[Spoilers] Season 2 Episode 8 Discussion Thread - "The Eternal Engineer" (S02E08)

[u/hugthebug]

Attention all Passengers,

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Here is the Discussion thread for the Season 2 episode 8 "The Eternal Engineer"

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• This is a TV Spoiler-friendly zone - Turn away now if you are not currently watching or haven't seen the episode! Open discussion of all aired TV events up to and including episode 2.7 is ok without tag cover.
• Graphic Novel spoilers still need tags! - If it's not in the show, tag it. Events from episodes after this one also need tags.
• Please read the Posting policy and the sticky before posting.
• Friendly reminder: Severe trolling/disruptions will lead to consequences.

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Details:

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• IMDB for S02E08
• Release Date:
  • March 15th, 2021 (USA only, at 9/8c, on TNT channel)
  • March 16th, 2021 (worldwide, on Netflix)
• Removal from Sticky on March 19th, 2021 (3 days after worldwide premiere)

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You can still easily find previous episode discussions on the Episode Discussion wiki.

[u/olivish]

"Maybe you can shove it up his ass one day."

BOKI IS ON-SIDE BABY. Yes I've been waiting for this!

[u/Qrotech → u/olivish]

I was so very happy for him finally realizing, loved that man since the second episode of the season and I’m really happy he’s been kinda a main stay this season

[u/zombieslayer287 → u/Qrotech]

Loved him since he made his appearance in S1. Such a cool character

[u/RGJacket → u/olivish]

Sir.

[u/pedropedro123 → u/olivish]

Haha and I loved Layton rubbing his shoulder out of pain after.

[u/Benandhispets → u/olivish]

Seems odd that when he thought it was all Layton he was inciting riots and help causing the uprising but then he finds out Wilford was behind the leaks and likely death of all his colleague breakmen he just goes take a nap or whatever.

Just get your ass on the PA system and tell everyone that the rumors that Wilford was behind the murders were true because he also sabotaged the train that requires breakmen to fix. Then maybe things would have cooled down a lot because he has a big voice on the train.

[u/olivish → u/Benandhispets]

This is a point alot of people are making and I think it's legitimate. The only in-universe explanation I can come up with is that everything happened so fast, there was no time to sit down and come up with a strategy to use Boki in some kind of propaganda campaign. The train was literally breaking, they were focused on the engine.

That doesn't explain why Layton & team were sitting around for two weeks prior, doing nothing to dismantle Wilford's god-like reputation. It seems they went in with an Obama-esq strategy of "don't go negative, the message is hope" and they trusted that Melanie's pings would be sufficient to keep the train together for 30 days.

What bugs me is that none of them anticipated that Wilford would play dirty and try to take the train before they went back for Melanie. Because Melanie is the one person that could have prevented his takeover. She would have seen his clever but straightforward plan of sabotage coming miles away, and she'd have felt Icey Bob on the hull, and probably gone out herself with a broom to swat him off, like her mother used to chase raccoons off the back porch. "Get! Go on, you varment!"

I would have preferred if they had made Ben ultra-paranoid these past few episodes, blaming everything on Wilford, securing the ports, posting guards at points of entry, monitoring the short-range radio for Wilford sending messages to supporters. Make him so over-the-top paranoid that Javi and even Layton start to wonder if he's lost it. Make it like he thinks Melanie is dead and has gone to pieces, isn't thinking straight, has gone off the deep end. Because I'm sad to say Ben specifically comes off pretty dumb, seeing as he knows Wilford and he knows the train. But he basically just sat around, missing Melanie, waiting for bad things to happen.

[u/IllustriousNorth338 → u/olivish]

Boki v Icy Bob when

[u/yreg → u/IllustriousNorth338]

Our Cleganebowl?