A quiet moment stands out amid the clutter of a messy Silo episode.
Each week Joe and Terry discuss the most recent episodes of Apple TV’s Silo Season 2, alternating between our respective sites.
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
Spoilers follow for Silo S02E04 “The Harmonium”: Juliette sets out on a dangerous quest to retrieve a suit so she can return home and save her silo. Mechanical plans a meeting with Judge Meadows.
JOE
Tell me, Terry, how do you feel about mess? Because while there’s some great moments in this episode, including a beautifully touching death scene, there’s also a lot of <stuff> crowding around the edges that makes for an overall messy episode.
As we edge towards the half point of the second season, it’s becoming clear that dividing time between the two silos is proving to be a challenge. Episodes 2.01 and 2.02 each gave up the pretense, focusing exclusively on 18 and 17 separately. Meanwhile, last week’s episode did an admirable job of ensuring there was adequate time with Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) and Solo (Steve Zahn) while the crisis escalated back at home.
“The Harmonium” struggles in this area, as teleplay writer Sal Calleros tries to find something compelling in Jules’ underwater escapades that matches the intensity of Mechanical’s march to meet with Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie).
He never quite finds it. I think we’re meant to question if Solo will betray (intentionally or not) Jules when she goes underwater to find a substitute suit, but the narrative barely allocates more than a few brief scenes of her search. She essentially ducks under, abandons the foot-pedal breathing tube, and cuts her anchored rope. This kind of stuff isn’t compelling because we all know Jules isn’t going to drown, which just leaves punching and elbowing her way into a few lockers.
Is it painful? Sure. Is any of this stressful? No, not really. Even when the action cuts-back to Solo panicking that he has left the vault open (for the second time in this episode, I might add), it feels like a weak attempt to ramp up the stakes. But then Jules simply surfaces, almost as if “The Harmonium” is acknowledging that no one is buying this subplot.
None of this really works, I’m afraid. Of course, it might play better if the whole episode didn’t feel like someone had accidentally hit fast forward.
This is particularly true of the action in 17. Shirley (Remmie Milner) and Knox (Shane McCrae) continue to butt heads about the rebellion before agreeing to force a meeting with Meadows. They recruit Martha (Harriet Walter) and Carla (Clare Perkins), then make a brisk, but easy climb up the levels with only a few minor interruptions (a break in a park; plus an armed escort courtesy of Chinaza Uche’s Sheriff Billings).
While they march, Bernard (Tim Robbins) murders Meadows with poisoned mushrooms at dinner, then pins the assassination on the Mechanical crew when they arrive. So now, just like the graffiti that Knox and Shirley discovered at the top of the hour, the workers in Mechanical are framed to take the fall.
This political intrigue is arguably the best part(s) of the episode, but it’s still messy. It seems as if Bernard’s plan is meant to be shocking, but between you and I, Terry, we had a 50/50 guess about whether he wanted to fuck Meadows (my guess) or kill her (your guess), so this outcome isn’t too surprising.
Alas, it all comes together so quickly that a major death barely has any impact. I’ve lamented in these last few episodes that Meadows isn’t a well-drawn character, so it’s hard to mourn a character whose motivations were never clear. That continued right up until her death as the mysteries keep piling up, including a quick reference to her former romance with Bernard, which changed when she abruptly quit working with him. Given the videos we saw last week, it seems likely that her passion for him, her work and staying in the silo died alongside her family/children. But who can say?
What’s frustrating is that Bernard’s plan is so obvious that it makes Knox, Shirley et al. look stupid. It’s also poorly executed by Bernard, seemingly in direct response to Sims (Common)’ Lady MacBeth wife, Camille (Alexandria Riley). It was she who advised him to force Bernard’s hand with a half-baked impeachment subplot, but the turn against Meadows, her confrontation with Bernard and his rash murder of her in response all just came together too quickly.
Thankfully the *actual* death scene is a thing of beauty. Credit director Aric Avileno for trusing his performers to do the heavy lifting because it’s so powerful and moving watching Bernard direct a dying Meadows through a VR simulation of the outside world. As an audience, we don’t need to see images of what she’s seeing (technically it’s just the world we actually live in).
Instead it’s far more impactful to see Meadows’ face fill with wonder as Bernard directs her through an experience that he has clearly undergone so many times that he has it memorized. It works really well, in large part because the sequence takes its time and lets the moment breathe.
I can’t say the same for a lot of the rest of “The Harmonium.”
Terry, what did you think of the narrative and pacing of the episode? Did you side with Juliette as she got frustrated with Solo’s demanding personality? Are you frustrated that Knox and Shirley are being portrayed as (best case scenario) rash and (worse case scenario) incredibly naive and stupid? And did you like the display of power (quite literally) as Mechanical turned the lights on and off based on the colour of the dropped ball?
TERRY
Woof, Joe. I’m starting to think that the writers strike really affected some of the writing on season two because it is severely lacking the impeccable pacing and strength of the earlier scripts. The performers are doing the best they can with the material and some of the direction and cinematography helps elevate the narrative. But it’s funny because you mentioned it feels like the show is fast-forwarding through scenes, and I literally wrote the same thing in my notes.
It shows in a number of ways. For one, you know how some critiques are made about how long an action scene plays out? Where sometimes it’s not even half a second before the camera cuts? And it creates a jarring but sometimes unintelligible viewing experience when taken to a large degree? That’s how these narrative scenes play out. One example is a brief moment of Bernard preparing dinner for Judge Meadows, playing her favorite music and cooking. We get a brief enough moment where I started taking notes and then we’re quickly thrown over to Silo 17.
This happens a lot in this episode, where the script doesn’t allow these moments to breathe because it so quickly transitions to another scene or to a completely different silo. None of the dramatic moments really hit because the script doesn’t didn’t allow for tension to build. For a series that’s done a great job of alternating between its myriad of characters, this episode (and the season so far, if I’m being honest) feels too disjointed.
I was so excited for the underwater set piece that was teased in “Solo.” Memories of the tense set pieces from season one immediately popped up and I was curious to see how the show would handle an underwater set piece. The narrative did some unsubtle foreshadowing that Solo would maybe not be trustworthy enough to pump the air to keep her alive, but then immediately dropped the pretense. I was hoping for some more complications, especially since it seemed as if Jules didn’t know how to swim…but the entire journey just passed.
Where has the nail biting writing and tension building that we gushed about in “Machines” gone? Looking back at the writers of this season, so far, a trend has emerged. Most of them are producers on the show and aside from Cassie Papas writing episode 2 and Fred Golan writing episode 10 of the previous season, as well as showrunner Graham Yost penning arguably the best episode of the season so far (episode 1)…these aren’t the same writers.
The fact they are, for the most part, producers on the show + the writer’s strike…well, it’s pure conjecture at this point, but the trend is leading me down a path that would explain the huge step down in writing I think we’re seeing right now.
It’s frustrating because there are some great moments.
You mentioned Judge Meadows’ death sequence. This could have been a bit too melodramatic, but actually worked really beautifully; it combined both an emotional narrative beat as well as briefly explored the mythos behind the silos. Her last questions as life faded from her are some of the key questions driving the narrative: “What did they do?” she asks, followed by “How’d they lose this world?”
Meadows comes from such a privileged background that provided her with plenty of knowledge about both the world before and the current world they live in. And yet she doesn’t know how the world came to be like this. It brings up, again, the question of how long society has lived in the silos and what ultimately caused them to hide in these giant bunkers?
Meanwhile, you asked if I was frustrated with Knox and Shirley…the answer is yes, but I’ll take it a step further. I was so annoyed that the reason they ended up making the climb in the first place was because they found names of Mechanical written in the place that, I think, is supposed to be off limits and yet everyone seems to visit it. This season has established that Knox, Shirley and Jules have been down there often…and yet this is the first time they noticed the incredibly unsubtle suggestion that these rebellions happen at least once a generation and that it’s always blamed on Mechanical.
It’s too easy. It’s too rote.
For a show that started as a noir mystery and it was that mystery that pulled us in, Season 2 sure has taken the easy route by plainly laying out plot points for characters to find. Much in the same way that the rebellion has gone from graffiti to full-on destruction in an incredibly short amount of time. It’s too easy. It’s coasting on fast forward. And it’s frustrating.
Back at Silo 17, the biggest question I have is how long has Solo been in the vault. Writing that out makes me realize how sad this season is, if how long Solo has been stuck in a vault is the most riveting mystery…but it’s true. I’m curious if Solo has been stuck in that vault since he was a child. It sure would explain his talkative nature and childlike wonder at everything.
You could understandably connect that persona to someone who’s just been away from people for a long time, but the little visual moments, such as Solo lovingly touching a backpack while reminiscing about a childhood friend suggests otherwise. Jules also brings up his eye and it’s a sore subject for Solo, who changes the subject. My prediction is that we are going to get an episode/half an episode devoted to his life in the vault.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this episode to the point that it’s making me look back at the previous three episodes with a more critical eye. I really hope the show starts to right itself as we reach the halfway point because I miss the tight plotting, the pacing and the emotional character beats of the first season.
Before we close this episode out, I will throw it back to you for some lingering questions. Were you surprised to see that Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash) show back up after being arrested at the end of Season 1? Do you have any thoughts as to why he was brought back, only to be sent back to the mines? I’m also curious because you haven’t been sold on Solo, so now that we’ve spent some time with him, are you at all interested in his past or the mysteries surrounding him? Finally, do you have any thoughts on Deputy Hank (Billy Postlethwaite) and Sheriff Billings’ investigation into the riot?
JOE
Oh yes, we should address Lukas. It’s intriguing that he’s brought back in the same episode where we actively see Bernard disposing of other people who collaborated with Juliette. For a moment I thought perhaps Bernard (and to a lesser extent Meadows) were eliminating everyone who could speak out against.*
*To be clear, I still think this will happen, but I think it’ll happen to Martha and Carla.
But back to Lukas: it does feel like another dropped thread doesn’t it? Almost as if Silo remembered he’s a character we spent some substantial time with back in S01, and wanted to either close the loop or tease it a little. There’s every possibility that Lukas will be back (even if Meadows is probably right to assume he won’t last long in the mines), but for now it was just another reminder that the people who ask questions pay dearly for this inquisitiveness.
I do think his reappearance was also intended more as commentary on Meadows than on bringing Lukas back, though. You mentioned her privilege and I’ll add her curiousity to that. Before she was unceremoniously killed, it truly did seem like Meadows wanted to know more about what kind of person “volunteers” to leave, or which individuals have the capacity to affect a difference in a crowd of 10K.
I’ll be curious to see if this curiosity trickles down to Hank and Billings; Shirley and Know are going to have their hands full now that Mechanical is getting blamed for Meadows’ death, which leaves the investigating of the past and the truth behind Jules’ cleaning to them. I just wish I had a bit more confidence in the show’s ability to balance all of its stories and still make it compelling because these two feel like tertiary characters this season and the plot isn’t exactly gripping when we cut back to them (in part because we, the audience, are six steps ahead).
Which leaves us with Solo. I absolutely agree with you that we’ll see something of his past and what life was like for him in the vault, up to and including the man he keeps referencing who he was shadowing. So yes, I fully expect we’ll get that.
Am I excited for it? I’m 50/50. It could be really interesting to see how this works, especially since we’ve not seen how Bernard uses the vault in our silo. But in terms of characterization? I’m afraid that Solo is such a simple, 1-dimensional character that there may not be much to explore unless it is simply to reiterate how long he’s been alone and how that has stunted his growth.
I’m totally prepared to eat my words if/when we get that story, but can I say that I’m excited for it? Ummm, no.
We’ll see what comes next when we return to GaylyDreadful for episode 5 next week, “Descent.”
Silo airs Fridays on Apple TV
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