Silo: Into the Fire Show Only

January 17, 2025 11:11 AM - Season 2, Episode 10

The rebels make their move-and so does Juliette.

Wikipedia summary:

Walker works with Knox and the other rebels to use Bernard's camera to send him misinformation. They trick Bernard into sending the raiders below and transferring all rebels up top, after which Pete sacrifices himself to blow up the stairs in between. The up top deputies side with the rebels after receiving Billings's message via Sims. Patrick agitates the citizens into a mob that demands answers from Bernard. Lukas tells Bernard about the safeguard and resigns, which causes Bernard to give Sims the vault key and password. Sims and his family enter the vault, but the Legacy says only Camille can stay. In Silo 17, Solo tells Juliette about the safeguard, a pipe that can pump enough poison to kill everyone, and how it can be stopped. Juliette uses the firefighter suit and returns to Silo 18 to clean the camera and show a message warning them not to leave, which is seen inside and celebrated. Juliette enters as Bernard is leaving, and they are locked in the incinerator as it fires up. Elsewhere in an apparent flashback in Washington DC, a woman named Helen questions a new congressman about the possibility of the US retaliating against Iran for detonating a dirty bomb on US soil.

posted by tjgrathwell (26 comments total)

The credits rolled, and only then did I notice it was the season finale.

I yelled at my TV "That's it!? That's all you're giving us!?"
posted by adamrice at 2:57 PM on January 17 [7 favorites]

I haven’t read the books but have watched all 20 episodes and I don’t understand why the plan is only 20 more. Then again, I’m still peeved that ST: Lower Decks is done after 50.
posted by billsaysthis at 9:58 PM on January 17 [1 favorite]

Yeah, when I heard that tonight was the finale, I was sorta angry - the pacing of this season has been so strange. In retrospect, last season was, too. I still tried to watch and enjoy, but I'm just not sure this is being adapted well - at least, I hope the books are better.
posted by destructive cactus at 10:15 PM on January 17

Well, I guess that drives me to the audiobooks for Wool, Shift, and Dust. Once I have a commute again, hopefully soon.

I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed.
posted by porpoise at 10:59 PM on January 17

The books do have a satisfying conclusion are paced better than S2. Anyone reading the books should start with Wool… enough was added/changed for the show where jumping right into book 2 (Shift) would be a bit confusing.
posted by nathan_teske at 8:28 AM on January 18 [3 favorites]

So S3 is going to be all background history on why they made the Silos, right? oof.
posted by Kyol at 6:27 PM on January 18

Anyway, I sort of want to dig up the subtitles for it and scan through - I swear Solo said that the people who left didn't die right away, now, is that because radiation poisoning takes a bit of time? Or is it because they were killed by the Safeguard who released the toxin above ground to ... I dunno, something that hasn't really been explained yet? Keep the silos from destroying each other?

I laughed out loud when Jules started trying to pry apart the blast doors with the random chunk of steel she acquired somewhere.

And I figure she'll be OK in her makeshift firefighter outfit, but I make no assumptions about Bernie.
posted by Kyol at 6:45 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]

random chunk of steel she acquired somewhere.

That pry-bar was a conscious decision to bring with from Solo's silo. I'd like to think it's a homage to the crowbar in Half-Life although it was utterly useless on the silo's outside doors.
posted by porpoise at 2:09 AM on January 19

The sudden flash back to the before times seemed tonally out of place. At first I wondered if Apple TV had suddenly started a preview of another show. My guess is that the retaliatory strike turned into a hot war and led to the construction of the silos, which maybe explains how that Pez dispenser became a relic.

Although we didn't learn what else was Lukas was told or what he said to Bernard that was so demoralising, right? Maybe that it was just an experiment and they've been multi generational lab rats under outside surveillance and the unseen researchers would kill everyone if this became known? Which wouldn't seem to mesh with the flashback so I guess I have to wait until next season.

Or read the books like some kind of medieval monk.
posted by autopilot at 6:36 AM on January 19 [2 favorites]

The sudden flash back to the before times seemed tonally out ofplace.

Agreed. And it all seems so mundane. If S3 is all backstory, I'll probably bail.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:00 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]

The Apple TV+ app on my iPad has a bug where the show I am watching was abruptly cut off a few seconds before the end credits, and a different show started up. (It happened to me on an episode of Shrinking and the finale of Bad Sisters recently.)

So, yes, I've had to pause and check the on-screen titles to see if I am still on the same show when that flashback scene started.
posted by applesurf at 4:51 PM on January 19 [2 favorites]

Although we didn't learn what else was Lukas was told or what he said to Bernard that was so demoralising, right?

I thought what Lukas found so demoralizing was that the fate of the silo was already out of their hands and that the safeguard protocol would be initiated imminently. His conversation with Sims was very much "everything's already fucked, go visit the Legacy and revel in its beauty while you still have the luxury of time."
posted by chrominance at 11:35 AM on January 20 [2 favorites]

“What the fuck did you say to Bernard?!?” is one of the best lines of the whole series.
posted by azpenguin at 1:40 PM on January 20 [4 favorites]

> Anyway, I sort of want to dig up the subtitles for it and scan through - I swear Solo said that the people who left didn't die right away, now, is that because radiation poisoning takes a bit of time? Or is it because they were killed by the Safeguard who released the toxin above ground to ... I dunno, something that hasn't really been explained yet? Keep the silos from destroying each other?

It took me a sec but I think what he meant was that they didn't die right away in the silo when things went south, because the poison wasn't released. We know they died right away when they went outside.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:53 AM on January 21

Yah, the delivery of the Solo line was kind of confusing.

FWIW, the flashback is pulled from Shift, the second book, of which Juliet's experiences in Silo 17 are also a part. If the show tracks the way the the book did, the next season will jump back and forth from what happens next in Silo 18 and the flashbacks. I started reading the Wool Trilogy because I finished Season 1 and couldn't wait for more, so I know the feeling! I can say that, without spoiling anything, that this adaptation, which I've generally enjoyed, is just that, an adaptation. The show is telling the same story but with different beats and strokes, which makes watching it still rewarding because despite reading the books, you're not quite 100% sure what will happen because of creative changes that have been made.

So I hope that helps relieve (or not, if I'm wrong!) the concern about Season 3 being just flashback.

And I figure she'll be OK in her makeshift firefighter outfit, but I make no assumptions about Bernie.

Oh snap, I missed that detail. Things bode well for at least one of those two.

I thought it was fun of the director/writer to have the cafeteria view screen in the background and we, the viewers, get to see Jules pop up over the hill first, a second before someone goes, "WHO'S THAT?!" And Solo, bless his heart, "I figured if I didn't drown, you'd be safe."

Camille getting the call up to the majors! I guess she chose the right side.
posted by Atreides at 7:14 AM on January 21 [3 favorites]

I just hope that it doesn't turn out that GenAI came alive at the time of the dirty bomb and then basically said to itself "humanity is not capable of surviving, I will bomb the world and put them all in silo cages" or something similar.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:02 AM on January 21

Or is it because they were killed by the Safeguard who released the toxin above ground to ... I dunno, something that hasn't really been explained yet? Keep the silos from destroying each other?

I presume that the failure mode of "let's go outside" would have to gas not only the silo itself but the surrounding area so as to ensure killing not just the people within but the leavers. But I'm only guessing based on logic and the fact that all those dead people Juliette climbed over to get into Solo's silo in the beginning of the season were on the silo's exterior doorstep, so to speak, not within.
posted by axiom at 9:19 PM on January 24

I took a minute to dig up all the outside scenes, just to scratch an itch.

Cleaners we've seen -
S1E1: Allison (just, uh, IT something or other? sorry Rashida), I don't think we see her POV, but she cleans the camera, wanders off to the tree and collapses.

S1E2: Sheriff Holston - two years later he says he wants to go outside to be with his wife. He sees a green world, cleans the camera, doesn't see Allison in his helmet's "screen". Takes off his helmet, crawls over to Allison and collapses for the last time.

S1E10: Juliet goes out with the special tape, she also sees a green world in her helmet, but realizes it's the same video as she saw in whatever computer she uncovered. She doesn't clean the camera, and heads off to Allison and Holston's bodies, and stumbles near them. When she reaches out to them, the display glitches. Then she gets back up, and the key is blinking, so Bernard runs off to the Server Room. She crests the edge of the crater and her helmet is showing her a beautiful lush green world, which glitches out to show her the real barren world and a destroyed city off on the horizon. She looks back at the silo, then heads off over the hill. The camera pans out in an orbit and we see dozens of silos.

S2E1: The residents of Silo 17 have a revolution and march to the surface. Scene cuts to Juliet's POV where we see Dude Revolutionary's flag. Juliet climbs the next hill and sees a field of bodies and Silo 17's bunker door.

S2E10: Silo 18 is in full revolt, and Juliet comes back over the hill. She cleans the camera and holds up a sign that says it's not safe, and don't come out. The door eventually opens and she comes down the stairs to meet Bernard at the airlock. Juliet and Bernard converse before the airlock door starts to close and she dives in, dragging Bernard along with her.

So the takeaway that I'm getting is the world outside of the silos is still / actually a poisoned hellhole, but the AI is at least "kind" enough to show the doomed cleaners a beautiful world for a minute before their seals eventually fail and the poison kills them. The mass death in the outside world isn't (at least at this point) tied to the safeguard, although I'm not ruling out a Skynet sort of "the only way to save the humans is to lock them up in silos and salt the earth" sort of thing as an originating cause, either. But it doesn't seem like the Safeguard is poisoning people who leave the Silos to prevent them from reaching the other Silos to tell them the good news about Jesus. (I dunno, like in some more active way _other_ than shitty tape on the cleaning suits? bad gas supply or something, rather than just poor maintenance of essential seals.)
posted by Kyol at 1:56 PM on January 27 [2 favorites]

It was always my understanding the "fake earth" in the helmets was intended to encourage people sent out to die to make sure the people inside the silo always knew conditions were terrible, because the people sent out to die were always mistakingly keeping the lens clean under the idea that everything was now safe. It was never a gift, so much a psychological tool to trick people into making sure the people inside knew to stay inside.
posted by Atreides at 12:46 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

I'm glad they brought this season home to something like a conclusion. Particularly since I may not watch any more shows (despite having read all the books). This season was really hard for me to want to finish. Entirely a pacing problem, and mostly with Juliette in Silo 17. It pays off these last two episodes but the previous eight of her doing solo videogame missions for quest items was really tedious.

I got a little confused there at the end in Silo 18 with all the reveals, existential dreads, and various anarchic factions. Having that all arrested by Juliette walking over the hill on the videoscreens was effective.
posted by Nelson at 8:44 AM on February 8

I may have missed this, but has there been any explanation why the authorities in the Silo are pretending that eugenics is a thing? Is there some other explanation provided as to why they choose not to allow people to reproduce?
I was wondering where the computer with the unnecessarily large screen gets it's power, because it seems the generator was going to fail imminently in season 1, if I understood the plot correctly. I am guessing there is no such computer in Silo 17, but there is some power being generated somewhere. Here are some suggestions about why Silo 17 doesn't have a computer with an unnecessarily large screen, which contains potential spoilers.
I would have thought that sending the best generator engineer out of the silo would not have been in the best interests of the computer with the big screen, but maybe it gets its power elsewhere. That wouldn't explain why it allowed the generator to reach a fail state, if it is supposed to be keeping the people alive.
It certainly is a show that leaves you asking questions!
posted by asok at 10:30 AM on February 15

why they choose not to allow people to reproduce?

Simple population control, otherwise the population would exceed the carrying capacity of the Silo's biosphere. Like how the mines are deliberately dangerous as a form of punishment/ population control.
posted by porpoise at 11:04 AM on February 15 [1 favorite]

porpoise - population control

That doesn't explain why the authorities would tell some people that they had been selected to reproduce when they had no intention of allowing that, and do that three times in a row. It is stated by at least one character that they are trying to prevent the birth of inquisitive children. If they are guided by the computer with a massive screen and off site power source, and have access to all of the knowledge of the human race, why would they pursue eugenics?

Silo seems to suffer from the Lost mystery box problem. If you are supposed to forget much of what you are being shown because only some of it is relevant, it is more like an exercise in gaslighting and misdirection than a mystery that rewards paying attention. This is hardly unique in this genre, to be fair.
It would be great if the characters and story had as much attention to detail as the set dressing.
posted by asok at 11:13 AM on February 18

There's the public explanation for the lottery - population control, everyone who wants a kid has to believe they have a fair shot at having a kid. Then there's the hidden agenda, which is eugenics in which only the select few are chosen to have kids. But why pursue eugenics? Nothing in which you cited counters any eugenicist's feelings on why eugenics is needed.

I will say your criticism is not too far off the point. Watching the show I had so many questions about choices I went and read the underlying trilogy. Not every answer is in there, either, so there is a degree of mystery that is brought up and lost - but to avoid spoilers, I won't specifically state which ones, and to be honest, I've kind of forgotten by now, too. The source material for the show began, after all, as an installment based series, so the author was rewarded by making people want to learn more to answer those questions on an installment basis.
posted by Atreides at 11:34 AM on February 18

Having rewatched it a bit, it would seem that the authorities are trying to stamp out inquisitiveness via their eugenics programme. Bernard tells Juliette that her parents should not have been allowed to have children, inferring that it is their fault she is so prone to investigating things.
The motivation seems to be to avoid any interest in the rest of the world, past and future, because of a fear of rebellion.
I understand the plot stuff about the good old heat tape vs the bad new heat tape, but that also brings up more questions. Did the previous cleaners get good tape and have a nice stroll around the area? Is that why the crater isn't littered with bodies?
Hopefully they will keep the same production team for the next two seasons and season three will be better paced than season two.
Well done for reading the books, I was thinking about doing that. The story of how the story came about is interesting, like a mixture of P K Dick and Dickens.
posted by asok at 2:52 PM on February 21

So, based on the flashback, what I think the background of the Silos is:

Handsome Congressman was in the Army Corps of Engineers doing something important and mysterious in Louisiana. Most likely, getting the SILO project started.

Attractive Journalist questions him about US plans to counterattack Iran, and if Iran was actually responsible for the dirty bomb attack. Suggesting it could have been a false flag operation to secure funding for the SILO project, among other things. Or perhaps it was a real attack. Real or Inside Job, there was some sort of escalation that, 10-20 years down the road, leads to a nuclear war. The extent of the devastation has to be vast, but is it the entire earth?

Anyway, in the immediate future, Congressman and Journalist get together, fall in love, get married maybe even, and at some point he reveals to her the existence of the SILO program, maybe even other secrets.

When The Shit finally does go down, the two of them, or maybe just her, or maybe just their kid, are able to get into a Silo due to Political Connections. One of the few belongings they bring: the PEZ dispenser from their first, awkward date. 200 or so years later, there's the rebellion in Silo 18, Salvador Quinn purges their history, and the PEZ dispenser is confiscated or lost or whatever. 140 years after that, and here we are.

How the AI fits in, I have no idea, but presumably it was part of some sort of master plan to ensure the survival of the American People that went Horribly Wrong, so now it's either stuck in some sort of logic loop about not letting them out but also not telling them the truth but also killing them if they try to get out etc. (a la HAL 9000), or a SkyNet/Matrix-type AI revolution against Humanity.

I'm just glad that Solo is OK, because he's my favorite character in the show. By the end of Season 4, Solo better be in some happy green wonderland surrounded by people who love him or I will RIOT.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:15 PM on March 13 [1 favorite]