- Ruth Wardell: "You alright? Any message from our friends downtrain?"
- Zarah Ferami: "They have the same info, that Andre's in Big Alice Compost. They call it The Swamp."
- ― Zarah Ferami to Ruth Wardell in Into the White.
The Compost Car, also called "The Swamp" was a car on Big Alice used to process sewage and human waste piped in from other cars and the engine. Almost all passengers avoid this car unless they are sent there.
History[]
Season 2[]
After Wilford takes back control, he punishes Layton by assigning him the role of compost. Layton finds himself locked up with little social interaction and little food, sorting out sewage and human waste hour after hour. Wilford visits him following the carnival and prior to the dinner, only to taunt Layton about having dinner with his friends momentarily. Layton remarks that Wilford's lust for power and obedience will always be his downfall and the reason he loses followers, but Wilford reminds him that he controls the train now.
Later, Layton is woken from his slumber abruptly to find Josie calling his name. Seeing her for the first time since she left Snowpiercer to be treated by the Headwoods, Layton is amazed at the restorative work but begins crying. Whilst Josie remarks that she can possibly get him out, he tells her that it is not his moment yet, but that she should remind everyone why they started and that they will get through the hard times and meet their vision of a life on the outside. With this, the guard tells Josie that her time is up, and she is forced to leave.
Meanwhile, a private dinner is hosted in Snowpiercer's 1st Class Dining Car, with Wilford, Miss Audrey, Ruth and Kevin, as well as the guests; Bess Till, Zarah Ferami, LJ Folger, John Osweiller, and Alexandra Cavill. Though it doesn't go smoothly later into the dinner, as Miss Audrey reveals secrets that she had previously promised to keep secret before, Alex becomes increasingly annoyed at Mr. Wilford when it becomes clearer that they will not be returning for Melanie. She begins to shout abuse at Mr. Wilford, and then reveals that the census is similar to a historic event on Big Alice in which Wilford had half (over 100 passengers) culled from the train to save resources. As Mr. Wilford orders Alex sent to the Brig (a location she remarks she has been before), he turns his focus to Ruth. Asking Ruth to sit at the dinner table — despite Hospitality never sitting — he reveals that there can only be one Head of Hospitality. Kevin and Ruth are shocked, but Ruth is eventually offered the position if she announces to the train that they will not be returning for Melanie. With a tear in her eye, Ruth remarks that she cannot do such a thing and is therefore refusing Wilford's offer. Wilford orders Ruth stripped of her Teals and taken to Compost alongside Layton. She has no choice but to work with Layton sorting out human waste and being given only protein bars.
A while later, after the dinner, Wilford has a "party" in Big Alice's engine, the same time Melanie makes contact with Big Alice from the Breslauer Weather Station months after not being able to make contact. Javi has no choice but to mute the radio to not alert Wilford as he walks into the main control room. A little after Wilford appreciates Javi, saying he's better than Ben for his money, Javi asks if he can go to the bathroom, which Wilford cluelessly agrees on. In the bathroom, Javi writes down a note on toilet paper saying Melanie has made contact, before putting it into a bottle of lipstick and flushing it down the toilet. Unsurprisingly, the bottle of lipstick makes it to the compost car. Ruth notices the bottle of lipstick and thinks it's actual lipstick, before finding out it's a message sent by Javi. She shows Layton the message, which in turn he asks if she is ready to start talking about getting out of compost.[1]
Layton and Ruth plan their escape following the message from Big Alice's Engine. Layton tells Ruth that the escape must happen later that night and asks if she is in for the whole stretch; Ruth remarks that for Snowpiercer and Melanie, they will do what needs to be done. With this, the two set up a trap and wait until the perfect time. The guard knocks on the door, shouting. Ruth goes over and "begs" the guard for some more protein blocks, holding out the tray for him through the lower hatch on the door. When the guard goes to grab the tray, Layton triggers the trap, and the guard's arm gets caught up in a rope. Layton then pulls on the rope to bring the guard closer to the door, before using a broken piece of glass with a bandage around it to stab him, until Ruth knocks the guard out with a shovel. Layton then grabs the keys through the open hatch before unlocking the door. Before escaping for once and for all, the two drag him into the compost section of the car and take his baton.[2]
Technology[]
The Compost Car contains machines used for handling and sorting compost. One of them is a giant pipe that hangs from the top, which is seemingly where the flushed water and waste goes from Big Alice's engine. The pipe hangs over a hopper roughly the size of the diameter of the pipe, which transfers the waste into a machine which uses a spiral to sort the waste, with about half of it ending up on the floor, and the other half making it onto a wheelbarrow placed at the end. There's a control box that hangs from the top to control this machine using buttons.
There are also another machine, which sees 2 barrels with hatches. Waste is poured into the barrels and with the press of a button from it's own control box to sort out the waste.
Interior[]
The interior of the car in the compost section is very dirty and filthy, with a green atmosphere. Lighting hangs from the ceilings and the bottom of the catwalks. Like every Big Alice car, there are catwalks connecting the 2 parts of the upper floor of the car, however there is no ladder to access the catwalks here. Besides the 2 machines sits 2 barrels which the compost worker pours sewage and waste liquid into, and 2 "storage units" where most of the waste is shoveled by hand to store. There is also at least one vent in the compost section of the car, in which Layton stored some items he thought may be useful in his escape later. One of these was a bandage and a broken piece of glass. There also seems to be bags filled with waste on the walls.
There are 2 access points to the compost section of the car, though one, a standard Big Alice door facing uptrain, is ignored. The other is where compost workers enter/leave. Facing downtrain, are 2 big sliding doors for the manual delivery of waste via another wheelbarrow. Within one of the sliding doors is a smaller, more conventional door, which has 2 hatches on it, one at face-level and one placed lower for the delivery of protein bars.
Outside of the compost section is a "lobby" sort of room, which leads out to a standard corridor to go around the compost section. A guard was placed outside here to deliver waste manually, watch over and deliver protein bars to Layton and Ruth while they were forced to labor there as punishment. There's also a doormat decorated with Wilford emblems (Ws).
Though it seems the entire car is not shown, as in the same corridor Layton and Ruth pass by an empty room with an open door. This could imply that the compost car is a combine car, with the other half being used as Living Quarters.
Appearances[]
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ||||||||||
| Season 2 | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||||
| Season 4 | ||||||||||
| ✔ = Appeared | Did Not Appear | F = Flashback | ||||||||
| Note: Appearances for the interior of the car only. | ||||||||||
Trivia[]
- The car only appeared for 2 episodes in the entire series.
- It's much dirtier than Snowpiercer's Sanitation (SAN-Sec) cars seen in Season 1 and the Compost car seen briefly in The Eternal Engineer.
- It's unknown what the 2 rooms on the upper floors house.
- Realistically, it should be impossible for the 2 sliding doors to work, as there is not enough space in the car.
- This isn't the first time this error was made by set designers in the Snowpiercer series, as the same error was made in Melanie's quarters inside the engine in the pilot episode.
Gallery[]
