‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Silo Season 2 Episode 3.

After splitting Silo Season 2’s main action across two separate episodes, Episode 3 marks a turning point for the series’ sophomore installment. Writer Cassie Peppas and director Aric Avelino‘s “Solo” combine Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) plot in one Silo with the increasingly dangerous stakes simultaneously unfolding in her old home. And as events on both sides slowly pick up steam, in true Silo tradition, “Solo” answers some questions while creating new ones. Now that she’s stuck in an abandoned Silo, where does Juliette go from here? Who is the mysterious man in the vault, and what is he protecting? How does Shirley (Remmie Milner) plan to lead a successful revolution, and how will the combined forces of experienced schemers like Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), Robert Sims (Common), and Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) respond? Going forward, only one thing seems certain: Silo still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

The Rebellion Runs Into Its First Major Setback in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 3

Last week’s episode concluded on a note of distinct (albeit perilous) optimism, thanks to someone circulating the graffiti slogan “Juliette Lives” around the Silo. Consequences immediately shatter that illusion when security enforcers blame Teddy (Olatunji Ayofe), one of Juliette’s former coworkers in Mechanical, for the infraction, and violently arrest him. While consoling his mother, Evelyn, Shirley assumes that leadership turned Teddy into a scapegoat. She’s wrong — Evelyn is proud that Teddy backed up his beliefs with action. Powered by her similar convictions, Shirley promises that they won’t let leadership make “an example” out of her son.

Over in the airlock-sealed Server Room, Meadows and Holland strategize. Their main point of contention comes down to whether they follow the Order’s instructions to frame Mechanical for any past and future disturbances, thereby turning the less-privileged residents into a Silo-wide enemy. Holland lives by the Founders’ creed, whereas Meadows barely contains her disdain for their edicts. She advises Holland to free Teddy and pin the graffiti on someone from the upper levels, a merciful act that stands a better chance of preventing war than turning Mechanical into martyrs. The one topic upon which these reluctant allies agree is Juliette’s surprisingly tenacious intelligence — up until Meadows broaches the subject of Juliette’s cleaning. Holland admits that condemning Juliette to death-via-cleaning was inevitable once they found her with a pre-rebellion-era hard drive, but Meadows’ sticking point is whether Juliette truly asked to go outside. Holland, as slippery a liar as ever, keeps claiming that she did.

Later, Holland and Sims hold their own scheming conference. Sims confirms that anyone who glimpsed the hard drive’s information has been drugged with a medication that selectively alters the subject’s memory. The exceptions are two of Juliette’s accomplices, Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez) and Danny Bly (Will Merrick) — although it doesn’t take much for Kennedy to strike a deal with Sims. In exchange for information, Sims will let Kennedy forget both the truth about the Silo and the fact that his deceased, beloved wife ever existed.

Everyone Is Looking for the Truth in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 3

As it happens, grappling with grief is one of Episode 3’s recurring themes. We spend a few minutes catching up with Juliette’s father, Pete Nichols (Iain Glen), who reconciled with his estranged daughter just to immediately lose her. He can’t sleep, and encounters another insomniac while wandering the Silo’s garden area: Phoebe, a prospective mother who has several reasons to feel nervous about her chances of winning the upcoming birth lottery. Even though she and her husband want children, she wonders if it’s fair to bring an innocent life into their uncertain world. “Having a baby is a venture of hope,” Pete replies, likening it to the people who planted trees inside the Silo but didn’t live to see them grow. By episode’s end, in what may or may not be a coincidence, Phoebe wins the lottery — cue Pete removing her birth control implant with the world’s saddest Girl Dad eyes.

Meadows, Meadows can’t shake her suspicions about Juliette’s cleaning. Newly minted sheriff Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) has almost concluded his investigation into the incident, and Meadows asks to see his conclusions before he shares them with Sims. During this professional conversation, Billings confesses the personal dilemma that’s plagued him since Season 1: his Syndrome diagnosis, a secret that, if revealed, could torpedo his career. Turns out, it’s not a secret: Meadows already knows and thinks it’s high time they retire the Pact’s “discriminatory phrases.” Meadows also drops a psychologically-based theory surrounding the Syndrome’s origins: “It’s just a natural human reaction to an unnatural situation.”

Whether out of duty or in response to her courtesy, Billings delivers his finished report straight to Meadows. The last witness verified her peers’ statements but never said that she personally heard Juliette ask to clean. Armed with the all-but-confirmed truth, Meadows retires to her quarters and activates an old recording of a family (or families) having fun on a beach, sledding down a snowy hill, and riding horses — and, as she watches, silently cries.

One Alliance Forms While Another Falls Apart in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 3

In the Down Deep, Shirley and her rebel group go toe-to-toe with Knox (Shane McRae) and a group of armored officials to demand Teddy’s freedom. In the ensuing argument, an anonymous person tosses a firebomb into the fray. Cooper (Matt Gomez Hidaka), Juliette’s Mechanical shadow, tries to stop the assailant, but dies in the resulting gunfire, much to the joint dismay of Knox, Shirley, and deputy Hank (Billy Postlethwaite). The tragedy prompts Shirley and Knox to privately meet. After some heated words, both agree that they want the same thing: the truth. Knox also teases a secret for the future concerning a wall of names and its significance.

Conversely, the Silo’s other major alliance starts fracturing. Holland and Meadows meet once more this episode, this time under the auspices of discussing the latter’s escape. Holland takes her measurements so they can design a fitted environmental suit, and their intimate proximity feels distinctly uncomfortable. When Meadows presses, Holland denies planting the firebomber in order to “build up anti-Mechanical resentment” — but when Meadows confronts him about Juliette’s cleaning, he doesn’t say a word. That’s answer enough, and the unspoken honesty seems to sunder any modicum of trust Meadows had been rebuilding with her former mentor.

Juliette and the Vault Man Exchange Information in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 3

Back in the other Silo, Juliette forges an equally tentative but more successful alliance with the stranger in the vault (Steve Zahn). Last seen threatening her in the Season 2 premiere, he politely asks Juliette’s name and gives his own: Solo, because he’s always alone. Solo explains that out of the 50 different existing Silos, this one is Number 17, and everyone willingly left. He can’t explain why some individuals survived the toxic air past the normal three-minute mark, but a man named Ron Tucker inspired the community’s collective uprising. Instead of cleaning, Ron wrote “lies” over the outside camera lens and walked “around the corner.”

Juliette quickly realizes that the parallels are paralleling. With 10,000 lives on the line, she decides to return to her Silo and prevent another disaster. As she determines that her damaged suit is unsalvageable and doesn’t find enough fabric to craft a new one, Solo’s loneliness prompts him to keep seeking out Juliette’s company, locked vault door notwithstanding. He leaves a tin of chicken stew on the floor for her and strikes up more well-meaning, awkward small talk — even apologizing when his one joke falls flat because he’s out of practice. Eventually, his tone landing somewhere between defensive and pleading, Solo explains that Silo 17’s head of IT tasked him with never letting anyone else inside the vault. Juliette asks if Solo is responsible for the newer dead bodies in the hall, which makes him re-close the door’s peephole. Still, Juliette sincerely thanks him for the food. Solo’s next admission? The gesture wasn’t entirely born of his good heart. “If you ate the food,” he says, “then I knew you were real, and I wasn’t imagining you.”

Solo’s Decision Could Affect the Rest of ‘Silo’ Season 2

After Solo blasts his music loud enough to wake Juliette from a nap, he eagerly suggests that she adapt a firefighter uniform for outside use. Unfortunately, one glance from Juliette confirms their worst suspicions: years earlier, the Silo’s broken generator flooded the exact area she needs to access. Getting there and back safely is a two-person operation. Juliette pleads for Solo’s help, citing the thousands of lives he could save. After an agonized silence, Solo refuses, and Juliette gently accepts his decision.

But our leading lady barely makes it onto one of the narrow walkways before Solo’s panicked voice halts her in her tracks, specifically his broken-sounding cry of “Don’t go.” Solo, revealed in full as a bearded man wearing a dingy old jumpsuit, stands several feet behind Juliette. She asks Solo if he wants to see more, but a tearful panic quickly overwhelms him after those first few steps. He stumbles into Juliette, and they both sit down, prepared to wait out his fear for as long as he needs. Now that a giant door doesn’t separate them, Solo asks, “You really are here, aren’t you?” Juliette reaffirms, “I am” — and if that isn’t a loaded statement for the rest of Season 2, I don’t know what is.

New episodes of Silo Season 2 premiere weekly on Fridays and are available to stream on Apple TV+.

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