Welcome back Silo Science Fiction Lovers,
Silo began its second season on November 15, 2024 after a well received season one that we reviewed previously. The drama is gripping and realistic centering on a future world where humankind has destroyed and polluted the surface with the remnants of our species seeking shelter in what viewers were led to believe was a single mostly underground Silo.
Subsequent to watching season one, TeamWHR decided to review and analyze Silo. This as a result of having been greatly impressed by the depth of the story arc from Hugh Howey’s successful novels that were created for television by Graham Yost. Silo as a science fiction series features fabulous character acting, creative costumes, superb set design, and vibrant visual effects that bring this delightful dystopian adventure to life on our screens each week!
The series stars Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette Nichols, Tim Robbins as Mayor Bernard Holland, Harriet Walter as Martha Walker, Common as Robert Sims, Shane McRae as Knox, David Oyelowo as Sheriff Holsten, Billy Postlethwaite as Hank, Iain Glen as Dr. Pete Nichols, Chinaza Uche as Paul Billings, Avi Nash as Lucas Kyle, Remmie Milner as Shirley Campbell, Christian Ochoa Lavernia as Amundsen, Olatunji Ayofe as Teddy, Caitlin Zoz as Kathleen Billings, Tanya Moodie as Judge Mary Meadows, Chipo Chung as Sandy, Angela Yeoh as Deputy Molly Karins, Matt Gomez Hidaka as Cooper, Will Patton as Deputy Marnes, a return of Amelie Child Villiers as young Juliette, and a stellar supporting cast and crews.
We were delighted to learn at the end of the season one episode ten “Outside” that Juliette discovers there are multiple Silos. A large city pictured in the distance represents opportunities for continuing the saga in future episodes and years up ahead.
When Juliette escapes her own Silo that had become a virtual prison for anyone who doesn’t follow the rigid protocol of Miscreant Mayor Holland and his henchmen, she sets out on an adventure to discover what has happened to humanity. Not all of what Juliette finds is pretty!
The Engineer:
In the first episode of season two, we begin with scenes of a rebellion in what we learn is Silo number 17. At first viewers are led to believe it may be Juliette’s Silo number 18. However that proves to not be the case… yet!
Subsequent to masses of people charging the authorities, several people are shot dead. Nevertheless, the rebellion in Silo 17 proves to be an apparent success as the people crowd up the spiral staircase crowding together to get to the hatch in order to get outside.
The first few minutes finds us the Silo 17 rebels carrying a flag with a young person in front running up the staircase. This will prove to be his, and their final fatal mistake.
All of the Silo 17 inhabitant’s (except one we learn about later) break out on to the surface outside the structure. Unfortunately, none are wearing hazmat suits. This indicates that life inside Silo 17 is not the same as Silo 18 where rebels are given defective hazmat suits to go outside to “clean” the viewing portals. This is how rebels are murdered by Miscreant Mayor Holland and his administration. Everyone who escaped Silo 17 are killed within minutes by the toxic atmosphere on the surface that seeps into the defective hazmat suits.
In the process, Juliette, learns that her Silo number is 18. “Outside” she approaches the hatch structure of Silo 17, we observe a horrific scene, thousands of dead bodies that have decayed in the toxic environment.
Juliette seeks refuge in what she believes is an abandoned silo. After the catastrophic Silo 17 rebellion evidenced by the huge numbers of long since dead human beings littering the ground, this is a logical conclusion, albeit an incorrect one for Juliette to make.
Believing herself to be the sole individual inside, viewers will find out later that Silo 17 has a single survivor.
Juliette makes unsettling discoveries as a result of the rebellion that challenge her sanity in solitude.
Juliette flashes back to when she was a young adolescent girl when they were being brainwashed by authoritarian establishment that even when she was young, she did not believe the propaganda that were being fed to the Silo 18 inhabitants.
As our hero explores the devastation in Silo 17, Juliette uses her engineering skills from when she was in the Mechanical Department before becoming a Sheriff in Silo 18, fabricating a bridge across a chasm to a place known as the vault.
However, in the process of her explorations, her hazmat suit is damaged beyond repair.
Suddenly Juliette hears music that she immediately seeks out.
Here we learn that there is a survivor in Silo 17 locked behind an armored door known as the vault who refuses to come out. Juliette makes unsuccessful attempts to open the vault door.
The person is heard threatening to kill Juliette if she tries to open the door. The slow burn episode draws to a close with the person peering out at Juliette. We will learn later in episode three that this person is named Solo.
Order:
Episode two takes us back to Silo 18 where we learn that a rebellion similar to that which occurred in Silo 17 is taking shape when people realize that Juliette survived outside suspecting that they have been lied to for years.
As we discovered last season, Judge Meadows is not really the omnipotent political person that Silo 18 people believe her to be.
This episode provides viewers with an insight into Judge Meadows motivations and character. We learn that she does trust Miscreant Mayor Bernard Holland who has been lying to everyone for decades.
Mayor Holland knows that trouble is brewing because Juliette escaped alive. He visits Judge Meadows in her apartment begging for her help. Holland has a plan and he wants her to join him while he addresses the people of the Silo 18.
In the meantime, Martha Walker and her accomplice are arrested by Robert Sims who knows that they were likely involved in Juliette’s escape.
Both of these characters suspect they will be executed since they had worked together to provide the effective hazmat suit tape to Juliette which ultimately facilitated her successful escape from Silo 18.
Mayor Holland says “Nobody knows me better than you” making it evident that at one point both shared a common bond that has diminished over time. We learn that this bond dates back to twenty-five years in the past when Judge Meadows was his protector, known as a “shadow” in the series.
Viewers are not told what caused their relationship to break apart, but we do learn that it caused Judge Meadows to start drinking heavily. Holland says “I’ll never fucking understand you.” Our only other clue is Judge Meadows makes a request to go outside to find Juliette. Mayor Holland agrees since he wants to know the mystery of what Juliette is doing outside Silo 18’s enclosure.
Initially, Judge Meadows refuses to cooperate. When Mayor Holland begins his speech to the entire Silo, he tells a lie that they have invented a new hazmat suit sealing tape that is what allowed Juliette to survive. Surprisingly, Judge Meadows joins Mayor Holland at the podium. She even speaks after he lies to the Silo residents about inventing a new kind of protective hazmat suit tape. What’s up with that?
Robert Sims knows that Mayor Holland did not invent the new hazmat sealing tape, but the cover story was told to the entire Silo 18 residents that allows him to release Martha. Viewers suspect Sims will monitor them for any evidence of a rebellion.
Little does Sims know that Judge Meadows will seek out people in the Mechanical Division who are indeed planning a rebellion of their own as the “Juliette Lives” graffiti is observed all over Silo 18 that caused Mayor Holland to panic in the first place. Two things become obvious. Mayor Holland is a blatant liar. Judge Holland no longer trusts him. All this editor can says is that Judge Holland better maker certain she doesn’t use the defective hazmat sealing tape when she makes her journey to find Juliette!
Solo:
We return to Juliette Nichols in Silo 17 in an episode aptly named for our new character, the self named man known as “Solo”. We do not know exactly how long Solo has been alone, but it has been decades at least. Solo looks not only crazy and lonely, he is apparently suffering from severe stress due to prolonged periods of time without interacting with any other human beings.
Unfortunately Juliette is trapped without a hazmat suit in an otherwise abandoned Silo 18. We return to her chatting with Solo through the vault door. Solo welcomes the conversation with Juliette. We learn that Solo is alive only because he was told by his protector to lock himself inside the vault. In the past, while the rebellion was set loose, outside of the vault, everyone perished one way or another.
In a poignant confession Solo says “My name is Solo. Just Solo, because I’m in here all by myself” “So I’m Solo. And no one forced the people out. They chose to leave. And when they did, it was a nice day. Everybody was smiling. And then that dust started to blow again. And I think the poison went away for a bit, but it came back and a lot of it. And that’s when they all died.”
Solo continues to reveal to Juliette a story about a person named Ron Tucker, a man who wanted to go outside but refused to clean, instead Ron was witnessed writing “Lies” on the camera lens before disappearing round the corner.
“Two days later they painted on the screen Lies, right over what he had written! And that’s when the fighting started (inside Silo 17). “So Russell put me in here. Russell was the head of Information Technology (IT) and I was his shadow. And Russell told me don’t, no matter what, NEVER let anyone in the vault. Ever!”
Despite sounding crazy, Solo’s story is believable. Viewers have already witnessed Juliette seeing the bodies outside Silo 18. We know other than Solo, Silo 18 is not only a shambles from the rebellion, it is now abandoned.
Solo, is still hiding in the vault, is telling Juliette about people rebelling and then going outside, only to die, makes sense. Solo being associated with Silo 18’s IT department rings true. Therefore it is logical that only IT staff would be allowed access to the vault. However, there are several gaps in Solo’s story. When Juliette asks Solo about the bodies just outside the vault stating “they aren’t as old as the other ones” Solo declines to respond to this as well as several other probing questions. When Solo relates the details of the day that everyone went outside to their death, his eyes look away from Juliette just before he says; “It was a nice day.” It is obvious that there are things Solo is not relating to Juliette in full. Additionally, there are undoubtedly questions of those bodies Juliette found outside the vault door.
Near the end of the episode Juliette see recalls seeing other graffiti but now sees the words “We will get in sooner or later” emblazoned across the doorway that faces Solo’s viewing portal. The implication is that people have tried to get inside the vault before, but failed. Yet whomever they were, they wanted to send Solo a message he could not avoid seeing.
As the episode winds down to a conclusion, Juliette returns after searching for an undamaged hazmat suit that Solo told her about. On her return, another surprise, Juliette finds food waiting for her outside the vault door. This means clearly that Solo had to place it there. Juliette asks why? Solo says “I wanted you to eat the food”.
Additional questions to consider:
Why didn’t Solo want to help the people who wrote that threatening note?
Did Solo know them during his time working in the Silo 17 IT department?
Where they people that did not want to participate in the rebellion?
Did they die as the toxic atmosphere began to permeate Silo 17?
Did they threaten Solo who poisoned the food he gave them?
If Solo is telling Juliette the truth about what happened in Silo 17, why does he behave so oddly to some of Juliette’s questions? It becomes obvious that there is more going than meets the eye.
As they continue to chat Juliette realizes that Solo is very lonely and has been for a long time. Telling Solo that she is leaving, we can detect that the pitch of his voice becomes elevated.
Realizing that he will be all alone once again, Solo panics, and opens the vault door. Now allies, the two sit down to get to know each other better as the screen fades to black.
We will be back with more analysis and reviews as this delightful dystopian adventure unfolds delivering superb science fiction excitement! Since there is so much more story to tell, TeamWHR, like all Silo lovers will be waiting in eager anticipation each week to learn what is coming over the remaining seven scheduled episodes in season two.
We will be back to continue our analysis of Silo in the future during season two. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Thank you. 
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR
