Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 4 Review: Has Layton Gone Too Far?

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 4, "North Star" is one of the more action-packed episodes of the AMC show's final season, with Andre Layton and General Anton Milius finally squaring off. However, underneath the fights and the train-jumping, it's an episode that hits very familiar story beats. Anyone who's been following Season 4 -- or any post-apocalyptic TV show in the last few years -- won't be surprised by much of it.

Though "North Star" features narration by Josie Wellstead, and Josie does have a big development in the episode, most of it centers around Layton. He continues to be the force pushing the season forward, and the episode also winds up making him look like an unreliable hero, which may or may not go over well with some viewers. There's no doubt that Milius is evil, but is Layton the hero everyone wants him to be?

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 4 Is Layton's Story, Not Josie's

That Choice Is Both Great and Terrible

When "North Star" starts Josie's narration, it gives the sense that she will be the focus of the episode or at least that audiences will learn a little more about her, as they did when Ruth Wardell narrated Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 3, "Life Source." But that's not what happens. Josie's narration is more in reference to her strained relationship with Layton -- talking about people losing their proverbial north star -- and she's just a part of his continued rescue plan, albeit the biggest part. It's Layton who is still at the forefront, whether that's in the perception of Milius or in the way his choices affect others.

The good news is that Layton, character-wise, fares much better in "North Star" than he did in "Life Source." He's still single-minded, but he's no longer an outright bully. That allows the TV show to get to the point it was probably originally trying to make: that Layton of course should do all he can for his daughter (now his only surviving biological family), but he also can't risk the future of the whole human race. Snowpiercer puts its characters, and by extension the viewer, in the position of having to question Layton's authority. He's no longer the rebel hero freeing those who have been oppressed. In his own way, he's becoming a bit of a dictator.

This ambiguity creates some wonderful extra tension, especially as audiences are privy to what's happening in New Eden because of Layton's choice to take Big Alice. But it doesn't entirely work for two reasons: firstly, that it's been pretty obvious that the show would pit Layton's short-term goal (saving his daughter) against the long-term goal (saving everyone else). Making the hero choose between what they want and what the entire world wants is a standard post-apocalyptic story concept, even moreso since this is Snowpiercer's final season. What other stakes would be enough at the end besides all of humanity? Secondly, while it makes the viewer question Layton, there's no serious room to doubt him because the other side is still so clearly worse. Clark Gregg goes full-on sadistic villain in this episode, including the pithy quips -- so whatever Layton does, the fans have to stick with him.

Snowpiercer Predictably Decimates New Eden

Season 4, Episode 4 Brings in the Bad Weather

Ever since characters started talking about weather and how it could affect New Eden, Snowpiercer viewers had to see the other half of "North Star" coming. A massive storm hits the outpost, straining the power arrays that Javi de la Torre rigged up and making very clear that they have no chance of surviving the remaining two weeks without Big Alice if the conditions don't improve. Again, this is a predictable story point, not only foreshadowed earlier in the season, but because there has to be something going wrong in New Eden to remind viewers of the big picture and to give the characters left behind something to do. As entertaining as it would be to just have random cutbacks to Mike O'Malley doing anything, that's not constructive.

"North Star" puts Javi in a terrible position, whether it's having to face the agitated populace and tell them that the power grid is failing, or the argument he has with Sykes. Their dynamic was one of the underrated parts of prior Snowpiercer seasons, but here they're fighting because Javi doesn't think he needs saving and Sykes wants to be a larger part of New Eden. But at least they're having a dialogue, and it shows how ill-prepared the New Eden characters are without the main heroes -- as well as the show's dramatic license. When Sykes points out that four of the six council members are on Big Alice, Ruth should have thought of that before getting on the engine, but then Alison Wright would have much less to do. And if Javi and Sykes and Sam Roche could take care of everything, then it wouldn't be so anxiety-inducing waiting for Layton to come back. But that story structure unintentionally makes everyone else look a little helpless.

The natural disaster storyline may be run of the mill, but it starts another ongoing mystery: Oz finds a severed hand, which at the end of the episode, Javi declares has come from "one of us." WIth Oz hearing a woman's voice in the hills and having lost Roche in the storm, there's a definite survival-movie element to the cliffhanger. Snowpiercer has six episodes left, which should be enough time to unspool this new bit of mythology, but it'll have to be careful not to add too much to its story plate so that the subplots don't pull away from the main plotline and the major resolution that audiences deserve.

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 4 Repeats Some Old Habits

There Are Strengths and Weaknesses

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 4 has times where it feels like it's checking elements off a list -- whether it's the aforementioned story points or continuing to rely on narration as a framing device. Another issue is the incorporation of flashbacks to pre-revolution on the train, which are meant to draw parallels between the past and present. Because of the editing and how dark the show is visually, it can be temporarily difficult to recognize that a scene is a flashback. The continued absence of Jennifer Connelly is noticeable, and in her stead the use of Dr. Nima Rousseau has gotten tiresome. Michael Aronov is a Tony Award winner who was fantastic in FX's Cold War drama The Americans, but on this show, he's now playing the "meek henchman with second thoughts" archetype.

However, "North Star" does give its characters enough problems to worry about for the story to keep going. And there are some good moments sprinkled throughout; even though it's no surprise that Josie and Layton are separated, that does allow for Josie to venture off on her own and to free Till from the "hot box." Josie also gets to be reunited with Miles, however briefly. It's nice to have these reminders that she is more than her romantic relationship with Layton. Plus, Chelsea Harris gets more screen time as Sykes, and there's the "wait, what?" moment of seeing a new train track. There's something for the audience to chew on, even if Snowpiercer's course as a TV show is much more clear than that of its protagonists.