What a relief to see Silo find its groove again

Juliette truthers, we’re almost out of the trenches. After what feels like forever (but it was only seven episodes), there’s movement in her storyline—the exciting kind. In the process, Silo is about to expand its lore some more. It’s about time. The choppy pacing of her plotline aside (which we’re all begrudgingly used to at this point), it’s a good thing that Juliette is about to experience some real action. Her diving multiple times doesn’t count anymore; the sheen has faded from that schtick because we knew she wasn’t going to drown to death. 

She spends episode eight prowling for the people who’ve taken Solo. She even takes an arrow in the arm from her new foes, single-handedly patching her bleeding self up once more. Give her an honorary medical degree at this point. So who are these folks who’ve suddenly infiltrated Silo 17 and kidnapped Juliette’s frenemy? Or have they been there in hiding all along? “The Book Of Quinn” doesn’t reveal anything about the three newcomers, but it bodes well for the final couple of season two episodes that she’ll have other people to interact with. The new faces don’t waste any time threatening Juliette. They tell her they’ve killed Solo, which I don’t believe for a single second, and that she’ll be next if she doesn’t listen to them. I did laugh when Juliette’s concern was more about the firefighter suit and helmet she needs to go to Silo 18 than Solo though. 

Her arc has progressed far too slowly for my liking, but I’m hopeful for the future now. A girl can dream, okay? And the rest of the hour has added to that hope. Silo partly feels like it’s going back to the galvanizing charge of its early season two episodes. The major reasons for this are Lukas’ adventures in trying to decipher Salvador Quinn’s message, Bernard’s seemingly successful blackmail attempt, and the way Camille pulls the strings of the men around her. If I have to watch any of the Sims’, my preference is Camille over her husband, Robert, sorry not sorry. 

So let’s start with Lukas. As per Bernard’s orders, he uses Judge Meadows’ The Wizard Of Oz book to try and decipher Salvador Quinn’s message. This quest makes him track down Quinn’s descendants: A man named Terrance and his family. It turns out they’re the ones making the wool cloth used by anyone sent above ground for a “cleaning.” That’s a huge deal because it reveals that even now, Quinn’s bloodline is doing an important job in Silo 18. At first, Terrance and his clan flat-out refuse to help Lukas when he asks them to hand over anything that might’ve been passed down to them over generations, from books to relics. But Terrance says they’ve distanced from the Quinn name because of the shame Salvador brought after failing to stop the revolution. Thankfully, a dogged Lukas doesn’t stop from digging the truth. In the process, he learns something critical from Bernard about how Salvador engaged in disinformation politics—a woeful tradition Mayor Holland still engages in. 

Here’s the reality check Bernard drops: Before the big rebellion 140 years ago under, the Silo experienced an outburst every 20 years or so, risking the opening of the airlock and killing all the residents. Salvador was able to delay this from happening under his leadership because of a so-called “radical solution.” He stopped giving his people access to history, information, and books so no one would ever read or learn about how to stand against I.T. and blamed the rebels for anything that went wrong, even if the “rebels” were demanding honesty. Quinn put the memory-wiping chemical compound in the water, making citizens forget key details about any rebellions over time. 

Did this tactic work? Sure, he was able to maintain a semblance of peace for 140 years. But it comes at the cost of a monarchy under which the people never truly grow; they’re blindly forced to operate within the confines of very limited knowledge. How can you live fully if your people’s past is hidden from you? Why is the government allowed to control what you consume to such a degree, and how does it affect someone’s thinking? When do you begin to raise an eyebrow at what you’re told and expected to follow? By curiously bringing up such questions, Silo feels like a timely sci-fi drama even if it’s set in the future. I wish the writing spent more time digging into these themes instead of focusing so much on I.T. waging a war against Mechanical, with no clue about how the middle floors or anyone else is faring amid political adversity. 

Anyway, for now, Lukas goes back to Terrance and lets them in on Salvador Quinn’s secret, saying his plan saved Silo 18 for a long time. They take him at his word, admitting that Meadows also visited them years ago with the same spiel. They ended up giving her the thing she asked for: Quinn’s copy of The Pact. I wonder what secrets are hidden in it. 

As for the rest of this episode, it fills us in on what Camille, Rob, Amundsen, Billings, and Martha go through in bits and pieces. Camille slyly manipulates Amundsen, forcing the latter to help Rob figure out what Lukas is up to. She’s apparently trying to play both sides of the coin, but it’s likely she has a different agenda. Good. It makes her far more interesting than Rob (even his menacing way of talking to Lukas in this episode ended up sounding funny).

Meanwhile, Bernard traps Martha with emotional blackmail. He tricks her by saying she can “see Carla” if she agrees to be his eyes and ears, updating him about Mechanical’s plans. I’m surprised she believes his obvious treachery, telling them about Shirley and co.’s plans to break into Supply. Once again, I hope that much like Camille, Martha is playing the long game and has something up her sleeves. She’s smarter than this, right? Plus, her ex-wife Carla would not approve of Martha’s actions if she learned she was going against her friends to free her, right? I do love the look of satisfaction on Tim Robbins’ face when his character realizes that Martha hasn’t betrayed him (for now) as he spies on her via the camera. 

“The Book Of Quinn” wasn’t a perfect episode, but it puts things into motion for Silo season two’s end. I’m going to scream if the next episode makes us wait for answers about what Juliette is up to, but I’m taking the eighth installment as a win after several weeks of duds. How’s everyone else faring with season two? 

Stray observations: 

• • Here’s what Lukas decodes of Quinn’s message: “If you’ve gotten this far, you already know the game is rigged.” It seems anticlimactic, but just feels like another message to untangle.
• • Dr. Pete Nichols makes yet another brief appearance, this time to side with Shirley and Knox’s plan to sneak into Supply. He’s on their side because there’s a lack of medical equipment, forcing them to use rot gut as anesthesia. Yikes.
• • I’m sorry but the scene of the random Mechanical people trying to commit the heist, with Amundsen’s men comically stopping them (thanks to Martha’s info) was comical. It’s hard to take any of these faces seriously when Silo hasn’t bothered telling us who they are. 
• • Billings is hiding out in Mechanical with no one but Shirley befriending him. Even his wife briefly argues with him when she learns he has a page from a book from the before times. It’s okay, they patch up, and Billings is further motivated to stand up against Bernard. I hope the last two outings give Chinaze Ucha more to do because he’s turning into a breakout.