Snowpiercer takes one last ride

Snowpiercer's fourth season was saving the best for last as the series finale, "Last Stop," brought out an action-packed and emotional final episode. It is a rush against time as Layton, Melanie, Alex, Ruth, and their friends must band together to try and stop Nima's plan from coming to fruition.

"Last Stop" is a culmination of everything Snowpiercer has worked toward since the beginning, from Layton leading the charge with the shout of "One Train!" to Melanie's return to the microphone to the determination to have a place to call home. The series finale also puts a focal point on some of the show's most significant relationships.

The mother-daughter dynamic between Melanie and Alex has been one of the most interesting the show has had to offer since their initial reunion in season two. Allowing them to spend plenty of time together in the series finale shows how far they have come since the second season, especially when a part of their conversation steers toward the unresolved and frustrating grief that Alex has toward Wilford's death, and how the removal of Big Alice's engine feels like another gut punch to Alex's childhood.

Rather than trying to force Alex to hurry up, Melanie is understanding and allows her and Alex to have a meaningful conversation, even when they are technically on a time crunch. Still, the pacing of their talk feels necessary to allow Alex and Melanie to highlight recent events and give into the possibility that they might not be saving Big Alice, but they can still save the world, and ultimately, Melanie knew that Alex, for as much as she may have loved this engine, could not prioritize it over the helping save the human race.

For as much as Melanie has always been the go-to person in regard to scientific necessity on Snowpiercer, it is the callbacks to Alex's intelligence that change the game in the series finale. Nima and Melanie have both referenced Alex's brilliance and creative thinking, something that comes in handy just before Nima launches the rocket that will, supposedly, bring about the world's doom.

Even though Melanie is not able to talk Nima out of his plans and Layton and his group are unable to get there in time, it is Alex's realization that removing a single piece of Nima's design could prevent his plan.

The decision to choose a more subtle, slide-of-hand technique to save the Earth allows for the stakes of Snowpiercer to remain in place, as Alex had not told anyone of her plan, and she saves her surprise plot twist reveal until after the rocket goes down and proves her plan worked.

There is still surprise as Nima chooses to die seeing his rocket launch, rather than choosing to live to see if it worked. There is still a sense of fear as Layton begs for a hail mary that could stop the rocket remotely. All of this works because of Snowpiercer's decision to allow the audience to believe that Nima has succeeded.

Otherwise, Layton and Melanie's time spent together is filled with mutual understanding and history. They even look back on Layton's original revolution on Snowpiercer with fond memories in the face of, once again, needing to rush down the train cars.

In the end, Snowpiercer avoids taking the lives of any of the show's remaining long-time characters. There are no last-minute deaths in the face of war, and everyone gets to return home to New Eden and kickstart the newest version of survival.

This is an end that allows for a greater sense of peace among the main characters. While they are still uncertain of how long their bubble of warmth will hold, they are in no rush to conduct experiments. Instead, they are taking it one day at a time, creating their new government and enjoying what living outside can offer.

Snowpiercer's conclusion is exactly what this show needed it to be. There are certainly some loose ends, but they exist in the fashion that the journey of these characters will continue off-screen. Although the survivors may not know it, a final tease of a growing flower portrays the growth of hope that the world is healing, growing warmer, and that everyone will be okay.