Silo season 2, episode 6 review: Billings makes a choice

Billings had to take a stand in Silo season 2, episode 6. Which side of the fight is he on? Has he even picked a side?

Chinaza Uche and Billy Postlethwaite in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+.
Chinaza Uche and Billy Postlethwaite in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+.

Billings did not have an easy time in Silo season 2, episode 6. Now he’s questioning everything, but which side did he end up choosing?

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Silo season 2, episode 6

The new episode brought us mostly a story set in Silo 18. That’s not surprising with everything that is going on there. This storyline has the most action at the moment, although we do need to see Juliette get back home at some point.

We get to see how Walker is sure that Juliette died. She didn’t give the tape to Juliette to allow her to survive outside. She gave it to Juliette so that she would have the dignity to die on the other side of the hill. Walker is sure that’s what happened, which suggests that she believes the world is as toxic as the screen shows.

However, others aren’t too sure. Billings learns a little more about what was on the computer screen when Juliette hacked the system before going outside.

Silo season 2
Tim Robbins in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+.

Bernard’s plan doesn’t work out in Silo season 2, episode 6

I completely understand the position that Bernard is in. He knows a lot more about the silos than anyone else. He knows The Order, and it’s clear that there is something much bigger going on. We don’t need the books to know that this is bigger than just one silo, and Bernard isn’t doing things for his own personal gain. At least, not only his own personal gain.

He needs to keep the silo in order. The best way to do that is to beat Mechanical into submission. How do you do that? Cut off the food supply.

And as much as I understand why Bernard is acting the way he is, I also cheer when his plans are thwarted. Knox and Shirley managed to find a way to push the barricade up 10 floors. They only needed the 10 because they needed the food supply on Level 122.

If Sims was still in power as Judicial Security, he would have known how to prevent Knox and Shirley from achieve the push 10 floors up. He would have probably forced them 10 floors down. However, Armundsen is a bit green, and he doesn’t quite think in the long-term. Bernard has to point out that Mechanical can now get food because Armundsen didn’t realize what they were doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him lose his job and someone else put in power.

Silo season 2
Remmie Milner and Shane McRae in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+.

Mechanical hint at what’s to come with their concrete saws

Mechanical managed to get a saw that could cut through concrete. I suspect that this is foreshadowing for something to come either at the end of Silo season 2 or into Silo season 3. If you’ve read the books, you know what’s to come and that cutting through concrete is going to be essential.

There is a lot about this whole network that we don’t know about yet. However, introducing something like this wouldn’t just be for one small moment in an episode.

Knox and Shirley just need to figure out that Juliette is still alive. The people are sure that Juliette lives, and Knox and Shirley—anyone else not surprised at them kissing, by the way?—need to figure out how to use that if they want to take down power from Bernard.

Silo season 2
Common and Alexandria Riley in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+

Sims finds himself all the more on the out

Sims found out about things too late to actually help. He’s also not in a position to help the situation, and it doesn’t help that his wife seems to be against him (and Bernard). Sims believes in order within the silo. He knows that it’s needed to survive, and he doesn’t even know the full truth about the silo and the Before Times.

However, he’s finding himself more and more on the out. As he went into Bernard’s office to warn Bernard about what Mechanical was doing (because Diego went to him when Armundsen failed to listen), he found Lukas in there. Naturally, Sims was shocked to see Lukas there. Lukas is supposed to be in the mines.

Sims knows what this means. For Lukas to be freely in there with the computer, it means that Bernard has allowed it. That means Bernard has told him something.

Lukas is still no closer to figuring out the message, though. He hasn’t broken the code yet, but Bernard realized that he would need more information. That means officially being made Bernard’s shadow. I wondered how this part of the book was going to play out, and now I’m excited to see what Lukas and do and how the next part of the book is going to play out.

Billings has to make a choice in Silo season 2, episode 6

This season has seen Billings question a lot about what happened to Juliette and what is going on now. He’s a smart man, but he is also loyal to the system. The fact that he asked Hank more about Knox and Shirley made it clear that he is willing to take in everything that’s happened. He doesn’t go in wanting to prove that someone did something; instead, he wants the evidence to show him the results.

In the previous episode, he found Kennedy, but Billings didn’t immediately jump to the idea that Kennedy was the bad guy in all of this. He wanted to listen to what Kennedy had to say, and that meant getting Kennedy medical treatment first. Despite everything going on, Billings was able to get in touch with his wife to arrange for a doctor with antibiotics and other medication to arrive. It just so happened to be Dr. Nichols. Of course it was!

I adore how Kathleen Billings is just like her husband. She knows The Pact, and she is able to think on the spot. This is a woman on a mission, and you don’t want to go against her. It also allowed the Billings family to reunite, which is something that Billings needed.

As Billings learned about Kennedy’s actions and Kennedy shared what was on the screen before Juliette went out, Billings gained more and more questions about Bernard and what he’s doing. On top of that, he learned that Carla hadn’t been taken away by any Deputies. After being arrested in the café, she was taken somewhere secret.

There’s a lot going on, but Billings just wants to make sense of it all. He ends up making it clear that he’s not on either side of this battle. He doesn’t support Bernard, but he also doesn’t support Knox and Shirley. Billings refusing to tell Bernard where the fugitives are—and it’s not like they’re hiding out!—isn’t to protect them. It’s because he is struggling to question absolutely everything that’s going on in the silo right now.

Kathleen is the only person he can open up to about this. You see, Billings is loyal to the silo, but not to Bernard. He’s loyal to The Pact and to order within the silo. He wants to see his home succeed and get back to a sense of safety, and that means he needs to figure out what happened. I love having this sort of character in the series. We can root for a man who wants to bring order back. It’s easy to root for someone who is willing to look past the “he said, he said” mess. This offers hope that he’ll find out what’s happened to Juliette and what Bernard has been hiding this whole time.

On top of that, Kathleen brings up the herbs that Billings has to take to control his condition. It’s been days since he’s taken anything, and Kathleen points out that he’s able to hold his glass of water without a tremor. Something within him has changed, and it’s likely a dip in the stress of being under Sims and Bernard. In Mechanical, he’s been able to focus on The Pact and doing what’s right for the silo, and that’s good for his health.

Silo season 2
Steve Zahn and Rebecca Ferguson in Silo season 2. Image: Apple TV+.

What does Solo want?

We spend the last few minutes of Silo season 2, episode 6 over in Silo 17. After collapses from infection at the end of the previous episode, Juliette wakes up in a bed. Solo has treated her with some homegrown antibiotics. How did Solo know how to grow the antibiotics? What did he make them with? This brings up a lot more questions about Silo 17 and the life that Solo has lived up to this point.

Juliette immediately wants to get back on with the task of making her suit and getting back to her people. However, Solo has taken the helmet and suit. She’ll get it back, but she needs to help him first. She needs to create a pump to get rid of the water. Solo may be alone, but he doesn’t want to die, and that water is slowly rising. Only Juliette can save him.

It does bring up the question about why Solo would stay. Wouldn’t it be better for Juliette to offer to come back for him? Of course, then he’d have to trust that she would come back—and that she’d even be able to. I don’t blame Solo for finding a way to make Juliette do the work on his silo first. Wouldn’t you if you knew the end was coming within the next year or so?

Juliette also needs to give her silo more credit that she is right now. While tensions are high and order is slowly spiralling out of control, Knox and Shirley are managing to keep people together. There isn’t the threat to storm out of the silo just yet, which means what happened to Silo 17 isn’t necessarily on the cards for Silo 18. Not right now, anyway. But I understand why she needs to get back home to save them. There’s so much that they don’t know and only she does.

Silo airs on Fridays on Apple TV+.