Hanna
Episode 8 of Silo begins in the past, with Hanna walking through to meet Mosley down in the cornfields. She’s with a young Juliette, and the pair make a trade. He hands over a box, but in doing so is quick to point out that the Silo always wins. It turns out there’s a rabbit inside, and on the way back to their home, Hanna tells her daughter they’re not going to eat it, as it’ll be part of a larger experiment.
In the present, Juliette evades capture, hiding in the nursery while Sims shows up to see Gloria. He notices the vents have been opened and he wants answers. Given she was unresponsive with the guards, he hopes she’s going to be answering his questions instead. He wants her help and promises she won’t be kept from her dreams if she does. After all, Sims has fathered a son thanks to her skills. Sims’ dedication to the Silo trumps all though, and all he needs to know, is what’s inside the vent.
She mentions the bag but the contents of which are still unknown. Sims has her medicated and kept under strict surveillance while he heads out, determined to find Juliette. They’ve lost her on the staircase and Sims is quick to get everyone mobilized to track down her position.
Juliette though, is still in the nursery and now on her own, boots up the computer and tries in vain to access the hard drive. That’s denied though and she ends up sleeping on the floor too. She’s awoken by an alert from Billings. Rushing back to the office, she finds a whole bunch of guards turning the place inside out. They’re on the hunt for unregistered relics. Juliette is not alien to these searches, given she experienced this with her parents as guards showed up off the back of that earlier trade, demanding she hand over a relic, coming in the form of a magnifier.
Juliette’s father convinces Hanna to hand over the relic, and after assembling it, she’s forced to watch it be completely destroyed. The Judicial department also wants the rabbit, but they lie and claim they’ve eaten it. This also sows the seeds of doubt between Juliette and Pete too, despite the latter claiming he never actually ratted his wife out to the authorities.
Back in the present, Juliette believes Sims is the one calling the shots and the Judge is just a puppet; a fake figurehead to draw the attention away from the Head of Security. Given the search inside the office is actually illegal, Juliette decides to play them at their own game and alongside Billings, the pair head to Judicial to stake their case. In fact, Sims is arrested for organizing an illegal search. Sims is surprised but he comes willingly, although he is quick to point out that she’s only in charge “for now” and that Juliette will regret her actions.
Left alone in Judicial, Juliette starts rooting through all the files, determined to find something that incriminates Sims and points to what’s actually happening here. And she seems to find it in a file tucked away in the filing cabinet at the back. A whole bunch of files, which includes one on her mother, Hanna.
Juliette heads down to see Pete, wanting to know what really happened to her mum. Pete admits that he regrets shrinking into himself after they lost Juliette’s brother. As for Hanna, her grief pushed her outward, and made her bolder and more determined to find the truth. She started crossing lines and Pete tried to help her. He regrets not doing more to stop the agents and crushing Hanna’s spirit the day of the magnifier relic incident, which happened to be the turning point. Pete gave up and failed her.
Juliette points out that there are cameras in all the mirrors, which is how she knows now Pete wasn’t lying when he said he never ratted Hanna out to Judicial. The pair hug it out, but they’re interrupted by an order from maintenance, who want to check the vents.
This is the first time either of them have heard about this, so Juliette shows off the hard-drive to her father and decides she’s going to take it to Walk. If anyone can get around the encryption here, it’s going to be Martha. Unfortunately, there’s a whole bunch of bag searches at different checkpoints on the stairs, which only makes things all the harder for Juliette to smuggle the relic around.
Billings is also having troubles too. His tremors are back, and they’re worse than before. His partner is worried, believing that Juliette is bad news and she’s prepping for another rebellion. While he grapples with this, Martha receives a message from Pete about Juliette. But given she was supposed to show at 6 and it’s now 7.05, she’s worried that something is wrong.
Sims is still behind bars, although the officers are torn between doing his bidding and following Juliette. In the end, they’re stuck in a sort of limbo. Something is clearly not right though and Juliette brings Lucas in so they can talk. She turns on the taps and points out the hard-drive. There’s something here that links to Sysop, which seems to only be accessed from her work computer… and it can’t be done from where they are.
Lucas doubts everything, until Juliette smashes the mirror and shows off the camera hidden behind. She wants his help but Lucas refuses, pointing out that he won’t compromise his mother.
She leaves just in time, as Judicial show up and demand she come with them. Juliette is stopped on the stairs by a simple bag check but she manages to stall long enough for Bernard to arrive. He vouches for her and the pair head down to the crop field, right on the middle of where we saw Hanna trade off the rabbit at the start of the chapter.
Down in the fields, Bernard wants to know what Juliette has. Unfortunately, it’s all one big set-up as it turns out it’s not Sims in charge, it’s actually Bernard. Sims has been the puppet pulling the strings of another puppet. They know about the hard-drive too. “The needs of the many, require the sacrifices of the few,” Bernard says nonchalantly, as he claims the Silo is a threat to everyone.
Juliette tries to flee but it’s no good, there’s too many guards. They take her bag, but on the way up the stairs, Billings arrives. Juliette pleads with him to listen and he’s torn between both sides. Sims punches Juliette in the stomach for her efforts and she doubles over. When she notices Billings’ arm shaking, she finds an opening, wrestles free from his grip and jumps over the edge of the stairwell.
The Episode Review
Silo delivers an important episode that promises a dramatic and absolutely pulsating couple of chapters to round out the rest of the series. With Apple having announced another season green-lit earlier this week (hooray!) there’s three books to adapt and this dystopian series has done such a good job of keeping everything interesting, mysterious and dramatic.
Juliette and her father finally patch up their differences in a really nice moment, while we similarly see what a hold this Silo ideology has over most of the citizens in the Silo. Even people doubting what’s happening, like Lucas, are so indoctrinated into this culture that they won’t dare question the authority and true nature of the hierarchy.
It finally becomes clear that Bernard is the one behind everything and that’s perhaps the most unsurprising cliffhanger of them all. I mean, it’s obvious he was shady from the start and seeing him on Juliette’s side was actually more of a shock than anything else!
The ending though leaves everything wide open for next week’s follow-up, which should be quite the dramatic chapter!
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Episode Rating
(4)