Warning: SPOILERS for Snowpiercer Season 1, Episode 7 - "The Universe Is Indifferent"
Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) has lost control of Snowpiercer and the show's biggest character death guarantees a bloody revolution led by Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs). Melanie killed Josie Wellstead in Snowpiercer episode 7, "The Universe is Indifferent," although that wasn't her intention. Tensions aboard the Great Ark Train are coming to a boil, everyone's taking sides - most of them against Melanie - and Snowpiercer is about to be irrevocably changed.
Melanie has spent the past 7 years posing as Mr. Wilford and maintaining the mythical billionaire's class-based order aboard Snowpiercer, sometimes with a ruthlessness that she deemed necessary. But Melanie's tenuous hold on her power began to slip when she made two key errors: the first error was when Cavill sent Layton to the Drawers after the Train Detective solved the murder of Sean Wise but then revealed that he knew there was no Mr. Wilford on the train. Melanie's second mistake was commuting the sentence of L.J. Folger (Anna Basso) for Sean Wise's murder. Melanie hoped that would reset the order that was already crumbling, but she ended up infuriating First Class, who are now secretly plotting to overthrow her while the Tail's planned revolution is now in full gear after Josie rescued Layton from the Drawers. Not even Melanie personally saving Snowpiercer from derailment will stop the forces rising up against her from both ends of the train.
Melanie killing Josie is a point of no return moment for Snowpiercer. Melanie resorted to gruesome torture in order to make Josie tell her where Layton was hiding, but she didn't realize Brakeman Bess Till's (Mickey Sumner) loyalties were already leaning towards the Tail after she worked alongside Layton. Bess freed Josie from her irons so that she could attack Melanie, who was forced to kill Josie in self-defense and froze her to death by letting outside air into the train. Melanie saved her own life, but killing Josie lit the fuse on the powder keg that Snowpiercer has turned into.
On the Tail side of things, Layton's hatred of Melanie Cavill has now boiled over thanks to her killing his beloved Josie. The former Train Detective was busy trying to rally Third Class to join the Tail's revolution, but when he found out Josie was dead, Layton made a deal with the devil and told L.J. Folger that Melanie is Mr. Wilford. L.J. is possibly the worst person to have this information because she's bound to relay it directly to her parents. This is what Layton is counting on since eroding Melanie's First Class support further weakens her power base.
But what Layton didn't know is that the Folger family has been scheming to supplant Melanie's position aboard the train. The Folgers have wooed Commander Grey (Timothy V. Murphy), the leader of the Jackboots, to their side. In turn, Grey is turning Ruth Wardell (Alison Wright), whom he has a romantic interest in, to take Cavill's place as the Head of Hospitality. Ruth is a true believer in Mr. Wilford, who personally recruited her and gave her a job on Snowpiercer, so she will be incensed when she finds out Melanie has been posing as her personal savior ever since the train's departed from Chicago.
Melanie murdering Josie also puts her new relationship with Miles (Jaylin Fletcher) in jeopardy. Melanie fast-tracked the gifted young boy to join Engineering as an apprentice, but besides his natural talent, Melanie also hand-picked Miles because Josie and Layton treated him as their son. But Miles is also clandestinely working for the Tail and Melanie has inadvertently placed a spy right in the heart of the Engine Eternal. All of the pieces are now in place for the two revolutions aboard Snowpiercer to destroy the 1,001-car-long train, and who knows if Melanie Cavill will survive the inevitable change that is coming.
Snowpiercer airs Sundays @ 9pm on TNT.