Summer Streamin' 24 - Snowpiercer - Season 4/Series Finale

Snowpiercer has now concluded after a decent four season run on TNT, AMC and internationally on Netflix.

Based on both the 2013 film of the same name, directed by Bong Joon-ho, and the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, from which the film was adapted.

Starring a solid TV ensemble cast across the four seasons including, Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Iddo Goldberg, Susan Park, Katie McGuinness, Sam Otto, Sheila Vand, Mike O'Malley, Annalise Basso, Jaylin Fletcher, Lena Hall, Roberto Urbina. Steven Ogg, Rowan Blanchard, with Clark Gregg & Michael Aronov joining the cast for the fourth season.

Back in January 2023, it was announced that the fourth season would not air on TNT and was in the process of moving elsewhere. Finally by March 2024, it was announced that AMC had picked up the fourth and final season which premiered back in July, concluding last month.

The final season revolves around the rocket launch proving to be a trap and Snowpiercer is hijacked by soldiers from the International Peacekeeping Forces led by Admiral Anton Milius. 

The train is brought to the Silo, a military bunker in Djibouti, where Doctor Nima Rousseau reveals to Melanie that his research team has developed a compound called Gemini that will cause CW-7 to break up and end the Freeze. 

Nima's research is the source of New Eden's warm spot, but he requires Snowpiercer to spread Gemini around the world. Melanie agrees to retrofit the train and work on the project, but Milius and the IPF turn Snowpiercer into a virtual labor camp for the passengers.

Nine months later, New Eden has become a thriving community led by Ruth Wardell, Layton having stepped down in favor of a democratically elected town council. However, the peace is shattered by the kidnapping of Layton's daughter Liana by the IPF and the murder of his ex-wife Zarah. 

With the support of the people, Layton takes Big Alice after Snowpiercer, leading to Layton and his girlfriend Josie being taken captive at the Silo where Wilford is revealed to be the mastermind behind Liana's kidnapping. 

After his allies escape with Big Alice and a number of rescued Snowpiercer passengers, Layton forms a reluctant alliance with Wilford to rescue Liana and take down Milius. In a final confrontation with Layton, Wilford kills himself, but not before revealing that Nima is the one who had created CW-7 and caused the Freeze. At the same time, the people of New Eden investigate a series of strange happenings, including the disappearance of Sam Roche, finding a severed hand in the hills and the Snowpiercer passenger it belongs to, ghostly voices heard by Oz in the mountains, and finally the revelation that the IPF has planted bombs to bury the town. 

Roche later reappears just in time to rescue Layton's family, having been captured by the IPF before managing to escape.

Nima takes control of Snowpiercer, ignoring Melanie's warnings that her data reveals that Gemini will cause atmospheric erosion and bring an end to all of the remaining life on the planet. Needing Big Alice in order to launch his rocket Icebreaker, Nima lays siege to New Eden. 

Although Nima succeeds in stealing the train at great cost, Layton and many New Eden residents board Snowpiercer in turn and foil Nima's attempts to bury the town in an avalanche. Inciting a rebellion amongst the remaining passengers, Layton, Melanie and their allies confront Nima in a final battle for the future of the planet. Although Nima realizes the error of his ways too late to stop the rocket launch, Alex's sabotage of Icebreaker prevents an apocalyptic disaster.

Afterwards, everyone decides to settle at New Eden, although it's unknown how long the warm spot will last for with data suggesting that it may not be viable forever due to the damage that Gemini did to the atmosphere while creating it. As everyone celebrates, a patch of flowers is shown growing on a distant mountainside, suggesting that the Earth is already warming on its own and life is returning to the planet.

In the finale, finale titled Last Stop, Nima abandons Big Alice after removing the helm controls, leaving Melanie & Alex unable to use it to stop him. 

Layton's forces fight through the train and Ruth is captured and taken to Nima who offers to surrender Big Alice once Gemini has been launched if Ruth will help him to restore order. Instead, Ruth escapes with the help of Z-Wreck and Sykes and rallies the remaining passengers into a rebellion. 

Headwood is able to revive Rat, but Layton finally kills him with Boki's help. A vengeful Josie confronts Headwood, but can't bring herself to kill the mad scientist, regaining her compassion after recognising the other woman's own grief and trauma. 

Now equipped with caterpillar tracks to travel across the ocean, Snowpiercer reaches the launch point. Finally realising his errors too late, Nima allows himself to freeze to death, but the launch of Icebreaker fails due to sabotage by Alex. 

Reclaiming the train, everyone travels to New Eden where they decide to settle permanently, although it is unknown how long the warm spot will last for. For the time being, Snowpiercer will have to continue its revolutions in a limited capacity until it can be retrofitted to help power the town. As everyone celebrates, a patch of flowers is shown growing far away from New Eden, suggesting that the Earth is warming on its own and life is returning to the planet.

The flowers at the end of the episode look so fake, that it is a shame that was the last we see of Snowpiercer.

It was a decent, action-packed fourth season with the final two episodes definitely be the best of the season.

I am not 100% it needed an entire season, a TV movie could have summed up a lot of the plot from some of the middle filler episodes.

First starting deep in the COVID days, this show has seen me through around five years of TV series. From first discovering when there was nothing else to watch, to a time when TV is back in mass production.

Speaking of, next week has a pile of finales. Only Murders in the Building, Teacup, Grotesquerie and I might even finish Thou Shalt Not Steal on Stan. So until then. Laters!