Each week Joe and Terry discuss the most recent episodes of Apple TV’s Silo Season 2, alternating between our respective sites. Next up: episode 2.08 “The Book of Quinn”
Catch up on Season 1: 1.01-1.02 / 1.03 / 1.04 / 1.05 / 1.06 / 1.07 / 1.08 / 1.09 / 1.10
Catch up on Season 2: 2.01 / 2.02 / 2.03 / 2.04 / 2.05 / 2.06 / 2.07
Spoilers follow for Silo S02E08 “The Book of Quinn”
JOE
Terry, we’re into the home stretch of Silo S02 and I’ve got to say: I’m still having a hard time with things. Not only have I forgotten about key details, like, say, who Salvador Quinn is, but I’m still struggling to connect with certain key plotlines.
Let’s start with the titular Quinn of it all. Episode 8 brings back the rebellion leader in a big way (not that we’ve ever seen him, but in terms of legacy, he’s a pretty key figure in the world of the silo).
Basically Lukas (Avi Nash) didn’t break the cipher last episode when he marked the code to The Wizard of Oz. It turns out that that’s not the right book, so he spends the majority of the episode trying to gain access to dearly departed Judge Meadows’ quarters to find the right one. This also leads him to question the Pembrook family, who traded a key text from their collection for a horde of hers. The book in question that Meadows wanted? An early copy of The Pact, the document that dictates the rules and regulations of everyday life.
While Lukas is busy doing this, Sims (Common) and Camille (Alexandria Riley) continue to butt heads. Looks like you were definitely right: she’s doing everything to advance her husband’s (and, by extension, her) lot, but she keeps going about it the wrong way. Camille is too hasty in her plans, and Sims is getting increasingly agitated about finding out things after the fact, which either embarrass him or get him into trouble.
This happens when she gets Amundsen (Christian Ochoa Lavernia) to dig into Lukas’ recent appointment as Bernard (Tim Robbins)’s shadow, but when Amundsen covertly meets with Sims to pass along the info, Sims is clearly taken aback that his wife put this particular plan into motion.
It’s an echo, of sorts, of what’s happening with Sheriff Billings (Chinaza Uche) and his wife Kathleen (Caitlin Zoz). Their marital conflict centers around the fact that he never told her about the image of the outside world. It’s not a super important plot point, but it highlights how easy it is for partners to compartmentalize their lives in order to “protect” the one they love, even if it ultimately hurts them.
Which brings us to the main event, and the development that I really, REALLY hate: Walker (Harriet Walter) turning spy for Bernard in order to guarantee the (eventual) safety of Carla (Clare Perkins).
Last week you thought Walker was going to sacrifice herself, but “The Book of Quinn” makes it clear that she’s actually willing to sacrifice *everyone* in Mechanical, as well as the whole rebellion. I kinda get it, because the show has been very heavy handed about Walker’s regret about how the relationship ended twenty-five years ago, how isolated she has been since, and how happy she was to reconnect with Carla, etc, etc.
But Terry, this is goddamn character assassination if I’ve ever seen it. I’m pretty sure that writer Remy Aubuchon thinks he’s crafted a rich and morally complex dilemma for a complicated, beloved character, but I legitimately hate this. In part – yes – because Walker is the sole queer character of note and she’s effectively turning traitor for a completely underwhelming promise from Bernard that he won’t kill Carla and they’ll be reunited after the uprising has been quashed. But also because Walker has been a smart character for 1.5 seasons: she’s been a mentor, an eloquent – if sometimes caustic – advocate for being smart about things, and someone whose savviness can be counted on.
This is one of those “smart character acts like a fucking moron for plot convenience” and it completely undermines the character. The result? Not only do I not give a damn about this storyline, but I also don’t care about the character (much less Carla, who is…a nothing in the world of the show).
I hate it. I HATE IT, Terry.
It’s just another example of the S02 creative team stuffing things up in their haste and urgency to manufacture tension and conflict. That’s all it feels like: manufactured.
Over to you: do you feel betrayed by Walker’s newfound stupidity or am I overreacting? Do you think Sims and Camille will sort out their game plan moving forward? Were you surprised by the history lesson that Bernard gives Lukas about how rebellions have been overcome in the past? And what do you think of Jules (Rebecca Ferguson)’s storyline as she battles the bends…and a bunch of teenagers?!
TERRY
Joe, if this were the first season I’m not sure I would want to continue into another season. It reminds me of how The Changeling had rough spots and ultimately fell apart. Season 2 of Silo is just not doing it for me. There’s been a couple of bright spots, but overall…it just destroys all the goodwill the first season brought.
I, too, am completely frustrated with the way the show is treating Martha. She’s never been the most complex character to me, and most of her dimension comes from Harriet Walter’s performance…but she was a bright spot of a character. No nonsense and smart, just like you said. The way she was quickly manipulated by Bernard comes out of nowhere. And when he smiles smugly and then tells her that she technically saw Carla before closing the panel, she just…gives up? Asks him basically “so this is how it’s gonna be?” before leaving? I just don’t get it.
What made it worse for me–and a reason I would have brought this up if you hadn’t–was that the scene between Martha and Bernard was broken up into three or more sequences that lasted mere seconds each. Amber Templemore directs this like a director from the early aughts shooting action scenes: they end so quickly and are so choppy that it’s impossible to follow what’s happening. That ethos goes through the entire episode, where we cut from a sequence to another sequence for maybe ten seconds before cutting back to a completely different scene and then back to the original (more interesting) scene.
You made a comment last week about how Silo undercuts any tension by cutting away from the scene and it really resonated with me in this episode. Silo seems desperate not to show us what we want to see: actual story progression. I wanted to know what was going on with Jules in Silo 17, but all we got was ten second reaction shots of Jules dealing with newcomers who shoot her with arrows and bludgeon her with makeshift weapons. The show won’t even let that build to any meaningful or tense climax because it is constantly shuffling us over to less interesting scenes.
As a direct example, think about when Camille meets with Amundsen to bring up Bernard’s new shadow. That quick scene then unfolds to when Martha first meets with Bernard. It’s a short scene that ends with him telling her this is a chance to negotiate. Then the scene moves to Jules so we can literally just see her bandage herself up, then we’re back to Silo 18 and Sims getting a message from Amundsen and then we’re meeting with Amundsen, only to go back to Bernard’s scene with Martha, who explains that Carla’s life is in her hands.
The choppy editing is really brought to life with the next scene because it’s the ONE time, Joe, where “The Book of Quinn” gives us a full scene. And it involves a short montage of Lukas going through a book to show passage of time. This is a scene that could have been threaded throughout the episode to show the passage of time…but no, this is the one time in which we get to see the most boring research assignment ever. Meanwhile, a more emotional and potentially interesting bit of gamesmanship between Bernard and Martha is relegated to 10-15 second scenes cut between a litany of other sequences.
As a critic, we typically review the execution of the media and not what we wish would happen. Here, I offer up both: this execution feels lazy and less inspired than what came before, for one. And two, I really wish they had decided to either spend the season/most of the season in one area.
At this point, I don’t even care if it was Silo 17 or Silo 18. The first season handled its myriad of characters really well and whether this is an effort by the production to keep actors on contract or just the creative team’s inexperience in balancing character stories, Season 2 is failing its actors.
At this point, I’m just waiting for this season to end with the hope that the next season has more time to percolate its storylines and maybe bring back more of the original writers who’ve been sidelined (possibly because of the writer’s strike).
Onto your final questions, I’m curious to see if Sims and Camille are working together more. We get Sims’ attempt at bringing Amundsen onto his side and he quickly sees through Camille’s plan. I’m not positive that Sims knew his wife did it or not and the episode didn’t give us any information either way. I hoped that after the husband/wife team talked last episode that they are moving as one, but “The Book of Quinn” didn’t give us anything on that end. Will it work out for them?
I feel as if there’s three powers battling it out right now. On one hand we have Bernard believing he’s doing the right thing to save 10,000 lives (whether he truly believes that or not remains to be seen). We have Mechanical and the growing lower level/lower class levels of the silo fuming and building towards revolution. And then we have the Sims and their unscrupulous attempts to move up the corporate silo ladder. If handled better, this alone would make for some great politically charged thriller plotlines. Right now, unfortunately, I don’t really care who ends up on top.
Finally, with the history lesson…I’m a big shrug emoji. Aside from the magical drug they put in the water to make people forget over a long period of time, a lot of what’s happening feels like a repeat; the characters just keep spouting the same things back to each other over and over.
I feel like we’re ranting here, Joe, so I’m going to stop and give it to you for final thoughts. Did you find anything positive about this episode? And while you positioned the question to me about Jules’ encounter, I’ll toss it back to you for thoughts. Did this development do anything for you? Where do you think that’s going to ultimately lead? And, finally, what do you want to see as we move into these final two episodes of season 2?
JOE
I’m at least interested in the development with the children because it’s genuinely unexpected. I don’t want a weird Lord of the Flies kind of situation where we have to explore the whole backstory of a whole new group of characters (the show has clearly demonstrated it can’t handle that), but I truthfully wasn’t expecting teens to be a mysterious threat. So that was intriguing here and I’m curious to learn more.
But overall, I’m kinda with you, Terry. In the next two episodes I’m still predicting we’ll see Jules make her way back to her home silo and I think we’ll end with a cliffhanger about opening up the door and potentially killing 10,000 people. Aside from that, I’m ready for this season to wrap up so we can regroup and figure out how to fix what isn’t working!
We’ll see what the penultimate episode brings when we return to Gayly Dreadful for episode 2.09, “The Safeguard.”
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