Silo gets everything right (save for one big casting error)
Silo has unloaded some powerful and pivotal moments over its 14-episode run so far, from Alison Becker (Rashida Jones) revealing the fertility fraud to her husband to Mayor Bernard’s (Tim Robbins) rousing (if fake) speech in the season-two premiere to Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) adventures as an engineer. These scenes are charged partly because of how the performers deliver them. So it’s disappointing that a huge climactic event in this episode falls flat because, unfortunately, Common cannot authentically deliver on the same level as the actors mentioned above.
The actor has a fairly lengthy filmography, most of which this writer has admittedly not seen. But he still feels miscast on this show. In season one, Robert Sims is mostly the stoic tough guy, so it’s somewhat assumed Common’s rigidity is on purpose. But even when the character gets backstory and development, especially during rare conversations with his wife, the performer lacks an emotional conviction. This also impacts the end of this week’s installment, when Robert decries against Shirley and Knox, falsely accusing them of killing Judge Mary Meadows and demanding justice for her death. What is supposed to be a turning point as everyone else listens to Robert and rages against Mechanical (just as The Order instructed) lands with a thud, dampening an otherwise thrilling hour.
In fact, it’s commendable how excitingly “The Harmonium” ticks along despite its predictability. Of course, Bernard kills Judge Meadows, Robert spearheads violence, Shirley and Knox stupidly walk into their trap, and Juliette continues to take risks and further wins over a hesitant and fearful Solo. None of these arcs are surprising, but the writers maintain momentum while painting the full picture of Bernard and Juliette’s respective plans.
There isn’t much going on with Juliette. She dives underwater to retrieve a firefighter suit that could help her get back to Silo 18. After Solo agreed to help her out in episode three, the two of them move around now in Silo 17 to search for equipment that will help Juliette remain safely in the water while Solo helps pump the machine from above. In the process, he can’t stop chitchatting, spouting fun facts about the circus from a pre-apocalyptic world. He hasn’t had an enjoyable talk with another human being in years, so his urge to let it all out is natural. He accidentally lets it slip that he was probably 10 or 11 when his silo’s mutiny began. It means there’s no way he’s lived his life in the vault and that he saw some of the violence as a kid. Solo is actively suppressing negative memories, as witnessed by how he keeps wanting to go back into the vault, his safe space.
His actions, as mildly frustrating as they may be, feel understandable. It helps that Steve Zahn plays Solo with a childlike energy. He hops around with the wonder of a kid in an actual circus, marveling at the size of the bunker and rediscovering mementos from Founder’s Day. He dwells on super old memories, probably because he’s in arrested-development mode. Life as he knew it stopped as a pre-teen because of the mutiny, and he hasn’t been able to fully progress ever since. Enter Juliette,who’s focused on her mission for most of “The Harmonium” instead of his chatter about elephants and trapezes. Her diving trip doesn’t yield fruitful results and she almost dies. When she successfully swims back up, Solo bolts for the vault and seals himself inside.
As she has in the past, Juliette calms his fears by sharing her own. In this case, she tearfully admits how lonely and scared she felt when she walked out into the vast open land. “This is my spot; this is where I collapse and die,” she says she thought when she was sent out. That’s why she can relate to Solo’s paranoia. But if she pushed herself to keep going, Juliette says Solo can do the same. Ferguson delivers this with such raw vulnerability here, slipping into her character’s skin effortlessly, so you can’t help but believe her. Thankfully, Solo does as well.
Things are fine in Silo 17 by the time credits roll, but the same cannot be said of Juliette’s home bunker. For starters, Robert triggers a smear campaign against Judge Meadows, hoping that citizens demanding her impeachment will force Bernard to abandon her and seek his counsel instead. He’d better thank his sly wife for this idea because it works. Instead of giving Mary the cleaning suit to go outside, Bernard invites her for dinner. During the meal, when they reminisce about why she left her job as his shadow and why they couldn’t be together, he murders the woman he loves. Death by poisoned mushrooms is nasty stuff.
Bernard and Robert use her as a pawn. After staging Judge Mary Meadows’ body to look like she was stabbed, the duo blames her death on Mechanical’s Shirley and Knox. The latter two hoped to have peace talks with the Judge so there would be no more violence. Instead, they’re both now prime suspects in Judge Meadows’ death. As they make a run for it to the bottom floors (with Walker and another friend in tow), Robert gives that aforementioned loud speech that turns the residents against Mechanical. It’s not looking good for any of Juliette’s friends, but at least Silo is nicely shaping up for its forthcoming battle.
Stray observations
- • When did Solo and Juliette figure out for sure that she certainly hails from Silo number 18?
- • Sheriff Paul Billings discovers that Judicial has taken Cooper’s dead body and that the second body (of the man who started a fight, a.k.a. the one whom Robert had bribed) is conspicuously missing. He’s about to discover the leadership’s corruption and possibly turn on them, which makes me fear he’s not long for this world.
- • Solo mentions Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, but also marvels that folks in Silo 18 were allowed to read books (which Juliette denies). If Silo 17 didn’t have novels, where did Solo’s reference come from? And how do either of them know about Romeo And Juliet?
- • She didn’t get to display it, but this episode showed that Tanya Moodie had range, so I’m sad to see her go. R.I.P. Mary Meadows.
- • On the plus side, before her death, she at least got to tell Lukas what the “lights in the sky” are and that his theory of planets, the sun, and the stars is real. She even cut down his sentencing to only five years in the mines.
- • When will we find out what the letter from Salvador Quinn—who was the IT head of Silo 18 during the rebellion 140 years ago—said? Judge Meadows had deciphered a part of it, but even in her dying breath, she refused to share that information with her killer, Bernard. She did share a last kiss with him though.
- • This is another week of wondering why Silo isn’t making much use of Harriet Walter, even if it means listening to her American accent.