Snowpiercer: How Could [SPOILER] Still Be Alive?

Warning: SPOILERS for Snowpiercer Season 3, Episode 7 – “Ouroboros”

How can Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) still be alive in Snowpiercerseason 3? Melanie’s death at the end of Snowpiercer season 2 was believed to be definitive and was treated as such by the train’s passengers, including her daughter, Alex (Rowan Blanchard), Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs), and Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean). Wilford left Melanie to die on the side of the tracks, and her suicide note was found by Layton and Alex after they stole Snowpiercer’s engine and used their pirate train to travel to Cavill’s last known location, the Breslauer Research Station in the Rocky Mountains.

Melanie has appeared in Snowpiercer season 3 as a dream-like vision manifested by both Alex and Wilford. But the fact that Melanie is never far from either of their minds was an indicator that she was dead. Meanwhile, it was Cavill’s discovery of evidence that the Earth is starting to warm in certain areas that sparked Layton’s quest to bring the train to New Eden in the Horn of Africa, which he was doing, in part, to honor Melanie’s memory. She volunteered for a solo mission to the Breslauer Research Station to prove her theory, and Wilford took advantage of Melanie’s absence to gain control of Snowpiercer and ensure Cavill never got to board the train again. Melanie’s circumstances when she was abandoned were dire; she lost her supplies in an avalanche and had no food. Cavill committed her shelter and its dwindling power supply to keep her New Eden data safe for Alex to find. All evidence pointed to Melanie walking into the white to die.

However, Snowpiercer season 3, episode 7, “Ouroboros,” ended with Wilford telling Alex that he believes Melanie is alive. As the Eternal Engineer, explained, after Layton separated the trains, Wilford’s Snowpiercer followed them but was unable to catch the pirate train. Three months into the journey, Wilford detected a signal switch near Marseilles – but Layton’s pirate train was nowhere near France at that time. Joseph concluded that it could only be Melanie, possibly on a third Snowpiercer-like train. If he’s right, retconning Melanie’s death changes Snowpiercer‘s future, but how could Melanie still be alive? One possibility is Cavill found another train somehow; she’s arguably the world’s best engineer, after all, and Melanie knows Wilford Industries’ tracks and resources as well as its billionaire owner. As for how Melanie could have found food and resources to survive six months, this is harder to explain but Snowpiercer likely will account for this if it is Melanie somehow searching for the train.

The truth is that Melanie’s return to Snowpiercer was an open secret that the show didn’t hide in its publicity materials. One of Snowpiercer season 3’s trailers even shows a glimpse of an unconscious Melanie being found, although it didn’t indicate if she’s actually alive or not. It’s possible Snowpiercer does find Melanie before season 3 ends if only to give her a proper funeral. Yet that would be a profound waste of one of Snowpiercer‘s main characters and of Jennifer Connelly’s talents. The more interesting story would be how Melanie would fit into the train’s current paradigm as it speeds to New Eden.

If Melanie does return to Snowpiercer, it would be another nail in the coffin of Layton’s leadership over the train. “Ouroboros” was a compelling delve into a comatose Layton’s subconscious where Andre realized that his “vision” of New Eden was based on a picture of a calendar he saw when he met Asha (Archie Panjabi) in the Korean nuclear plant. As a terrified Layton confessed when he awoke, he made New Eden up. The potential combination of Melanie coming back and the train finding out Layton lied to them could spell disaster. Yet New Eden was Melanie’s dream along with Layton’s, and it was backed by her science, so Cavill could become the strongest advocate to find the warm spot on Earth. There are so many different and fascinating scenarios that could result if Melanie Cavill returns alive to Snowpiercer season 3, and hopefully, there’s a logical explanation for her survival.

Snowpiercerairs Mondays @ 9pm on TNT.

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