Layton hovers between life and death, seeking a truth that could save him and/or destroy him. Wilford makes a shocking discovery.

My least favourite flavour of genre episode is one where a main character is in some sort of dream/coma/fugue state and we get to spend a lot of time experiencing it with them. Anyway, that’s a large part of this week’s instalment of Snowpiercer.

All that said, I actually like where this one ends up going, not least because it’s actually very clever on many levels. I just wish they’d maybe taken a slightly different route to get there.

Left with Pike’s body, Andre slips into a coma, and is rushed to the medical bay to be tended by the doctor. The rest of the train frets. Josie feels guilt at having encouraged the old way to settle Pike and Andre’s difficulties. Till is a mess, fearing she may lose her closest friend. Zara has a newborn to take care of. Things – as they say – are not looking good.

Unfortunately the episode prefers to spend time in Layton’s head rather than in the real world. Driven relentlessly onwards in a wilfully odd version of the train, Layton tries to seek out whatever it is he needs to find in order to wake up. The main issue is that this version of the train is just so odd – it’s impossible to really relate to it, as it gives us peculiar versions of various characters. True, Alison Wright gets to have some great fun as a very different version of Ruth, and Sean Bean gets to play an even more quirky version of his own character. But it can’t all help but feel like a distraction from the real drama happening away from Layton.

And that’s perhaps the point, ultimately. We see, in the real world, new alliances being made. New understandings being reached. We see a glimpse of a formerly trusted member of the inner circle maybe coming back to themselves in the best possible way. We see two individuals who should rightfully be at odds instead reach a touching understanding between them – the kind which shouldn’t have to be spoken aloud but means so much more for having been so. It all adds once again to the human drama which underlies all this, and relates to a deeper truth towards which the show is hinting.

Finishing all that off is Wilford, whose brain is once again ticking over properly as he grapples with one thing which he’s observed that doesn’t make sense. The root of that niggling doubt, when he reveals it, could have far-reaching, amazing consequences for everyone.

Which is just as well, because when Andre finally discovers the key to his leaving the nightmare world in which he’s trapped, he has to question whether the price he must pay to live isn’t too much, not just for him, but for everyone he loves, and every last remaining member of humanity on board Snowpiercer.

Verdict: A framing device I generally dislike proves absolutely crucial to the telling of the story. 9/10

Greg D. Smith