Four episodes into Silo, it is becoming clear that the series is in no hurry to explain the underground world it has built. “Truth” is another slow episode, and at times perhaps too slow, but the death of Mayor Ruth Jahns gives the story a murder case it badly needs.
The episode picks up after Jahns' sudden death, with Deputy Marnes convinced that she was murdered. His anger is mixed with guilt. He believes the poison was meant for him and that Jahns died because she drank from his bottle.
Will Patton is the strongest part of the episode. Marnes is no longer the tired deputy who reluctantly followed Jahns down to Mechanical. He is angry, careless and looking for someone to blame. His interrogation of people he has arrested in the past says more about his state of mind than it does about the investigation. He wants a name, even if he has to beat it out of someone.
That puts Juliette Nichols in a difficult position on her first day as sheriff.
Rebecca Ferguson's Juliette still looks uncomfortable in the upper levels of the silo. That works for the character. She is an engineer who has spent most of her life around machines, where a broken part can be found and replaced. People are harder to read, and Juliette has entered a job where almost everyone seems to be keeping something from her.
Her relationship with Marnes is especially uneasy. He did not want her as sheriff, and Juliette knows it. Holston's recommendation got her the badge, but it did not automatically earn her the respect of the people expected to work under her.
“Truth” spends much of its running time trying to make Juliette more than the engineer introduced in the previous episodes. Flashbacks take us into her childhood and her difficult relationship with her father, Dr Pete Nichols.
The death of Juliette's brother, Jacob, hangs over the family. Her mother later dies by suicide, leaving Juliette with anger she has carried into adulthood. Her decision to leave home and eventually find a place in Mechanical now makes more sense.
The flashbacks are important, although the episode spends a little too long with them. Silo opened with Allison and Holston, two characters whose stories quickly pulled viewers into the central mystery. Juliette has now taken over as the main character, and the series appears determined to explain why she keeps people at a distance.
The problem is that “Truth” sometimes stops its murder investigation just as it begins to gather pace.
There are still interesting things happening around Juliette. Bernard Holland is now mayor pro tempore, putting the head of IT in an even more powerful position. Tim Robbins continues to play Bernard with enough restraint to make almost every polite conversation feel slightly uncomfortable.
Then there is Robert Sims.
Common's character remains one of the more obvious threats in the silo, but the series has yet to show exactly how much authority he has. His visit to Marnes is presented as a conversation about replacing Juliette, though it is difficult to believe that is all Judicial is concerned about.
Sims wants Paul Billings as sheriff. Marnes refuses.
That disagreement matters because the silo's leadership no longer appears united. Jahns is dead, Holston is dead and Juliette has been placed in a position that several powerful people did not want her to have.
For a society built around rules and order, things are beginning to look surprisingly unstable.
The episode also introduces Lukas Kyle, who meets Juliette in the cafeteria while watching the display of the outside world. He spends his nights looking at lights in the sky and trying to understand their movement.
Juliette has little patience for him, but the scene is one of the episode's more curious moments. In Silo, anyone who spends too much time looking at something is worth paying attention to.
Still, “Truth” is not as gripping as the first two episodes. The mystery of the outside world is largely pushed aside, while the episode concentrates on Juliette's past and Marnes' grief. Viewers waiting for answers about the cleaning, the forbidden relics or what Holston saw outside will not find much here.
What the episode does well is create suspicion.
Who poisoned Jahns? Was Marnes really the intended target? Why is Judicial so interested in controlling who becomes sheriff? And how much does Bernard know?
By the final minutes, Marnes is attacked in his apartment. The episode ends without confirming his fate, adding another possible murder to a silo that has already lost its sheriff and mayor.
“Truth” may be the slowest episode of Silo so far, but its final scene gives the series another reason to keep watching. Juliette has barely started her new job, and someone already appears determined to remove the people around her.
Rating: 3.5/5