Review: Silo ratchets up the tension with riots and revelations in Episode 205, "Descent"

Another episode of Silo is out today on Apple TV+, and it should come as no surprise that it's another good hour of television. At this point in Silo's second season, it's almost starting to feel redundant to sing its praises; this has been a rock solid season for Apple's sci-fi show, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

"Descent" escalates the already high stakes across the board. There's a feeling now that we're speeding toward a bloody conclusion in the back half of the season, sparked by a manhunt for Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner), two of the leaders from Mechanical who were framed for the murder of Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) in last week's episode, "The Harmonium." It would be very convenient for Mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) if Knox and Shirley were strung up by an angry mob he whipped up to get the Silo back to a state of begrudging equilibrium, but a daring escape and scheming from within his own camp make that difficult.

And of course, there's Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), who's still trying to assemble a suit she can use to traverse the toxic world outside of the Silos and get home. This week she has an unnerving encounter with Silo 17's sole survivor, Solo (Steve Zahn), which has me more than a little worried for her safety.

Read on for our full review of "Descent." There will be SPOILERS.

Silo Episode 205 review: "Descent"

The bulk of "Descent" takes place in Silo 18, where riots are breaking out in the upper levels following the murder of Judge Meadows. Everybody thinks that Knox and Shirley are behind it, which suits the actual murderers — Bernard and Sims (Common) — very well. Bernard wants to capitalize on the chaos to restore order after bringing Knox and Shirley to "justice." Up against overwhelming odds, Knox and Shirley, along with Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) and Carla McLain (Clare Perkins), have to find some way to get back to the safety of the lower levels; their journey gives the the episode its title.

This whole mess of a situation is the most exciting that Silo has been this season, and it's a credit to the show that it juggles a lot of moving parts to make it all work. While we spend ample time with Knox and Shirley's party and with Bernard, we also see mysteries start to unravel as Sheriff Billings (Chinaza Uche) and Deputy Hank (Billy Postlethwaite) track down Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez), the man who Sims forced to firebomb the jail on the lower levels a few episodes ago and one of the only people who knows just how deep the corruption in the Judicial and IT departments runs.

Then there's Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash), who Bernard brings back from the mines in hopes that he can reconstruct the broken hard drive which led to Juliette's banishment in season 1, and which Judge Meadows told him contains a devastating secret. Lukas is a character I've wanted to see a bit more in season 2, and his scenes with Bernard were excellent. A consistent idea running through this season is that Bernard really wants someone around him he can level with, trust and speak to like an equal. He may be running the Silo, but that's a lonely post because of all the secrecy involved. Lukas is highly intelligent, so allowing the two a few scenes to speak candidly led to some great moments. It also leads to Lukas re-discovering the letter Meadows mentioned from Salvador Quinn, the head of IT during the previous rebellion. It's written in code, but I imagine it's only a matter of time before these two crack it.

Then there's Doctor Pete Nichols, played by Iain Glen. Glen is a veteran actor who always brings his A-game, so it's no surprise that he elevates pretty much every scene he's in. I caught myself tearing up during his speech to Bernard about how the Silo has taken everything from him, but it can't control what Juliette means to him or the rest of the people who were inspired by her example. Glen is just masterful, and everyone who gets the chance to play off him is better for it. When that includes another top tier actor like Tim Robins, it's magic.

If there's one recurring theme that explains why Silo has been so excellent this season, it's that it has a fantastic cast, supported by very sharp writing, and it gives them all time to work to their fullest. All of my favorite scenes from this season are conversations between actors in rooms. In an era of television where spectacle is ever more prioritized, it's refreshing that Silo is leaning on intimacy in this way.

That's not to say that the show isn't also crushing it at portraying action, too. The titular descent of this episode, where Shirley and Knox take illegal descender rigs and hurl themselves off the Silo's stairs with steel cables while the new head of judicial tries to sabotage them from above, is thrilling and well executed. The two big riot scenes are also harrowing, especially the second one where the angered people of the upper levels break down the barricade that was meant to keep Shirley and Knox trapped upstairs in a fit of rage once they realize that they've escaped.

If there's one odd man out in the episode, it's Sims. Last week The A.V. Club wrote an article talking about how Common's character feels out of place among the rest of Silo's stellar cast, and I'm inclined to agree. There's just something to the way Common carries himself, delivers his lines, even his sleek costuming, which feels markedly different than the rest of the cast. It distracts me a little. But the thing that keeps it from feeling totally incongruous is that Robert Sims is revealing his own ineptitude in the show in a way that makes Common's stilted performance feel a little more natural, probably unintentionally. He's a man who desperately wants to be elevated higher in the Silo, even though he's practically at the top of the heap. And that entitlement causes him to make some serious miscalculations which come back to bite him here, as Bernard informs him he will never become his shadow before "demoting" him to become the new figurehead Judge of the Silo.

While Sims is struggling, his wife Camille (Alexandria Riley) finally shows why she's even more dangerous than her husband. She undermines the efforts to capture Knox and Shirley, helping them escape a riot that would have almost certainly ended with them being lynched. And then, even more interestingly, she lies about it to Sims, stoking his ego by telling him that if he were running the manhunt, they would've been in custody already.

It's a fascinating development and I'm really intrigued to see how Bernard handles it, since he was made aware that it was Camille who was behind Knox and Shirley slipping through his fingers.

Who is Solo?

While Silo 18 is inching closer to outright rebellion, Juliette Nichols struggles in solitude trying to get home and stop the coming tragedy. "Descent" continues to chronicle her attempts to create a new environment suit with the help and hindrance of Solo. In this episode Juliette needs to find a new helmet which can properly seal to her firefighter's suit she retrieved in Episode 204, which leads her on a scavenger hunt through the apartments of Silo 17.

It's here that she makes a startling discovery: Solo isn't who he says he is. Early in the episode he tells Juliette that his real name is Cole Myers and tells her a cute little story about how he got the nickname Solo. But then she finds a picture in one of the apartments of a woman nicknamed "Tiny" and her boyfriend "Solo," who is a totally different person than the one we know. When Juliette confronts Solo about it and mentions that he told her he was the IT shadow, he loses it, screaming in her face in a wildly unhinged way that makes her back down. This is by far the scariest that Solo has been this season. It's clear he's keeping more secrets, but whatever they are, it's going to be touchy for Juliette to get to the bottom of them since he's so unstable.

He also tries to convince her to stay and help him even though she desperately needs to get back to her own Silo. Silo 17 is slowly flooding; in 10 months, Solo's IT room will be underwater. That's a pressing concern for him, but Juliette is trying to stop a revolution that will likely happen in a matter of days. The tension between these two is growing and it has me nervous. Ferguson and Zahn play off each other really well.

I'm also nervous for Juliette's health. All episode, she gradually gets sicker and sicker until she finally collapses on the floor after finding a usable helmet. Her arm wound is pretty gnarly-looking when she takes the bandage off to examine it. I'd imagine it's infected, since she just went for a swim in some grungy water last episode. But the fact that she's passed out means she's probably once again at Solo's mercy, which is great, just great.

Silo is barreling forward in ways big and small, and it's made for a really excellent watch so far. I'm already counting down the days to next week.

Silo bullet points

• Solo tells Juliette that IT has its own generator with power that comes from outside the Silo. When Lukas later cracks into the hard drive, it seems to confirm this: he finds two cables running out of the Silo 18 on the schematics from IT and Judicial. He also finds a tunnel at the bottom but has no idea where it leads.
• I love that items which once belonged to Juliette are now a hot commodity in the Silo. That's a cool little bit of world-building.
• I also really like the way Silo handled the simmering romance between Carla and Martha. They've dropped a few small hints so far, but I'm glad they got a kiss in before Carla made her stand to buy everyone else time. Let those old ladies have some love!
• It's a fun touch that after the barricade falls, Martha just casually walks through the chaos to get back downstairs. Remember, no one knows what she looks like on the upper levels because her agoraphobia kept her in her apartment for 25 years straight.
• Billings' hands are shaking as he reads The Pact before he and Deputy Hank trade incriminating secrets. Hank is good friends with Shirley and Knox and doesn't believe they could have killed Meadows; Billings has the Syndrome, which should automatically disqualify him for his job. It's been fun to watch the rapport between these two slowly develop. I really like them as a pair of cops just trying to do the right thing amidst constant scheming.
• Another interesting development was seeing Billings' wife Kathleen (Caitlin Zoz) helping people who were injured in the riot and subsequently running into Doctor Pete Nichols. I hope we see more of these two together in coming episodes, because they had some fun chemistry and it was nice to see Kathleen in a different setting.
• A final shout out for the opening shot of the episode, which was a beautiful sweep over the rioting people of the upper levels that panned to show Shirley, Knox, Martha, and Carla hiding on a balcony. I've spent a lot of time talking up the acting and writing on Silo, but the cinematography remains excellent as well.
• My leading theory about Solo is that he was actually the kid we saw in the cold open for the season, and he fled back into Silo 17 after his parents and everyone else started dying outside. I haven't read Wool by Hugh Howey, the book on which Silo is based, but I'm expecting some kind of jaw-dropper reveal about Solo to come sooner or later.

Verdict

"Descent" is a thrilling episode of Silo which sees all hell finally break losoe as the frustrated residents of the Silo's upper levels try to take justice into their own hands. If only the people they were chasing had actually committed the crime. Silo has had an all-around great season so far, and "Descent" stands as one of the better episodes to date. Next Friday can't get here fast enough!

Episode grade: A-

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