In my Silo Season 2 Episode 3 review, I lamented the fact that we’re several episodes into a second season, and the story is starting to crawl.
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut because Silo Season 2 Episode 4 opens up with a grievous deus ex machina that lays out everything Mechanical is up against. It’s literally written on a wall for them to read.
Apparently, despite all their visits to this dark and otherwise unknown area of the Silo, no one ever read these gigantic messages written on a 100′ x 100′ wall and thought, “Gee, that sounds really bad.”
It’s a genuinely face-palm moment, a cringe-inducing flash of “what the actual…” well, you know the rest.
It’s an occasion of “Hey, let’s get this show on the road” condensed down to, “Just write the story on a wall that everyone sees, but no one actually reads until just the right moment.”
While some of the hour returns to the things that make Silo a solid, if slow, series, other scenes are simply immersion-breakingly absurd. I’ll get to that in a few.
Much of what characterizes Silo Season 2 is the ever-present mystery of the outside world, and Silo 17 is at the heart of it. Juliette’s time there is unnerving, to say the least.
Her lone companion is a man-child, whose mind is also suffering from decades of being, well, solo. Every moment she spends with him is a study in passive anxiety, wondering when and if Solo will explode and become violent.
Shane McRae’s balance between a child and a hair-pulling psychotic is scantily restrained like a balloon that’s half a PSI too full.
Juliette is the voice of reason, but she also has much to do. Exploring Silo 17 is neither a simple nor unhazardous journey. The place is half full of water, and if you fear drowning, this episode may make you a little queasy.
Book readers know there is more going on just past the perimeter, out of sight and out of mind…for now. Unfortunately, as is the case with the first three episodes of Silo Season 2, the feeling of progress is fleeting.
Back in Silo 18, Knox, Shirley, Carla, and Walker decide to ascend the Silo and meet with Judge Meadows. Despite the decision marking the near beginning of the episode, they don’t reach the top until the end of the episode.
Unfortunately, Judge Meadows is no longer in a state for receiving company. Even worse, Judge Meadows is where things truly fall apart.
In an earlier scene, Bernard does something truly horrible, and what follows is a series of romantic gestures that seem so out of place I had to check to make sure my iPad didn’t switch me to some other show.
The level of unreality is truly bad, and it’s hard to imagine putting anyone in Judge Meadow’s place and expecting them to behave the same way.
It doesn’t end there. The events that transpire afterward are equally ridiculous. Robert Sims’ Lord of the Rings speech is as out of place as everything else and is the icing on the cake in a seemingly bizarre effort to speed the plot along in the most convenient ways possible.
What’s worse is that it doesn’t take much to sit down and think of a few slight modifications here and there that would right the ship. If an armchair TV critic can do that much, surely the writers can as well?
The remaining subplots are relatively short but accomplish much. Robert Sims is still butthurt over Bernard’s decision to skip him in the running for the Head of IT’s shadow.
Robert, Bernard, and Juliette are the entertainment manifestations of all the great empire quotes.
“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
-Will Durant
Fitting. The “without,” in this case, is the poisonous world beyond the exterior vault doors and automated flamethrowers of the Silo’s threshold.
The “within” is the conflict Sims is generating with Bernard, even as both seek to silence Knox, Shirley, and the rest of the “peasants” from Mechanical.
Judge Meadows is the unfortunate victim of Sims’ machinations and Bernard’s counter. Destruction from within, indeed.
The power dynamic between Robert and his wife, Camille, is fascinating to watch. Ultimately, she’s just as responsible for the internal unraveling as her husband, Bernard, and everyone else.
Thus far, Silo Season 2 is almost entirely conflicting dynamism. As slow as things are moving, there’s pleasure in watching political oscillations and the resulting reactions.
Unfortunately, Juliette is in a bit of limbo as a result. Things are moving along in Silo 17, but only if you’re measuring in millimeters.
Sheriff Billings enjoys a little screen time as well. In this case, he gets to sift through the true meaning of being the Sheriff as he investigates Cooper’s shooting and the source of the firebomb from Episode 2.
Despite his physical setback, he’s fairly decent at it, asking the right questions, determining motives, and arriving at a logical conclusion, at least in part. The larger, ever-growing conspiracy around him is a bit above the Sheriff’s pay grade.
Silo Season 2 Episode 4 is not going to set anyone buzzing or have you bouncing off the walls in anticipation. The mystery at the center of Silo is a gigantic black hole, sucking us back in with each succeeding episode.
But the reality is that Juliette began the episode in search of a fire suit. An hour later, she found one. Sure, mission accomplished and all that good stuff. But at the show’s current pace, it doesn’t feel like she is anywhere closer to her ultimate objective.
Knox, Shirley, and company made it to the upper levels to speak with Judge Meadows, and the episode ends with them still on the upper levels, mission most decidedly unaccomplished.
This episode relied heavily on convenience and a glaring plot hole. It’s unfortunate because I am really enjoying Silo and hope that this is not a sign of a decline in the overall quality of the writing.
And, as exciting as some of the subplots are in Silo 18, the first four episodes relegate the primary protagonist to short snippets of screen time. There are some big questions in Silo, and Season 2 looks as far from answering them as the beginning of Season 1.
Why is the outside world dead? Why does IT viciously repress history? Who placed IT in charge and why? How is Juliette going to get back, and what will she do when she does?
If the heroine’s journey were measured in quarter-inch segments, it would be a mile long and only the first handful of inches behind her. Episode 4 covered another quarter and did so in a questionable fashion.
Watch Silo Season 2 Online
