WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Snowpiercer Season 2, Episode 2, "Smolder to Life."
Snowpiercer's second season has thrown the Great Engine into a state of perpetual turmoil with Sean Bean's Mr. Wilford trying to get his ark back. Now that Big Alice is attached to it, giving him physical control of the 1,034 cars combined, the next step is to figure out how to lure people into his vision and side with him once more.
In the latest episode, a massive clue dropped suggesting people already are on this path when the newest detective, Beth (Mickey Sumner), discovers a deadly cult of loyalists.
Bess has warned Layton there's still an uprising they need to quell internally as the elites and lower classes won't see eye-to-eye. Elections have been postponed and tensions are running high with some people not liking that Layton is working with the same people he fought against in the revolution. Thus, many are on edge, wondering if Layton's a hypocrite.
It gets worse when they get news a Tailie, Lights, has been ambushed and maimed. Layton is busy as hell, so he assigns Bess as the new train detective, giving her his old job. He trusts her and honestly, she's worth it as she's intelligent and knows how to work cases. But she still has no idea how to handle Lights, who doesn't want to talk about the attack in which she lost her thumb and pinkie. Bess, however, knows this could cause a civil war, so it's imperative she figure out the truth. Shockingly, it comes when Wilford and Co. visit Layton and Melanie to work out a truce later on, and Bess sees the ex-boss raising his hand.
It's a Hunger Games-like salute with his three fingers forming a "W," playing into his name and ego. Bess rushes back to see Lights' hand and realizes that without these digits, her hand is an automatic "W" now. At this point, Bess realizes there's a cult of killers belonging to Wilford aboard, and they're sending a message to the rest of the train. She immediately starts to panic as she knows how tough it was for her and Layton to deal with the cannibals in Season 1.
The thing is, she has no idea if the sinister Wilford is in on it or if they're acting independently as she sees many people making the symbol in tribute to a man they thought was their messiah. Bess can't rule out spies, but there could be dissidents switching sides in this political game.
Between loyalists like the Hospitality staff and opportunists like the Janitors, she's definitely between a rock and a hard place. And to make it worse, after the revolution and the fight with Icy Bob, she's suffering PTSD, which means she's not as mentally rigid as she'd like to be to solve this dire mystery.
Snowpiercer stars Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Susan Park, Iddo Goldberg, Katie McGuinness, Lena Hall, Annalise Basso, Sam Otto, Roberto Urbina, Sheila Vand and Jaylin Fletcher. The series airs on Mondays at 9pm ET/PT on TNT.