Apple TV+ ‘Silo’ Episode 3 Review - Drowning

Warning: Spoilers for Silo Episode 3

During the first 10 minutes, I thought this episode was going to be one of those slower-paced, filler episodes that reveal some plot details but not a lot. But, boy, was I wrong.

Episode 3 of Silo, titled ‘Machines,’ opens with Jules quite literally hanging down in the basement (yes, I call it the basement) of the silo. But contrary to what I thought she was going to do, she just climbs up and returns, not courageous enough to jump into the deep waters just yet. It seems like we're in for a "facing-your-fears" kind of arc in this episode.

She is struggling. Struggling because she couldn’t do what George wanted her to do. A few bottles of alcohol and a really bad hangover later, Jules ends up punching Cooper in mechanical because he was in her way while she was fixing a malfunctioning generator. Poor guy.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ruth and Deputy Marnes are on a trip down to mechanical to meet Juliette as the Mayor wants to know why exactly Holston chose her to be his successor. On their way down, as they get thrown nasty looks by the Judicial’s goons, they stop at Bernard’s IT department where he reveals that Juliette doesn’t deserve to be Sherriff. Apparently, she swiped some IT tape, making her a certified thief. It seems that Jules has no allies except for Mayor Ruth and Holston in her bid to become the Sherriff.

After greeting the lovely people of the mids, Ruth and Marnes go to meet Ser Jorah…oh apologies. They go to meet Dr. Pete Nichols. Juliette’s father. Here we get to know that Jules left the mids for mechanicals when she was just 13 because it felt good when she was able to ‘fix something.’ This whole conversation felt a little anti-climatic I would say but it did make me curious to see what the dynamic is between Jules and her father.

Our dynamic duo’s next stop is a gorgeous park. Where, quite unfortunately, they get passive-aggressively confronted by another one of Judicial’s men, named Sims. He pesters the mayor to name Paul Billings the next Sherriff, but Ruth stands tall in her decision to at least meet Juliette.

Elsewhere, by the generator, Jules’s melancholic trance about George’s death is broken when the generator malfunctions again. Something is wrong, very wrong. And while Jules has fixed the thing right now, it will cause a huge problem if it isn’t fixed properly, which would require it to be turned off for a few hours.

Thankfully, it seems Ruth is quite impressed after seeing Juliette’s bravery with the generator. The whole conversation about the Sherriff thing happens and Jules, of course, refuses the offer because the generator won’t work without her. This decision lasts about 5 minutes as Jules gets a glimpse of Holston’s star. Or rather what’s engraved at the back of it. ‘Truth.’ The word ‘Truth.’ Holston has finally given Jules a sign and she agrees to become the Sherriff. In exchange. Juliette tells Ruth about the generator and somehow gets permission to turn the power of the silo off for 8 hours.

The games begin. There’s some technical stuff about the generator and the steam that powers it but basically, the engineers don’t have much time to fix the generator because after 30 minutes, the pressure of the blocked steam would cause the whole chamber to blow up.

Now even though I could guess that nothing bad was going to end up happening, I was gaping at the screen during this whole sequence. Jules trusting her apprentice Cooper, Cooper stepping up, Jules almost drowning as she tries to cool down the steam chamber - this 15-minute sequence had the tension, the anxiety, the rage, and all the fear. But one thing is clear, the generator’s all good now and Jules, it seems, has faced her fear of drawing. We can only guess if she’ll go to the basement again sometime soon.

But just when you thought Ruth and Marnes were going to ride off into the sunset together, tragedy strikes. As the credits roll, we're left with a gut-wrenching scene of Marnes holding the body of his beloved Ruth as she convulses and chokes on her own blood. Poisoned. Dead.

But let's not forget the other aspects that made this episode a standout. The slow-burn romance between Ruth and Marnes was a sweet addition, and Atli Örvarsson's haunting score added a whole new layer of tension to the already gripping storyline.

With the stakes raised higher than ever before, the writers have set the stage for some truly epic future episodes. I even have some guesses about who could’ve poisoned Ruth (*cough**cough* judicial).

Final Score- [8/10]
Premiere Date: May 12, 2023, on Apple TV+