Silo Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: Plunging Into ‘The Dive’

Silo

The Dive

Season 2

Episode 7

Editor’s Evaluation

4 stars

****

Image: Apple TV+/Copyrighted

Have you ever contemplated the cost involved in constructing the Silo stage? Then do you consider the expenses incurred this season for creating a second set for the dilapidated and waterlogged Silo 17?

I pondered on this frequently while viewing the visually captivating scenes in Silo 17 during this week’s episode — named “The Dive” due to Juliette’s descent deep into the silo’s flooding waters, which serves as the episode’s focal point. For a second occasion this season, Juliette embarks on an exhilarating underwater journey as she attempts to activate the silo’s water pump for Solo, who has concealed the suit and helmet required for her return to Silo 18. Once more, she must depend on Solo to assist in keeping her alive during the dive through a silo mirroring her own’s basic framework but presenting unpredictable hindrances authored by the post-rebellion inundation and chaos.

However, recently, Solo has become less dependable. He’s no longer the kind-hearted, youthful recluse filled with inquisitiveness. He has revealed himself to be envious, irritable, deceitful … and a fraud. The exchanges between Rebecca Ferguson and Steve Zahn display their unique form of action and tension, as the no-nonsense Juliette endeavours to assert control over this spoilt child, and he retaliates with obstinate sulkiness.

The base of Solo’s reasoning holds substantial weight. He needs Juliette to halt the flooding immediately because once she departs from Silo 17, there’s a considerable possibility she won’t come back. Nevertheless, throughout their dialogue, he appears excessively whiny and pitiful. When she asserts that he should undertake the dive, he retorts by shouting, “I’m the head of IT,” and she snaps back, “You’re not even Solo!” He clutches a small bell while flinching from her remark, and the jingling only augments the sorrow of the scene.

Ultimately, Juliette does indeed make the dive, relying on that little bell to signal Solo once the pump is functioning and she’s prepared to be hoisted back up. In classic “let me elucidate the plan comprehensively to the audience so they’ll understand what’s at stake when it inevitably goes wrong” style, Solo instructs Juliette on swimming and cautions her about the perils of ascending too swiftly and experiencing the bends. Sure enough, after Juliette activates all the necessary switches, she discovers that the rope tethered to the bell has drifted away, and that her oxygen supply has been interrupted. She must dismiss Solo’s caution and rise without delay.

Again, this narrative is filled with fantastic action-adventure storytelling, rich with strong character insights, striking visuals, and nail-biting twists. This section of the episode concludes dramatically, with Juliette ascending back to the surface only to encounter a trail of blood leading from Solo’s previous position. Add as many exclamation points and question marks as necessary to convey the right level of astonishment.

The events in Silo 18 cannot compete this week, but that is acceptable. Following last week’s thrilling, 18-centered episode, the characters there have rightly earned some time to regroup and ready themselves for the inevitable conflicts still forthcoming.

Much of the tension in 18 revolves around an internal inquiry among the Mechanical separatists, who seek to discover who contaminated their food supply in the last episode and who among those in the Down Deep is one of the duplicitous “listeners” relaying inside information upstairs to Judicial. Deputy Hank ultimately connects the poisoning back to the very individual who initially alerted them: the level’s lead cook, who bargained to maintain her mother’s medication supply through the blockade. Knox claims they will absolve her, yet he also vows to give her a hard time for a while for betraying Mechanical.

Nonetheless, Knox and his team cannot afford to be too angry right now because they are riding a wave of success in their cold war with the higher levels. They currently have access to a fresh food supply. And by utilizing a reserve of gunpowder — which they are indeed not authorized to possess — they commence this episode by launching a rocket up through the center of the silo, which then rains down leaflets, each encouraging the upper-level citizens to question why the power remains on in IT whenever Mechanical disconnects the generator.

All of this spells serious trouble for Bernard. Firstly, no one in The Order anticipated that Mechanical would gain access to gunpowder. Secondly, the inquiries regarding IT’s hidden power supply cannot simply be dismissed as some Mechanical ruse. When Bernard convenes a meeting with the upper-level deputies in an attempt to gain their support — partly by suggesting

that Sheriff Billings is being kept captive by the Down Deepers — all the deputies wish to inquire about is the leaflets. (“What does this signify? ‘IT deceives us?’”)

Compounding the situation, when Bernard opts to formally transfer authority of all insurrection-related matters from the Sheriff’s deputies to Judicial’s raiders, his newly appointed Judge Sims refuses to endorse the order without a meeting. Bernard had anticipated that Sims would accept the figurehead role he’d been assigned and would remain in the background indefinitely. However, for this to occur, Sims must first comprehend why he dedicated a decade of his life being the silo’s resident antagonist for Bernard without ever reaping the benefits he was promised: becoming the IT shadow.

Similar to the tense dialogue between Juliette and Solo, the furious standoff between Sims and Bernard stands out as one of this episode’s key moments. It’s a cleverly crafted, executed, and portrayed scene examining the altering dynamics of control between two long-time associates who have never been friends. Bernard believes he’s asserting his dominance over Sims when he describes the former security chief as follows: “You excel at solving problems, yet you lack curiosity.” However, Sims retorts with an overview of all that is currently amiss in the silo, including the deputy uprising and a fresh surge of graffiti appearing on the stairways. Sims is astute enough to realize that Bernard is losing grip.

Bernard is aware of this too, which is why, irrespective of the multiple crises escalating in the silo, he spends a considerable portion of this episode in The Vault with Lukas, his new IT shadow. One of the most thrilling sequences this week occurs when Bernard showcases “The Legacy” to Lukas — a repository containing significant historical treasures and thousands of books and artworks, along with a digital tablet housing hundreds of thousands more. However, Bernard cautions Lukas against squandering his efforts researching astronomy or the rationale behind the silo’s construction. Lukas must swiftly grasp as much as he can about code breaking to decode Salvador Quinn’s letter.

For those of us desiring further silo-related clarifications from Lukas’s new role … well, not at this moment. Yet it is amusing to watch Bernard squirm as he depends on Quinn, having buried a strategic remedy to the escalating revolt that The Pact and The Order have failed to deliver. It’s even more entertaining to observe what transpires when Lukas discovers he needs access to a certain old book, not found in The Vault, to decipher Quinn’s code. Lukas is unsure which book, but Bernard is quite confident he possesses the correct one. It’s likely Mary’s old copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. After all, what better way to understand the figure behind the curtain?

• No disrespect meant to Harriet Walter or Clare Perkins, but the Walker/Carla reconciliation arc has yet to resonate with me on an emotional level … possibly due to it being confined primarily to a scene or two spread over multiple episodes this season. That said, Carla’s confinement in an unofficial Judicial cell is pivotal to the narrative since it prompts Walker — who’s meant to be lying low and incognito — to reactivate the security cameras she disabled in order to communicate with the authorities regarding Carla. This inadvertently alerts Bernard that Walker might be privy to certain details about the stolen gunpowder.

• Camille Sims persists in embracing her Lady Macbeth phase, whispering to her husband about ways to reclaim power from Bernard. It’s Camille who advises Sims to compel Bernard to approach him, asserting, “If you go to him, you’re doing him a favor.” Yet, Sims is also concerned that his wife is attempting to keep him away from Bernard because she’s been secretly colluding with the insurgents. Indeed, toil and trouble.

• According to Bernard, the only knowledge available within The Legacy regarding the history of Silo 18 is that it’s 352 years old … which renders Bernard’s claim last week concerning “140 years of stability” much more provocative, don’t you think?

• Next week’s episode is titled “The Book of Quinn.” Here we go.