Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Silo Season 2 Episode 6.

The closer Silo Season 2 gets to its conclusion, the more it feels like every situation is moments away from disaster. Each character is metaphorically dangling off the edge of a cliff, but no one knows when the inevitable fall to their doom will start. Until then, Episode 6 is one step forward, two steps back for Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson), the rebellion, and Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), respectively.

“Barricades,” written by Jeffery Wang and directed by Michael Dinner, opens with a group of Down-Deepers clustered outside the titular barricade on level 130. The raiders on the other side are glaring up a storm, but the Deepers continue to fearlessly chant “let them through” — a phrase referring to the routine deliveries that Holland has withheld in retaliation for Shirley (Remmie Milner) and Knox’s (Shane McRae) escape last week, and as a psychological manipulation tactic. Watching the chaos from his room full of security screens, Holland smugly declares, “Only nine missed meals separate a functioning society from chaos.” If he’s adapting, then Mechanical needs to match him, especially once Shirley and Knox discover that someone laced their food with rat poison.

The Rebels Launch Their First Real Assault in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 6
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Needless to say, the rat poison news doesn’t go over well with the rest of Mechanical. Knox and Shirley try to address their fellow residents’ concerns, but the everyday people living through the side effects of this rebellion have no interest in letting their children starve to prove a point. As things grow increasingly hostile, it’s once again down to Martha (Harriet Walter) to verbally knock some sense into everyone else. The Down Deep turning on each other is exactly what Holland wants, she points out; the only reward Judicial will dispense for their continued obedience is a pat on the head. Her arguments start to sway the gathering, but Teddy (Olatunji Ayofe) turns the tide by wheeling in a barrow full of fresh food from the farmers on level 122. Enclosed among the produce is a note of solidarity from Mechanical’s neighbors, signed with a definitive “Juliette lives.”

Holland, the five-dimensional chess player that he is, is pleased to hear that Mechanical’s allies are already smuggling food down the chute; he can squash this revolution more quickly than he anticipated. Unbeknownst to him, however, Shirley, Knox, and Teddy are strategizing their next steps. What happens when they need another delivery and 122’s generosity can’t slip past Holland’s beady eyes a second time? The answer: forcibly move the barricade up a few levels. One team will drill up through the floor while a second group, led by Knox and armed with some custom-made weapons he requested, distract the raiders’ attention. The latter point certainly works like a charm — the appearance of armed civilians sends Rick Amundsen (Christian Ochoa Lavernia) into a panicked tizzy.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) asks his wife Kathleen (Caitlin Zoz) to discreetly send a doctor down to operate on a very surly Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez). Kathleen approaches Pete Nichols (Iain Glen), and after some crafty improvisation, she gets both of them (and her baby) through the barricade without incident. Similarly, Pete extracts the bullet from Kennedy without a hitch. But once his health is out of the woods, Patrick turns cagey about fulfilling his end of this mutually beneficial arrangement. Billings looks almost ready to unravel as he threatens to reveal Kennedy’s location to the recently appointed Judge Sims (Common) — a staffing shake-up of which Kennedy wasn’t aware. The man relents, spilling the beans about the beautiful footage from the Before Times that Juliette broadcast onto their computers in Season 1, as well as the “deal” he struck with Sims to toss a firebomb in exchange for Kennedy’s freedom.

Sheriff Billings Makes an Important Choice in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 6
Image via Apple TV+

Over in IT, Holland visits his division — specifically, Camille Sims’ (Alexandria Riley) desk. Ever so politely, he interrogates her about her role in Knox and Shirley’s escape, claiming that she disrupted justice. Camille argues that she followed protocol as a former ranger, and doesn’t Holland remember that so-called vigilante justice goes against the Pact? Even though she holds her own against Bernard, the encounter leaves her shaken enough to lead a team of backup raiders down to the barricade. By that point, however, she’s too late to prevent Mechanical’s plan. Their drill breaches the floor from below and tears down the barricade. Shirley and Knox chase after the fleeing raiders before the two groups have a stand-off on level 120. The raiders relent, letting Mechanical gain 10 extra levels — including the farm complex on 122, an advantage that prevents Holland from starving them into submission.

Knox and Shirley celebrate by enjoying a drink and some kissing (I knew that chemistry was going somewhere!) before Billings interrupts. After they metaphorically swear on the Pact that Holland and Sims set them up to take the fall for Judge Meadows’ (Tanya Moodie) murder, Billings radios Holland to announce he’s opening a full investigation into Meadows’ death, among other glaring inconsistencies. Stunned yet somehow resigned, Holland kills the radio before gifting us with another delightfully delivered expletive: “F*** me, I just lost the sheriff.”

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Billings, for his part, would disagree with that sentiment. Even though his faith in Judicial is shaken (a shift that’s been a long time coming), he hasn’t sided with the rebels; his devotion to the Pact compels him to investigate the accusations against Holland. After saying as much to Kathleen, she asks him to pass a water glass across their cafeteria table. When she doesn’t take the glass from his hand, making her husband hold it instead, Kathleen notes that he isn’t shaking — even though he also just admitted to going days without the herbs that reduce his Syndrome symptoms.

Back in her quarters, Martha relives her emotional last moments with Carla (Clare Perkins) before they parted ways last week. She refuses to back up Knox and Shirley’s account of Meadows’ murder until Billings can tell her where Carla is and whether she’s still alive. Billings suspects that Holland locked Carla in seclusion after her arrest. Her health conditions put a ticking clock on her survival, and the best chance Billings has of freeing her is if he can clear her of those murder charges.

Juliette’s Options Are Limited in ‘Silo’ Season 2 Episode 7
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Later on, Pete and Martha exchange a few kind words when he unexpectedly drops by her workroom. He thanks her for taking care of Juliette, which includes Martha sneaking Juliette the quality tape — i.e., the only reason that Pete’s daughter walked out of that crater alive. That said, Martha doesn’t think Juliette survived. She gave her “girl” that tape so Juliette wouldn’t spend the last minutes of her life knowing that everyone she cared about was watching her “die on that hill.”

Juliette herself doesn’t make it too far this week, but at least she’s conscious after almost dying from an infected wound. She wakes up in the same room with Solo-not-Solo (Steve Zahn), who saved her life by treating her with his homemade antibiotics. That, however, is the extent of Solo’s generosity. He’s hidden her environmental suit and refuses to return it until Juliette fixes the generator’s broken pump, and he won’t hear another word on the subject.

Circling back to Holland, the mayor has a rare moment of vulnerability when he privately visits Meadows’ corpse in the morgue. A one-sided conversation ensues, complete with a grieving Bernard clutching her hand and weeping. He confesses that he can’t stomach the thought of their 140-year-long peace falling apart on his watch, and apologizes for having to factor her death into his “calculations” — a cold comfort at this point. As part of those calculations, he checks in on Lukas Kyle’s (Avi Nash) progress decoding Salvador Quinn’s hidden message. Both men agree that Quinn used a sophisticated cipher, but Kyle’s limited security clearance has his hands tied. Deciding that Kyle’s intuition needs access to something called “the Legacy,” Holland swears Kyle in as his new shadow — officially turning the man who dreamed about the stars into the mayor’s right-hand man.

Your changes have been saved Silo Silo Season 2 Episode 6 is Episode 6 is one step forward, two steps back for Juliette, the rebellion, and Holland, respectively.ProsIt’s high time the rebels snagged a win, and their clever solution and solid teamwork position them as a viable threat to Holland’s rule.Showing more of Holland’s vulnerabilities makes him a stronger villain and lets Tim Robbins flex his acting muscles.Juliette’s storyline might not advance this week, but her reduced screentime makes room for other characters’ development and for different pairings to interact.

New episodes of Silo Season 2 premiere weekly on Fridays and are available to stream on Apple TV+.

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