We knew it would be bad.
asserted
it → know → ?
The people in Silo 1 have, it seems, already orchestrated the nuclear annihilation of the surface world, or at least of Atlanta, Georgia.
asserted
it → seem → Atlanta
What would slaughtering a few more people, roughly ten thousand at a time, matter to them?
asserted
slaughtering → slaughter → them
For the purposes of Silo’s main narrative, they’ve already done it at least once, to Silo 17.
asserted
they → do → Silo
Mass murder is baked right into the concept.
asserted
murder → bake → concept
But knowing it is one thing, and seeing it done is something else entirely.
asserted
it → know → it
This episode’s entire opening sequence is a sickening display of organized sociopathy, in which a handful of self-selected elites and their slavish functionaries exterminate thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
asserted
handful → select → minutes
This is the end of Silo 17 that we’re witnessing, in fact.
asserted
we → witness → fact
Those people did not die from some atmospheric poison, but from a coordinated drone attack, combining lethal gas called “the compound” with bullets to finish off the runners and stragglers.
asserted
people → die → runners
As this genocide unfolds before our eyes and ears, its architects mercifully cut the audio, then switch the cameras to heat vision.
asserted
architects → unfold → vision
We are thus spared the final sights and sounds of over 9,800 executions in less than the time it takes for a prestige TV cold open to unfold.
asserted
open → spar → time
But this doesn’t make it any easier to watch.
asserted
it → make → ?
In fact, the depersonalization of the murders, the switch from a live audiovisual feed to a silent image of red blobs moving and then suddenly ceasing to move, makes it worse.
asserted
it → move → blobs
“Let’s get those numbers up
asserted
numbers → get → ?
,” says the drone pilots’ commander, a specialist brought in for this purpose, who has already relieved one pilot of her post for refusing to kill women and children.
asserted
who → say → women
Let’s get those numbers up.
asserted
’s → get → numbers
This gamification of mass death made me shrivel in my seat.
asserted
me → make → seat
Especially considering who’s commanding it: Victor, the kindly neurologist…and “Troy,” a man who was once the do-gooding Army engineer turned congressman, Daniel Keene.
Over the course of the episode, our glimpse of the luxurious, technologically advanced, elevator-complemented Silo 1 allows us to figure some things out about the way things work and why.
asserted
things → consider → way
There’s an inner circle of Founders who seem to have retained their memories — Victor, Senator Thurman, implicitly her daughter, and their dogsbody Henry — augmented by others hand-selected to be a part of the group.
asserted
who → ’ → group
These people, like Daniel and his sister Charlotte, have had their minds completely wiped and been issued mononymic new names
asserted
minds → wipe → names
(Victor’s got a file on everyone as part of his psychiatric duties, it seems.)
asserted
it → get → duties
All of this is governed by something called the Directive, which supersedes both the Order and the Pact.
asserted
which → govern → Order
It appears to have been made to serve the interests of the Director, Senator Thurman.
asserted
It → appear → Director
Where Per Stensen fits into all this is unclear at the moment, as he’s nowhere to be found and isn’t mentioned, either.
uncertain
he → fit → moment
Still, I’m going to assume you don’t cast Colin Hanks without having some future plans for him beyond a couple of episodes.
asserted
you → go → episodes
Things come to a head in Silo 1 when Juliette’s rebels successfully shut down the Safeguard pipe in Silo 18, thus preventing Silo 1 from threatening them (for now).
asserted
rebels → come → them
They do this with help from a surprising source: Camille Sims, who pretends to ship poison gas canisters down to the mines to kill the rebels in order to placate the voice in the Vault, which she’s figured out is quite human and not AI at all.
asserted
she → do → Vault
But the canisters contain nothing but oxygen, and it was all a plot to buy time for Knox and Shirley to seal the pipe successfully.
asserted
Knox → contain → pipe
Actor Alexandria Riley does series-best work in this sequence, and given her performance so far this season, that’s saying something.
asserted
that → do → something
Indeed, Camille is more powerful even than the voice, which turns out, in this case, to be Victor.
asserted
which → turn → case
When she asks the big question, Why?, all he can do is offer some platitudes about how mankind was headed for extinction, the Silos are their last best hope, et cetera.
asserted
Silos → ask → cetera
He cannot explain why it is the Founders’ prerogative to exterminate ten thousand people at a time whenever they choose if the purpose of “the Project,” as the Silo 1 residents call it, was to save people’s lives.
asserted
residents → explain → lives
Faced at last with the absurdity and bloodthirstiness of the rules he has followed, sobbing over childhood photos of the daughter whose loss he tried so hard to forget, Victor pulls out a gun.
asserted
Victor → face → gun
Next thing we know, he’s dead — but not before requesting that “Troy” be woken up from cryosleep for the first time in 35 years, since the Silo 17 uprising.
asserted
Troy → know → uprising
Troy immediately goes to work trying to get the Silo 18 situation under control.
asserted
situation → go → control
But when Juliette, Camille, and some of the other rebels approach the forbidden door beneath the Silo, his bluff gets called.
asserted
bluff → approach → Silo
There is no longer anything the Voice can do to threaten them.
asserted
Voice → be → them
So he proposes a deal: If they agree not to contact any of the other Silos, he won’t even try to kill them anymore.
asserted
he → propose → them
Juliette takes the deal and leads the group away.
asserted
Juliette → take → group
It’s obvious bullshit, of course, and Juliette knows it.
asserted
Juliette → ’ → it
…and 41 more, not listed.
