Silo was one of the best new shows of 2023, another hit-it-out-of-the-park moment for Apple TV+. The sci-fi dystopian drama based on the Hugh Howey novel trilogy Wool, Shift, and Dust, centers around residents of an underground silo surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. No one really knows what happened to get them there, most unaware of what the world looked like before. That’s because “relics” from the old world are banned. The hierarchical society sees the top brass on the upper levels and the menial workers on the bottom. Only a massive winding staircase connects them through 144 floors.
When one woman begins to question the truth, she asks to “go outside,” the one thing you never ask to do. Seemingly dying instantly, some people don’t buy it. This includes Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), a talented engineer working on the bottom level. Finding herself in a position of power through a series of events, she starts to secretly investigate her sneaking suspicions that not all is what it seems. But this lands Juliette in a position where she has to “go outside,” too.
Silo Season 2: What’s It About?
Fans of the series who watched season one know that as Juliette inched closer and closer to a truth, others were on her tail. Chief among them is Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), the head of IT and mayor. He’s clearly running a lot more than just the technology within the silo. He captures Juliette and a hard drive she stole, presumably with incriminating information on it. He lies to others saying she asked to go outside.
Juliette is suited up, sprayed, and sent on her way out the doors of the vault to what many believe will be her certain death. Instead of sticking with the ritual of “cleaning” the camera lens to the outside so everyone gets a clearer view, she refuses and drops the cloth in protest. As she walks further and further away, everyone is shocked to see that she isn’t collapsing like others have done.
What residents don’t know is that Juliette’s close friend and mother figure Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) swapped out the heat tape on her suit for the proper one that would provide better protection for her. Juliette strolls over the big hill, out of view of others, where she can’t believe her eyes. While the outside is indeed a desolate wasteland as promised, there are also rows and rows of other silos. They are not alone. Where does she go from here? That’s where season two kicks off.
Silo Season 2 Review
Silo follows up its excellent first season with an even better second. Many of the same characters are back with the addition of some new ones. Chief among them is Steve Zahn, who brilliantly portrays Solo, a quirky man who has been living alone in a vault in another silo for several years since his entire community went outside in a rebellion and perished.
The episodes flip back and forth between Juliette’s journey and what’s going on back at her silo in the aftermath of her departure. A rebellion is brewing there now, too. After seeing Juliette continue to walk instead of collapse, people are starting to believe that the outside is not what they are being told it is. They want to learn why Juliette survived while others didn’t and believe the leaders of the silo aren’t telling them the truth. The leaders, meanwhile, are frantic to keep the peace, and keep up the ruse, at any cost.
Meanwhile, Juliette shows incredible engineering prowess (seriously, if you have kids, especially young girls, who need inspiration to get into engineering and other STEM fields, show them episode one) to survive through a seemingly impossible situation.
Bernard, ever the evil villain, manipulative leader, and steadfast supporter of The Pact on which the silo runs, is reminiscent of a zealot who takes every word of his silo’s guidebook literally. He’s willing to do just about anything to ensure he doesn’t ever deviate from it. Ironically, he does heinous things all in the name of this supposed Pact. If some of his moves in season one shocked you, they’re even more jarring in season two.
Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) continues to showcase his brainwashed dedication to an oath and system that he doesn’t even quite fully understand. But he also goes from a man who doesn’t question anything in season one to someone who is finally starting to recognize the cracks and remove his rose-colored glasses to fully see them. It’s still all in the name of the law for him, however.
The shining star of the season, as with season one, is Ferguson, who delivers another electric performance. She’s captivating on screen, and there needed to be more of her. Zahn is an absolute delight as well as her foil, the oddball Solo whose circumstance has led him to become temperamental, agitated, paranoid, and even quite child-like. He was a perfect addition to the cast, even if his presence and scenes give Silo a different feel than you experienced in season one.
Back home, everyone has their place and everyone else has their moment to shine, too. With Juliette no longer in that silo, all the scenes there focus on Bernard, the angry folks in mechanical, Robert Sims (Common) and his constant quest to climb the corporate ladder, and even Lukas (Avi Nash), whose brilliant mind initially seems like it might be wasted. There’s arguably too much of a focus on Bernard this season, the character dominating almost every scene and episode. Nonetheless, despite the weighted balance in his favour, it’s nice to take the story to a new location and experience what else is going on in this post-apocalyptic world as we learn more and more how strong and resilient Juliette is.
Overall, it’s a fantastic season with edge-of-your-seat tension, high-action scenes, and some incredible stunts and MacGyver-like engineering that’s downright fascinating to watch. Beneath the surface entertainment, however, the show is also thought-provoking. You can’t help but wonder if you were in the same situation, would you simply believe what’s being fed to you or beg to go outside, regardless of the risk?
Should You Watch Silo Season 2?
Silo touches on a lot of themes that resonate in real life as well. Does it make sense to follow a book some mysterious person wrote more than a century ago? Who is to say this person had any idea what they were talking about and weren’t manipulative back then, too? Does it make sense to trust a world where every “relic” from the “before times” is vehemently banned, women get implants so they can’t get pregnant until the leaders give them permission to do so, and the class system is just as bad, if not worse, than the world that came before it?
How much of our beliefs are perception versus manipulation? Leading with fear, as Bernard and others at the top of the silo hierarchy do, effectively forces people into submission while they believe it’s of their own will. Everyone questions the silo, but no one seems to question their fearless leader, the tyrant who spins every story, every event in his favour so he comes out looking like the hero.
No one dares to ask about the outside because they have been programmed to know that asking to do so results in ritualistic punishment. Staying inside and doing what you’re told gives you protection by the people who claim to have your best interests in mind. People are led to believe the silo is their only hope at existence. Is it really? They don’t know. But everyone is too afraid to try and find out, so they just keep trucking along.
Even when doubt is cast, swift answers are given and residents take them at face value, believing what they’re told. Those few who are still skeptical avoid confiding their thoughts in anyone else. No one knows who they can trust, after all. Most are staunchly in support of The Pact, even when they don’t agree with it, and few would deviate based on even logic and reason.
In one episode, Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner) have a heart-to-heart where they question whether every person in the silo believes they are the ones who keep things running. The truth is that what keeps the silo running is deception. The longer people can remain willing and active participants in their own deception, the more powerful the silo becomes.
“If we don’t respect the order of things,” Billings tells Shirley in another conversation, “then it all falls apart. The Pact is what we have. Those are the words we live by.” She replies: “There comes a time that you need to stand up and call bullshit.”
So, should you watch Silo? In and of itself, Silo is a brilliant series, arguably one of the best of the last five years. But it’s also one that will get you talking, theorizing, and maybe even considering picking up the book trilogy on which it’s based. With the likelihood of a third season renewal (Ferguson has said in interviews that there are plans for a four-season run), there’s lots more to come. You won’t be disappointed.