Erik Adams
Silo season 2 premieres Friday, November 15 on Apple TV+.
Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) going out to “clean” in the closing moments of Silo’s first season boldly pushed the dystopian thriller’s story forward, beyond the relative safety of its titular mile-deep structure. Stepping foot into the unknown revealed a grim landscape scattered with silos as far as the eye can see, implying that humanity’s ranks may not be as thin as she’s been taught. Season 2 immediately thrusts Juliette further into unchartered territory, securing Silo’s status as one of Apple TV+’s most rewarding series. A path littered with decaying skeletons sends a warning to Juliette, and foreshadows more danger up ahead: Toggling between the former sheriff’s perilous venture and the tumult enveloping her old home, the new episodes keep the tension levels high as more pieces of what happened to the remaining shreds of civilization fall into place.
Having seen everything but the finale makes me confident enough to say that creator Graham Yost is not playing coy with the ongoing conflicts impacting the 10,000 people Juliette used to live with. Of course, the finale could change my mind, but the story is unfurling at a thrilling pace. In any apocalyptic setup with this much backstory and mythologizing, it is necessary to walk an information-sharing tightrope to avoid unleashing frequent exposition dumps. So far, Silo continues to share such insight organically, like snippets about the rebellion that took place 140 years prior or the secrets Mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) only discloses to a rare, trusted few. What details he does divulge require us (and the population Bernard serves) to sift through the lies to uncover the truth.
Separating Juliette from the silo gives Ferguson a new challenge as the protagonist, particularly when she’s going it alone in the first episode. The Mission: Impossible star is more than up to the task of acting determined and showing physical strength when her character enters a silo that’s seen better days. Here, Ferguson puts her action skills to use, from swinging on ropes to plummeting to watery depths. While some of the gimmicky shot choices that put the camera in the middle of the stunts (such as a first-person POV when Juliette is using the rope) read as an experimental new direction for Silo, I found them distracting rather than immersive – and they’re no sign of things to come, because they’re inexplicably dropped after the premiere. Ferguson commands the screen regardless. She doesn’t need pages of dialogue to reflect Juliette’s resourcefulness, fear, or even hope. Establishing her skills as an engineer last season ensures that Juliette’s knowledge of the silo layout and ability to fashion practical devices out of scraps isn’t a reach. Ditto her recently unlocked detective skills – her short stint as sheriff proves fruitful without stretching logic.
Characters in both settings are preoccupied with big questions about the history of the silos, including one survivor encountered by Juliette. We won’t reveal much more about Solo (Steve Zahn) in order to maintain some of the mystery, but this dynamic gives Zahn and Ferguson plenty of juicy material to work with. While Juliette and Solo get to know each other and overcome the myriad challenges of their surroundings, back home, Juliette is presumed dead. Her memory persists in the form of graffiti reading “JL” – short for “Juliette Lives.” Only one letter separates “lives” from “lies,” and the latter word is favored by those wanting to send a message about the leadership in the past and present. The silo is a tinderbox, and it doesn’t matter who’s scrawling these messages: they have a destabilizing effect regardless of the culprit, and Bernard continues to grasp power as the world could crumble around him. Academy Award-winner Robbins gives the mayor an eerie calm modulated only by annoyance, sinking his teeth into the rare moments when Bernard steps outside these restrained parameters. As the problems pile up, his shifts in demeanor double their impact.
Even with the thorn in his side banished to the outside world, Bernard can’t seem to catch a break, and Silo’s primary antagonist struggles for control in the face of Juliette’s walking miracle. Allies and friendships are tested, and a new page is turned in his complex relationships with Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) and Head of Judicial Security Robert Sims (Common). Exploring the motivation behind the lies allows a figure like Bernard to be less of a straight-up villain, and the ambiguity effectively adds to the suspense. Because Juliette beat the odds when she walked over the hill with the whole silo watching, it guarantees that doubt is spreading. In turn, the divide between the top and bottom of 144 levels grows:Juliette’s former Mechanical colleagues are blamed for ongoing disharmony and questioning the people at the top of the power chain.
Turning Mechanical into a target allows for figures like Shirley (Remmie Milner) and Knox (Shane McRae) to be fleshed out amid clashes over the steps they should take to protect their people. Though perhaps the most intriguing character to receive increased screen time is Sims’ wife, Camille (Alexandria Riley), whose motivations aren’t clear from the jump. Is she trying to Lady Macbeth her husband, or does she have another agenda? Whispering-in-the-ear manipulation is far from a revolutionary storytelling device, but Silo isn’t simply leaning into an overplayed trope. As with the first season, I could see some twists coming a mile off, but plenty of the choices in season 2 kept me guessing.
Unlike most clashing voices, Sheriff Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) is driven by the rules that maintain order through the official governing document, The Pact. Watching Paul undergo a crisis of faith resulting from the book relic he was exposed to last season is a slow burn, and one drawback of Yost and company managing so many storylines is that this one doesn’t pick up steam until later in the season. Paul is on the periphery early on as he investigates if Juliette actually asked to go outside, and Uche continues to captivate even when he’s in the background.
Paul’s medical condition, which should prevent him from holding the sheriff position, is still a factor, and a conversation with Judge Meadows highlights one recurring theme of Silo: how unnatural this environment is. “Human beings are not meant to live underground. None of us have walked a straight line for more than 200 feet. Except for Juliette Nicholls,” Judge Meadows says to Paul. This idea of space and the urge to explore continues throughout; one character longs to see “the distance,” and another dreams of flying away in a hot air balloon like a character from The Wizard of Oz. The meaning of the lights in the outdoor night sky continues to enthrall some – a show of human curiosity persevering even in a world where the facts of life seem so cut-and-dried. In stepping out into the world, Silo continues its ambitious journey with impressive results – no matter how many people it keeps in the dark.
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