Bound by One Track

Season	3
Episode	4
Overall	24
	February 14, 2022
	Renée St. Cyr
	Leslie Hope
	46 minutes
Episode Guide
← Previous	The First Blow
Next →	A New Life

Bound by One Track is the fourth episode of the third season of Snowpiercer. It is the twenty-fourth episode of the series overall. The episode aired on TNT February 14, 2022 and then streamed internationally on Netflix the next day.

Synopsis

TNT's: Alex finally deals with her parental figures as a track obstruction uncovers a painful past.

Netflix's: Alex, Asha, Roche and Javi each try to deal with personal traumas from the past as Layton and the engineers work to get past a blockage on the track.

Intro

“	I've been here before. Where memories turn on to you. Even the good ones. (…) Wilford said, "The weakest are those who suffer from memories." "The strongest carry the past like fuel to ignite a path forward." He wasn't wrong. (…) My continuous inescapable loop. Our past and future bound by one track, under the wheels of Snowpiercer, 1,029 cars long.	”
	— Alexandra Cavill

Plot

SPOILERS AHEAD

With Snowpiercer less than 2 weeks to approach the Horn of Africa, the train had taken a shortcut into a secondary track. One morning Alex was waken up by Bennett. He told Alex that there is a blockage of 3 train cars a few kilometers away. Alex suddenly realized it was the three cars leftover from the event of The First Year Cull of Big Alice. Two engineers asked Layton what should the next move be since reversing back to the main line would take around 23 days. The team agrees that they couldn't afford to lose that much time since people might discover Asha is lying about New Eden.

Doctor Pelton found Layton in the 3rd Class Mess Hall and told him that she realized something suspicious about Dr. Headwood's treatment for Zarah, the chemicals used are the same as when she turned Josie into "ice woman." Layton confronts Mrs. Headwood in the Headwoods' Lab aboard Big Alice. Headwood told Layton that Zarah already approved the actions. Layton was so frustrated but Zarah told him that it's for the greater good of the baby.

Meanwhile, as Bennett and Alex were trying to connect to the leftover cars, Alex had a lot of memories running in her head of how bad Wilford was and still is. Alex recalling The First Year Cull of Big Alice that the cars were disconnected in the middle of the night with 100 crews but Alex was rescued by Wilford. Making she feels thankfully to him but he actually divided families and couples including her best friend Shilo.

Wilford eventually figures out in his cell how Snowpiercer's dropping off the clearing crew to clear the blockage and reversing for them to work. He knows exactly that it was the cars leftover from The First Year Cull of Big Alice. He also realized that Javier was driving since he could feels hesitance all along the train, which means Alex is indeed out there with the bodies. The man, once the Eternal Engineer, is truly sadden for Alex having to revisit her best friend as a frozen corpse.

Two engineers have to disengages the rail clamps, which acts like an anchor. So that Snowpiercer could push the cars out of the way easily. However, the hydraulic ferrofluid line was blocked. However, the problem is that there's over 1000 feet of line on the cars. Alex mentioned that Wilford might've known what happened in the car as one of them is a lemon and keeps broken, which is why he disconnected the car. Meanwhile Roche approached to Wilford's cell, dismissed Brakeman Michael West who was guarding the cell. Roche shot suspension drug, which he had retrieved earlier from Big Alice's Drawers, to Wilford directly into his heart. Layton who came to Wilford to ask for help realized that the eternal engineer is no longer an option. Roche collapsed to the ground, Till quickly proceeded to help him. Layton told Alex and Bennett to abort the mission.

Alex, keeping Melanie alive inside her head, think of what her mother would do in this situation. She learned a valuable lesson that everyone'd have a good and bad side all in the same person. Alex had to use the skill Wilford taught her and overlook about the cull. She successfully disengage the rail clamps. Allowing the train to proceed its journey to New Eden.

Layton update the crew that Wilford is in critical condition, but Doctor Pelton think he would pull through. At the end of the day, Layton visits Zarah and Alex visits Wilford. Overall it's another normal busy day aboard the magnificent train, all 1029 cars long.

Subplot

• Carly is upset with her Father all moaning about Anne and couldn't stand strong when she needed him. She escapes from the Couchette and roams around the train.

• Layton started to doubt himself about the lie to New Eden, but Zarah kept his faith up.

• Ruth gets a new hospitality uniform made by a Tailor in the market. Ruth and Pike join briefly to share banana foster together, keeping the promise in the first month aboard Wilford's Rolling Gulag.

• Asha is still struggling adjusting. She's scared to eat beef, and she is not used to the party in the Night Car. Till had to comfort Asha and thanks her for continuing to lie about being a survivor from New Eden. Asha said she knows how much the warm spot means to the passengers so she would gratefully keep doing it.

Cast

Main Characters

• Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill
• Daveed Diggs as Andre Layton
• Mickey Sumner as Bess Till
• Alison Wright as Ruth Wardell
• Iddo Goldberg as Bennett Knox
• Roberto Urbina as Javier De La Torre
• Steven Ogg as Pike
• Sheila Vand as Zarah Ferami
• Mike O'Malley as Roche
• Annalise Basso as LJ Folger
• Rowan Blanchard as Alexandra Cavill
• Archie Panjabi as Asha
• Sean Bean as Joseph Wilford

Guest Starring

• Sakina Jaffrey as Mrs. Headwood
• Karin Konoval as Doctor Pelton

Co-Starring

• Ian Collins as Tristan
• Miranda Edwards as Lights
• Matthew Mandzij as Brakeman West
• Jane McGregor as Astrid
• Esther Ming Li as Carly Roche
• Kwasi Thomas as Z-Wreck
• Grace Sunar as Young Alex
• Andrea Ware as Jackboot Tyson
• Kristian Bruun as Stu Whiggins
• Bella Grace as Shilo

Quotes

Till: "Asha? It's Till. Sorry, you looked a little lost out there."

Asha: "Who I was… How I got here… I don't think I was worth saving."

Till: "No. We all feel that guilt."

Asha: "I might implode."

Till: "Listen, I know you got a lot of pressure on you right now."

Asha: "Don't worry, I won't spill the lie. I can see what an Eden does for their souls."

Till: "If you get that, then you're one of us."

―  Till comforts Asha.

Trivia

• In the intro of the first 3 episodes of Season 3, the Pirate Train and Wilford's Rolling Gulag's running infographic was running separately.
• The title of the episode is a line in Alexandra Cavill's opening dialogue, explaining how the problem would still come back sooner or later because there's only the main tracks and secondary tracks.
• Both of the Last Australian's died of influenza while Layton was away, as did Mama Grandé.
• Big Alice was originally 43 cars long before Wilford detached 3 cars during the first year. The cars contain the bodies of those that Wilford had culled for resources which Alex had previously mentioned happening in The Show Must Go On.
• Layton mentions cows being extinct, something that had occurred in Prepare to Brace.
• Doctor Pelton discovers that the Headwoods were performing gene therapy on Layton and Zarah's baby, some of which was also used on Josie Wellstead for cold treatment. Mrs. Headwood admits that Wilford had them experiment on the baby with enhanced genetic cold treatment and calls them a gift as her treatments are going to work.
  • Zarah is revealed to have consented to the treatment, much to Layton's fury.
• A romance begins developing between Ruth and Pike.
• Pike owns a Pied-a-terre in the Market.
• Javi is shown to still be suffering from PTSD due to his experiences with Wilford while the Pirate Train was away. This includes hallucinations of Jupiter. At the end of the episode, he is once again wearing his parka even though it's no longer necessary.
• First class is now opened again after the trains have reconnected, and full energy is avalible from both engines on Snowpiercer and Big Alice.
• Snowpiercer is seen going in reverse for the first time (other then the Pirate Train in The Tortoise and the Hare.

Body Count

• 3 people (influenza; mentioned only)
  • Mama Grandé
  • Murray
  • Emilia
• Shilo (died in Wilford's Big Alice cull; mentioned only)

Gallery