Silo season 2 episode 1 recap and review: The Engineer

Silo season 2 has aired its first episode, continuing the thrilling and compelling tale about how silo engineer Juliette is thrown unwillingly into situations that reveal the truth about the apocalypse and the silo itself. Based on a series of books written by Hugh Howey, Juliette manages to survive outside the silo but what will she find?

How long before Bernard and Robert Sims find her?

More than one silo

The season 2 opener begins with a little backstory about another silo, where it seems a revolution is occurring. Turns out at this silo the people have risen up against IT, who as we recall, secretly holds all the power in Juliette's silo.

It seems this silo's man in charge, named Russel, has been lying to the silo survivors. This results in a bloody battle which ends with the rebels winning.

It seems they believed that the outside world is safe and habitable, a theory several characters also had in Juliette's silo. But what happens when all the residents of the silo escape?

We learn the answer simultaneously as Juliette comes across hundreds if not thousands of skeletal remains littered across the desolate landscape. These dead bodies continue into the silo, creating a slippery slope situation for Juliette, whose suit has been keeping her alive thus far.

It seems not one person survived once the silo was opened, most likely releasing poisons and toxins from the outside world inside. After a struggle to enter the silo, Juliette begins to explore, finding it empty and dark.

Because she is not outside her suit is now working against her as she panics to free herself from it so she can breathe actual air. Remember the suit actually works against those who wear it as when people are sentenced to go outside, the suit does not keep the toxic air out of the suit for long.

Juliette had learned it was due to the tape, which when switched, could withstand the deadly outside air. After freeing herself from the suit she notices a light and hears some noises.

The sounds are coming from an area she cannot safely get across as the walkway had been destroyed in the rebellion. She struggles to use the rope, in an attempt to swing over but alas the rope snaps and she falls into the water.

As we recall from season 1, Juliette, nor probably anyone, knows how to swim as the silos are deep underground where survivors have never experienced nor seen any body of water. She struggles but manages to survive, now sporting a bad wound.

She returns to her current predicament and using her stellar problem-solving skills, creates a makeshift ramp and manages to cross before it gives way. On the other side, she finds the missing piece and is able to use that as a way back.

She enters the room, hearing music and noticing lights coming to another locked door when a pair of eyes startle her from the small opening in the door. It's a man who threatens to kill her if she tries to open the door, as the episode closes on a minor cliffhanger.

Juliette's past

Throughout the episode, audiences get small glimpses into Juliette's past and working in engineering. In season 1 she had a falling out with her father after her brother died from a sickness and her mother committed suicide soon after.

Knowing she had to get away alongside her problem-solving skills and her interest in working with her hands, she decides to work down in the engineering area, the very bottom of the silo that keeps the entire silo running. She struggles to make friends with a young girl her age and takes a deep interest in repairing an old toy that finds its way through the recycling area.

She is able to repair it and gift it to her friend who seems uninterested. It appears that the young girl never really had a normal childhood, for she sees the toy as something for babies, hinting that she had to grow up incredibly quickly.

Juliette on the other hand had a functioning and loving household before everything ended. It's apparent she doesn't connect with anyone except Walker, showing how out of her depth she is with her social skills and thus struggling to connect with others outside the engineering area.

Silo season 2 premiere review: Great season opener

On paper, it may sound as though nothing happened in this episode. And while a majority of it is following Juliette as she explores an abandoned silo, it actually reveals more than most realize.

For starters, there is more than one silo, and like Juliette's, the theory that the outside world is safe to live in has taken hold and been the catalyst for why it falls. The people turned on those in charge but when they try to leave the reality sets in.

The world outside is deadly and uninhabitable which leads to the deaths of the entire silo. But that's not to say that those in charge, like IT, aren't hiding anything.

They designed those suits to fail. If the suits were made as intended, people could wear them and explore outside.

They purposely had imagery of a bright and beautiful world so that the people would clean the windows, in the hopes of showing everyone how safe it was outside. But no, they want the windows clean to remind everyone what is out there and why they need to remain inside the silo.

Every little detail from the lack of elevators to get to certain areas of the silo, to the hidden cameras behind mirrors, to deciding who gets pregnant, is all about controlling the survivors. The fact remains that the silos don't want survivors to know what happened.

We still don't know what caused the apocalypse, how many silos there are, or why they've been separated and orchestrated to remain so, but we know it cannot be for a good reason. Will we learn the entire truth this season?

What did you think of the season 2 episode 1? Stream Silo season 2 episode 2 on November 22 on AppleTV+.