Warning: Spoilers for Silo’s Season 1 finale and Season 2 premiere are in play. If you haven’t re-entered Silo 18 just yet, you’ve been warned.
It’s been a little over a year since Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette Nichols went outside to discover a new world beyond her Silo. As the Apple TV+ original has freshly returned to the 2024 TV schedule with its latest premiere episode “The Engineer,” we’re squarely focused on the Mission: Impossible star’s exploits outside of her former home.
However, that doesn’t mean the residents of Silo 18 are doing nothing in her absence. Several members of the cast were able to speak about what’s known about Silo Season 2, with the specific lens of what their fictional figures have been doing in the wake of Season 1’s massive finale.
Silo Season 2 Sees Judicial Turning Up The Heat, Especially Bernard
I was on hand for the Silo Season 2 press day, and thankfully it wasn’t too much of a spoiler to ask how everyone’s taking the former Engineer-turned-Sheriff’s exile at the beginning of this new season. At the same time, Tim Robbins was extremely careful with what he said about Bernard, as he naturally doesn’t want to reveal any of the twists this Hugh Howey adaptation holds.
Much like a member of Judicial during a potential rebellion, every word counts in this situation. So when I asked if Juliette's not-so-grand escape could drive a rift between Bernard and Sims (Common), he was pretty tight-lipped. However, Robbins did share this intriguing hint at what’s to come with CinemaBlend:
Well, you'll have to watch to find out. But the truth is that Bernard knows things that Sims doesn't, and because he has to be the sole possessor of that information, it makes his decision-making process pretty difficult. It's kind of a lonely place that Bernard is in, and you'll find out in Season Two just why that is.
Tim Robbins, CinemaBlend
Always the complicated character, Bernard and his right-hand agent Sims were personally responsible for the false claim that Juliette uttered those most fateful words anyone can say in Silo’s world: “I want to go outside.” That phrase echoes pretty loudly at the beginning of Season 2, especially with the premiere being a dialogue-lite affair that sees Rebecca Ferguson putting her Mission: Impossible action skills to work in the remains of Silo 17.
While next week’s episode will be giving us more of a window into what the world of Silo 18 has been doing, as Episode 2 - “Order,” I can assure you that there will be a lot more dialogue on hand as we return to the other characters in this sphere. And that’s our cue to speak to Harriet Walter and Clare Perkins, whose Martha and Carla seem to be getting reacquainted in the wake of Silo’s Season 1 shakeup.
Silo's Martha And Carla Could Become Bound By More Than Heat Tape (Again)
If it wasn’t for Supply workers Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) and her ex-wife Clara (Clare Perkins), Juliette Nichols’ walk outside at the end of Silo would have ended like all the others we saw: with death. Thanks to the ladies smuggling her a superior quality sealing tape from IT, that shocking Season 1 finale was allowed to take place.
But when I got to speak with Ms. Walter and Perkins, they both reminded me just how much their characters owed to this moment in the story. When it comes to Harriet Walter’s recollection, she started her statement to CinemaBlend with the following:
Well, it forced Walker out of her confinement, if you like, her self-imposed confinement. And it's both a physical and a mental barrier that she breaks through, [with] Juliet having given her the motive to do that. Her love of Juliet, her desire to save her life or to prolong her life. She doesn't know for how long, but it makes her go up and revisit Carla, and break that barrier as well. So yes, the final episode of Season 1 sets up a future for these two that we're not quite sure about.
Harriet Walter, CinemaBlend
Even in this very early state, I hope that Walker and Clara make peace and reconcile in Silo 18. However, the outlook on that particular wish is rather unclear, as revolution is brewing in light of the departure of Juliette.
Then again, as the Downton Abbey vet in question has highlighted in her thoughts, the fragility of life is on everyone's minds in the aftermath of the end of Season 1. That added context informed Clare Perkins comments about the situation between this potentially reconciling pair, as follows:
I think that Carla, even though they haven't seen each other for 25 years, she's definitely aware of the almost mother-daughter connection between [Juliette and Martha]. Just because she didn't give birth to her doesn't mean that she doesn't have all of those feelings and care for that person. So I think she's protective in a way, knowing [Martha], knowing that she's quite private and knowing that she will be obviously grieving. And there's so much feeling there previously that it's just an added layer … my heart is feeling for her.
Clare Perkins, CinemaBlend
Touching upon that point again in her own way, here’s the rest of Harriet Walter’s answer:
It's organic. It's not like a plot device. It sort of comes out of a need to help Juliet and it changes the chemistry inside Walker's head, so that she develops a kind of confidence in her ability to overcome her problems, and to see the bigger picture, and care more for another human being than her own fears. But it leaves us unsure as to how long that heat tape will have helped her survive. We don't envision a long future after that, so Juliette becomes a symbol rather than a person that keeps us preserving the initiative that we had with the beginning.
Harriet Walter, CinemaBlend
Revolution doesn’t always bring people together, as we’ll see in our next pair of participants: Shane McRae and Remmie Milner, the mother and father of Mechanical in Silo 18. Bound by their similar vocation, their personal ideologies are about to complicate an already chaotic ecosphere.
Knox And Shirley’s Relationship In Mechanical Is Going To Be A Bit Pressured
Knox’s reaction to Juliette Nichols leaving the scene in Silo’s previous season finale isn’t as cut and dry as some might think. Though the Chicago Fire star’s actions did lead to the ultimate result, Shane MacRae admits that this decision starts to weigh on Knox’s head and heart a little more than he may have counted for. Here’s how he teased his character’s arc for Season 2:
I think Knox at the end of Season One, he heartbrokenly, I don’t wanna say sells Juliet out, but he turns Juliet in. I think he does that because he feels this massive burden as the sort of father figure of Mechanical. And he feels like for the livelihood of the community, he has to give up ‘The One.’ And that is sort of where he stands. And he's a guy who has always wanted to work through the system … and Shirley wants to burn things to the ground.
Shane McRae, CinemaBlend
Leave it to Shane McRae to go all Star Trek on us and use Mr. Spock’s analogy of how “the needs of The Many outway the needs of The Few, or The One.” Of course, for Remmie Milner’s Shirley, The Many are of equal importance to her, and her views on the budding Flamekeeper revolution. We get a taste of where that sort of action could head in those initial flashbacks to Silo 17’s unfortunate fate, which sets the table for the rough seas ahead in Season 2.
Tying into that notion by discussing her character, this is what Ms. Milner shared with CinemaBlend:
Yeah, there's a bit of compromise that has to take place. But if you say that to Shirley and episode one, absolutely not. No, she's dealing with portrayal, you know, the depth of that and what it costs is her best friend leaving the silo. So she just can't get beyond that. She has to take action in the way that she sees fit to do so. And then she has some time to reflect on that and realize that there may be some kind of middle ground where actually we're kind of, yeah, we both are. It can be as constructive as it should be if we work together.
Remmie Milner, CinemaBlend
I know we're sidestepping around quite a few Silo Season 2 secrets at the moment, but this is what we fans kind of expect in the gap between seasons, isn't it? Your worries about spoilers are still safely unfounded though, as we're definitely saving the exciting revelations for after they play out on your screens.
However, I will tease that you should stay tuned as the fantastic Apple TV+ show airs, because the insanely vague remarks from Shane McRae below, pertaining to Knox and Shirley's fates, will make a lot more sense later on:
And they come to a certain point [where] they’re in major conflict with each other, and they're both sort of wrong. And their journey is sort of trying to figure out what the right path is. Maybe it's not ‘burn it all down,’ but it's also not ‘go through the system.’ So I think Knox is sort of forced to face his own ideals, and where they come short. … Without giving anything away. There is a huge moment of reckoning where we both realized maybe neither one of us are right.
Shane McRae, CinemaBlend
We're only at the first episode of Season 2 and Silo is already shaping up to be mysterious in all the right ways. Which is good, considering there was a moment where it looked like the wait would be much longer than the one we've currently come out of.
The Resilience Of Silo’s Season 2 Crew Helped Keep The Show On Track During The 2023 Strikes
Silo is an epic story that has a lot of moving parts to keep in mind when tracking its ensemble-led tale. That very reality could have impacted Season 2 in a pretty huge way, as Silo’s 2023 strike hiatus could have postponed the series’ Apple TV+ return. It wouldn’t have been a problem, as most films and TV shows in production during that work stoppage have seen originally intended debuts rescheduled to keep up with the times.
However, Silo had two advantages on its side, the first being that between the mix of SAG and non-SAG actors, certain portions of the story were either completed or close to completed when the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike took effect. And as Silo showrunner/creator Graham Yost revealed in his interview with CinemaBlend, a very crucial team of wizards was able to get what was shot into fighting shape in the interim:
You know, I will say we got to do a regrouping of the writers after the strike was settled to sort of just make sure we were all happy with what we'd done, and going forward and all of that. So it was incredibly helpful that Apple let us do that. The one story I do tell, and the VFX people wouldn't mind, is they felt terrible about the strikes and what it was doing to people's lives. But for their jobs, they were not affected by the strikes; they could keep on working on completing shots. So we were under a pretty tough timeline, and they were able to keep going. So that's why we get to have the show launch November 15th instead of, you know, January 15th or whatever, because they've got a lot of work done in those five months.
Graham Yost, CinemaBlend
Obviously, the gains pursued by all who took part in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of last year were a worthy cause worth fighting for. Doing his own part to highlight that fact, Graham Yost doubled down on the fact that while there was a gap in production, nothing was touched by members of either guild represented until the all-clear was given. Even then, it sounds like Apple was super understanding in letting the writer’s room get itself together to do whatever post-strike reworking they needed to do.
The result that you’ll see before you over the next nine weeks is a testament to how Silo’s cast and crew truly love the story they’re telling. This makes it easier for us fans to return for new installments as they debut each Friday for those of you with an active Apple TV+ subscription!
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