Silo – Season 2 Episode 2 “Order” Recap & Review

Order

Episode 2 of Silo season 2 starts with Bernard shocked, watching as Juliette heads into the adjacent Silo via the suit footage. According to the Book of Order he holds in his hands, this act of failing to clean is seen as an act of war. Alarms wail around the Silo as everyone prepares for everything changing.

Robert shows and gets his marching orders from Bernard. There’s to be an emergency curfew from 8pm, and the sheriff’s deputies are now going to be under Judicial command. Bernard will be delivering a speech to try and calm everything down, but Robert reminds him that this is precisely what they were trying to avoid.

With Nichols climbing over the hill and surviving, others inside the Silo want to do the same thing. However, given what we’ve seen from the bodies at the adjacent Silo, the air is toxic and there could be a huge massacre if that was to happen.

To try and calm things down, Martha shows and sprays everyone with a bunch of water to snap some sense into them. However, things could explode any time soon. Unfortunately, Walker is led through the Silo in handcuffs by Hank and arrested for her antics.

Paul is not happy about having to report to Robert, and even more so about lying regarding Juliette’s cleaning, along with the events leading up to that. We know that Juliette didn’t go willingly, and Paul is starting to clock onto that fact too. When word reaches Meadows that Juliette has left the Silo safely, she can’t quite believe it but knows that things are about to change for good now. In fact, she even stops drinking.

Bernard shows to see Meadows, and wants her to be at the big speech that night as a show of unity. He wants order and is there out of respect. Bernard is frightened and rattled, unsure exactly how to handle this. As he goes on to explain, there is no protocol that the Founders envisioned for someone walking away from cleaning. The entire Silo watched this happen and the only person he has to fall back on is Meadows. She agrees to help but only if she gets a ticket out of there to fly away from the drama.

Knox heads to mechanical and has strict instructions for them not to create any weapons for anyone. As for Martha, she ends up in the same jail cell as Carla. Carla wants to incriminate herself and keep Martha out of this. She worries that if she doesn’t, they’ll both be sent to clean or down to the mines. Martha though wants to bide their time and see if they can ride through this. But of course that’s easier said than done when there are cameras everywhere watching and hearing everything.

Bernard gives his big speech, calling Juliette a hero. There are some grumblings from the crowd, but he does well to quell those dissenting voices, as he spins a lie that Juliette had better tape attached to her suit, which is why she managed to make it over the hill. He offers them all hope, and 5 credits for every household. It does the trick, but of course those at the depths of the Silo are not so easily swayed, especially those closest to Juliette like Shirley.

Robert is not stupid though and he knows that there’s something going on between Meadows and Bernard. He’s going to keep his guard up for now, but as we cut back to Bernard, we see he’s thought of everything. It turns out the hecklers (minus the ones down in the depths of course) were all planted but he knows this won’t hold for long. Meadows is going to play ball… but she wants to go out – and wants the good tape too.

New graffiti has sprung up around the Silo with the words “JL” (Juliette Lives), and the thin sliver of hope they have is only going to grow. The catalyst for this though is Shirley, who continues to grow her rebellion group. Despite Knox’s insistence that Shirley be followed, the man happens to be Juliette’s old shadow and he’s definitely on their side.

Martha shows from the shadows not long after, and explains that they need to be careful. With eyes and ears everywhere, Shirley wants to fight but the raiders are ready for this. Martha believes that the graffiti could be the way to go but regardless, everything is left on a tenuous knife-edge.

The Episode Review

Compared to the opening episode, Silo’s follow-up really starts to tighten the screw, with the focus back on the original Silo and its inhabitants. Seeing how the rebellion is starting to grow is fascinating, and contrasts nicely with the other Silo and how the inhabitants there rebelled… to their doom.

It’s a nice way of giving some eerie foreshadowing to what could come to pass, but I can’t help but feel this should have been the opening episode rather than seeing what happened to Juliette. It would have really helped up the stakes and urge people to tune in to find out what’s happened to our protagonist.

Despite that though, this episode is much-improved and there are scheming moments all over the place. Meadows now being sober and wanting to leave could actually be used by Bernard to sabotage and kill her on that hillside, stopping the rebellion in its tracks, while the graffiti and the way those in the deep are working together could be the turning point in all of this.

Either way, Silo leaves everything hanging in the balance. Roll on next week!