Snow 'Em Who's Boss

Wooton Bassett is driving a busload of kids - Olivia, Zoe, Jay, and Wyatt - to a leadership retreat that Mr. Whittaker and Pastor Knox are hosting at the Riley Clemens Farm when a sudden blizzard swallows the road. The radio warns of more than a foot of snow and near-zero visibility, and moments later the bus slides off the road and into a ditch. Wooton confidently announces a four-step Alaskan method for getting unstuck, but after rocking the bus back and forth he admits that step three is "Call a tow truck," cheerfully explaining, "I come from a long line of quick quitters." With no phone signal and the farm only a few miles up the road, Wooton bundles up, hands the kids a walkie-talkie, and sets off alone through the storm, instructing them to run the engine only about ten minutes each hour to stay warm.

The moment the door closes, the kids start squabbling over who should be in charge. Wyatt claims the job because he has survival training and starts taking inventory of food and supplies. Olivia argues that she's the only one who actually read the retreat book, Biblical Leadership, which says a leader is a servant. Jay mostly wants to impress Zoe, who thinks they don't need a leader at all since their only job is to wait. They hold an election, and Olivia wins with two votes. Soon Wooton radios in to say the trip is taking longer than expected - and that he's remembered step four. But just as he starts to explain, the walkie-talkie cuts out.

As the hours drag on and the cold creeps in, the kids can't reach Wooton, so Olivia makes the call to run the engine longer than he advised. Before long Zoe and Olivia both feel dizzy and sick. Wyatt instantly understands: snow has buried the tailpipe, and carbon monoxide is leaking into the bus. He orders the engine off and the windows open, climbs out the emergency exit to check the pipe, and makes everyone wait outside in the freezing air until it's safe. A shaken Olivia admits she made a bad decision, noting that a good leader holds herself accountable - chapter six of the book. She's ready to hand leadership to Wyatt when Wooton reappears at the door, sheepishly confessing that he walked in a complete circle back to their own bus. Step four, it turns out, was his warning about the tailpipe. He also mentions the bus is nearly out of gas, then heads back into the storm, sure he simply took the wrong turn at a fork in the road.

As Wooton leaves, Jay shouts a quick question about needing "senior leadership" and twists Wooton's distracted reply into an appointment, declaring himself the new leader. His reign is not a success: he tries to assign snuggle-for-warmth teams that pair him with Zoe, turns the heat back on against everyone's warnings, and insists on showing a horror movie from his phone. When the engine sputters and dies, out of gas at sunset, Zoe sums up his leadership with a jab: "Said the captain of the Titanic." Wyatt finally raises Wooton on the walkie-talkie - he's close to the farm - but mid-sentence Wooton gasps, "What is that?" and the signal goes dead.

The kids are terrified something has happened to him, maybe even a bear. Wyatt says they must all go after him, then steps outside to check the weather while the others argue. Jay, suddenly eager to give up his throne, tries to quit, but Olivia refuses to let him, telling him leadership means making the hard choices, not just the fun ones. Jay rises to the moment and decides they'll bundle up and search together. Just then, lights appear through the snow - a horse-drawn sleigh carrying Wooton, Pastor Knox, and Mr. Whittaker, who cut across the fields instead of taking the road. Wooton explains that he was so shocked to see the sleigh that he dropped the walkie-talkie and snapped off its antenna. The kids cheer their rescue and gather their things - until someone asks where Wyatt is. He never came back inside. Realizing he must have set off alone into the dark to find Wooton, Olivia cries out the chilling truth: "He's gone!"