Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t watched Silo Season 1, I’d recommend watching it before reading.
Summary:
On November 15, Silo Season 2 released on Apple TV. The first episode was 45 minutes long. The show began with a flashback to Silo 17, which is adjacent to Silo 18. In this flashback, we saw the result of a rebellion that led to everyone going outside. Fast forward to the present day and we were back with Juliette Nichols. Having been sentenced to a cleaning, Juliette was stranded alone in the outside world. Due to Mechanical fixing her suit, she was able to survive in the outside world longer than anyone. As Juliette walks past the initial hill, she is shocked by the sight of countless dead bodies. These came from the rebellion of the people of Silo 17. Due to the outside world’s lack of oxygen, everyone from Silo 17 died. Juliette continued to walk outside when her suit was damaged causing her to hide in the bunker of Silo 17. As her suit continues to leak air, she manages to use her engineering skills to break through the vault door. She breaks through the door and quickly closes it shut to keep any air from leaking out. The entirety of Silo 17 has been abandoned with messages on the walls stating “Lies” and a lack of power throughout the whole Silo. Throughout the entire episode, Juliette is exploring this alternate abandoned Silo. Through her eyes, we see numerous flashbacks of her time in Silo 18. The entire episode carries an eerie and mysterious tone as we never know when something bad will happen. The surrounding backdrop creates a greater urgency with Juliette who is attempting to find anyone alive in this Silo. At one point in the episode, Juliette notices one of the 144 levels that has power. There is light coming out of a room on that level and various noises from its corridor. We see Juliette attempting to cross onto that level, but the bridge between that level and the stairs was destroyed. After a failed attempt to cross which lands her in the water below, she manages to craft a bridge that helps her make it to the other side. After initially finding nothing of significance, she creates a stronger bridge and crosses back to the stairs. However, as she is about to head back up the stairs, the song, “Moon River,” begins to play. Juliette follows this song to a vault door at the end of the corridor and attempts to open it. On the other side of the vault door, we see a man emerge. The man tells Juliette that he understands her curiosity to open the vault door, but if she tries again, he’ll kill her. It ends on this frightening cliffhanger.
My thoughts on the first episode:
Overall, the first episode felt like a stronger start than Season 1. For one, there were higher stakes. Since Juliette is in a new and dangerous situation, her life is at stake. Furthermore, back at Silo 18, the idealistic and corrupt Head of IT Bernard has been elected Mayor, leading to greater instability. This episode was much different than many we got in Season 1. Throughout the entire episode, there was a focus on Rebecca Ferguson’s acting. I thought that she gave a great performance. Furthermore, throughout this episode, there was little dialogue and more of a focus on the visual elements of the show. This made the viewer focus more on the Silo itself. The showrunners did a good job of the worldbuilding in Season 1 and it continues in this season. It was interesting to see the incredible complexity and scale of the Silo on display in this episode. Through Juliette’s exploration of the Silo paired with flashbacks, we were able to discern what was happening. Although there were many things I liked about the first episode, one issue still remains. The show’s pacing continues to be a struggle. I thought the show could’ve covered a lot more ground. The cliffhanger at the end should’ve happened a lot earlier. I think they could’ve also fit in more into this episode in general and I would’ve liked to see what was going on in Silo 18. However, this is something that can still be fixed as the season progresses. All in all, the first episode was quite strong and I thought it started off better than Season 1. I’m looking forward to the remaining episodes which release every Friday.
