Breakdown and recap of Silo season 1, episode 10: Outside

On the final episode of the Silo season 1, the minions of Bernard finally capture Juliette. It seems despite allies working to free her, her fate is now sealed: she will go outside to clean.

Juliette’s anger boils over as she watches the green video again, with the birds and the trees. This lie must not continue, so she wants Danny the hacker to broadcast the footage to all the silo screens.

But before they can, IT has traced them to Patrick’s apartment. Setback!

They exit the apartment before the raiders arrive. Jules has tricks up her sleeve though and they bypass the security checkpoints on every level by travelling through the trash chutes that run through all the floors.

It’s a risky kind of travel, navigating the ladders on the chutes, especially since trash and rubbish come down every so often, that’s liable to hit anyone unlucky enough in there when they fall. They manage to find a terminal on floor 126 and broadcast it from there on one of the ratty service consoles.

Silo season 1, episode 10 recap: Trash chute walkabouts

Jules makes good on her escape, doing another run in the trash chute. But the raiders and the police have become wise to her moves.

They drop plenty of big metals and even a huge AC unit to try and knock her out. They’ve got no orders to keep her alive, they just want the hard drive.

It’s a nail-biting time for our heroine and she opts to let go and fall to the bottom instead of getting crushed. The Down Deep folks pull her out just in time before the AC unit thuds down after her.

She’s being mended at Walker’s place when the authorities catch up. Apparently Knox, Jules’s former boss, gave her up, saying he was just trying to protect the lowest levels from being torn apart by the raiders.

Sims wants to beat her up. Maybe he’ll punch Walker too.

Bernard stops Sims and tells him to wait outside while he chats with Jules and takes a hammer to the hard drive. Mayor Holland offers her a deal: confirm that she wants to go outside, and all her friends will be safe from legal repercussions resulting from her actions.

Silo season 1, episode 10 recap: What happened to George

Jules says she just wants to know what happened to her ex George Wilkins. Bernard promises that he will do one better and show her.

So she agrees to put on shackles and get paraded for all the silo to see, making the two-day trip to the top of the silo. On the way up, Bernard orders Jules freed and then takes her to one of the monitoring hubs.

Bernard shows her the footage of a cuffed and arrested George escaping his raider arrest escort. The poor guy then looks to the camera, kisses it goodbye, and falls backwards to his death.

The end of poor George. One of the great aftermath events is that Walker is finally motivated to step out her door.

As a total recluse for over two decades, this act must be incredibly hard, but she succeeds and goes up to see her former beau, Judge Carla Williams. Williams and Walker have a very interesting convo about heat tape.

They both come to the conclusion that, since IT and Judicial both care so much about the heat tape when the ones in Supply are so much better, there must be something up. Finally, this comes to light.

I’ve been hearing about the petty theft of the heat tape for so many episodes now and the payoff has at last arrived. It connects later when Jules is sent out to clean but this is the moment, when they ascertain that the time the cleaners last outside is directly tied to the kind of tape that’s used to seal their PPE suit’s wrists and ankles.

Silo season 1, episode 10 recap: Sensor wool blues

Jules is now in a holding cell awaiting her cleaning exit tomorrow. Her father and Shirley both visit while she’s in prison.

Great emotive scene between prodigal daughter and dad, since they both know this is the last time they’ll be together. Then, in a pastry package from Shirley, Juliette gets a note from Walker saying that they are “good in Supply.”

This means they had switched the crappy heating tape from Supply that says, “Sensor Wool” and replaced it with their much better ones from Mechanical. It all pays off when Jules is finally sent out to clean.

With her is Holston’s badge as her final wish is granted by Mayor Holland. In the final 10 minutes of this episode plenty of revelations take place.

All of them mind blowing. First, the mystery of which display is fake is finally revealed.

Apparently it’s the screen HUD inside the helmet of the cleaner that is showing the false vid. It’s like some kind of augmented reality projection mapped to the terrain right outside the airlock.

Jules remembers that the footage is recurring, there are birds that fly from right to left in V formation and all the good stuff wherever she looks. So why the lie?

She also gives the authorities another middle finger by dropping her steel wool cleaning rag, refusing to wipe down the cam. We all know from episode 1 that folks take bets on whether cleaners will actually wipe down the cam.

So, the groans of disappointment are telling. Jules likely lost some folks big money.

Silo season 1, episode 10 recap: What lies beyond the silo?

The better tape around her wrists and ankles, since replaced by Walker and Williams, ensures that the ruined and toxic air outside doesn’t get into her suit as quickly. This enabes Jules to walk above the rise of the stunted tree, farther than any of the others with their crappy heat tape has ever survived or gone.

She uses Holston’s badge to mark the big rock where the bodies of other cleaners fell. And then the false display of greenery runs out.

The truth is that the Earth outside the silo is still very much a blasted wasteland. Everywhere is brown and sans foliage.

No green paradise here. When we pull out of the shot, we see that there are dozens maybe hundreds of recessed outlines beside their own silo, indicating other silos in those areas.

And in the distance? There is a skyline of a ruined city.

Who knows where Jules will go or can go now. I sure do hope she can knock on the door of another of the silos.

Is that why Bernard’s keyfob has 18 on it? Is their silo number 18?

And 18 out of how many? Perhaps she can even make it to the outskirts of the city?

Though it really seems a long way away through a flat and arid landscape. She’s got no food or water, too.

Silo season 1, episode 10 recap: Threads to watch out for in season 2

Other events of note include… Lukas is rewarded for his snitching with a term in the mines.

Poor guy, but he had it coming and the 10 years should be enough to keep him silent. Most of all, it will keep him afraid.

Billings will now be made the new sheriff, just like Bernard wanted all along. Bernard, panicking when he knew that Jules was going to go further beyond than anybody else, runs to the doors marked SERVER ROOM and opens it using his keyfob marked 18.

It’s also very interesting to note that there are no bodies where the projection indicates there should be a pile of dead cleaners. This includes the Holston couple’s corpses.

So does someone actually haul them off to get buried or burned? I think Sims will be a surprise turncoat in season 2, knowing what he knows now, that there is still so much that’s been kept from him.

I am stoked for what comes next, especially since Apple has already ordered a season 2 for the series. What was your best moment from season 1?

You can stream Silo season 1 on Apple TV+.