worlds he creates are ultimately purely self serving and he doesn’t care about other people. Each of our three leaders have very different goals, with Mel focused on long and short term survival and Layton focused on treating people well. Thing is, neither of them are as effective at leading others as Wilford, who we now knows has deep-rooted bonds with many and understands how to deeply manipulate people. Whether he ultimately ends up leading the train, either way will come at massive cost
Maybe Wilfred told the others to board Big Alice and he'd come back for them? Depending on how desperate they were and how brainwashed they were they agreed.
I don't understand how melanie is allowed to live she removed wil Ford from the train because he was evil but she did everything to the tail on her own choice so they're both bad 😭 like wtfffffff
I had to come back, I actually agree with you in the melanie part of too much change from villain to hero. I got blinded by boredon, because aside from that, the rest of the video is just BS, its a series, simple humans running the show, they don't care about details, nor the philosophy or real science. pure bs, but melanie part you are completely right.
If Melanie said that Wilford wouldn’t of made 1 revolution how come wilford was able to drive a 40 car rattler for 7 years straight probably living only off of preserved rations or 1 AGSEC car but able to keep piece on his engine for this long until they were going low on food.
The train could have not been advertised to withstand the cold or it could have been considered a ludicrous idea compared to what the government had planned. The research station was able to sustain life. Also I think it’s in episode 2 of season 1 many other solutions were attempted. Bunkers, people being uploaded to computers etc etc. So it’s very possible there are other people surviving by other means or that other people attempted to survive by other means but failed. Even today if people had to chose between a train that moves on rails that would fail if it derailed or stopped moving or a bunker most people would likely choose the bunker. It’s also possible the public didn’t know about the freeze before the government and billionaires or that it was downplayed by governments and billionaires. Or or or. Maybe they actually had only a week or two or so to retrofit the train. If they really had months or years why not add extra train cars or something? This isn’t so much a plot hole in my opinion. Also I guess the train was named Snowpiercer after the freeze and that before that it was called something else. Also I am sure the night car was already planned to be there but Melanie wanted to make the train more into a bunker type train. Finally I know Wilford may have been running.... He heard Snowpiecer would depart. He probably ran to not get left behind. He heard the announcement like everyone else did.
Boy we are all lying to ourselves if this isn't what would happen if we froze the world again. See you guys in our frozen slumber because poor people defiantly seeing the train as it is off unaware it even exists.
dude you never got shot, how do you know is better than freeze to death? that is too much assumption. I respect your critique, but I discard it. thank you. (all of it).
I had to come back, I actually agree with you in the melanie part of too much change from villain to hero. I got blinded by boredon, because aside from that, the rest of the video is just BS, its a series, simple humans running the show, they don't care about details, nor the philosophy or real science. pure bs, but melanie part you are completely right.
@@thetwotrainstheory8895 He would need to be enormously rich to do that. Way richer then a single person or corporation currently is. Constructing train tracks is extremely expensive. For example it is estimated that to build a new track line in the Northeast Corridor ( Washington, New York, and the Philadelphia area ) that it would cost over a hundred billion dollars. Considering he would have had to build a track with a larger gauge and make it able to survive the extreme cold I would think it is more plausible that most of the investment money went to the tracks instead of the actual train in the show. It is also stated in a news article in the show that the track was not actually constructed or was not complete when he unveiled the prototype engine as it is stated there he plans to construct a world spanning private track to accommodate it.
@@Spencer-mb6qi Yeah but the trains look as though they are more then double the size of a normal gauge so not really. Also normal tracks would not be able to survive such stress.
@@rathernot6587 Wilford already had the tracks down from his luxury liner, when he figured out that the world was freezing he outfitted his luxury liner into snowpiercer. Of course he had to test it so he made a prototype which is big alice
With the two train therory it makes sense the movie train left before the show train by about 6 years and in that time the temperature dropped by about 100 degrees from about 80 to -20 then 7 years later it was -100 meaning it fell at a set speed and it started to get warmer after 7 years so the 5 years after the show would bring it to 18 years where the show takes place that could be enough time to bring it to -30 so life could be possible and the snow could melt a bit because it’s no longer as cold and the vents could have kept them alive meaning that both trains could exist just they left at different times
I find it ssooo funny ppl calling him a monster... in a true survival mode.... their arent monsters. their are survivors and dead victims... what side would you be on?
Everyone who met Wilford in the PAST ... Love him and say he was really nice to me! .... Even that Hooker got paid in GOLD and could walk away at any time! ...lol
Melanie is the REAL evil one! .... Melanie: "its not my train anymore!" . Wilford: "Who's is it?" . Melanie: "it's a Tail'ies" . Wilford: "What's a Tail'ie?" . Melanie - Smiles and chuckles inwardly. !!!!! So Melanie, in that moment is LOL'ing to herself - over the fact Wilford doesn't know what a Tail'ie is, LOL - The friends and family of the freeloaders Wilford ordered shot several years back when the train first left the station prompting Melanie to leave Wilford behind due to his lack of compassion to then turn around and treat those freeloaders like slaves, killing them at will and using them for the personal entertainment of others. LOL POT - KETTLE - BLACK .. lol