#Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Many Miles From Snowpiercer

When a show exists in such a defined space as a train, no matter how long and wide and spacious the cars, there is claustrophobia to the setting.

The chance to see the world outside Snowpiercer already makes Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 6 unique in the scope of the season and a half through which we’ve traveled the Wilford rails with them.

But the Powers That Be truly grab the chance here to blow open the walls on this world and its history.

Not only that, but they managed to pay homage to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in possibly one of the most inventive and contextually appropriate ways ever.

And while Melanie may not wake up from her visitations to Christmas Day and a prize turkey, there is a different form of awakening in watching Snowpiercer barrel past her at breakneck speeds and seeing Alex’s desperate face in the back window as she is left behind.

End to end, this was a monumental episode, filled with exposition, growth, and reflection.

In the Old Time, the future seemed multi-faceted. We had careers, families, personal aspirations. Places to go, friends to see, bucket lists. The hum of human dreams we took for granted. But we were sleepwalking, just one step away from trading all those possible futures for the shared fate of The Freeze.
Melanie

Faithful Fanatics will have devoured the exclusive sneak peek clip posted previously that provided a beautiful, doomed glimpse at the pre-freeze Chicago where Melanie and Wilford built Snowpiercer together.

But the path to survival at the station is seeded with so much ill-fate and pure grit that there were times the most pragmatic parts of my brain were genuinely concerned for her.

After seven years aboard Snowpiercer, orchestrating the charade that Wilford was still in charge, heading Hospitality, and making the hard decisions that meant life or death for Tailies, the sudden isolation must have been a completely different world to Engineer Cavill.

Furthermore, she no longer wears multiple hats. She isn’t even an engineer in this context. Her mission is to collect the data, create the climate model, and SURVIVE.

Wilford: So, with your supplies under that avalanche, all you have left is one ration pack, one bag of sweeties from Ben, and an arm.

Melanie: I’ll manage without the arm.

Wilford: Really? That seems a bit optimistic.

Despite the avalanche that buries her rations and her personal Wilford ghost whispering in her ear, she manages to retain her humanity and reasoning.

Of course, Wilford is the first hallucination to appear to her. He’s haunted her for seven years before bursting back to life, after all.

He shaped much of her life, career, and personality before she stole Snowpiercer.

He is, and was, a larger-than-life presence that dominates by nature.

And her memories of him fill in a lot of what we’ve suspected from his actions since Snow-Alice became a thing.

Well, I suppose you might deserve a little credit. You’re the glue. You put all Snowpiercer’s pieces together! She’s just as much yours as she is mine. And you will never hear me repeat that in public.
Wilford

Ruthless, narcissistic, damaged, and egomaniacal on an epic scale, the Wilford of Snowpiercer Past is identical to the one we have come to know except for one thing.

He has yet to experience loss.

When Melanie took Snowpiercer, she took his vision, his stage, and all the adoration of three thousand worshipful passengers and staff.

And Audrey, she took Audrey.

It’s clear from their argument in the Night Car, Wilford planned on making it the seat of his power (and pleasure), and Audrey would’ve been his queen.

You can’t sugarcoat the end of the world, Melanie. Not everything’s going to be fine. But I promise you, you will survive.
Wilford

What’s fascinating is that Wilford, in Melanie’s memory, is not the Wilford who haunts her at the station.

After all, Wilford is a figment of Melanie’s imagination, which makes him a part of her.

So his taunts and chastisements are her own. And, somewhat perversely, they motivate her to keep going.

But they also reveal some insecurities she has about herself.

You’ve acquired a sentimental streak, Melanie. You were a lot more useful when you were naive and ambitious.
Wilford

She recognizes that she isn’t the person she was when Wilford “discovered” her. Her goals diverged from his a long time ago, and his choices are not options for her anymore.

Layton: Hunger’s a bitch, ain’t it? You’re getting a little taste of what you did to us back in the Tail. Not to rub it in.

Melanie: Oh, you’re rubbing it in.

Layton: Yeah, I am.

When Layton joins her as our Spirit of Snowpiercer Present, it follows that she’s realized that she also isn’t the person she was when she was Melanie Cavill, the Voice of the Train.

The revolution laid bare the dangers of perpetuating Wilford’s Order, the loss of humanity in the name of civility.

It’s no coincidence that Layton appears when her odds improve.

Realizing that she’s not cracking up, that a rat is stealing her food, and building a trap to track it back to its nest and its heat source, that is all Tailie survival and innovation.

Melanie: It’s a miracle.

Alex: It’s Life, Mom.

And once there is actual hope, Alex appears, the personification of everything Melanie dreams of for the future.

Alex is the only hallucinatory persona that Melanie chats with.

Whether it’s desperation or repentance or both drives it, when she believes that Snowpiercer will never return, it’s Alex’s arms that Melanie needs around her.

And not just the arms of Alex, Big Alice’s crew member and pilot, but eight-year-old Alex, whom Melanie sought forgiveness from on Snowpiercer Season 1 Episode 10.

The juxtaposition of the two versions of Alex is a powerful message about Melanie’s regret.

You gave up everything for us. For the world. You don’t have to be sorry anymore. Not to me. Not to anyone.
Alex

In a surreal echo of the Season 1 finale where Big Alice roared onto the scene, disrupting the revolution’s aftermath, Snow-Alice’s return is almost as troubling.

Where Melanie tried to outrun Alice, she runs towards what she believes is her pick-up.

And that was the hammer-to-the-head moment for me.

“Many Miles From Snowpiercer” not only went back in time to Mel’s drop-off, but it jumped FORWARD beyond the conclusion of Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 5.

What Melanie witnessed — the out-of-control train, Alex’s screaming for her — is our future. It is where we are heading.

As you watch Snowpiercer online, do you even dare to attempt to fill in the gaps?

Who is driving?

Will they return for Melanie?

What good will her climate model do if the Last Ark of Humanity derails?

Posit your best and wildest ideas in the comments!

Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.