[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers about Snowpiercer Season 4 Episode 2, “The Sting of Survival.”]
Peacetime has ended on Snowpiercer, 879 cars long. In Sunday’s episode, Admiral Milius (Clark Gregg) violently boarded the train with his “peacekeepers” and took control of the engine — but only after Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) opened the unbreachable vault door and let him in rather than allow her partner Ben (Iddo Goldberg) to be murdered by Milius. Once upon a time, Mel wouldn’t have let any amount of dead bodies come between her and the engine room, but like the world at large, apparently, she has begun to thaw.
The good news is members of New Eden are alive, and one of Mlius’ key crewmembers, Nima (Michael Aronov) gave her proof — meaning her daughter is still out there. As for what’s next, well, TV Insider caught up with Jennifer Connelly to talk about what’s happened and what’s ahead.
With Mel’s character arc, at the very beginning of the show, she is pretty indifferent to violence, but we’ve seen her emotional growth. What does it say about her in Episode 2 that she’s willing to open the door and put the train’s safety at risk for Ben?
Jennifer Connelly: Yeah, I think that something changed for her when she realized that her daughter was still alive, and a big part of her that she had cut off and buried was re-awoken. I think it obviously belies her strong attachment to Ben that she couldn’t — even though, intellectually, she understood that it was maybe better for the train to keep that door locked — she couldn’t, on a human, personal level, go through with it.
What was it like for you just to come back onto the train setting after having so much solo time on the show last season?
Those episodes were really fun, and we had a really good time making them as well. But the cast on the show was great, and everyone was very close. And so it was lovely being able to work with them again.
We’ve got some new characters coming in this season. Obviously, Clark Gregg has entered as the Admiral. What can we what can we expect from these new faces?
They’re definitely bringing a different kind of dynamic for our familiar characters to have to reckon with. And I think there’s some complicated characters, and so you don’t always know exactly what you’re dealing with, and I think that they introduce some fun twists and surprises.
One such character is Nima, who works with peacekeepers but has a similar prerogative as her in creating those warm spots. Does Mel trust him, and are we going to learn more about their shared past?
I don’t know that she does necessarily trust him entirely. But yes, you will come to learn more about their past.
This episode, you also get to do a little bit more daredevil work. We’ve seen since the beginning Mel’s always been willing to crawl under the train, outside the train, and now through the air shaft. What’s it like for you to do those scenes?
I get to be physical and active, but, of course, I’m not doing anything really treacherous or dangerous, and have had an amazing stunt person who has made it look like I can do all this really heroic stuff, who does it in my stead. But I do get to do a fair amount of running, climbing, macgyver-y kind of stuff, which I find really fun and enjoy. Yeah, that’s fun.
Before the Admiral and Nima boarded the train with the peacekeepers, was there any part of Mel that believed true reintegration into the natural world could be possible after everything she went through?
I think she believed that it was possible, but I think that the odds were just [too small]. I think that she felt the potential in time, but that when this split happened, I think she felt that the odds were too slim. It was still too risky of a proposition for everything that had been lost and everything that had been sacrificed to gamble on those odds. I think she felt the safer route was to ride it out a little bit longer, as it were. But I don’t think she thought it was an impossibility. I think she just thought it was potentially a little bit too soon to make that gamble.
Another theme of the show now is leadership. Layton (Daveed Diggs) discovers he’s better as a rebellion leader than in peacetime. For Mel, where does she see herself in a leadership landscape outside of Snowpiercer?
I don’t think that she was someone who got into it — I think she sort of found herself in tha [position]. One thing led to another, and she felt an imperative to make certain choices that landed her in that position. And I think she’s very capable, and I think she has confidence in her capabilities, but I think that she wants [to lead only] for the sake of the endeavor of keeping everyone alive under these circumstances. She feels that she has something to offer and wants to do her best to accomplish that mission. But I don’t think that she is someone who, in other circumstances, would want to be a leader.
What can you tease about the rest of the season?
The things that you alluded to with the other characters and who are coming, I think that they introduce new developments, and it sort of ties the backstory together in an interesting way for these characters, and I think, it gives us something for everyone to unite for moving forward.
Snowpiercer, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC
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