Silo Season 2 Episode 9 deals with daunting tasks all around for everyone in both silos, and we finally experience Solo’s world inside silo 17’s vault.
Showrunner: Graham Yost
Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Dystopian
Number of Season 2 episodes: 10
Episode 9 Release Date: January 10, 2025
Where to watch Silo: Stream it on Apple TV+
Silo season 2 episode 9 is so daunting, it really could’ve served as the season finale and left us with quite the cliffhanger. Lucky us, though, we still have one more episode to go, so buckle up, buttercups. In this week’s recap, episode 9 fills us with insight as Lucas (Avi Nash) stumbles upon a major secret and is faced with quite the task, key characters face the truth and choose a side, and everything we hoped to know about Solo (Steve Zahn) and silo 17 finally comes to light … well, most of it.
Not only do we find out who the silo’s other inhabitants are, but we also learn the shattering truth about Solo and are finally brought into his magical little world inside the vault.
Some Silo 17 Backstories
Episode 9 brings us back to the beginning of season 2, when Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) first arrived at silo 17 in episode 1, except this time, we’re getting the perspective of the silo’s unknown inhabitants. A woman named Audrey watches with two others, unsure of who Juliette is, how she got there, and where she came from.
When not mothering her small children, Audrey watches Juliette in everything she does. In fact, in episode 1, when Juliette was lowering herself by rope down to I.T., it was Audrey who cut the rope; it didn’t snap as we were led to believe. And later, when Audrey spots Solo helping Juliette as she descends underwater to fix the groundwater pump, it’s a moment of reckoning as Solo is recognized.
“Is that the killer?!” one of the others exclaimed before Audrey confirms it is: “We must kill him.”
We then get some backstory on what exactly happened when Juliette lost her air support and Solo disappeared. Solo is attacked from behind and winds up in a scuffle, fighting for his life until he’s shot in the back with an arrow by Audrey and is knocked out. Audrey wants to kill him but the others want to keep him alive so they can get into the vault and get some food. They are starving and, more importantly, they have children to feed.
To distract Juliette from following them, the youngest of the three uses her own blood to mislead Juliette away from their dwelling, which was the blood pattern Juliette followed in episode 8. It looks more and more like everyone doesn’t just want something from Juliette; they also want something from Solo. Will they get it?
We also get some backstory on those dead bodies outside of Solo’s vault, and it’s sad, y’all. It turns out that there were silo 17 residents who didn’t join in on the rebellion. Those left behind were starving and had children. Two survivors, Tess and Jace, worked tirelessly to figure out the vault code so they could get in and get food, and when they did, Solo killed them.
Was it that simple, though?
Daunting Decisions Abound in Silo 18
Over in silo 18, insights and daunting decisions abound as Lucas stumbles upon a major secret, Knox (Shane McRae) sniffs out Mechanical’s traitor and sets a trap, and Sheriff Billings (Chinaza Uche) and Judge Sims (Common) align to choose a side. Where’s Bernard (Tim Robbins) in all this? Why, he’s watching from behind the curtain, of course, still pulling strings, just as the great wizard desperate for control does.
Lucas has decoded more information of Quinn’s and tells Bernard there are 50 silos in total. Bernard corrects him and says there are actually 51, but no one knows why. He then confirms to Lucas that Juliette made it to another silo but likely didn’t survive, and that all heads of I.T. and their shadows know about the other silos. Therefore, he says, Quinn didn’t need to put that information in his code, for Lucas to keep working. There’s something more there.
In the Down Deep, Billings wrestles with the realization that Judicial has been using him this whole time. They sought him out not because they saw a leader in him but because they saw a sheep. As he talks with Knox and Shirley (Remmie Milner) about what their next move is, they speak of needing someone on the other side they can trust. Knox brings up Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley), since she helped the rebels escape after Meadows’ death. So, Billings sends a message upstairs, hoping it reaches her but suspecting Judge Sims to respond. And he does. Together, the two know they must face the same truth and doing so requires a daunting decision we can tell neither wants to make.
In the meantime, Lucas deciphers another message: “They created the safeguard,” Quinn writes. “Go to the bottom of the silo. Find the tunnel. You will get confirmation.”
Lucas rushes off to see Bernard but is refused entry. So, he’s now faced with a daunting decision, and he decides to investigate Quinn’s claims for himself. Before he makes his way to the Down Deep, he gives Quinn’s copy of The Pact to his mother for safe keeping. When she asks why, he tells her he denied help to Juliette when she needed it, and he refuses to make the same mistake again. He knows he’s onto something with this potential tunnel and if it means helping Juliette and supporting the discovery of truth, he’ll do everything he can.
Bernard: A Kid with a Magnifying Glass
Bernard remains busy in his efforts to re-secure his power and control of silo 18, and he’s found the perfect tool to do it: Walker (Martha Walker). He’s got her right where he wants her, confined to her room under his watchful eye and listening ear, just twisting the life right out of her, leveraging Carla’s (Clare Perkins) life to do so. It’s cruel.
He revels in delight when Knox shows up and tells Walker that they now have Sheriff Billings on their side, and they plan to take control of the silo. The first thing they’ll do is free Carla, he tells her, wanting her to know they have a plan. Bernard is pleased and tells Walker they need to talk.
Knox later returns to tell Walker he believes he’s figured out who the rat is. As Walker begins to panic and prepares herself to respond, Knox drops a different name, much to her relief. He then says they plan to use the rest of the stored gunpowder they took from Supply. He doesn’t want to believe Walker is their leak, but he knows if Bernard and Judicial find out about this, he’ll have no choice. One thing’s for sure: It won’t be a pretty moment for Walker or Knox, or for Mechanical, and Bernard will no doubt be sitting on high, laughing behind his magnifying glass as he redirects the light to watch everyone burn.
And he doesn’t waste any time getting started. Bernard briefs the police on the rebels’ latest plot, which, he says, involves storing gunpowder. He tells everyone it was Sheriff Billings who put the plan into motion, that Billings is hereby stripped of his badge. As such, all deputies are now reassigned to build a jail—something none are comfortable with doing, but they also know they have no choice.
Lucas Finds Quinn’s Tunnel
Understanding that Lucas is undertaking quite a daunting task, Shirley agrees to escort him to the bottom of the Down Deep—for Juliette’s sake, though she doesn’t believe there are pumps deeper down that Mechanical doesn’t know about. Lucas tells Shirley Juliette is likely still alive, and he’ll tell her where if she helps him, so she leaves him to explore. Lucas surmises the water isn’t deep at all; it just looks deep to detract anyone from poking around and finding the way to the tunnel, which Lucas successfully does.
As he approaches, a voice—some kind of higher intelligence—says his name and asks him why he is there. Lucas answers that he was given instructions by Salvador Quinn. The voice then says that only three have reached the door: Quinn, Meadows, and him. Lucas is then warned that if he speaks about this conversation or anything he has seen, “We’ll have no choice but to initiate The Safeguard. Do you know what that is?”
“I do,” Lucas says.
Inside Solo’s Vault
If Juliette wants to see Solo, Audrey tells her she’ll have to get the vault code and open the door. After learning that the parents of these others tried to figure out the code decades ago, Juliette remembers seeing numbers on a chalkboard in a room when she and Solo searched for materials to retrieve the fireman’s suit. She heads to the former head of I.T.’s apartment, Russell Conroy, to search for clues.
While there, it finally hits Juliette that Solo was just a little kid when the rebellion happened, and he was locked inside the vault. Moreover, he wasn’t just any little kid. He was Russell Conroy’s kid, the head of I.T.’s kid.
Juliette tells Audrey she can get Solo to give her the code, to let her see him. When she does, he is bruised, beaten, bloody, and scared. All we see is a terrified little boy. For the first time, Juliette looks at him with eyes of empathy and compassion, not fear and distrust.
Audrey and her husband demand to know how their parents died. Solo says Tess and Jace got the code and got inside the vault, but Solo slept through it all. He never heard them. He didn’t wake up until, he says, “it got loud.” Jace and Tess shot Solo while he slept. Solo retaliated with quickness and killed them before they could kill him. He then lifts his shirt and proves he was shot.
Juliette tells Solo his real name, Jimmy Conroy, and he freaks out. The poor kid is so confused and scared. He’s worked so hard to suppress the pain and memory of the rebellion, and of losing his dad, and we now understand why the vault has been so important to him: He was trying to honor his dad by protecting it. He wasn’t trying to hide anything or be cruel to anyone. He was just trying to obey his dead father’s last wishes.
“Jimmy was a coward who hid behind the vault door because his dad told him to,” Solo cries out. He’s ashamed of himself. In a flashback, we see the sheriff of silo 17 kill Russell in front of Jimmy (Solo) because Jimmy wouldn’t open the vault door. Now Solo bears the guilt of his father’s death, and we further come to understand his obsession with the vault.
Juliette points out to Solo that his dad told him not to open the door because his father wanted him to live; he was protecting him. It’s an emotionally therapeutic moment in change of awareness and perspective for both Juliette and Solo. Realizing that Tess and Jace were just trying to protect their children and keep them safe, like his father was doing for him, Solo gives them the code and allows everyone to enter his world for the very first time.
It’s an astonishing moment … tender and beautiful, messy but particular, comfortable and “lived in”. There are pictures on the walls—some hand-drawn, others from books. There is writing on doors and walls, origami hanging from the ceiling, a plethora of books, and even a model of the solar system hanging from the ceiling. It’s magnificent! There’s scientific lab equipment, musical instruments like drums and cymbals—an entire world of art, sound, beauty, and knowledge that Juliette and the others have never before witnessed.
Solo gives Juliette back her suit. She asks why he never told her about the spare suit in his father’s closet, which Juliette discovered as she searched Russell’s room for vault code clues. Solo didn’t tell her because he knew if he did, she’d leave, and he wanted her to stay.
Still, he asks, “If you found the suit, why didn’t you just leave?”
It’s a moment requiring no words, only some tears. He realizes she didn’t leave because she cares about him. He finally has someone who loves and cares about him, someone to tell him he isn’t bad or wrong, someone to tell him he will be okay and he did the right thing.
Silo Season 2 Episode 9 Review
Silo season 2 episode 9 is the most emotionally beautiful, if you ask me. The whole mystery surrounding Solo has slowly been chipped out throughout previous episodes, but this week, the mountain surrounding him comes crashing down to reveal a sweet, scared, and likely brilliant little boy. And this little boy has been carrying the trauma that he caused his dad’s death for most of his entire life. Alone.
I think Silo creators made a smart choice in having the vault be a place of wonder and magic instead of a place of darkness and fear and psychological warfare. Everything about Solo just got a lot more interesting, leaving us to wonder how big a role he is yet to play in this entire series.
And what’s The Safeguard? Are we dealing with something that turns the residents against themselves and makes them go crazy? The end of episode 9 definitely works as a lure to hook you in and snatch you up, just in time for the season finale.
Season 2 Episode 9 of Silo is now available to watch on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Friday through January 17.
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