Silo season 2 episode 3 review: Deceit leads to rebellion

The more you lie to people, the more the lies unravel. That’s something Bernard needs to deal with in Silo season 2 episode 3. Meanwhile, Juliette just needs some answers.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Silo season 2 episode 3

We see in dystopian worlds that as leaders try to hold onto power, they end up causing a rebellion to happen. Bernard knows this is the case. The problem is the world that has been set up within the silo makes it impossible for him to share the truth.

It’s clear that he knows more than he is letting on. Judge Meadows also knows more considering she was once his shadow. She wishes she could forget that—and it does make me wonder why she hasn’t taken this memory loss pill that Sims mentions in the episode. I guess while she wants to forget, there’s a lot that she wants to remember. She’ll also want to keep hold of those artifacts.

Billings starts to question more in Silo season 2 episode 3

Billings seemed to be one of those straight-laced deputies. He knew the Pact back to front, and he wanted to follow the law. However, Juliette initially had him questioning a few things. There is a problem with following things blindly. A little bit of questioning authority is healthy.

That’s especially the case when you realize that those in power may be abusing said power. Billings collects the reports of all the Raiders who had to find Juliette. Most of them share the same report. They heard Juliette say she wanted to go outside. One Raider tells the truth. She didn’t hear Juliette say that specifically.

Billings knows what should have happened. If there is ever any doubt that someone’s wish to go outside is questioned, there should be a hearing. People can’t be sent outside if they didn’t say it, and Billings knows that Juliette told him she didn’t say it.

Meadows seems to sow some seeds of doubt in this episode for Billings. She wants to see the report as well. This isn’t normal, but Billings isn’t going to question the judge. As Meadows hears what the single Raider said, she seems confident in the knowledge that Juliette never said it. She doesn’t say as much to Billings, but there’s a lot unsaid that can be inferred.

Bernard needs Meadows’ help in Silo

Meadows wants to go outside. We find out that she has relics that show her videos of the past. She doesn’t know the people—at least, that we know of—in these videos. All she knows is that there was an amazing life out in the world. Meadows wants to experience that. She wants to walk more than 200ft in one direction.

It’s easy to see why some people would want to go outside. Even if they know it likely means death, they want to be able to experience the world beyond the silo. However, Meadows has never said anything about going outside until she watched Juliette go over the hill. That suggests that Meadows knows the air is poison, but now she knows there is a way out and a chance of survival.

Bernard wants to stop Meadows but doesn’t outwardly do that. He even measures her for the suit, but he doesn’t write anything down. Maybe part of it is that he doesn’t want this on record, but I also think that it’s so he can avoid making the suit. He doesn’t want to lose Meadows. She is a chance at keeping order within the silo.

And unrest is growing. Bernard is dealing with people who are putting “JL” all over the silo. It stands for “Juliette Lives,” and Bernard knows how dangerous this is. He needs to stop this rebellion from happening, and he brings up Silo 17. He knows that is where Juliette has gone to, and he thinks there isn’t anything there. That silo has been defunct for decades. If only any of them knew what was really going on in that silo.

Bernard is ready to act with force, but Meadows talks him out of it. That’s not the way to go if he wants to stop a rebellion. More threat will lead to more unrest. There has to be another way.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the whole of Mechanical is divided on what to do next. It gets so bad that it leads to poor Cooper being killed. Will this helps to put Knox and Shirley back on the same page? It seems like it could be as the two meet up in secret in the tunnel. Knox thinks he finally understands what the names in the tunnel mean.

Part of me believes that Knox wants a rebellion, but he wants to do it the right way. The initial anger and outlash isn’t going to do any of them any favors. They all need to be focused and in agreement with the way things go next. Any good rebellion has everyone on the right side. They need this to be the Revolutionary War and not the Jacobite Risings.

We also have mini rebellions happening in other ways. Juliette's father, Dr. Nichols, is tasked with the removal of the birth control from a woman. He gets the message not to remove it, confirming as we learned early in the series that the silo controls all. Does he follow the rules? Of course not. Nichols is starting his own mini-rebellion unknowingly. This doesn't make sense as it's easy to track what he did, but maybe he's grown disillusioned enough with the whole system that he just doesn't care anymore.

Juliette learns more about the silos

We spent some time in Silo 17—and we actually got to officially find out that this is Silo 17. Solo places food outside his locked room for Juliette to eat. This isn’t an act of mercy or friendship, though. Solo needed to know that Juliette is real. Seeing her eat the food is the way that he can confirm this.

It tells us a lot more about Solo. He’s been on his own for some time. While it’s clear there have been people after him—we can tell from the fresher bodies outside the locked room and the writing on the wall—Solo hasn’t allowed people into the room with him. Seclusion is a form of torture. It leads to people seeing things because our minds don’t want us to be alone. There’s a reason why seclusion is used as a severe punishment in prisons.

By Solo telling Juliette that he needed to know if she was real, it tells us what sort of mindset he is in. Steve Zahn is playing Solo to a perfection. Those who have read the books will know what his backstory is and just how long he’s been alone. You don’t need to know the books to get this, though. The decay on the bodies tells us everything. This is man who has grown up in seclusion, and in his mind, he is still a child. It’s heartbreaking just to think of that, and I worried how the show was going to portray that. Well, I worry no more.

Once Solo knows that Juliette is real, he seems to go back and forth over whether he wants to let her in or not. She seems nice. She’s listened to the instructions of not opening the door, and she’s explained she’s from another silo. She even makes it clear that she needs to get back, learning just what not cleaning means for her own people. She can’t let them die on her account, but she needs to find a way to make a suit to get back outside.

There is so much information for Juliette to take in. She learns about there being 50 silos and Solo wants to know which one she came from. She learns that a failed cleaning led to a rebellion in Silo 17. Now she has all this information and little hope of getting back to her own home. As much as she hates Bernard, her love for her family is greater.

Solo sort of wants to help, but he’s safe in his bubble. In the end, he realizes that he doesn’t want to lose this first real bit of human connection he’s had in decades, and so, he steps out of the door. He even goes as far as the bridge before he panics a little. It’s like a person with agoraphobia. That room has been safe; it’s been his home. The silo that was once his home is now an unknown world, and he is terrified to explore it.

Juliette shows her empathetic nature. She doesn’t get annoyed with him, realizing just what he’s been through based on some of his words, those words scratched on the wall, and the bodies outside. This hasn’t been an easy life, and she only has a tiny piece of the puzzle. At the same time, she needs Solo’s help.

I can’t wait to go further into Solo’s story, and I hope Silo season 2 gives us it. We need to see just how he survived, because his story is traumatic.

Silo airs on Fridays on Apple TV+.