Warning: SPOILERS for Snowpiercer Season 1.
In Snowpiercer‘s season 1 finale, Alexandra Cavill (Rowan Blanchard) unexpectedly appeared and demanded to see her mother, Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly), but who is her father and could he be Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean)? TNT’s Snowpiercer concluded its riveting first season by introducing a second train, Big Alice, controlled by Mr. Wilford, the series’ billionaire Messiah. The arrival of both Wilford and Alexandra threatens to completely upend Melanie Cavill’s already difficult life.
Before Big Alice appeared, Snowpiercer survived multiple catastrophes, including a gruesome series of murders, nearly being derailed, an extinction-level event for the cows aboard, and two revolutions that attempted to seize control of the Great Ark Train, 1,001 cars long. In the end, Melanie, who ruled Snowpiercer for the last seven years by posing as Mr. Wilford and imposing his ruthless, class-based “perfect order”, was deposed by a coup led by the First Class Folger family. Meanwhile, Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) united the Tail section with Third Class and his violent revolution ultimately succeeded. After eliminating the Folgers, Melanie surrendered governorship of Snowpiercer to Layton, who wanted to equalize the classes aboard the train. But then, Big Alice showed up and merged with Snowpiercer, bringing both trains to a halt. The imminent arrival of Mr. Wilford, who controls Big Alice, now threatens to undo everything Layton fought for while many aboard Snowpiercer welcome their absent Messiah.
As of the end of Snowpiercer season 1, Melanie is outside of the train after failing to disconnect Wilford’s link to Snowpiercer and she doesn’t even know Alexandra is aboard Big Alice. When she was free of the burden of running Snowpiercer, Cavill finally took the time to meet with Miss Audrey (Lena Hall) in the Nightcar and face her deepest regret about the last seven years: Melanie was forced to leave young Alexandra behind when she stole Snowpiercer from Mr. Wilford and left him on the tracks in Chicago to die. Alex was supposed to join her mother aboard Snowpiercer but the girl didn’t make it in time and Melanie made the impossible choice to depart without her, which she has been tortured by ever since. But there’s also another big question hovering over Alex: Who is the father of Melanie’s daughter? And could Alexandra’s father be Mr. Wilford? It’s a possibility Snowpiercer has yet to broach but it also makes a certain amount of sense.
Ruth Wardell (Alison Wright), who is a true devotee of Mr. Wilford, described the billionaire as a kind, generous man who is, indeed, a savior. Yet Melanie painted a withering picture of Wilford, claiming that it was her genius who built Snowpiercer and that Wilford was a fraud who didn’t want to save humanity and planned to indulge himself as the world ended. However, it can be conjectured that at one time, before Melanie decided to betray Wilford, that the two were very close. Could Melanie and Wilford have been romantic and could Alexandra be the result of a tryst that has long since gone bad? One thing is for sure, there is a lot of backstory between Cavill and Wilford that Snowpiercer season 2 needs to reveal.
Even if Mr. Wilford isn’t Alexandra’s biological father, the fact that he saved Alex (along with himself) and raised her aboard Big Alice could mean that he’s turned her loyalty towards him. Alexandra may feel hatred for her mother for abandoning her, which would be the story Wilford fed the girl for the last seven years. Alex may have come to regard Mr. Wilford as her “true” parent and share his desire for revenge against Melanie.
Meanwhile, since fans know precious little about Melanie’s history besides the fact that she was a genius who grew up with nothing on a dirt farm in Pennsylvania before she attended Yale and MIT, it’s an open question who Alexandra’s father is. If it isn’t Mr. Wilford, another possibility could be Bennett Knox (Iddo Goldberg), Melanie’s fellow engineer, and her lover aboard the train. But Bennett being Alex’s dad doesn’t seem as tantalizing a possibility as it being Mr. Wilford, which would add an extra layer of intensely personal animosity between Wilford, Melanie, and Alex in Snowpiercer season 2.
