Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Silo S3E1, “Who Are You?” (written by Graham Yost and directed by Michael Dinner), and no book spoilers.
By the end of Silo Season 2, it felt like the series was getting close to giving us some big answers, but, given the general pacing of this show, it should come as no surprise that the Season 3 premiere resets the questions.
Who Are You and Who Am I?
We open with Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) being given some “vitamins” and receiving a delivery of mushroom soup. Three months have passed since the rebellion that concluded Season 2, and Juliette is the mayor now. The problem is, she doesn’t remember… anything.
I usually groan at an amnesia trope, but I have to forgive it in this instance insofar as Juliette’s memory loss is not unexplained. If you didn’t guess immediately at the mention of vitamins in the episode’s opening scene, it’s confirmed by the end of the hour that Juliette is being fed memory-suppressing drugs by Camille (Alexandria Riley), which pays off previous suggestions that such drugs are used within the silo.
You’ll recall that in the Season 2 finale, Bernard (Tim Robbins), once he was convinced that all hope was lost, finally made Sims (Common) his shadow. And, after a brief exchange with Lukas (Avi Nash), Sims made his way to the Legacy to talk to the Algorithm, but the computer didn’t want to talk to him, only his wife.
By the time we get to the events in the silo in Season 3, it’s clear that Camille is the person who’s truly in charge, with the amnesiac Juliette serving as a PR puppet, and Judge Sims once again relegated to a sidekick role. Indeed, I don’t think Sims even knows that Camille is behind Juliette’s memory loss, given the remarks he makes in the brief exchange we see between the two, where he covers up the fact that he killed Bernard after the latter was back inside of the silo.
Juliette has had a memory of the confrontation she had with Bernard when she returned to the silo, in a dream, which carried with it the definite sense that there is something she needs to do, though she can’t remember what. We might guess that it has to do with the people she met in Silo 17 and/or what she learned about the Safeguard and how to disable it, but there could be more to it than that. Maybe Bernard told her something we haven’t been made privy to yet.
Regardless, the Algorithm isn’t happy about this and orders Camille to double the dosage on the memory-suppressing drugs she’s feeding to Juliette. It would seem she does so, but then Juliette receives her evening soup delivery from Tony (Tuwaine Barrett). This time, it’s an execrable chowder that she quickly spits out. When she dumps the remainder into the sink, she discovers a capsule that contains a message.
It tells her that if she wants to know the truth, she should return her soup bowl upside down (which she does) and then burn the note (which she also does). If I had to put a wager on who’s behind this, my money would be on Martha (Harriet Walter)—whom we do not see in this episode—but I suppose there are other possibilities.
It’s somewhat heartbreaking that Juliette doesn’t remember Knox (Shane McRae), Hank (Billy Postlethwaite), or Shirley (Remmie Milner)—who is particularly upset about it—and it is, of course, a clear wrong to deprive someone of their memory against their will, but, once again, Silo presents a quandary through all of this that is harder to parse than you want it to be.
There are still those who support the cause of the rebellion. Kennedy (Rick Gomez) is in the wind, but others (referred to as Outsiders) hang a banner in S3E1 to affirm their belief that it’s super nice outside, and steal a helmet, indicating they have some kind of plan to prove it. This problem could likely be solved if Juliette properly had her wits (and memory) about her, but that would threaten the order of things that has kept the Algorithm from initiating the Safeguard that would kill everyone. At least, that is, if I’m making the right inferences.
So, Juliette would seem to need to regain her memory and disable the Safeguard without the Algorithm knowing about it, which is a tall order given the way that Camille is constantly supervising her. She’s been showing Juliette fake footage to try and get her to believe that she went into a “refuge hut” for the duration of the time she was outside of the silo, and it would seem that the Algorithm’s primary concern is to ensure that no one learns of the existence of other silos. I’m surprised it doesn’t mention Lukas, since we don’t know where he is, but maybe this has been the topic of some offscreen conversations between Camille and the Algorithm.
In other Silo 18 news, Orla (Quelin Sepulveda), who is set to become the new head of Supply, tells Juliette that some critical supplies—things that were loaded in when the silo was built—have gone missing. I’d expect that will be significant later, but the conversation is interrupted by Sheriff Billings (Chinaza Uche), who’s concerned with what the Outsiders have been up to.
Paul is also apparently working on some updates to The Pact, which is interesting because we’ve seen that document practically treated as scripture in previous seasons. But it would seem that the plan at this point is to blame all past problems on Bernard, including anything that has caused complaints along the lines of government overreach. Now, there is a council with the head of each department, which seems nice and democratic, but when push comes to shove I’m sure the council will have no real power.
Even Camille doesn’t really have power, insofar as she has to do what the Algorithm tells her. Even when she pushes back by making reference to The Order, the computer informs her that they’re beyond that now.
Which leads to the biggest question: What is the point of all of this?
Who Are You and What Are We Doing?
The Season 2 finale of Silo ended with a flash to what I infer is the past, with Representative Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) meeting a reporter named Helen (Jessica Henwick) at a bar for what he mistakenly thought was a date. We got some hints there about what may have led to the creation of the silos, and Keene gave Helen a Pez dispenser that is presumably the same one we’ve seen as a relic in Silo 18, but then the credits rolled.
Silo S3E1 picks up with Keene, and it’s clear that Season 3 is going to jump between timelines as it unfolds its story. In these recaps, I’ll likely continue to approach the progression of each timeline’s story in separation, but I’ll be sure to point out when they resonate, or one informs the other.
We meet Daniel’s sister, Charlotte Keene (Jessica Brown Findlay), in the Season 3 premiere, and the first thing we learn about her is that she is paranoid. She makes Daniel take a circuitous route to their meeting on a park bench, like something right out of a 1970s political thriller. That feels somewhat odd, both because she is a pilot for the Navy and because she doesn’t tell Daniel much of anything. She encourages him to tell Helen what he can, and to try to get on Senator Thurman’s (Laura Innes) Iran Committee, and that’s about it.
We don’t see Helen in S3E1, but Daniel does make contact with Senator Thurman and her aide, Anna (Morven Christie), telling a story about his concern for his sister (and only living relative), who he thinks might be about to be involved in a retaliatory attack on Iran.
It turns out that she is, but not the part of Operation Righteous Vengeance they’re covering on the news. Charlotte and others were tasked with taking out a facility in the mountains. That—apparently secret—mission failed. We see Charlotte and others fly into a strange cloud that seems to be the cause of black goo inside of their planes, and those planes go down.
Charlotte is rescued and physically OK. Mentally, not so much. When Daniel visits her in the hospital, she doesn’t know who he is.
Is there anything like a straightforward connection between Charlotte’s memory loss and that of Jules? Could it be the same drug, somehow? And, more importantly, how is the story of a war between the US and Iran going to lead not just to the creation of underground silos, but the convoluted power structure that governs them? How long has it been, anyway, since the silos were created?
During the council meeting in Silo 18, Ed (Ned Dennehy) from the mines says that it must have been at least 300 years since the silo was founded, based on how extensive the mining tunnels are (which he also notes, with some complaint, are only allowed to extend so far outwards—mostly they’re zig-zagging back and forth underneath each other). Should we believe that? I’ve had a sneaking suspicion since Season 1 that maybe the silo is much younger than everyone has been led to believe…
See you next week.
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