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‘Silo’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Juliette Makes Her Move

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for the Silo Season 2 finale.

Just like that, Silo‘s second season ends with no whimper but quite a literal bang. Apple TV+’s dystopian sci-fi thriller has never been afraid to balance multiple storylines at once, but Season 2 turned its interwoven plot points into an art all its own — and the season’s Rubik’s Cube narrative has never been more entangled than this finale. Without further ado, let’s dive into writer Aric Avelino and director Amber Templemore‘s “Into the Fire.”

The Rebellion Launches Their Last Strike in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 10

Image via Apple TV+

Episode 10 opens by returning to Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) father, Pete (Iain Glen), as Shirley (Remmie Milner) conveys the bombshell that Juliette’s survival might be more probable than metaphorical. From their perspective, it’s still a frail hope, even going off Lukas Kyle’s (Avi Nash) information, but it’s the best incentive they have to keep fighting. Shirley, Pete, Knox (Shane McRae), and Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) meet in Martha’s (Harriet Walter) workshop and lay out their plans for a last-ditch assault on the Up Top. If the rebels can hold off the raiders for three hours, that gives them enough time to hold the generator room hostage: either Holland tells them the truth, or they blow up the generator itself.

Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), hearing everything courtesy of Martha’s surveillance camera, orders the entire raiding team to arrest the rebels and secure the generator. Dozens of raiders swarm through the barricade into the Down Deep, and despite Mechanical charging into battle with their homemade weapons, the fight doesn’t seem to last long. Everyone, including Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez) and Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash) — the latter happened to be booking it up from the ground level at precisely the wrong time — finds themselves locked inside one of the Up Top’s cafeterias, which the sheriff’s deputies altered into a prison on Holland’s orders. From above, power couple Robert (Common) and Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) watch the arrests and wonder if they chose the wrong side. It’s too late to go back now, however, especially if Bernard discovers that the Sims passed along “Billings’ message” — presumably, the picture of the Blue Ridge Mountains responsible for causing several characters’ internal crises.

Once the coast has cleared, Raider Jean (Khairika Sinani) escorts Pete and a severely wounded “colleague” of hers — who’s conveniently lying underneath a sheet — past some stationed raiders. Said raiders respond to a panicked-sounding call from the generator room and find it’s already been laced with explosives. The wires aren’t connected to the bomb, but they still need to guard the area. Simultaneously, Jean, Pete, and the anonymous figure sprint away in the opposite direction. Once they arrive at a designated point on the stairs, Jean monitors the ascending path for stragglers while deputy Hank (Billy Postlethwaite), the body under the sheet, makes a quick reconnaissance check in the opposite direction. He returns to find Pete shaken; they dropped and lost a timer in their rush. Someone must manually detonate the explosives they smuggled down with Hank. His decision already made, Pete removes Juliette’s watch from his wrist and hands it to Hank, telling the other man to pass along his loving affirmations to Juliette.

Sacrifices Are Made and Secrets Are Learned in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 10

Meanwhile, Rick Amundsen (Christian Ochoa) separates the rebellion’s followers in the cafeteria from its leaders. Knox, Shirley, and Billings are locked into traditional cells, and Amundsen makes a show of freeing Carla (Clare Perkins) while exposing Martha as the mole. Carla expresses visceral disgust with her ex-wife’s apparent betrayal, choosing to stay in a cell. Martha leaves to meet with Holland, who gloats as much as you’d expect while he watches the clock wind down on Mechanical’s rebellion. However, back in the main holding area, deputy Molly Karins (Angela Yeoh) frees Billings and the others, telling her boss that they got his message. Back in IT, Martha takes her time before dropping some Mechanical lore on Bernard. Because the generator runs so loudly, she explains, the division learned to communicate through hand signals — the same ones she’s been using since day one to tell her allies the truth about Holland blackmailing her. Martha watches the clock, smirking and counting down to zero from five seconds. Cut to Pete, who gives one last kind look up at a stricken Hank watching him from one level above, before triggering the explosives. Bernard and Amundsen find the stairs between levels 90 and 92 destroyed, leaving the rebellion prisoners above the explosion point and every single raider trapped down below it.

Said prisoners, now freed, armed, and backed by Billings’ deputies, march toward IT. Kyle, running for his life, beats them and beelines straight to Bernard. He orders the mayor to silently listen, citing how everyone will die if “it” hears Kyle sharing the forbidden information he’s about to impart. The camera conveniently (and cleverly) steps back from this moment, observing it from both Amundsen and Sims’ perspectives. The audience doesn’t hear Kyle’s words, returning only for a close-up on Bernard’s horrified expression as he grapples with the reason why Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) resigned as his shadow, and why Lukas is doing the same. Despairing, Bernard shuffles forward in a haze. He refuses to answer Sims’ questions, instead making the man his shadow without any pomp or circumstance — just the key and code necessary to enter the Vault. Then, Holland retrieves a backpack from his quarters, silently slides into a room crowded with concerned residents, and fires off a gun three times, ordering everyone to leave the room.

7:21

Related

“It’s a Big, Bad Thing”: ‘Silo’ Showrunner Graham Yost Teases the Safeguard Ahead of the Season 2 Finale

The ‘Silo’ showrunner also teases a major twist coming up.

Juliette Learns About the Safeguard in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 10

Steve Zahn in "Silo," now streaming on Apple TV+.
Image via Apple TV+

Over in Silo 17, Juliette, the Jimmy formerly known as Solo (Steve Zahn), and the rest of 17’s crew — Audrey (Georgina Sadler), Rick (Orlando Norman), and “Eater,” who prefers her birth name, Hope (Sara Hazemi) — arrive at Jimmy’s family quarters from before the rebellion. He remembers where his parents were standing like it was yesterday, and Jimmy reflects on how they were younger when they died than he is now. Finding a handwritten note reading “Safeguard Procedures,” however, shocks him out of his lingering poignancy. Racing to reunite with Juliette, he cites the Safeguard as something that might help her save her Silo. Desperately trying to piece together his decade-old memories, Jimmy finally exclaims, “the Safeguard is a pipe“; before their deaths, his parents managed to cap the pipe before it pumped out enough poison to kill 10,000 people.

Now more anxious to return home than ever, Juliette finds her homemade environmental suit eaten through and ruined by moths. Audrey immediately and illogically blames Hope, forcing Juliette to yell sense into the younger woman, which includes a lesson on survival: the only way to manage is to treasure the people you love. While she monologs, Jimmy absconds with the older suit and tests it by going into the flooded water on the lower levels. Since he didn’t drown, the suit should be safe for her to wear outside. Jimmy flinches at the hug Juliette attempts at that moment — but later, once Juliette is suited up, he seeks delicate reassurance about whether she plans to come back. “Nothing will stop me from trying,” Juliette promises. Jimmy initiates an awkward but deeply earnest hug, and we finally have our BFFs!

Juliette Returns Home in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 10, but at What Cost?

Shifting from besties to wives, Carla and Martha share a sweet reunion that’s cut short by the other residents demanding to go outside. Their enthusiasm swiftly reaches mob levels; led by Kennedy, they rage their way into the nearest kitchen and ransack it, using furniture as a barrier to hold back Knox, Billings, and the others trying to stop their impulsiveness. Paul manages to reach the locked room inside which Bernard has settled himself, begging the mayor to tell them the truth and begging the mob to listen to Holland. Unsatisfied, the crowd carries Paul away — but everyone pauses when, on the display screen, a figure crests the hill. Overjoyed cheers erupt when Juliette cleans the lens. Holland hears the crowd taking up the “Juliette lives” chant and emerges to see her holding up a note warning them to stay inside. As this unfolds, Robert, Camille, and their son Anthony (Oscar Coleman) enter the Vault. The same disembodied voice Lukas encountered in the tunnel last week asks their purpose. Robert wants to save the Silo, and on that subject, the voice agrees — but selects Camille as the only person allowed to stay inside the Vault.

Outside, the doors open for Juliette after she tries to manually force them open, to no avail. She finds Bernard waiting for her, wearing an environmental suit and aiming a gun at her. As Juliette warily advances, Bernard admits he’s given up after learning about the poison. His life’s work is for nothing, and all he wants is to exert the little freedom he has by going outside. The contentious pair seems to have stumbled into a possible truce, but the door behind them starts closing. Juliette bolts forward; Bernard grabs her arm, shouting that she’ll get burned. He gets dragged inside the room with her, and, true to his word, flames shoot from the walls and fill the room.

Cut to a rainy evening in contemporary-looking Washington, D.C. Daniel (Ashley Zukerman), a Georgia congressman, enters a restaurant and joins Helen (Jessica Henwick) at a booth. The pair swap awkward stories about where they were when a dirty bomb deployed. Wherever it struck and whether Iran was truly the responsible party like they believe, the loss of life and the sociopolitical ramifications have been immense. Helen sought him out to discuss this radiological attack; Daniel was under the assumption this was a date (an outdated term they laugh at him using). Ultimately, Daniel declines to answer Helen’s questions and leaves, but not before giving her a gift he “panic bought” from the nearest convenience store: a Pez Dispenser with a duck on the top, which we can only assume is the same relic we saw Anthony Sims playing with earlier in the season. What does all of that mean? We’ll have to wait until Season 3.

Silo is available to stream on Apple TV+.

Silo TV Poster

Silo’s second season ends with no whimper but quite a literal bang.

Pros

  • This finale had a lot of spinning plates to balance, and it pays off the majority of those plot points and character arcs with cohesive dramatic tension.
  • Harriet Walter, Tim Robbins, and Steve Zahn’s performances remain highlights of the season, with all three delivering some of their most impressive work to date; likewise, Iain Glen’s consistently moving performance will be missed.
  • Even though the last scene is startling, using a flashback makes the series’ mystery-laden worldbuilding feel tantalizingly grounded.

Watch on Apple TV+


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