A century and a half ago, Cielo leader Salvador Quin faced a dilemma. A rebellion arose, and such revolts occurred almost like clockwork every twenty years or so. Each mutiny risks the airlock being breached and the death of the silo's 10,000 inhabitants. Every rebellion is based on knowledge of all the revolutions that preceded it, and builds on them. This can happen many times before the safety fails, the door opens, and death comes for all.
So, Salvador Quin, the champion, took one for the team. He confiscated and burned all of Silo's books, and wiped all of her data servers as well. He blamed the destruction on the rebels, and the blame stuck, though his name also became muddy for his perceived stupidity in allowing all of this to happen during his watch. All the while, memory-suppressing drugs were slowly introduced into the silo's water supply. After a period of “weeks, months, years” as Mayor Bernard Hollande put it under his shadow, Lucas Kael, the reality of the rebellion and everything that had come before it was forgotten.
Salvador Quinn Save The silo, then took the rap for its near destruction. With all records of the past either destroyed or concentrated in the hands of IT's most trusted servants, there was no possibility of remembering things any other way. This is the story Bernard tells Lucas, and it is the truth, as far as it goes.
But it seems that Salvador was not happy with the way things turned out. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to put a code into the hard drive that Juliet recovered last season. Otherwise the Code would never have relied on a page from his personal copy of the Charter, which had been passed down from generation to generation in secret until Judge Meadows traded it to his family years ago. (Presumably this is why she fell out with Bernard and resigned from his shadow.) Otherwise he would never have made this the first line of his broken code: “If you've made it this far, you already know the game is rigged.”
How to play a rigged game, and how to operate under conditions of arbitrary and unfair control, is the subject of this episode of silo. (Just in time!) Much of it involves scheming between and against the people who know the true rules of the game best: Bernard; Lucas is his shadow. Amundsen, Chief of Judicial Security; Justice Robert Sims, presiding judge; and Camille Sims, wife of Robert Macbethian. Camille and Robert convince Amundsen to reveal what they know about Lukas' actions, but Amundsen then breaks off his friendship with Robert forever. Robert warns Lucas that Bernard's mind is essentially unknowable, and that when the old man is done with him, he will return Lucas to the mines just as he demoted Robert to a ceremonial position when he was no longer useful. Lucas tells Quinn's descendants that he's not sure if the wanted mechs were the ones who killed Judge Meadows at all, and there are only two other people who could be responsible, Bernard and Rob, so I'm sure they can fill in the blanks. No one trusts anyone at this level, and they especially don't trust Bernard.
Why do they do that? The man is a thug. After luring Walker out of the mech with a fake message about a broken pump, Bernard offers to let her see her ex-wife Carla in exchange for serving as his new spy among the Down Deep rebels. (Her first order of business was to report on Young Teddy's raid on the supply room on the 119th floor.) But even after that, he only stuck to the letter of the agreement—allowing Luke to see an unconscious Carla through the window of the cell door before closing it again, that is—before adding Lots of conditions for him to keep Walker under 24-hour surveillance when she returns home. All this under the threat of torturing Carla just to punish Walker for going back on her word.
This is perhaps indirectly justified, if not justified, given the precarious situation of the ten thousand souls in the hermitage. But the thing is, we know Bernard is a liar, because we've seen him lie all the time! Who knows if saving the people of the silo was his real concern at all?
Even after being stranded in the depths with his wife, Sheriff Paul Billings is caught up in all this duplicity. His wife, Kathleen, learns from antiquities smuggler Kennedy that Paul has a page from a forbidden book depicting life as it was on the surface in Before Times, a page he has never told her about, let alone shown her. When she looks at it, it moves her to tears. What happened to all this beauty? He doesn't know. What will he do now? “I don't know what to do, baby,” he says, crying. “I…I don't know what to do.” Look at the world, people. This is relatable content.
Meanwhile, Juliet's dangers continue unabated. Not long after she emerged from her dive to turn on the outflow pump and discovered the bloody mess where her boyfriend Solo was, she developed a bad case of the bends and had to stagger back into the water and dive 20 feet below to equalize. Painful pressure in her joints. But someone cut off the air supply, and she had to search in the dark to find the culprit… who shot her with a strange arrow. This poor woman's problems never end, man.
She arms herself with a makeshift shield and sword, and ends up in a hand-to-hand combat with someone dressed as a Raider. But when she gets the advantage and rips off her attacker's riot helmet, she finds a teenager – along with two others – coming down the stairs towards her, crouched down at the ready. So Silo has 17 more survivors than just Solo, and she has to pray that they keep him alive so she can get her hazmat suit back and warn her Silo what the hell is going on.
Now, keep in mind that the goal of Juliet, the person we are rooting for, is for us to do just that Stop The rebellion was led by her comrades Shirley, Knox, and (so far) Walker, who are also The people we encourage. It brings us to the thorny question of whether or not Salvador Quin did everyone a favor by committing enough crimes to ensure “140 years of peace,” as Bernard put it. In a conversation in the cafeteria, Sheriff Paul Billings discusses this matter with rebel leader Shirley.
“Have you ever thought that the founders, whoever they were, were flat-out lying about everything?” she asks.
“no!” He barks, then follows it up with a “no.” If we do not respect the order of things, everything will fall apart. The charter is what we have. These are the words we live by.”
“There comes a time when you need to stand up and call,” Shirley answers prattle!
It is the Charter that has kept things in perspective throughout these decades. Perhaps it will stop the disaster for now. But it is He drove To this disaster as well, with its lies, deception, and upward bias. Does such a document deserve to govern a people who have violated it? Do his servants in power deserve to rule us? I mean theirs?
Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about television for Rolling Stone, eagle, New York Timesand Anywhere would have himtruly. He and his family live on Long Island.
