Each week Joe and Terry discuss Apple TV’s Silo Season 3, alternating between our respective sites.

Catch up on Season 1: 1.01-1.02 / 1.03 / 1.04 / 1.05 / 1.06 / 1.07 / 1.08 / 1.09 / 1.10

Catch up on Season 2: 2.01 / 2.02 / 2.03 / 2.04 / 2.05 / 2.06 / 2.07 / 2.08 / 2.09 / 2.10

Catch up on Season 3: 3.01 / 3.02 / 3.03 / 3.04 / 3.05

Spoilers follow for Silo S03E06 “The Drive.” Billings and Hank stumble on a new mystery. Daniel and Helen receive a surprising proposition.

TERRY

Maybe it’s because, after the last two episodes, Silo has been so compelling that any drop in quality seems huge. But “The Drive” is one big much ado about nothing. I don’t even know where to start. Do we talk about the surprise pregnancy? All of the grumpy people acting like high schoolers? The even bigger amnesia plot? Or the most boring kidnapping in the history of television?

Because, Joe. Girl. Guuuuurl.

An AI-controlled car is working overtime for Silo because it got to be the “cliffhanger” of “Memory” and lead in to the “cliffhanger” of “The Drive.” What happened in between those points, approximately 30 minutes apart? We found out that Helen (Jessica Henwick)’s reason for journalistic fraud is so damn cute. She basically tells Daniel (Ashley Zuckerman) that the reason she lied is that she failed to protect her source.

Cue: Fireworks of love, Joe.

Seriously, though, the only exciting moment in this entire episode was the change of scenery as the pair hide in the backseat to execute Helen’s faultless plan: if someone sees a driverless car, they’d have to call the cops. That’s about the only excitement I gleaned from this filler episode. Otherwise it was just smoudering eyes and making up lies.

Speaking of smouldering eyes, though…something has felt off with the way Knox (Shane McRae) has been treating Shirley (Remmie Milner). Like, I get it, they are having sex but the way he charged into Medical to give her a chance to sneak in and the way he was so protective about her when Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) asked for them to go to Silo 17 together. Turns out, Shirley has a baby bump and “The Drive” will make sure you completely understand that by having so many shots of the pair cupping and/or stroking her tummy. Regardless, Camille (Alexandria Riley) and The Algorithm disagree with Jules’ assessment, with the AI explaining that both of them going to Silo 17 results in a 34% increase in the potential for the silo’s collapse. So it’s a non-issue.

Jules then brings up the fact that she knows where Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash) and Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez) are. Brief side note: I just realized, typing their names out, that they are the only people in this show that are often called by both their first and last names. Martha. Bernard. Sims. Jules. Knox. Shirley. Lukas Kyle and Patrick Kennedy. Anyway, The Algorithm is thrilled with this choice and confidently tells Camille that the pair will never make it to Silo 17.

This episode is the first time The Algorithm showed any sort of emotion. I would even call The Algorithm a sassy supervillain here, between him basically cackling maniacally at his plan to him snidely asking, “what are you doing here?”, this AI suddenly grew a personality. And it’s camp.

I don’t know, Joe. Jules’ amnesia plot...the even bigger Vitamin D+ amnesia plot, a pregnancy…add a wedding and a funeral and you’ve got TV bingo. Am I being too harsh? Were you surprised with the pregnancy announcement and, regardless, what are your thoughts on this Knox/Shirley storyline?

Who was the woman at the end of the episode and what do you think about her proclamation that Daniel and Helen can save the world? Am I alone in potentially just realizing that the giant staircase circling around the middle of the silo is literally a swirly drill bit? Finally, do you think if Martha weren’t gay, the scene between her and Bernard (Tim Robbins) would have been a late-in-life meetcute? The tension.

JOE

Oh Terry, this is how I know you were bored! You’re noticing rote details that are immaterial to the plot and/or things that have been a part of the show for ages.

*I suspect the stairwell isn’t a drill-bill, but rather a double helix/DNA strand (we see the same imagery in the credits)

As for the woman at the end, that’s Laura Innes’ Senator Rosalind Thurman, the woman that Daniel went to meet in the season premiere (his sister Charlotte wanted him to see her to get onto the Iran subcommittee).

The fact that you didn’t recognize her, though, is proof that the series has dropped the ball in building up the Daniel/Helen storyline. Or perhaps, given the vehicular-focus of the episode, I should say: spinning its wheels?

What started as an exciting political thriller subplot in the “Before Times” has completely stagnated in just a few episodes as Silo seeps any kind of tension or intrigue thanks to its glacial pacing. Thank god for Henwick and Zuckerman’s chemistry because dear lord, watching characters trapped in a car for AN ENTIRE EPISODE is a damned snooze!

If we’re being generous I think we could call this a “transitional character development” episode: we’re focusing a great deal on Martha and Bernard (and, yes, those scenes did have a weird rom-com vibe to them), and Shirley and Knox (which…what?) and then we’re setting up the parameters of the conflict that will take us through the remainder of the season as Jules issues Camille and the Algorithm an ultimatum about the kids in Silo 17.

Throw in a sprinkle of Camille & Sims drama, wherein she issues her own ultimatum about finding out what he’s up to, and “The Drive” seems to exist primarily to keep all of the plates spinning in the air…albeit without doing anything with them.

And therein lies the problem: “The Drive” is doing stuff…but it feels incremental and unexciting. The reality is that this is a filler episode, which is why we’re giving some much digital ink to stuff like Knox and Shirley’s secret pregnancy (also: didn’t we only just find out that they were sleeping together two episodes ago?!).

But what else do we have to unpack? Knox having a disappointing father he’s never mentioned in mining? Billings (Chinaza Uche) and Hank (Billy Postlethwaite) finding out that Glenda (Gemma Acosta) can either be in two places at once or she has a twin? (Admittedly that one is kinda intriguing, but it feels like we’re raising it here so that it can become an actual issue later?)

Since I’ve been mostly negative in this review, though, I’ll close on the one storyline that did work for me: the reveal that Camille has already dumped the Vitamin D+ memory drug in the water supply. This has been a season-long tease: it’s the reason that Shirley and Knox are so terrified for their unborn child and it’s why Jules and co. want to find the silo’s blueprints.

As a result, it’s kinda wild and unexpected that Camille has pre-emptively begun wiping all of this out. I truly thought the writers would hold back and make this the conflict in the season finale.

Back to you Terry: are you still interested in Orla Kent’s murder and the stolen lightbulbs? Has Camille’s rash behaviour surprised you? And did you think Knox’s dad was gonna be Glenda’s miner dad?

TERRY

Honestly, I think the only reason I thought that the center stairwell was a drill was because of the way it was framed in one shot: a direct, full-on shot coming from one of the many hallways, looking directly at the ramp. That plus the plot drop earlier in the season that Congressman Keene either invented or was a part of a drill that wouldn’t disturb the soil above.

The shot got me thinking about the logistics of building the silos, considering not only how deep they go, but how much effort would have to be put into constructing each of them. Therefore the easiest way to create a silo would be to drill down and then just…leave the giant drill bit in the ground.

I’m probably thinking way too much into this, but I guess, as you mentioned, that’s what happens when I’m bored with what’s on screen.

You are right, though, Joe. The episode has a few juicy moments, like Camille’s preemptive strike. And the increasingly weird case of Orla Kent. My guess? Not a twin, but that someone erased the footage and or tampered with it, which would mean that Glenda has someone working in IT with access to the camera footage. A quick cut and insert and boom. She’s in two places at once. I’m curious why, though, because having her in two different places at the same time just complicates things instead of erasing them. But, for now, that’s where I’m at.

As for whether I’m still interested in Orla Kent…I’m not, really. Mostly because Silo unceremoniously introduced her in the season’s first episode and then…she went missing. I don’t even know who she is, let alone care about her absence. But I would imagine that the mystery harkens back to the neo-noir mystery that worked so well in Season 1. Regardless of whether Glenda has a twin or someone doctored footage, I will put on my detective hat and pipe and posit: I bet it goes all the way to the top!

A few minor answers to your questions: I think I was so checked out by the time we got to Knox’s dad that I just shrugged. And, finally, for Camille…I loved that this episode ratchets up the tension as we move into the back half of the season. Camille hasn’t been in charge very long and I personally would have rather seen more of her dealing with the stress of being in charge before careening, guns blazing, towards the Big Bad. The last two episodes did some of the work, with the way it contrasted Sims and Camille, both visually but also in intent. A line was absolutely drawn in the sand between the two this episode, but with the writers juggling multiple storylines in the present and a host of new characters we’re just getting to know in the past, it feels a bit forced and rushed.

That said, I am excited to see where these latest plot developments lead when we head back to Queer.Horror.Movies for episode 3.07 “Radio.”