Josie Wellstead

Josie Wellstead is a main character on TNT's Snowpiercer. She is portrayed by Katie McGuinness.

She is a strong, no-nonsense woman who lives in poverty at the tail of the train. Josie's downfall at the hands of Melanie Cavill is a mere example of the extreme lengths Cavill will go to protect her secret.

History

Pre-Series

Josie was a vet before The Freeze.

Season 1

Josie is first presented as one of the leaders among the Tail along with Andre Layton. When Andre is taken upfront to solve Sean Wise's murder, however, she receives backlash from the Tailies as they believe they have been betrayed by Layton.

Despite the revolt against her in the Tail, she remained an integral part of the revolution and actively engages when the planning was in process. She further participated when Pike ordered that the revolution was to go ahead. Following this, she was happy to see that Layton had not betrayed the Tail, but was actually working uptrain to gather blueprints and other information that would aid in their revolution.

Using an access chip passed to her by Layton, Josie moves around the train undetected during sanitation work hours. She speaks with Astrid about Layton and is told that he has solved the murder but not yet returned to the tail. Josie becomes worried when nobody is able to locate Layton and suspects that he has been suspended within the drawers. She actively goes looking for him and finds him in one of the drawers but is caught by John Osweiller. Luckily, Bess Till knocks Oz unconscious long enough for Josie to escape with Layton and seek refuge with Zarah Ferami.^[1]

After learning that Miles has been selected as Melanie's newest engineer apprentice, she poisons him to give him updates on the rebellion. Later, she is outed by Zarah for helping Layton, and Melanie arrests and interrogates her. Realising Josie is unwilling to reveal any information, Melanie proceeded to freeze her finger with a hose before promptly smashing it with a hammer. After getting help from Bess, Josie broke free of her handcuffs and fought Melanie in the interrogation room. However, during the fight, she accidentally disconnected the hose, and frozen vapor from outside leaked into the room. After a quick fight in which Josie tried to strangle Melanie, the latter gained the upper hand and broke free, running out of the room and locking the door. Soon after, Josie was frozen to the death by the dry ice leaking into the room. Her corpse was then fed into the compost system on Snowpiercer.^[2]

Season 2

Personality

Josie is head-strong and believes in the Tail rebellion. She is also persistent in keeping secrets.

Relationships

Miles

Miles is Josie's foster son. They have a close mother-son relationship.

Andre Layton

Josie seems to be romantically involved with Andre, as first seen in First, the Weather Changed. The two kiss each other in Access Is Power as a way for her to get the Access Chip. In Justice Never Boarded she gets him out of the Drawers and brings him to Zarah Ferami to hide, after Bess Till helped them escape. She and Layton both have sex with each other for the first time in Trouble Comes Sideways.