In Review: Snowpiercer (S3 – EP5) A New Life

Synopsis: While Zarah prepares to bring new life into the world. A series of terrorist attacks threaten to derail Layton and Zarah’s big day.

The Story

Picking the story up from last week. Pike’s bitterness towards Layton continues to boil over and leads to a few arson attacks in various essential areas of the train. While Layton and Till investigate the attacks. Zarah goes into labor with her baby daughter, but the labor is a complex one thanks to the ministrations of Dr. Headwood.

Elsewhere on the train, Alex is looking after Mr. Wilfred who is still suffering the after-effects of being poisoned. While Ben is beginning to bond with Josie while teaching her to drive the train. Meanwhile, Javier has been temporarily demoted due to his PTSD and is working with Sykes who has also survived being attacked by Wilfred’s dog. 

Audrey, who has been downgraded to third class as a punishment for her betrayal is struggling with her addiction issues and gets a bit of a push from Till.

The Acting

We get a lot of solid acting performances in this episode. I was particularly impressed with Roberto Urbina who has been doing a brilliant job of showing Javier’s struggle with anxiety caused by the trauma from being attacked by Wilfred’s dog. I really liked the scene in which Sykes (Chelsea Harris) tries to get him to talk about it.

We also get great performances from Sakina Jaffrey and Karin Konoval as Doctor Headwood and Pelton air their philosophical disagreements while ministering medical care to Zarah.

Overall

‘A New Life’ proves to be another solid episode that further highlights the light and darker sides of humanity as it struggles to survive on the train. The episode closes with an ominous-looking Mr. Wilfred who may well be in much better health than he is making himself out to be. I look forward to seeing how that will play out. Especially given that things seem to be improving somewhat under Layton’s leadership.

Might we see Wilfred meet up with Pike and manipulate him through his hatred of Layton? That is just one interesting question to ponder.