The primary season of Silo ended on a really nice cliffhanger. The Apple TV Plus collection, an adaptation of Hugh Howey’s trilogy of postapocalyptic novels, tells the story of the remnants of humanity, who dwell deep underground in silos designed to guard them from a poisoned planet. Season 1 had the sensation of a small-town thriller, as mechanic-turned-sheriff Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) stumbled upon a secret that fully upended her worldview. Her quest to uncover that thriller finally led her outdoors of the silo’s protecting partitions, which is correct the place the season ended. Silo’s second season picks up within the aftermath and ramps issues up by each elevating the stakes and elevating an enormous heap of latest mysteries to obsess over.
This piece comprises spoilers, together with particulars of Silo’s season 1 finale.
First, somewhat reminder about how we bought right here. The present is ready in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later, and the silo is residence to a rigorously managed inhabitants of 10,000 residents, who observe a strict algorithm ostensibly designed to maintain them secure from the grim panorama outdoors. That panorama is ever-present on big shows contained in the silo, and sure residents are punished by being compelled to go outdoors, whereas everybody else watches as they stroll out into the scorched world and, just a few moments later, inevitably collapse.
However after reluctantly being thrust into the position of sheriff, Juliette realized that the skin won’t be so harmful in spite of everything. A posh collection of occasions results in Juliette herself leaving. However she doesn’t collapse — and her steps over the hill into an unlimited expanse set the silo aflame.
Season 2 picks up proper within the second when she takes these steps, and it creates two parallel threads. On one facet, there’s Juliette, who learns that her residence is only one of many silos. Finally, she makes her solution to a seemingly deserted one not removed from her personal. The trail there may be suffering from lifeless our bodies; she steps over corpses and crunches just a few skulls on the journey. The brand new silo is seemingly empty, and far of it’s flooded, although by some means the facility remains to be working. After investigating and assembly the only real survivor (performed by Steve Zahn, an exquisite new addition to the forged), she rapidly learns that this silo died due to a violent rebellion. And what began it? Somebody going outdoors and surviving. So regardless of the entire preliminary effort to get to this new place, she units to work heading proper again.
It shouldn’t be too shocking, then, that issues aren’t going effectively at residence. Tensions are rising because the mayor Bernard (Tim Robbins) makes use of each trick at his disposal in an try to quell a insurrection from the decrease ranges. In the meantime, Juliette’s mates — spurred on by her daring steps outdoors — develop into rightfully satisfied that they’re being lied to concerning the actuality of their world. There are violent clashes on the huge spiral stairs that join the entire silo’s ranges and all types of clandestine conferences between totally different factions. The tight confines of the silo make many of those moments really feel claustrophobic and intense.
What turns into clear fairly rapidly is that the silos aren’t simply arks meant to save lots of humanity from a postapocalyptic wasteland. They’re additionally exceedingly advanced psychological experiments. And people two issues go hand in hand; each unusual or surprising factor that occurs within the silo, it appears, is definitely a part of an intricate, manipulative plan to maintain the inhabitants in test and keep away from a lethal catastrophe.
That grew to become apparent towards the tip of the primary season, and the complexity ramps up right here. There are a number of layers of deceit and thriller, that are compounded by the truth that no person within the silo truly is aware of the total image. They’re simply doing the most effective they will with the data they’ve. Even seemingly small revelations — like the standard of a sure form of tape — can have main implications.
For season 2’s first half (I’ve watched 5 of the ten episodes thus far), this makes for a compelling watch that steadily expands on what made Silo so nice initially. It merely expands the size. And because the mysteries shift and develop, so, too, does the strain.
Silo’s second season begins streaming on Apple TV Plus on November fifteenth.
