[Silo Review w/ Joe Lipsett] "The Safeguard" is the Best Episode in the Back Half

Each week Joe and Terry discuss the most recent episodes of Apple TV’s Silo Season 2, alternating between our respective sites. 

Catch up on Season 1: 1.01-1.02 / 1.03 / 1.04 / 1.05 / 1.06 / 1.07 / 1.08 / 1.09 / 1.10

Catch up on Season 2: 2.01 / 2.02 / 2.03 / 2.04 / 2.05 / 2.06 / 2.07

Spoilers follow for Silo S02E09 “The Safeguard”

TERRY

Well, Joe, it’s the penultimate episode of the season so you know what that means…introduce a whole host of new characters!

I can understand narratively why these characters don’t show up until the very end of the season, since their appearance and how it ties together with Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) and her own journey to leave Silo 17 is definitely a revelation in terms of what’s happening in the dead silo. But I can’t help but feel like this could have/should have been a turning point in the middle of the season instead of squishing their introduction into the near finale. 

So it turns out that Solo (Steve Zahn) was captured by a trio of young adults who have another child and a baby. The trio consists of the headstrong and retribution-based Audrey (Georgina Sadler), her boyfriend Rick (Orlando Norman) and the unfortunately nicknamed Eater (Sara Hazemi), who is named so because the group was saddled with her and consider her another mouth to feed. “The Safeguard” begins with basically a catchup that mirrors the events of the season but from their point of view. 

We see Jules struggling with the suit after she first arrived. We see her attempt to swing across the broken bridge and learn that Audrey is the reason she almost died in the first episode, as she cuts the rope. We also see that the only reason she did survive was because Rick threw the barrel that Jules used as a flotation device. They refer to Solo as “The Killer” and want desperately to…well, kill him. And so we see them prepare for war, wrapping barbed wire along a bat and creating a makeshift bulletproof vest. 

These are survivors. They seem more barbarous than civilized and there’s a good reason for that. 

Back in Episode 4 “Harmonium,” I said that the most pressing question about Solo–and, in fact, the entirety of what happened in Silo 17–hinged on how long he had been in the Vault. He made a throwaway line while reminiscing in the classroom about a girl he used to know and in our recap I posited that maybe he’d been in there a very, very long time. 

Turns out I was right: Solo has been in the Vault since he was a kid. The rebellion happened decades ago. And these young adults have been living in the wreckage of the silo for a very long time. Long enough that Eater’s mom was just a baby when it happened. 

This obviously explains why Solo lacks social skills and why Zahn portrays him as a child trapped in an adult’s body. He watched his father get murdered as the rebellion, led by Ross McCall’s Jeff in the cold open that started this season, tried to get into the Vault. Russell, the head of IT, was Solo’s father. And with Russell’s death, Solo has been stuck in the Vault since, operating on his father’s last wishes. 

Writer Jessica Blaire gave us two great episodes from the first season (Episode 2 “Holston’s Pick” and Episode 7 “The Flamekeepers”), both of which gave us a bit of lore as well as some great character beats. She returns here to kind of right the ship, so to speak…because while the timing of this episode and its new characters is a bit off, this is another episode that reminded me of why I fell in love with Silo to begin with. 

“The Safeguard” gives us a lot of character beats, whether it’s a few scenes of Knox (Shane McCrae) talking strategy with Martha (Harriet Walter) or Sims (Common) and Camille (Alexandria Riley) realizing it’s time to pick a side contrasted with Sheriff Billings (Chinaza Uche) and Kathleen (Caitlin Zoz) picking the truth over Bernard (Tim Robbins), but it really mostly focuses on two distinct storylines. 

On one hand, we have Lukas (Avi Nash) putting all of the clues together and finally exploring the area below the Silo. And on the other, we have Jules finding not one but multiple suits as she brings a tepid peace to Silo 17. It’s not “The Safeguard”’s fault that a lot of buildup to this episode was narratively all over the place. This is a solid episode that attempts to make a dinner out of less-than-desirable ingredients. 

The ending of the episode is one of the first times this season where I was incredibly tempted to ignore our recap duties and just hit play on the next episode. Because this episode has some very exciting stuff, Joe, and that final scene brings so much together! I’m very excited to see how this season ends…which is a sentiment that feels alien to me given a lot of our problems with the preceding episodes. 

There’s so much here to dig into, though, Joe, before we get to that final shot. So I’m curious…did you enjoy this episode or am I alone in being giddy with how this episode played out? Do you think Knox knows that Martha gave them up, based on his last conversation with her? You’ve been curious about Camille’s politicking this season so I’m curious how you felt about the one scene she shares with Common? And finally…we got to talk about Lukas, the trio of people who discovered the tunnel before him and…the titular Safeguard.

JOE

I am happy to report that you’re not alone, Terry! I definitely bristled a bit at a few of the shorter scenes (shade of your complaints from last week), but aside from the throwaway bits, “The Safeguard” is a *huge* improvement over recent episodes. 

Do I still hate the Walker storyline, wherein Bernard has kept her trapped in her quarters but somehow expects her to know the rebellion’s plans? I sure fucking do! But aside from that (and some bullshit scene with Lukas’ mom worrying about him), this is easily the best episode of the back half of the season.

I completely understand your annoyance about the introduction of the teens in Silo 17, but I wasn’t as bothered, if only because the crash course characterization of this group (really, it’s a trio) is quick, efficient and impactful. I don’t tend to love developments that center around babies and people’s softening around them (too heteronormative), but the moment when Audrey eases back on her bow as Solo realizes that these kids just want to feed their child and then gives them ice cream in the Vault? It’s legitimately good stuff!

Admittedly the Silo 17 stuff did work better for me and I still kinda wished that we had simply spent most of the episode with them, rather than cutting back and forth. The Shirley and Lukas team-up was appreciated, however, if only because it demonstrates how narratively effective it can be to throw together two characters who have never met and/or seemingly stand for opposite things and then force them to do something together.

Sidebar: can we give a quick shout-out to that shot of Lukas dangling on the rope with the GIANT silo gears in the background? (Yes, it’s not always great CGI, but sometimes it’s easy to forget about the awesome scope of the silos…despite - or is it in spite of? - when Sims complains about venturing down 100 stories).

Speaking of Sims, you asked about his brief scene with Camille and…I’m legitimately unsure how to feel. I’ve been frustrated by their lack of communication this season because they could be the delectable secondary villains (after Bernard) of the show, but Silo has never really capitalized on that. 

I did appreciate Camille’s reluctant suggestion that they need to choose a side, or at least consider the possibility that the rebellion is successful and how they could profit from it. These two are survivors, so they’re absolutely going to seek out opportunities to rise to the top regardless of who “wins” (the best comparison I can make is the Thénardiers from Les Misérables). They’re the cockroaches of Silo.

As for Knox and Walker…yeah, I think the jig is up. It’s definitely a dangling plot thread because we don’t know for sure, but I can’t imagine that we’ll go into the finale with Knox pinpointing someone else. With that said…my feelings haven’t changed from last week, so I still 100% don’t care about Walker or her wife. Silo S02 truly poisoned me on this character and I would gladly see her go in the finale.

But speaking of, I’m beyond curious about the title of the episode. Lukas admits to the AI that he encounters at the entrance to the mysterious tunnels that he understands what’s at stake, but I don’t think we do? What happens if he talks? And more to the point, Terry, who is Mary Meadows? (one of the three individuals identified as having made it this far, outside of Juliette’s lover George and the last rebel instigator Salvador Quinn)?

Other questions: Do you still think we’re still on track to have Juliette get back to Silo 18? Do you want to see more of Audrey, Rick and Eater? Did you feel for Solo/Jimmy when Jules reassured him that his father gave him that directive in order to save him from the rebellion? And, more broadly speaking, what are your predictions for the finale? 

TERRY

The only reason I know who Mary Meadows is, Joe, is because of a similar thing I do with our Sexy & Surreal: A David Lynch and David Cronenberg podcast, I go to the Fandom wiki when I’m confused. I’m bringing this up because it could potentially be a big mic drop of a reveal:

Mary Meadows is Judge Meadows.

I think her first name might have been dropped in passing in one of the episodes over the last two seasons, but she is always referred to as Judge Meadows to the point that her first name is needless. The fact that she is one of the three who’ve seen this entrance is incredibly enticing and might explain why she was so…apathetic? Is that the right word?...about everything. What does this AI/person/whatever it is know that the rest of the silo–save a handful of people–don’t? And why would it make Judge Meadows so incredibly ambivalent about everything? 

I would also say that this episode kind of redeemed Solo as a character. I’ve been more charitable towards him than you have, but the reveal that he truly is a little boy who’s not had anyone to talk to for decades and is still holding onto the last directive of his father…well, it humanizes him. 

Some final thoughts as we enter the finale…I have to believe that Jules will get back to Silo 18. If I had to hazard a guess, I think it might be the cliffhanger ending for the season. Truthfully, this season hasn’t completely worked, splitting the action so haphazardly and unevenly between the two silos. We’ve talked at length about the possible reasons why it hasn’t worked, but I hope that showrunner Graham Yost sees it’s not working and course corrects. I personally believe the tunnels under the silo are both where IT gets its energy and potentially leads to a hub that connects all of the silos. I’m hoping that Lukas finding the door and understanding the consequences will open the door and maybe that’s how Jules and co end up reuniting with silo 18. 

Who knows. But I really hope that the finale at least tees up a reunion. This season has wasted a perfectly interesting mystery in silo 17 and I’m ready to say goodbye to it. 

We’ll see next week when we pop back over to Queer.Horror.Movies for the season two finale!