‘Snowpiercer’ Season 2 Finale: Is [SPOILER] Really Dead?

We last saw Jennifer Connelly’s Melanie Cavill in dire straits at the end of Snowpiercer Season 2’s sixth episode, the excellent “Many Miles From Snowpiercer,” which aired way back on March 1. Left for dead on the side of the tracks, the train speeding out into the distance with her daughter Alex (Rowan Blanchard) yelling back at her from inside the train, it seemed like there would surely be some last second twist that would save Melanie’s life.

Only — and spoilers beyond this point — at the end of the Season 2 finale, “Into the White,” it’s revealed that Melanie is really dead, having left behind the data the rest of the train needs to find warmer regions on the planet. Having run out of the rat farm she was using for food, and her energy supplies nearly depleted, Melanie left a note for Alex explaining she was wandering into the snow to let the cold take her.

Alex and Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) left the research station she was staying at behind, hopped on the pirate train they had separated from the rest of Snowpiercer (don’t worry, it’s complicated), and rode off into the distance to recapture the rest of the train from the villainous Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean).

So, that’s a series wrap on Jennifer Connelly, right? Well… Wrong. Decider has confirmed with a representative for TNT that Connelly will be back for the currently filming Season 3 of the series. How Melanie will return is an open question, though given we never saw her body — frozen or otherwise — it’s possible that as usual the engineer found a last second way to save her own life.

It’s also possible that we could see more of Connelly only in flashbacks, as Alex and the rest of the crew of Snowpiercer have plenty of memories of Melanie they could share as they traverse the icy Earth looking for a potential warm spot to settle. Or perhaps Archie Panjabi, who is joining the cast for Season 3 as the mysterious Asha, has something to do with Melanie’s potential salvation. Though there are plenty of people on Snowpiercer (and Big Alice, the train previously piloted by Mr. Wilford), it certainly seems like throwing Panjabi and Connelly together could create some serious sparks.

Whatever Melanie’s fate is after the finale, Connelly will be back for another rotation on Snowpiercer. 1,033 cars long.

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