Silo fails to make its supporting characters interesting

Compared to a mostly thrilling first season, Silo’s second has been a real rollercoaster with its highs and lows. Currently, we’re smack dab in the middle of a dip. After intriguingly laying out the central crises with Juliette’s “failed cleaning,” the ungovernable aftermath, and the existence of Silo 17, there’s been very little to enjoy. The show is stuck in a ridiculous cycle. A huge reason is that Juliette Nichols, the series’ hook, is trapped in a strange place with a strange person with little progress. Instead of mining her experience to expand Silo’s scope and structure (like episodes three and four did), the recent outings barely feature her. Drip-feeding us information about what she’s going through with her new silo-mate is turning out to be a poor choice. 

Meanwhile, the writing doesn’t even take advantage of her absence to flesh out everyone else in Silo 18. Most of the supporting characters (except for Mayor Bernard and Sheriff Paul Billings to an extent) are lackluster or obvious plot devices, coasting by on a limited identity. At least this week’s installment attempts to change that for Shirley and Knox, giving the coworkers/activists a romantic arc. Too bad the actors have absolutely no spark. That first kiss? Ice cold. Even the larger storylines about how Juliette’s loved ones are reckoning with her loss are meandering now. Most of her well-wishers assume she’s dead, but her fighting spirit carries on in the form of a rallying cry, “Juliette Lives.” Silo emphasized this movement when season two began but nothing substantial has come out of it yet. 

Thanks to these problems, we’re in dangerous sophomore slump territory. I’m afraid “Barricades” doesn’t help. It’s an irksome hour with minor highlights—Bernard saying “Gobbledygook” is certainly one of them. The other is that Dr. Pete Nichols’ solitary mourning has finally connected with the overarching plot. He teams up with Paul Billings to save the life of Patrick Kennedy, a.k.a. the man who Robert bribed to sow chaos after Juliette went outside. Now, Patrick is ready to talk about how he helped Juliette, even if he thinks Billings won’t like the truth. What is the truth? Patrick doesn’t know. All he knows is what Juliette was able to broadcast for 10 whole seconds in season one: An apparent image of the outside world, where birds are flying and the grass is green. 

We know the image is a virtual reality-generated lie. Juliette briefly bought into that falsehood, as did Alison and Holston Becker, and others who went out before them. Juliette is aware of the truth now, but Patrick is not. He thinks the silo leadership of Bernard and Sims is lying to everyone to keep the residents in control (He isn’t fully wrong, either). Patrick’s claims in “Barricades” force Billings to dig deeper, with the Sheriff now fully leaning on Juliette’s pals like Walker, Shirley, and Knox to figure out what the hell is going on. Billings isn’t trying to save this Mechanical crew out of respect for them or Juliette. He says he’s doing it out of respect for the law, although I suspect once he gains more information about the “law” Bernard believes in, his loyalty to a code of honor might fade. 

I’m glad the pieces are falling into place for him, but “Barricades” is otherwise a drag. Shirley, Knox, and Walker escape the guards and the rabid crowd chasing after them, escaping into the lower levels where their friends protect them. In turn, they provide food falling from the trash chute so no one goes hungry. You see, their actual food supply is halted after someone discovers it's been covered with rat poison. Do they have a mole amidst their ranks? Could it be one of them? Silo doesn’t dwell on this mystery for long, which makes me think a later episode will circle back to it for dramatic effect. 

While the three of them are free, the same can’t be said for the fourth member who accompanied them to try and talk to Judge Meadows. Carla McLain, the head of Supply whom Walk was involved romantically with in the past, gets arrested. While their Walk is in mourning, Shirley and Knox decide it’s time to give in to their feelings for each other. Good for them, but actors Remmie Milner and Shane McRae have very little to work with here. It means, for now, I don’t buy into or care about their characters’ attraction to each other. 

There are bigger things to worry about anyway, like Bernard. He may try to appear like a know-it-all, but some of his decisions in “Barricades” are downright stupid. He claims to be following a mysterious plan to turn Mechanical into villains so the residents blame them instead of him. Yet, on his orders, the new security head is halting the supply of essential goods on a lot of floors. Is this not going to piss people off? Won’t they turn on him? What is he thinking? 

As for Rick Amundsen (Christian Ochoa), who replaced Rob as Judicial’s security man, he seems equally ridiculous. Did he truly not see the horde of people,  led by Shirley and Knox, on the opposite side of the staircase where he was standing at the end of the episode? And that’s despite a last-minute warning that two groups of Mechanical people are climbing up in battle gear, ready to retaliate against him and Bernard. Either the point of “Barricades” is to confirm the leadership is weak or the writing makes some grievous missteps. Regardless, Silo suffers. 

Stray observations

• • There’s not much going on with Robert Sims in “Barricades.” He discovers that Bernard has let Lukas out of his five-year sentence at the mines. What kind of a fit do we think he’ll throw when he realizes Lukas is now Bernard’s shadow?
• • Lukas has made minor progress in his attempt to decode the message from Salvador Quinn, the IT department head from 140 years ago. Take your time, dude.
• • Paul Nichols makes peace with Walker as they reminisce about Juliette in one of the most amusing scenes. That’s because Iain Glen and Harriet Walter have a serious conversation in a jarring American accent.
• • I wish Silo would give us more Camille Sims. She stands tall when questioned by Bernard about helping the “wanted criminals” and seems generally smarter than him and her husband. 
• • Coming back to Juliette, who makes a two-minute appearance at the end, it looks like Solo saves her after the infection from a wound spreads in her body. In exchange, he wants her to stay in Silo 17 and stop the water from flooding his home. Once she does it, he’ll give her the helmet and suit he stole that she can use to go home. What a surprise.