TL;DR – All tease when it probably should be starting to deliver.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Review – Well, Snowpiercer the show started in an odd place, with a murder-mystery at the core of the narrative. I was not sure how it could all jell together, but as it has continued, those lines in the sand have become more evident as power shifts have come into the light. This brewing tension has led to an interesting premise, though it is still not clear if they can pull it off.

So to set the scene, the Snowpiercer has continued on its journey in the frozen appocalype of Earth, now steaming through the former Amazon. However, for Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) the discovery that Lilah Jr (Annalise Basso) was the real murderer was not the end of his mission because he stumbled onto something else. For he found out the real power behind Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) and ended up in the draws for his trouble. However, everything marches on, and there needs to be a trial because there have been murders, and people want justice. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

The way Annalise Basso can shift from scared teenager to sociopathic murder in the space of second is chilling. It is what gives the episode its strength because everyone knows that she is guilty, even her parents that are protecting her. Yet the way she manipulates everyone around her to get out of her predicament is almost frightening. This is when all the tension from the last few episodes (and years in the show’s timeline) comes to a head … sort of. The power shift that is building has its moment when the years of class disenfranchisement find a focus point. You have a guilty rich girl, who will likely go free because those in the first will protect themselves. This, of course, has become a focal point for all the resentment of those in 3^rd class.

Where the really interesting part of this episode is where the two stories intercede. The Tale has worked out that something has gone wrong with Layton, with everyone else thinking he got sent back to The Tale, but obviously he is not there. This forces Josie (Katie McGuinness) to go undercover and strike a bargain with The Janitors (the train’s black market operators) to set him free. While there she discovers that the draws are filled with kids from The Tale that should be in apprenticeships. While this is happening Lilah Jr is on the stand letting it drop that she knows everything about the draws causing Melanie to wonder if she knows about ‘the list‘. This one phrase deepens the mythology of the show and demonstrates the layers as to what is going on and calls into question just where is Mr Wilford?

Unfortunately, this episode set up a lot of the simmering tension and also dropped a sly nod to where The Tale gets its food from but not a whole lot else. It was all tease and no resolution and given its rocky start; we are at the point where at least one of the shoes have to drop at some point.

In the end, do we recommend Justice Never Boarded? Well yes. While it didn’t deliver, it was still an interesting episode. I just fear that we are quickly reaching the point where setup needs to give way to the action of some form.          

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Snowpiercer yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Snowpiercer
Directed by – Frederick E.O. Toye
Written by – Chinaka Hodge
Developed by – Josh Friedman & Graeme Manson
Based on – Snowpiercer by Bong Joon Ho & Kelly Masterson and Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand & Jean-Marc Rochette
Production/Distribution Companies –
Starring – Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Lena Hall, Iddo Goldberg, Susan Park, Katie McGuinness, Sam Otto, Sheila Vand, Roberto Urbina, Mike O’Malley & Annalise Basso