SILO Season 3 Episode 4 Breakdown | Recap & Review

[00:00:00]Dare I say that Robert Sims is slippery?

[00:00:02]Crafty at least. I guess it shouldn't be altogether surprising. This is a character who has had one of the most involved transformations over the seasons in Silo. He started out as a cold enforcer who operated outside of the rules everyone else had to follow.

[00:00:18]Let's not forget how things came to an end for his shadow Douglas Trumbull in season 1. Like Bernard, Robert justified the most objectionable things he did by truly believing he was doing them so that Silo 18 could survive. These things often put him at odds with every other character we were getting invested in.

[00:00:37]So beyond being a family man who appeared to have a real investment in his son's well-being, there wasn't much to like about him. This eventually started to change and his disillusionment was a two-step process.

[00:00:51]He first learned that despite his years of loyalty, he would never be elevated to the same level as Bernard and IT. He was passed over for the shadow position and therefore locked out of the inner circle. This put him on a path with his wife Camille where family replaced the for the good of the Silo mentality, which ultimately was upended at the end of season 2. When Bernard learned of the safeguard and lost everything that made things make sense for him, he finally did make Sims his shadow. Only he was overlooked when he went to the vault and the algorithm chose Camille for the job instead and Robert was told he had to leave. It was another rejection and his journey's been peeling back the layers of this character. And I like this particular one we're seeing in the fourth episode of season 3 because a lot of it is similar to what Daniel and Helen are dealing with in the before times. What does learning the truth or knowing stuff even change? At the beginning of season 3, Sims knows more than most about how things really work, but what can he do about it? We're starting to get an idea that in what I think is the strongest installment of the season so far. It's also a nice bonus that it coincides with what I think is the best performance we've seen common give. He really nails the scene where he offers to help Camille. Help is at a premium in an episode that picks up right where the last one left off. In Silo 18, we watch Camille coming out of the vault after learning the algorithm wants Juliette Nichols dead. Some fans thought that she might have been putting her prized skills of deception to work when she agreed that it had to be done.

[00:02:30]This doesn't seem to be the case when she calls her security chief Emerson to tell her to have the nurse knock Jules unconscious before she gets there. As I've already touched on, Robert comes to her when she's on her way and lets her know he figured out the algorithm's plan, but never disputes it or tries to stop her. He just offers help. In the moment, he comes across as a man who just loves his wife and is there to support her when she needs it. We do find out that he knows the algorithm wanted to put an end to Juliette when she came back three months ago and that Robert is surprised to learn that Lucas Kyle was in the mines. He understands the logic that giving Juliette a heroic death might pacify the population and that might mean they wouldn't have to put the vitamin D plus in the water supply. We know stopping this is a motivating factor for both of them. So when he goes as far as to offer to do the deed for her, it seems like he's being genuine. Of course, I wouldn't have started the video by declaring his slipperiness if that were the case. And when it cuts to medical, we find out what's really going on. Rather than knocking out Juliette, the nurse sticks the syringe she prepared in Emerson's neck. As she's almost throttled to death by the much more imposing woman in the time it takes for the sedative to start working, it seems like the nurse is just someone who doesn't want to see the mayor of the Silo be murdered. As they make their escape, it starts to become clear that she's acting on someone's behalf, which includes switching out the memory loss meds before Juliet started spitting them out. When the nurse sacrifices herself so that Juliet can get away, she sends her to the pump room on level 76 where, dun dun dun, Rob is there waiting for her. His skills for deception are also not coming out of nowhere. We did see him lie to his wife about Bernard's death in the season 3 premiere. This is something I complained about at the time because we saw him lie to Juliet, which, fair enough, we knew they were doing that. He told her that while they were trapped in the box of fire, the poison got into Bernard's suit and killed him. We saw flashbacks of his body being transported down the stairs and being loaded into the incinerator.

[00:04:41]When Camille asked Rob what he told Jules, he told her that the poison killed Bernard. But at the same time, we saw a flashback showing him wrapping plastic around a still living Bernard's head to suffocate him. The implication being that he was lying about how it happened, but that Bernard was in fact dead. My gut told me you don't bring Tim Robbins back, have him do elaborate burn makeup for one scene where he just died anyway, keep his name in the credits, and then write him off the show. So, yeah, he does end up coming back at the end of this episode, and that's exciting. I still don't love how they presented that scene, but it does make a lot more sense now that we know he's being slippery and doing his own thing.

[00:05:24]It would appear that Walker probably knows what he's up to since she sealed off the digger void where Bernard is hiding out, but as far as we can tell, no one else knows he's there. Knox and Shirley went to the hospital together, and after he punched the raider who definitely had it coming to create a distraction, Shirley snuck inside of medical. She learned that Camille and Sims were trying to eliminate Juliet, but when she helps her escape, Shirley seems clueless about why the area below the silo was sealed off. The big development at the end of the last episode was Danny and Sandy finding Lucas, but when he has a face-to-face with Patrick Kennedy, no one present seems to be working with Sims. Patrick still thinks it's safe outside, so he thinks Lucas must have been compromised when he insists it isn't. Kennedy brings up the cleaning video again, and Lucas explains how it really works. They show the video in the helmet so the person actually cleans. This makes sense to Kat Billings, who says she believes him because why would he lie? Lucas wants to go looking for Juliet, but because the raiders are searching for her, they get locked down and have to wait.

[00:06:32]Eventually, he challenges Kennedy saying if he wants to know the truth, they should go ask Juliet right now.

[00:06:39]Initially, Patrick argues that it would be pointless because they have her on the drugs, but comes around when Lucas tells him Juliet recognized him in the mines. And speaking of the mines, throughout this entire interaction, we don't find out any additional information about what Lucas was doing while he was there. As far as what he lets on to them, it just sounds like he was hiding there. By the end, they decide to go looking for Jules, and when Lucas asks how they'll get there, the outsiders tell him Kennedy has a way, but he won't like it. One of my favorite shots in the episode is also outsiders related. We pick up with Paul Billings, who's sitting outside of the doctor's office just staring into space, most likely thinking about his wife's turn to the dark side. When he goes inside, he finds out conclusively that Orla Cant didn't die from rat poison, and she didn't even die in the mines. She died from blunt force trauma to the back of her head, most likely from rebar, and her body was dumped in the mines to hide the evidence. Paul tells his deputy that the body was never meant to be found, and he calls Hank and tells him to have Carla meet him in Supply so that he can tell her the bad news about her shadow.

[00:07:49]She's not there when he arrives, but he does run into Mike Davidson and his dog Dandy. Her sister told Paul he was Orla's new boyfriend, and he's a little strange in general, but Paul also picks up on the fact that he doesn't seem to worry that Orla's missing. He tells the sheriff that the last time he saw her was when she returned from the council meeting and that she seemed fine and just went home. He claims he didn't go with her because he was too focused on getting Dandy some exercise. We know that he's lying because we saw them together in the first episode. She was in a good mood after seeing the mayor, talked about her investigation into his ex, Glenda Harwood, and was heading to Construction because she saw something at the gap that might explain how the thief was moving stuff out of Critical Supply. Paul stays in Supply and Glenda eventually makes an appearance. She reveals Carla hasn't been there in months and says she's just stepping up as the most qualified person there since the current shadow is AWOL. She pushes back on the idea that Mike was Orla's boyfriend, but says maybe she shouldn't feel too bad about losing the shadow job because it gave her some time to head home. Paul points out that's on level 70, the mines, and mentions that her father is Ed Harwood, who we saw giving Orla a hard time in the season premiere.

[00:09:08]It seems pretty obvious that Glenda at least knows what happened to Orla even if she wasn't directly involved. After his time hanging out in Supply, it seems like Paul's list of suspects would be her, her father, or her ex-boyfriend.

[00:09:23]While we're on that subject, when they go to hide out at Helen's ex-boyfriend's place, Daniel has lots of questions. I mean, they both do about who they're dealing with and how they made Steve and the tape of Charlotte's mission disappear, but Daniel also got questions about Helen's love life, lots of them.

[00:09:41]There's a not so subtle will they or won't they going on here, and I'm fine with that, but it also makes me think that as a character, Daniel's kind of a dud. He's definitely interested in her, and there are moments where it seems like she might be coming around. So, I guess we'll have to see if he can get it together. Either way, their decision to meet with Steve left them somewhat stuck together and raised legitimate concerns that their search to learn more about Charlotte's mission might have put them in jeopardy. Helen managed to track down their contact's real name and cell phone number, but it was no longer in service.

[00:10:17]She got a similar message when she tried the number for Mr. Alameda, who Daniel talked to at his son's funeral. Without the recording, they don't really have a next move. They key in on the detail that someone in Moldova made the recording, and then they bring up the chess game. Helen noticed Steve's mood shifting after he made his move, and Daniel points out that exposing his king in that situation didn't make sense.

[00:10:42]They wonder if he might have been communicating through his play rather than trying to win, and that leads Daniel to reach out to an old friend who works at the Pentagon for help tracking down Steve's opponent. We're introduced to Sam Ramsey. Daniel says they served overseas, but Sam chooses to focus on their time in an '80s cover band and calls him Kenny G because apparently Daniel used to shred on the sax. When they ask for help and explain that it's connected to Charlotte's mission, Sam gets visibly uncomfortable. He's sympathetic to his old friend's situation. If it was his sister, he'd be looking for answers, too, but he lays out all the very real reasons why he can't do what they're asking him to. He leaves, and while they're trying to figure out what to do next, they see the mystery man. They both recognize him, Daniel from the funeral and Helen from her office while she was getting fired.

[00:11:36]Of course, we saw him at the metro station following Charlotte and then later at her clinic. And in a refreshing turn of events, he just walks right up to them. He remains evasive when they try to find out who he answers to, but rather than dragging this mystery out, he just takes them for coffee. He assures them Steve isn't dead or being tortured. He's been given a highly coveted position at a cybersecurity think tank. Same for Mr. Alameda. He got a much-needed loan to bail out his brother's business. When Daniel and Helen ask, "In exchange for what?"

[00:12:11]Mystery man tells them they're endangering something very important.

[00:12:16]That's about all he'll say about why he needs them to stop looking into the Iran mission, but he does dangle a dream job at the post in front of Helen, assuring her the editor there is willing to give her a chance despite her history of journalistic fraud. For Daniel, there is an implicit threat that if he doesn't go along, it might be difficult to assure that Charlotte gets the care she needs, which is pretty much nightmare fuel since her memory is currently white. It may be difficult for Daniel to help put her back together if they no longer pay for her care. This detail makes the day seem like it would include Senator Thurman since the implication was that she pulled strings to get Charlotte into the clinic. The main point here is that this conversation shows that Daniel and Helen are way out of their league. And as they come to this realization, it goes back to what I was saying at the beginning. It really feels like for all they've learned, there's really nothing they can do about it. In frustration, Daniel turns on Helen, accusing her of wanting the job, which of course she does since she just got fired from a much worse one, and he tries to throw the mystery man's fraud accusation in her face. She fires back that of course that was the point to make them offers that would be very hard to turn down.

[00:13:34]She also wants Charlotte to get the cash she needs. She might be Daniel's sister, but she's Helen's source and they part ways at a standstill that comes down to not knowing what else to do. Later, we see him working late and pulling up an article about her case. It says she was fired after admitting to using a fictitious source. That sounds pretty bad, honestly, but when Sam reaches out with information, Daniel heads to find Helen anyway. I'm not completely sure I trust this call. On the one hand, you could see genuine concern when Daniel mentioned his sister, but Sam was also throwing around things like loyalty oaths and lie detector tests. Plus, the mysterious man saw them together. He says he reached out because the details of the mission weren't sitting right with him and claims to have gone down a full-blown rabbit hole. We don't hear what he found on the call or when Daniel goes to ask Helen for help. He just shows up because he doesn't know how to do it alone. And how can she turn him down when she finds out he rented a minivan from a guy who advertises on lamp posts. Wherever they're headed, they'll be inconspicuous and they'll be up against something they likely fully don't understand in much the same way Juliet is. While her journey this episode was mostly about making her way to Bernard, who is the one person who might be able to fill in some of the blanks for her, there were also smaller moments where she started to remember things. She had a great moment where she got to tell Shirley that she gets feelings about people. And the one about her is that it feels like if she found out anyone was messing with her, she'd like kill them, you know? She also gets a feeling about the digger void when they get close. And Shirley reminds her she used to spend a lot of time down there and that she had a boyfriend. She remembers and says George's name, and that makes her trip to find Bernard even more interesting. For what it's worth, the old head of IT doesn't look great, and I'm not even sure he can move around. They're going to make us wait to find out, but he should be able to pull on the memories she has of outside and Silo 17 to help her put things back together. Having him be there where Jules spent so much time with George really underscores what a tragedy it would be if they put the drugs in the water and made everyone forget. You understand why Sims would try to stop that against all odds. But then I also think about the before times. Yes, they're using the memory drugs on Charlotte, but this episode gave you the sense that the people Daniel and Helen are up against are powerful enough and have the resources to just make people agree to forget. And I think that's a great place to leave things. Please like this video if you enjoyed it. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, and thanks for watching. I'll talk to you soon.