“Silo,” the Apple TV+ original, is based on the novel of the same name written by Hugh Howey. The series is directed by Morten Tyldun and David Semel and makes us privy to a dystopian future where the earth has become uninhabitable, and a colossal man-made structure named Silo is the only place where humans can live and survive. We see Sheriff Holston Becker in deep thought as if something was bothering him, and he tells his colleague, Deputy Marnes, that he has decided to go out. He said that he should have taken the decision to go out three years ago, but at that time, for very rational reasons (which we will discuss further in this article), he had decided to stay in the Silo. According to the law, as soon as a person said the words that they wanted to go out, it was believed to be a binding contract between them and the state, and they were sent out to clean the lens through which the residents of the Silo could see the outside world. Deputy Marnes begged his sheriff not to utter those words, but Becker had already made up his mind, and nothing could deter him now. So, without any further ado, let’s discuss the detailed recap of “Silo” Episode 1.
Spoilers Alert
Allison Gets Permission To Have A Baby
We are taken back in time, and we see that Sheriff Holston and his wife, Allison, had been trying for a baby for a very long time. In Silo, the residents had to get permission from the authorities if they wanted to have a baby, and then the doctors removed a contraceptive implant that was put inside the bodies of every woman who lived there. After the implant was removed, every couple was given a time period of one year for getting pregnant, and if the women were not able to get pregnant during that stipulated period of time, their license to have babies was revoked, and they had to apply all over again for permission. In Silo, news traveled fast, mainly because the community was quite small, and when Allison stepped out to have breakfast with the sheriff, people started congratulating them. We realized, seeing how people reacted, that not everybody would have gotten this license to procreate, and that is why people were congratulating the couple as if they had achieved some feat. Just then, an old woman came out of nowhere and told Allison that if she provided fertility counseling, and that Allison should come and see her. The sheriff knew the old lady from before, and by the irritated look on his face, we could tell that he didn’t like her too much. The sheriff asked the old woman to leave, and after she left, he told Allison that the woman was a fraud who misled people and that she should stay away from her at all costs.
When Was Silo Created?
Silo could be said to be analogous to a city, a huge, enclosed structure that was created when the world became uninhabitable for humans to live in. Silo was built beneath ground level and had more than 100 floors for people to live on. The people who resided in Silo didn’t know how this place came into existence or what lay beyond their airtight windows. Approximately 140 years ago, a few rebels waged a war on the regime because they wanted to open the gates that led to the outside world and see for themselves what lay there. After a lot of struggle, the rebellion was crushed, and that day was remembered as Freedom Day. The rebels had been able to destroy each and every piece of evidence that told the residents specifically how the earth used to be before the environment turned toxic and the air became so polluted that it was impossible to breathe in it, and how the founding fathers created a place like Silo.
The drive, the books, and everything else that could tell the people about their history was burnt down during the rebellion, and there was no way to tell how things were before the apocalypse. At this point in time, the leaders had to be taken at their word because there was no way to figure out if they were actually speaking the truth or creating a fake narrative for their own benefit. Time and again, some objects, referred to as relics, were found inside the Silo that belonged to the pre-apocalyptic era, and the rule was that they were to be handed over to the authorities immediately. Contrary to her husband, Allison always wanted to believe that there was life outside the Silo and that their fears were stopping them from exploring the mysteries of the world.
What Had George Wilkins Found?
The members of the IT department used to make visits to repair computers whenever the residents put in a formal request. In “Silo” Episode 1, Allison went to meet a guy named George Wilkins, who apparently was a huge fan of her work and, surprisingly, had put in the request only so that he could meet Allison in person. George had a relic in his possession: a drive that had videos, blueprints, and images stored inside it. Though the storage was shown to be full at first, George was not able to find any content inside it. Allison realized that the drive must be encrypted and that it would need a password to be opened. George believed that the drive was 140 years old and that it contained secrets that the Silo regime didn’t want them to know about. After a lot of trial and error, Allison was finally able to crack it open, and she found that the drive was loaded with data that was no less than a treasure. Allison got paranoid, as she knew that what she was doing was a crime, and if the authorities came to know about it, then severe actions could be taken against her. She told George to destroy, bury, or do whatever he wanted with the disc but get rid of it if he wanted to stay safe. George knew that the data on the drive could tell them about their history that had been lost in oblivion, and that is why he decided that he would keep it with him until he found what was on it.
Why Had Allison Decided To Go Out Of The Silo?
Allison and Holston were trying to have a baby, but somehow, even after a year, they were not able to have one. A seed of doubt was planted inside Allison when the old woman, who had earlier introduced herself as the fertility counselor, told her that the authorities didn’t want a woman like her to have babies. Allison might have been a law-abiding citizen, but she had the soul of a rebel. She wasn’t afraid to question the authorities if she found something absurd or irrational, and that is why the old woman believed that, though the doctors had told her that they had taken out the contraceptive implant, it was still inside her body, which is why she wasn’t able to get pregnant. Allison was getting restless, and she wanted to know if the entire narrative, her entire life, was one big lie orchestrated by the people in power. She went back to George Wilkin’s house and skimmed through all the data that was on the drive. Allison didn’t find anything substantial, and she was just about to leave when a file titled “Jane Carmody Cleaning” caught her attention. What they saw in that video took their breath away, and for a moment, they couldn’t absorb and react to what they had witnessed. There was a video of clear blue skies, green trees, and birds flying in the background. It was proof that there was life beyond the walls of Silo. It was proof of the fact that the state had been lying to them, and for some reason, they didn’t want the residents to go out into the world.
The next day, Allison missed her doctor’s appointment, and when Holston came searching for her, he found her sitting on a chair with a bleeding leg, looking disoriented. Allison claimed that the doctor had never taken out the implant from her body and to prove her claims she had pierced her body and took it out herself. Allison told Holston that, though she couldn’t reveal her sources, she had evidence that could prove that the people who were pulling the reins would not let them have a baby. She told her husband that they had been fed lies since the Silo was created, and whatever they saw from the window was not real but a sort of screen that had computer-generated images.
Holston rushed to bring the doctor, and meanwhile, Allison created a scene at the cafeteria. It was easy for people to believe in the narrative that she had become delusional since she was not able to have a baby. Holston tried to calm her down, but Allison was in no mood for reconciliation. Allison said that because people knew that she was a non-conformist and she didn’t mind questioning the credibility of the actions undertaken by the authorities, they were scared that her baby would also be like her. She said the words that she wanted to go out, and Deputy Marnes was forced to take her into custody and make arrangements for her to go out. Allison went out and cleaned the lens through which the residents were able to see outside, and then she fell down as if she had gotten poisoned and was unable to breathe.
Towards the end of “Silo” Episode 1, Deputy Marnes came to Sheriff Holston and told him that George Wilkins had died after he met with an accident, and there was an engineer named Juliette who claimed that Wilkins had been murdered. Holston and Marnes, together with the local deputy, Hank, went to meet Juliette and find out what information she had that made her claim with such surety that George Wilkins was murdered. In the upcoming episodes, we will get to know who murdered George, if there is any truth to what Allison believes, and if the outside world is actually habitable.
