Silo S2E10: Into the Fire

Through two seasons, Silo has done a good job of actually delivering satisfying answers to its mysteries, while still keeping the questions coming. Not all of those answers hit hard. The reveal last week that Solo wasn’t the leader of Silo 17’s shadow, but his son — orphaned at age 12 when the rest of that silo’s population escaped and quickly died — wasn’t a shock because we’ve been getting hints all season.

The other episode’s big reveal didn’t quite land like a thunderbolt either. It takes most of “Into the Fire” for the implications to sink in. Lukas Kyle gets to the bottom of the silo, and then goes further down. He finds the secret tunnel he discovered on a forbidden map, and finds a mysterious voice, which warns him from telling anyone what he knows about the Safeguard.

Because he follows directions, we spend most of the episode not knowing what the Safeguard is, other than that it scares the shit out of Lukas. The only hint we get is in the previously-on-Silo flashbacks, where we’re reminded that Mayor Holland carries a key chain with “18” on it (our silo’s number), which lights up in times of trouble. Holland may have all 10,000 souls in the silo under surveillance. But someone’s also watching him. Someone he occasionally has to answer to. It’s that someone who has Lukas terrified, and Holland increasingly so as the tensions within the silo finally come to a head.

Knox and Shirl unveil a war plan in Walker’s workshop, knowing Holland is listening in. They’re going to distract the guards and blow up the generator — dooming the whole silo — if their demands aren’t met. It’s a fake-out, but the fun is in seeing what the real plan is. The episode does a terrific job of keeping its cards close to the vest in that regard, as it’s not clear what the plan is or whether or not it succeeds until very late in the game.

Meanwhile, Juliette is finally ready to come home. Except Solo (actually Jimmy) isn’t quite ready. Having acknowledged his backstory, he’s caught up remembering his parents and his life before Silo 17 collapsed. He revisits his family’s old apartment, and while sifting through old mementos, he finds a note that reads “Safeguard Procedure.”

We learn from him, and not from Holland or Kyle, what the Safeguard actually is. Whoever it is that’s controlling things from outside of the silo can flood the place with enough poison gas to kill everyone. Solo’s parents found a way to stop it, which is why the residents of 17 weren’t killed when they revolted (even if their revolt still led to them dying once they left the silo). Which means she has one more thing to warn Silo 18 about, assuming she can make it back safely.

We won’t spoil how it all plays out, but in typical Silo fashion, we get satisfying endings, more questions, and a cliffhanger. Plus a coda that, for the first time, shows us the world before the silo, and a hint at where we’re headed next season.

Stray thoughts:
• Eater’s real name is Hope. A little on the nose, but she gets a few nice moments this week.

• We haven’t really talked much about how the series differs from the book. The first two seasons cover the events of Wool, the first book in the trilogy. Season one sticks to the plot fairly closely, just adding more characters and complicating the story a bit. (Lukas Kyle is Holland’s shadow from day one, and Sims isn’t a character). Solo helps Juliette communicate with 18, and she and Lukas form a friendship over the radio, while Sheriff Billings ultimately takes Holland out of power after Mechanical revolts. The TV adaptation changes a lot of the details here, but does a good job of telling its own story while still keeping the themes and the overall story intact.

• We’re likely to get even more deviation from the books next season, as Shift, the second book in the series, delves into who created the silos and why. It also portrays events leading up to the rebellion in 18 (which we’ve already seen in flashback this season). Our guess is, we’ll continue on with Juliette and the residents of 17, while getting the silo’s creation in flashback. However Silo handles things, at this point they’ve earned our trust.