Snowpiercer Season 4 finale explained: Did Nima succeed in his plan?

Nima had just one goal in the Snowpiercer series finale. He wanted to set off his rocket. Would he achieve that?

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 10

The Snowpiercer Season 4 finale started off with the series coming almost full circle. Layton and many of the other Tailies found themselves back at the tail of the train with the aim to push forward. We even heard the “one train” chant as they worked their way through the compatments.

Nima and his Animal Squad were a little more ready for the Tailies than Melanie ever was. They had the gas cannisters of the sleeper agent ready to go off. It didn’t take long for Josie and Oz to figure out a way to use the gas to their advantage to help the others get up the train.

What happened to Ruth after she was taken in the Snowpiercer Season 4 finale?

Ruth was taken early on in the fight, and she was offered an opportunity. Nima would allow Ruth and the others to take Big Alice back to New Eden to sustain life there. However, Nima would need Snowpiercer and a few trains to track how his rocket was doing.

Now, by this point, we’d learned that Big Alice no longer had its working engine—although there was a beautiful moment to remember Ben's sacrifice. Nima and his Animal Squad had managed to quickly retrofit Big Alice to become just a shell of itself. I had to feel for Alex as she tried to fit the situation, but eventually realized that it was a lost cause. Ruth didn’t know any of this, though.

Ruth is good at reading people, though. She’s able to work out that Nima isn’t so certain that his rocket is going to work. That’s why he wants Snowpiercer. So, when the Tailies get to her, she makes it clear to her people that they need to fight back. They need to stop that rocket.

Melanie and Alex work on destroying the rocket

As everyone comes back together on the train, Melanie and Alex are able to get to the rocket. This gives them time to take out the chemical that is going to go in the air. Javi is also able to jam Nima’s remote device to launch the rocket, so he has to go up to the rocket to release it.

Nima realizes there’s a problem when he gets there. It doesn’t take him long to get Melanie and Alex to put the gas back into the rocket. However, Alex is able to think on her feet and she takes a part of the hinge out of the hatch lock.

As Melanie shares her theory that Nima was the only one behind the launch of the rocket that froze the world in the first place, she’s able to get through to him that his calculations are flawed. She needs to stop him from launching the rocket, but it’s too late.

Nima has already set off the timer, and there is no way to stop the launch of the rocket. Melanie and Alex get out of the compartment as the roof opens, killing Nima due to the cold. The rocket is launched, and it looks like the end of the world is coming.

Alex’s plan worked. The hatch opens, the Gemini compartment of the rocket freezes, and the rocket falls back to Earth with a crash. Gemini isn’t released into the air, and it means the end of the world isn’t going to happen.

How long will New Eden last in the Snowpiercer series finale?

We end with the people of New Eden and the people of Snowpiercer, including some of the Animal Squad, starting their new life in New Eden. Alex wonders how long they have, but Melanie points out that tomorrow is never a guarantee. They need to work with what they have right now.

There is some hope at the very end, though. There is a sign of flowers growing. As Alex had previously mentioned that the freezing of the world destroyed flora and fauna, this is a great sign. It means that the Earth is starting to warm, and there is some hope for people again.

What I will say that I love is that Snowpiercer didn't kill off that many people in the series finale. Nima was the big casualty. Layton and others tried to preserve the lives of the Animal Squad as much as possible. Even Josie realized that killing Headwood was the wrong thing, especially as Headwood panicked more about dying without her husband's boots in her hands than the actual dying part.