Silo Season 2 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Silo Season 2 Episode 7 sees Mechanical gain the upper hand, a major break in the case of Quinn’s code, and Juliette in a precarious position in Silo 17.

Episode 7 opens with Bernard (Tim Robbins) leading Lucas (Avi Nash) to the vault, an area to which only a handful of people have access. Lucas is in awe of all he sees–in short, the whole of human history: books, art, a model of the solar system, knowledge … the legacy. 

Bernard tells him the books are but a fraction of the vault’s library, that they (and more) are stored digitally. He then lets Lucas in on what he does know about the silo: It was built 350-and-some-odd years ago, but there’s no information on why. This is what makes Quinn’s code so important. It implies there’s an unknown, potentially unsolvable problem more dangerous than the rebellion. 

Down in Mechanical, folks are busy working to gain the upper hand over Judicial, and they absolutely do when they use gunpowder to send a canister up through the silo. As it explodes, it releases tiny slips of paper with a bold message: 

I.T. LIES TO US. MECHANICAL WANTS THE TRUTH. 
WHAT HAPPENED TO JULIETTE? HOW DID MEADOWS REALLY DIE? 
WHAT IS I.T. HIDING? LOOK AND SEE.

Naturally, this makes Bernard’s blood boil … and just as he reaches mid-boil, right on cue, Mechanical shuts down the silo, leaving everyone in the dark, except I.T. They’ve successfully followed up their message with action which, no pun intended, casts a bright light on the true guilty party.

Over in Silo 17, Juliette and Solo search for supplies needed to help her breathe underwater on her quest to fix the broken pump, which is located eight levels down. She continues to plead with him to let her go back and save her people, then return to fix the pump, but Solo stands firm. The answer is no.

After locating the needed supplies, Juliette and Solo review the plan as to how she will do this and safely return. Solo warns her not to ascend too fast or she’ll risk what is called “the bends”, where bubbles form in your joints and can kill you. Upon hearing this, Juliette says nope, no way is she doing this, that Solo can do it himself. He tells her he can’t because he’s not an engineer and she is.

“I’m the Head of I.T.,” he emphatically tells her, to which she screams back, “You are not the Head of I.T.! You’re not even Solo!” Shamed, Solo retreats into his child-like state and asks, “Please? I’m the only one left. If I go in the water, I’ll die. Please help me keep from ruining everything,” he begs through tears. 

It’s hard to know what to do with Solo here, or how to react to him (and interact with him). On one hand, he’s just a scared, innocent, isolated child who, somewhere along the way, did what he had to do to survive; on the other, he’s a liar who’s a bit off his rocker and is manipulative. So, it’s hard to know in these moments of breakdown whether or not he’s truly sincere.

He worriedly asks her how long she’s going to stay mad at him. Juliette doesn’t answer and instead descends underwater on a giant weight down into a creepy, wet ghost town, like the insides of a decaying ship that’s been resting on the ocean floor for far too long. 

Back in Silo 18, Billings and Hank approach Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner) about the message they sent up through the silo, who respond by telling them to instead focus on finding out who’s poisoning their food. And then finally, we get our first glimpse of Carla (Clare Perkins) since she was arrested back in Episode 5. 

In a dark room, Carla sits handcuffed to a chair, refusing to speak to anyone but Bernard. When he arrives, he demands she–as the head of supply–tell him everything she knows about the gunpowder Mechanical has. She refuses, unless he tells her if Shirley, Walker, and Knox are safe, then let them all walk free.Then, she’ll tell him exactly what he wants to know. Bernard ponders for a moment but ultimately says no and leaves abruptly. 

And this leads us to Sims (Common), who we now know has been in possession of his own relic: a Pez dispenser that he gave to his son to help comfort him. When Camille (Alexandria Riley) brings up the fact he’s not supposed to have a relic, Sims changes the subject to Bernard, whom he is desperate to talk to, and Camille seizes the opportunity to tell her husband she thinks Mechanical has a point where Bernard is concerned. She notes how when no one had power except for I.T., it was Bernard who ran to turn the lights out in his department in hopes no one would notice. Moreover, he hasn’t reached out to Sims at all since making him Judge. If he sits back and lets Bernard come to him, it’s business;  if he seeks out Bernard first, it’s kindness. 

And speaking of the wizard behind the curtain, Bernard gathers all Judicial workers to tell them the rebels (i.e., Mechanical) have launched an assault on the silo and have taken Billings hostage, forcing him to say what he said over the radio in Episode 6. As a result, Bernard is disabling all radio communications throughout the silo. People seem less worried about that and more worried about why the lights stayed on in I.T. but went out everywhere else. Bernard tells them it was Mechanical trying to make him look bad on purpose, which they, of course, believe. They swore to The Pact, remember?

Meanwhile in the Down Deep,  Billings talks with Walker at his office about Judicial seclusion, telling her Carla is in a fortress and there’s no way to get to her, that those who are taken there usually don’t come out. This isn’t good enough for Walker, who storms out and vows never to lose Carla again. She’s clearly devising her own plan. She’s the sensible fixer, remember? She will find a way.

Elsewhere, Deputy Hank works to locate some of the Listeners ratting out Mechanical to Judicial. He learns there’s a place in the Scavenge Room where notes are left for Listeners, and a new message has just been received: an order to kill Knox and Shirley. Armed with this info, Hank and Billings take Knox and Shirley into protective custody. As the four talk about who could be the rat, Billings’ wife appears with an answer. Things are getting out of hand in the cafeteria, and they might want to check it out.

When Billings and Hank arrive, it seems some Down Deep residents have cornered a cafeteria worker named May, who vehemently denies she’s a rat … until she spills the beans that she didn’t have a choice. Judicial got to her and used her sick mother as leverage. Proving once again they are way more civilized than Judicial, Mechanical says they won’t kill May but they will give her a hard time for a while to remind her who she is. They’ll also make sure her mom is okay, and May agrees never to turn her back on her people again.

In the upper levels of Silo 18, Bernard demands a warrant to search supply to maintain the appearance of order. When he learns the hold-up is Sims, he storms into his office demanding Sims sign the warrant. 

“I assigned you this promotion because I never wanted to see your face again. Your job is to do what I tell you to do,” he barks.

Sims produces the warrant and retorts, “I gave you a decade of my life and loyalty and faith. I’ve paid a price for trusting you. We had an understanding you’d make me your Shadow,” then he refuses to sign off on anything.

Bernard confesses that deep down, he had reservations. Sims was good at solving problems but lacked curiosity, which is necessary to being a Shadow. When he reveals Lucas Kyle is the new Shadow, Sims reminds him he’s already lost the sheriff and his deputy. How long till he loses all of Legal and Judicial? Bernard responds in the only way he knows how: by stirring the pot. He tells Sims his wife is the reason the fugitives made it back to the Down Deep, a revelation that both shocks and embarrasses Sims. Later when Sims confronts his wife, they agree it’s necessary to play both sides and trust no one but each other.

Down in Mechanical, Walker constructs her own way to get a message to Carla and builds her own camera. When Bernard is notified of this, and the fact that Walker and Carla were married 25 years ago, he is pleased, as he seemingly has a plan for his next move.

Over in the vault, Lucas makes a major break in the case of Quinn’s code. He figures out the ciphers are numbers corresponding to a specific page in a book: 77. He alerts Bernard, who asks if he tested his theory against any books in the legacy. Lucas says he didn’t need to because Quinn didn’t use a legacy book to create his code. He wanted his code to be solved, so he used a relic, a book that is somewhere out in the silo and over 140 years old, and maybe that belonged to Quinn himself. Lucas asks Bernard if he knows of anyone in Silo 18 who might have such a relic, and he does. Bernard himself is in possession of this relic, a book called “The Wizard of Oz”.

Back in Silo 17, Juliette fixes the pump but finds herself in a precarious position when she signals Solo the pump is on and to help guide her back to the surface. Only, the second she starts to ascend, she discovers her line has been cut, and she loses her oxygen. She (and we) are thinking Solo cut the rope and left her there to die once he knew the pump was fixed. She frantically strips her gear and desperately makes her way up to the surface as quickly but slowly and carefully as she can before running out of air. The moment she bursts through the water’s surface and gasps for air is a moment that has viewers doing the same. It’s quite an intense moment!

As she exits the water and searches for Solo, he’s nowhere to be found. What she does find, though, is a hatchet on the floor and fresh blood on the steps. As Juliette stands there looking around, we’re presented with a new angle of her, making it clear to us she’s being watched. Is Solo watching her, or is it someone else? Could there actually have been another survivor in Silo 17 living there this whole time without Solo’s knowledge?

Season 2 Episode 7 of Silo is now available to watch on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Friday through mid-January.

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