Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for Silo S2E3, “Solo” (written by Cassie Pappas and directed by Aric Avelino)
As we get closer to the one-third mark of the second season of Silo, I can’t get one question out of my mind as the show transitions to a format where the world of Silo 18 and Silo 17 will soon collide.
Mostly I blame my podcast partner—Caemeron Crain—for this nagging thought in the back of the Silo section of my brain, but after the events of “Solo,” the question is more relevant than ever.
It’s a simple question really, but undoubtedly lies at the heart of understanding what the silos are and why they exist. Why is Bernard (as an avatar for everyone who oversees IT through the silos) lying to the 10,000 people who live in his silo? Why show the people who go out and clean a different version than what exists? Why not tell people about what happened to the world, that there are more silos, and that they are working together to try and find a way to make the world habitable again?
Instead of using the “outside” as a punishment for those who must die and then showing them a lie, why not create a couple of suits that actually work and send a few people into the world to show them that it’s a dystopia? It’s something I can’t get out of my head now that we have seen the first spark of a rebellion in Silo 18 in “Solo” and REALLY can’t get out of my head after learning more about the rebellions that caused all the deaths in Silo 17.
“Solo” takes us back and forth between the two silos for the first time after splitting our time between them in Episode 1 and Episode 2. This largely worked for me, although I thought the interactions and tension between Solo (Steve Zahn) and Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) were much more interesting than the events back in Silo 18. Much credit is due to Steve Zahn and the manic way he plays Solo, how much emotion and confusion he conveys just with his voice, and how we really start to understand more about this character even though we don’t “see” him until 98% of the way through this episode.
In their conversations between the vault door, we learn that Solo was a shadow to the former IT director, and Solo was instructed to go into the vault and not to open it for anyone once the Silo 17 rebellion started. This was apparently more than 25 years ago, and Solo has been living, well, solo ever since. Apparently, their IT planned for this contingency and he has had enough food, music, and books to keep him company for that long.
The rebellion, Juliette learns, started because someone—Ron Tucker—from Silo 17 that was sent out to clean did not do it and just walked around the back of where the camera was stationed, never to be seen again. This moment—mirroring exactly what Juliette did—was the match that eventually lit the fire of their uprising. People became convinced it was safe to go out, and those in the lower levels of the silo eventually overran the authorities (despite the lower levels being flooded) and forced their way outside.
The battle for control and the exposure to the outside eventually killed everyone in that silo except Solo (although there are a couple of “not as old” bodies down there Juliette discovers that must be explained). This sends Juliette into a panic, as she understands this is now a likely fate of her own silo. She knows she needs to go back, but that puts her in the precarious position of having to trust Solo, someone she just met and who threatened to kill her, for information and guidance on how to find a suit worthy of protecting her from the outside.
This tension between the job she must do and the nervous trust she must place in Solo was brilliant, I thought. She needs things like food (did anyone else think the chicken stew was going to be poisoned?!), knowledge of the new silo (Solo could easily lead her into a trap), and materials (yeah, what you need is just down there in the flooded section, good luck!). But Juliette has no choice, so she uses Solo as much as she can and then calls his bluff and threatens to leave him when he doesn’t fully help.
This causes Solo to eventually emerge from the vault, where Steve Zahn makes a perfect impression of a child visiting Disney World for the first time. Just wait until you try to go outside, buddy, it’ll blow your mind.
Back in Silo 18, things are getting pretty bad in the Down Deep. More raiders are being called into active duty and being deployed to control crowds, the citizens are rising up against martial law, and someone named Tommy has been arrested for the “JL” graffiti that has been popping up everywhere.
Shirley and Knox are still at odds over what to do with the new overlord control that’s happening to their people, and eventually a riot begins when a group led by Shirley demands Tommy’s release. This riot looked eerily similar to the opening scenes in Episode 1 when we saw short glimpses of what the rebellion in Silo 17 was.
Since Bernard (Tim Robbins) knows that The Order has told him to “prepare for war” now that Juliette did not clean, he has activated Sims (Common) to intervene by conspiring with Juliette-conspirator prisoner Patrick (Rick Gomez). Patrick’s wife was taken from him long ago by Judicial, but Sims promises he can make all those memories and hard times go away with mind-altering drugs if Patrick will just do one little, murderous favor for Sims.
In the midst of the riot over Tommy, Patrick shows up and firebombs the crowd. I can’t tell if this is meant to kill some of the rioters or further agitate the Raiders so they can begin using lethal force against the rioters, but I think it’s the latter. The Raiders open fire and end up taking two lives: Patrick and Cooper, the young mechanic who was following Shirley, who was just trying to get Patrick out of harm’s way.
The first blood has been shed in the uprising, so Juliette needs to start moving double-time on getting that new suit because the peace ain’t going to last much longer.
In the quieter corners of Silo 18, Bernard and Meadows (Tanya Moodie) discuss the plans that will allow Meadows to leave. Bernard will shut everything down under the banner of routine maintenance, he will man the door that allows Meadows to leave, and he will oversee a suit made for her that allows her to traverse outside with no physical effects. I’m sorry, but even Meadows, who used to be Bernard’s shadow, should know the number one rule about Silo 18: DON’T TRUST ANYTHING BERNARD SAYS!
That suit he is going to make for her after the awkward measuring session the two have is 100% going to have a hole in it somewhere.
When she’s alone Meadows pulls out what looks like old home-video footage of people playing at the beach, going to the park, going out in the snow. It reads as if she has probably watched this thousands of times before, but this time something is different. Does she actually think a life like that exists outside the silo? Does she think her going outside will lead her to find something that isn’t there? Surely she, as Bernard’s confidant, knows the truth of the outside world. She became an alcoholic for 25 years because of the information she had, for god’s sake.
Perhaps those tears were for the knowledge that a life like that is simply not possible anymore. What does she know about the lies, the reason for the silos, and the reason why the Earth is uninhabitable? As Juliette seeks to come back and Meadows seeks to leave, what mysteries will be exposed that help explain the situation hundreds of thousands of people find themselves in?
These are the questions I look forward to learning more about as the worlds of the two silos take the first steps toward merging.
