They say that history is written by the victors. And often it is written in blood. The second season of Apple TV+'s hit science fiction series silo is on the verge of rebellion, and the final episode saw a shocking death that will spark the biggest conflict the series has ever seen.
From the first minutes of season two, we knew chaos was coming. We saw a riot break out in a separate silo – Silo 17 – resulting in people defiantly venturing into the outside world, only to be killed by the toxic air. Since then, we've seen Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) walk through the future of Silo 18, the silo she left: bodies scattered outside, “lies” scrawled on the monitor the Silo people use to view the outside world to see, and darkness.
Ever since the residents of Silo 18 watched Juliette become the first person to successfully go outside and survive at the end of season one, the silo's mayor, Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), has used every manipulative tactic at his disposal to avoid disaster to prevent insurgency among people who have been told all their lives that life outside the silo is not safe. He's arrested people for painting Juliette's initials on walls as a sign of reverence, spread lies about her using a new tape his team developed to stop the toxic air from entering her suit, and hired actors , publicly challenging him so he could dismiss their opinions as chatter about his fraudulent proclamations of hope and forcing Judge Mary Meadows (Tanya Moodie) to support his lies to confuse people with false ones Promises of this new volume to reassure us to usher in a new day.
What he did in episode four may be both his most insidious and effective deception.
What happened to Judge Mary Meadows?
After Bernard's brooding enforcer Robert Sims (Common) questions Judge Meadows' allegiance to the lie, he attempts to remove her from her sphere of influence with Bernard by calling for her impeachment. While he wanted her simply sidelined, Bernard saw a more heinous opportunity to silence her and distract people from finding the truth about the silo.
Meadows only agreed to Bernard's plan in exchange for a suit that would protect her when she left the silo, a promise he kept with her until the end. Under the guise of a friendly dinner before handing over her suit, Bernard poisoned the food she ate to “unify the silo.” How her death would help achieve this only became clear when he offered Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner), the two leaders of the quiet rebellion against Bernard, the chance to see Judge Meadows. When they arrive at their office and see her dead with a knife in her chest, they quickly realize that they have been framed as the Silo Judge's murderers.
Shortly thereafter, Sims launched a manhunt for the accused murderers, telling an angry mob that the two had killed Meadows because he refused to open the silo's airlock, stating that it was the duty of every silo member to to find them. This is a way to bring people together.
As Juliette tries to put together a suit so she can return to Silo 18 and stop an uprising that would result in the deaths of its residents, the embers of fiery hatred have already been stoked and there may not be much time left to stop the uprising prevent inevitable.
