Silo (2023): Its All Good - S03E02 - RECAP

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I have not been feeling that well lately, got the cold but nothing that puts me on bed, still took the time to watch Silo S03E02 and the level of paranoia this show keeps building on is completely nuts, just think about whats going on if you were Juliette, who the F can you actually trust?. The episode starts by revealing the algorithm has 352 years of data while speaking directly to Camille, which changes everything about this underground world, since they have apparently been calculating human behavior for centuries, and still there are wildcards here and there, those who dont fit the data. It turns very creepy when you give it a second thought, watching the system flat out tell Camille that her frustration is noted, like it is just another data point while she is out there trying to force this new narrative onto Juliette, treating human beings like lab rats in one giant experiment, measuring every little reaction to keep control. Hearing the algorithm state that six Silos total have gone through full resets, makes me feel like all this Silos are ant farms, an even their own Silo about a hundred and forty years ago was reset too, confirming that wiping out the memory of an entire population is just standard operating procedure for whoever is pulling the strings. I love how trapped this show makes you feel, watching the system track a graph with a red line and a blue line while it orders Camille to keep up the medication for two more weeks straight, tighten the security around Juliette and double her effort to convince her that she is the one person Juliette can actually trust, Rebecca is doing such a good job playing a version of Juliette that is totally lost and different from previous season.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14688458/
• Platform: {{PLATFORM}}

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Its very obvious that even though things are fuzzy, Juliette slowly fight back against the mind control they are pushing on her, one of the first actions take is that she finally spits that memory erasing vitamin down the sink drain, proving she still has that rebellious spark we have seen on previous seasons. Knox had already filled her in on how Lukas Kyle went down into the digger void before he vanished and there is this brief moment where Juliette is staring up at the stars in the cafeteria, sparks up a loose a splinter memory tied to him, which feels like a huge victory after watching her walk around in a haze. It gets even better when she slips away from her security detail by faking her security "touch" her, that was hilarious because latter on she ask her security detail to forget her in the most stone cold way, but this still proof she is getting her sharp edge back. The sequence where she finally meets up with Patrick Kennedy and the other rebels is very cool though, and the rebels using a hidden tunnel built right into the storage room to slip past the raiders makes you wonder how many more are hidden around, and will they investigate this tunnels? makes me think more and more about the ant farm. Kennedy drops the truth bomb that the helmet Juliette brought back has the number 17 inside of it, while the one they stole has the number 18 and watching her mind try to process the existence of other silos based on the helmet number, she do start to remember but cant get to understand things, you can tell her frustration and Rebecca Ferguson make it look so real.

This episode although felt a bit weird because even though the past story is interesting too it kinda throws you off, mostly because the silo environment is all dark and claustrophobic and then you got the open world, still the episode does a create job at mixing political tension through the supporting characters reminds me so much of the best moments from the first season where things were mor political between Bernard and Simms. You have Sheriff Paul Billings sitting at his desk having a full blown crisis of faith as he rewrites the sacred pact, now caught in the middle of a huge cover up investigating the disappearance of Orla Kent. Orla went missing right after raising concerns about supplies disappearing from critical stock and noticing the chairlifts could be used to move resources around without anyone noticing, and the paranoia is off the charts when you realize Billings is covering for his own wife Kat, who is secretly working with the outsiders and got her wrist smack so she can be connected to the break in at IT during episode 1. The whole thing of throwing this vitamin on the water supply does look like total chemical warefare within the Silo itself without anyone noticing, showing how the upper levels dump memory wiping vitamin compounds straight into the water supply, I only wonder when this is going to blow up, watching the barrels going up the stairs at night and nobody knowing whats going on, its like parading a nuclear bomb that will actually wipe out everyones memory. The writers did a great job on this season so far in my opinion keeping things focus on the claustrophobic terror of being trapped underground with corrupt leaders.

I do have some concerns, nothing that serious though, mnostly how certain characters are acting right now though, particularly Shirley who completely ignores Juliette at the marketplace. I get that Shirley is hurt because Juliette looked straight through her the first time she showed up in the cafeteria after her recovery, but it makes zero sense for her to armor up and abandon her best friend, and it just feels like manufactured drama to keep Juliette isolated a little longer, making Shirley look like a total asshole and at the same time the boiler about to explode. Over in the before times timeline, I am struggling with Daniel and how easily he accepts Dr Victor explaining the memory erasure process on his sister Charlotte or even how easily he gave up where her sister is to reporter Helen, they making him look too naive for someone into politics, so watching Daniel sit there nodding while the doctor talks about building a drawbridge to wipe her slate clean feels incredibly stupid, by then he must understand that if they wanted to errase her memory it was for the wrong reasons. You would expect a loving brother to be furious that some random clinic is playing God with his siblings mind, but instead he treats it like a convenient way to rewrite history, but why? he also mention there are certain things he would like his sister to forget or dont think about him, this was a big wtf for me. The jump between timelines feels abrupt too, I did mentino this above, cutting from tense Silo moments to Helen questioning Daniel, and Helen bringing up that the planes had bunker busters and old communication systems from the eighties is interesting, like the Air Force knew what they were dealing with but not the pilots. I wish they go more into details of what the hell was that black cloud Charlotte and her crew got into at Iran, there is also that black goo that eat up their F-35 making them crashed, instead of just having characters explain it based on what they remember, also I just remember Charlotte called Daniel by the name Donald, who the hell is Donald?? , its just feels odd how both the past and present get intense and they just cut it off to move between timelines, would be nice if they just do a full present or full past episode.

At the end Season 3 is turning way better than Season 2 and thats withouth even getting into the real sauce, when Juliette finally recovers her memory, makes me wonder if they will keep this for the end. There is this dread sense that you can feel when the algorithm lays out that graph for Camille, showing how much risk Juliette can be for the Silo and the system if the memory protocol fails, is phenomenal and Camille is stuck force feeding Juliette a fake story about a refuge hut, knowing the system is prepared to dump that memory wiping compound into the water the second it decides she is too much of a risk. It is a smart way to set that set of tension without needing big action or any kind of confrontation, yet, mostly going entirely on psychological manipulation and the terror of losing your own identity. I mostly interested in seeing how Juliette uses these tiny splinters of memory to dismantle the machine from the inside, now that she knows the pills are the enemy. Despite my frustrations with the before times shananegans and Shirley acting so poorly, the core mystery of the Silo is still one of the most engaging puzzles for this series, when we though after S02 that Juliette was going to get real answers going back to Silo 18, that fire at the entrance screw up everything. I am giving this episode a very 8/10, because it delivers some crucial answers about the memory drugs while setting up a sense of silent panic around getting that vitamin compound into the water before things spiral down any further. Towards the end its going to be a battle between the Algorithm and humans, and honestly I do think there is someone behind all this and not just an algo.

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Rating: 80/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.