Secret identities are fun for superheroes but not necessarily for suspicious and evasive characters on “Silo”, such as Steve Zahn’s Solo character. This childlike oddball whom Juliette discovered locked in the server vault in the abandoned Silo 17 has been tap-dancing around his backstory for the past three weeks, leading to all sorts of speculation as to who he really is, how much he knows, and how long he’s been existing there (probably since he was a kid!)
Before we reveal another layer of his secret, or add to the mystery even further in this new episode, “Descent”, let’s dash back to the end of “The Harmonium.” Last week ended with Bernard poisoning Judge Meadows and pinning her murder on the Mechanical delegation of Knox, Shirley, Walker, and Carla hoping to chat with the Judge about going outside. With Sims’ help, they staged it to look like she’d been stabbed in the chest and now the foursome is on the lam desperately trying to get back in the Down Deep before the mad mob catches them.
Raiders are hot on their heels and there’s a lucrative price on their heads so no place is safe, not even old porter friend pretending to offer shelter. Sims’ longtime raider associate, Rick Amundsen, is now head of Judicial Security because Bernard has reassigned Sims to replace Meadows since he can’t trust him anymore for starting the disruptive “Impeach Meadows” campaign. Silo 18 is nearing a breaking point with Bernard trying to prevent a full-scale rebellion, and Sheriff Billings and Juliette’s dad, Dr. Nichols, slowly aligning themselves against Bernard and Sims.
Over in Silo 17, Juliette and Solo are trying and figure out a way to fix the broken groundwater pump that has caused the majority of it to flood and will eventually engulf the entire solo, including Solo’s IT lair. But Juliette doesn’t have time for that mission as she needs a helmet to attach to the firefighter suit she found last week so she can get back to her home, Silo 18, to let everyone know that she’s still alive and prevent a Silo 17-like catastrophe.
While hunting for a survival suit helmet, Solo casually reveals his true name to be Cole Myers. But Juliette later finds a sketch of the actual Solo next to a girl named Tiny and an employee directory with Cole Myers’ photo and it’s obvious that it’s not him. Juliette confronts him about the discrepancy and he erupts in anger, insisting emphatically that he is Solo and the shadow of the old IT Head, Russell. It’s pretty apparent that he’s still not ready to reveal himself fully and is hiding a dark deed.
Over at Silo 18, Bernard needs the wrongly-accused fugitives caught (or killed) to restore order in the wake of the “Juliette Lives” turmoil. Knox and Shirley are nabbed by Sims’ wife Camille after the mob catches them on the stairs. But she’s actually helping them stay safe and offers them sanctuary in an associate’s apartment. While they’re holed up they decide to not wait until Camille returns and flee, hatching a risky plan to use a porters’ winch and pulley system to drop over the side of the staircase back down into Mechanical.
Lukas Kyle is brought up from the mines by Bernard and given a task to reconstruct the smashed “red level relic” hard drive that Juliette was found with. Bernard uses his five-year sentence as leverage to get Lukas to fix the contents of its files. Most of the data is corrupted but Lucas does find silo blueprints that indicate a tunnel beneath the structure, and a scan of a coded love letter from Salvador Quinn, the name Meadows mentions to Bernard before dying. This is the letter she managed to partly decipher but wouldn’t reveal its contents.
Is it more information regarding what the moon, sun, stars, and planets are in the sky? These eye-opening revelations of the heavens indicate just how little silo dwellers know about Earth. Lukas also found “lines” extending from a silo schematic that appear to be communication conduits or access points extending horizontally, hinting at linking points and a network leading to a main control silo.
Finally, Billings finds a wounded Patrick Kennedy, who earlier firebombed the deputies at Sims’ urging to start a riot. In exchange for proper medical attention for his bullet wound, Kennedy agrees to tell Billings everything he knows about the outside world and what he saw when Juliette first accessed the hard drive back in Season 1. To gain Kennedy’s trust, Billings shows him the contraband magazine page showing images of a fresh green Earth, and the stage is set for more reveals.
One last detour over to Silo 17 finds Juliette calming Solo down from his identity tirade but she feels faint and bolts away to avoid more conflict. She enters an ancient apartment while in obvious pain from an infected arm wound. While scavenging she finds the helmet under a bed, but then passes out. This nasty cut is something she suffered back in Season 1 during an ill-fated fall down to Mechanical.
With Sims now stripped of his power and finding himself on the outside with his own wife aiding Knox and Shirley, is journey his about to hit a crossroads that intersects with Billings, Kennedy, and Dr. Nichols? Will Juliette return to Silo 18 or at least send word that she’s still alive? And what are the astro-secrets inside Quinn’s letter? Just five more chapters to go as we excavate more mysteries!