Each week Joe and Terry discuss the most recent episodes of Apple TV’s Silo, alternating between our respective sites.

Missed a review? 1.01-1.02 / 1.03 / 1.04 / 1.05 / 1.06 / 1.07 / 1.08

Spoilers follow for Episode 9, “The Getaway”.

Episode 9 “The Getaway”:

JOE

It’s the penultimate episode, Terry! After a series of episodes filled with revelations about George Wilkins (Ferdinand Kingsley), Hanna Nichols (Sienna Guillory) and the Flamekeepers, and the duplicity of Sims (Common) and Bernard (Tim Robbins), it’s time to see how - or if - Jules (Rebecca Ferguson) will survive.

Last we saw of the Sheriff, she bailed over the side of a stairwell and she spends the duration of “The Getaway” on the run from Judicial and their famed Raiders. Most surprisingly, that includes seeking temporary refuge in Sims’ own house, holding his wife Camille (Alexandria Riley) and son Anthony (Oscar Coleman) hostage as she uses his computer to decode the hard drive.

All of the scenes with Camille are fascinating. We learn that she was a former Raider and knows just how unhinged they can be (which is why she didn’t invite them in when Sims sent a pair of men to “protect” her). She’s also an inquisitive woman who wants to know what Jules knows, though not to report back to Bernard, but rather because she wants to ensure Sims has what he needs to climb the corporate ladder and become Bernard’s shadow!

It’s evident from these interactions that Sims is in cahoots with Bernard not just because he believes in protecting the 10K members of the silo, but also because he’s riding the coattails of power. It makes sense, but “The Getaway” makes it crystal clear when Bernard notes with disdain that Sims’ decision to protect his family first and foremost may put his qualifications for higher office in question.

It’s not that dissimilar to the conversation that Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) has with his wife Kat (Caitlin Zoz) when he returns home with worse symptoms from The Syndrome than ever before. She cruelly berates him for staying in the Sheriff’s office, claiming that it would have been easier for him to hide and continue supporting his family had he stayed in Judicial. Basically she’s unhappy that Billings made a hard decision where he left the comfort of a “safe” job that would have guaranteed his success and safety.

Kat comes off incredibly shrill, judgemental, and manipulative in this sequence, but it’s an important piece of Silo’s commentary. Throughout its first season, the show’s narrative has been implicitly driven by dystopian mysteries (what is the silo? Who built it? How did this totalitarian regime take power? Who was in the rebellion? etc).

But the series also has an interest in moral questions: what does it mean to do the ‘right’ thing and at what cost? Jules and Billings certainly aren’t fallible people; they’re as driven by their own emotions and personal goals as anyone else, but there’s a stark contrast between their motivations and people like Sims and Bernard.

The latter pair wield the Pact as a selective tool, weaponizing a doctrine to suit their own self-serving agenda to gain power at the expense (and death) of others. But they do it under the public auspices of making “hard” decisions for “the greater good.”

In some regard, Jules is no better; in this episode alone, she selfishly brings in Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez) and another Flamekeeper to help her with the hard drive because she finds a video from George addressed to her.

But the reality is that even as she acts in her own interest to see her dead lover’s message, she’s fanning the flames of rebellion in an effort to expose the corruption and lies that prop up the silo’s hierarchy. This is obviously a system put in place to keep certain people in power at the expense of others, like Patrick and his hacker friend Danny (Will Merrick). So even when Jules puts all of her friends and family in jeopardy by going on the run, she’s also revealing the cracks in the silo’s facade. The truth will benefit everyone when it comes out; just look at how a single image of the beach from Jules’ brochure affects Paul Billings.

Of course Jules now has to stay alive long enough to spark a riot.

Terry, over to you: what did you think of Jules’ time with Camille? Were you worried when Lukas (Avi Nash) got hauled in for questioning? What about her father, Dr. Nichols (Iain Glen)? And what about the final reveal contained in the “Jane Carmody” file?

TERRY

Nine episodes in and Silo is firing on all cylinders, Joe, bringing together action, character beats, revelations and drama the way the series knows best.

One thing I’ve appreciated about Silo is how it sometimes swerves with narrative reveals and “The Getaway” is no different. The moment that Anthony shows his mom the name tag he made for his father (before mentioning he made one for her, too), I thought for sure we’d have a death in the Sims household. “The Getaway” even pushed us further in that direction by juxtaposing Camille’s slow progress lockpicking the handcuffs and then quietly sneaking up behind Jules with a hammer with Sims barking orders at Judicial and taking off like a possessed man. In a different story, this would have led to a confrontation and probably violence…but Silo swerved.

Instead, it gave us the intriguing conversation between Camille and Jules, then followed that up with her heart-to-heart with her husband. You mentioned that Sims is trying to climb the corporate ladder by trying to shadow Bernard, and that perfectly fits in with the narrative Silo has established with Sims. Back in “The Janitor’s Boy”, before Sims pushed his lackey to his death, he monologued about his father, the janitor. And over the course of his career, it’s obvious that Sims’ goal was to climb that corporate ladder…but I took Camille’s two conversations a little differently.

Camille could have easily subdued Jules. The story she tells Sims that she didn’t want the raiders bursting in and opening fire rings false considering we know how it went down. Jules could have been subdued and handcuffed, ready for the raiders. But something stopped her…and it wasn’t the fear that the raiders would open fire on her family.

I think Camille knows some of what’s going on. And I think that either Sims is in on that knowledge or she is using his desire to climb the corporate ladder as a way of getting information. When she sees what Jules discovered, she tells her “stop.” Then she tells her that they’ll know she’s here and she can either stay, watch and die…or she can leave. Considering Camille has the upperhand at this point, she could have decided how everything goes down. At the very least, she could have kept the HDD and turned it into Judicial and been a hero.

But I think she recognized what was on there and its importance, not only to Jules but to the silo.

She didn’t seem taken aback or surprised that George was on a video. These two conversations made me think that she has ulterior motives…

Whether Sims knows his wife’s intentions or not is up in the air, but I can’t believe that he isn’t aware, given the choice of words she uses in her conversation with him: “We have one goal. One ambition. We can’t lose sight of it.” Sure, that rather benign comment about “one goal” could mean simple corporate-climbing…but I think there’s more to it.

Onto your other questions, though. I was slightly worried about Lukas when he was brought before Bernard. The way Bernard finagles information from him was fascinating to watch, starting out as a friend who wants to help before suggesting possible outcomes for Lukas to outright threatening him, banging his fist on the table for emphasis.

Bernard’s a man used to getting his way and everything in the silo isn’t quite going his way. To see him slowly become more unhinged and manipulative throughout the episode showcased Tim Robbins’ acting really well. Lukas remains a kind of enigma, though. He hasn’t actually done too much, outside of watching the stars, listening to Jules, and making a move on her.

The other wet blanket character is Dr. Nichols, who gets to console an exhausted mother and give a meek defense of his daughter, bringing up the raiders (a group of people this episode is enamored with discussing) and pledging his allegiance to what remains of his family over the silo. This conversation wouldn’t be interesting except that Silo pairs it with Sims’ own “selfishness” over his family. “No one person is more important than the 10,000 or thousands to come,” he tells Dr. Nichols, only for Bernard to basically suggest Sims did the same thing with his own family by sending the raiders to be with Sims’ wife and kid.

So while the conversation didn’t do much for Dr. Nichols, it showcased another way in which Silo makes subtle connections between its characters and themes.

Finally, the least surprising moment: discovering that Allison (Rashida Jones) saw a perfectly beautiful world that isn’t poisonous at all and that the cafeteria sensors are broadcasting lies. We already knew this from the very beginning, so it’s not as big of a reveal for us.

For the characters, however? It’s life changing; enough to start a new revolution.

Back over to you, Joe. We’ve seen Paul’s journey from The Pact-obsessed Judicial member who wants to be sheriff to hoarding the remaining piece of the travel catalog…what are your thoughts on his actions this episode? Did you read some queer analogies with the way he hid his “abnormalities” as a kid? Any thoughts on that red-glowing keychain that Bernard anxiously holds and its connection to the HDD?

JOE

I’ll confess that I can’t comment on the glowing red keychain because it’s part of what I remember from Hugh Howey’s book series, but at the rate that the TV series is going, we should learn what that mysterious tech means as early as next week’s finale. And it’s a doozy!

Back to your questions about Paul. I really like that queer analogy idea, Terry! The overly “macho” display of aggression in an effort to overcompensate for your own perceived issues is kind of a classic deflection mechanism, isn’t it? I’ll confess that the Syndrome is still one of the more perplexing narrative components of the show.

On the surface, it reads like a symptom of the silo’s unsustainable lifestyle (whether it’s a genetic anomaly courtesy of the small 10K breeding pool, a bodily reaction to a limited diet or lack of natural sunlight, or a reflection of the environmental stressors). In some ways it’s probably not important that we know all of the details, but right now the use of a non-specific disease as a shorthand for discrimination and hierarchy feels a little bit…lazy? The world-building is pretty thorough on Silo so I keep wanting more from this component of the series, however small it is in the grander narrative about the burgeoning rebellion.

As for how Paul reacts, I want to shout out Uche for giving an achingly real performance as Paul struggles to process the image of the beach. He’s so overwhelmed by the majestic beauty, it nearly reduces him to tears and it really helps to sell how precious this Relic is. The burning of the rest of the brochure feels a little knee-jerk reactionary (particularly since Paul doesn’t know about the cameras at this point if I’m not mistaken), but it’s actually a very smart thing to do.

But Terry, do you think that he kept the single image for himself or is it proof that he’ll use to convince Kat of the outside world? If Camille is truly up to something more, do you think she’s a Flamekeeper or merely an opportunist? And what do you think will happen in the S01 finale?!

TERRY

Lots of questions and lots of unknowns, Joe. Given the name of the finale is “Outside”, I’m guessing that Jules will go…well, outside. If she knows that the outside world isn’t the damaged and destroyed place that everyone in the silo believes it to be, I think she would embrace being sent out “to clean.” And if, as your question suggests, Paul uses the page to convince Kat of the outside world, I’m wondering if a number of people will be joining Jules outside.

I’m unsure of Camille’s motives and my theory-crafting is based on a line-reading of a very small bit of dialogue. But it would be a fun twist to find out that Sims–or, at the very least, his wife–has been doing everything they’ve done to topple the silo regime. But who knows at this point.

The best thing about Silo right now is that I don’t really know what to expect with the finale! I would like to see what this door is all about in the underground that George kept talking about. I wonder if that’s actually the way Jules gets to the surface. I would also like to know what’s going on with the keychain and if that number 18 denotes their specific silo. Surely, at this point, we can assume they aren’t the only silo in America.

Which leads to the biggest question: Why. Is the silo a way of enslaving folk to create energy for the rest of America? Are there rich people on the top who are benefiting from whatever it is the silos are doing? And did Allison and Holston survive? Or did their suits secrete some kind of poison to kill them?

All I know is that I’m excited to finish this first season–particularly knowing that a second one is a sure thing now–and I can’t wait to find out what happens when we head back to Queer.Horror.Movies for the season one finale, “Outside.”