Silo has been constructed after the image of the society we live in. There are workers and laborers from the lower levels who do all the physical work, while there are working-class government puppets living a satisfied life in the middle section. And above all of them, controlling them through an iron fist, are the judiciary, law enforcement, and IT departments, which monitor the actions of the people and thus, maintain their supremacy and secrecy. Why do we want to focus on the word “secrecy”? Because there are some laws in Silo created by its founders that we found extremely authoritarian like the Pact prohibiting people from possessing any item from the past i.e., the time before Silo was constructed. But why?
We believe that when you are living in an enclosed space and you witness a single ray of hope peeking through, you’re likely to follow the light. Every relic from the past has had the same effect on the citizens so far, and perhaps that was the reason why the founders wanted to keep it away from the general population so that they never entertained the thought of leaving the prison that they had constructed with such grace. And to execute these laws, they left behind people like Robert Sims. Being the head of security, Robert does all in his power to see that people follow the rules mentioned in the Pact, and the one who breaks them gets a punishment that terrifies the rest. This fear has already been witnessed in the hearts of the people. Each one of them is afraid to even touch a damned relic, but then there are people like George Wilkins and Juliette, whose curiosity turns them into rebels. We connect with the plight of these revolutionaries, as every person deserves to have the freedom to raise questions about their past and present. Without it, no society could be called ideal.
The strangest, or one could say the most realistic thing, that we came across in Silo Episode 7 was that Robert Sims had been invading the privacy of all the citizens through spy cameras hidden behind the mirrors present in each and every room. He had even installed cameras on all pathways and staircases to keep an eye on their movements. But that is not the end of it. We, too, have CCTV cameras all around us in the real world. However, the most alarming thing in the Silo universe is that the citizens are not even aware that recording devices like cameras really exist. Remember the first time Juliette showed Martha the camcorder that she found in George’s hidden stash? Even an electrical engineer like Martha had no idea what the device was. We initially believed that most people in the Silo didn’t have the technology to access these devices, but we were so wrong. The founders and the lawmakers brainwashed innocent citizens about the existence of these devices so that they could spy on them without anyone ever raising a finger. And now that we have witnessed the crimes of the Judicial, we just want to ask ourselves, “How much more information are they holding back?
Silo Episode 7’s ending makes it clear that Holston Becker somehow found out about the hidden cameras behind the mirrors, which is why he left a note for Juliette asking her to take care of the flowers on the mirror desk. It was Holston’s way to obstruct the vision without getting suspected so that Robert couldn’t find out about the secret investigation he was working on. We are not certain at this point how much Holston knew about the secrets of Silo but we are sure that he knew enough not to trust these people again. He had also hidden the hard disk in the air chamber of Gloria’s hospital room using the same flower technique.
Another major revelation that Silo Episode 7 brings to us is the inhumane methods used by the lawmakers to prevent people from bearing children. In the first episode of Silo, we witnessed that the fertility counselor, Gloria, had been quite skeptical about the doctors, as she believed that they never removed the contraceptive devices from the bodies of some curious patients because they believed that their children would share the same curiosity, which would bring doom to the established order. It was Holston’s wife, Allison, who became the first witness to Judicial’s barbaric methods, and she had to remove the device herself to prove it to the people, but no one listened. Imagine the plight of the woman who’s own husband didn’t believe her till the very end. Holston’s life was turned upside down after that and he was never able to recover from that trauma. Regret and guilt became his constant allies and everyday he thought about what he could have done differently to save her. The exact same thing is going to happen again, though. We believe that now that Juliette knows the dirty secrets of the founders of Silo, Robert and those above him would do anything to stop her from spreading this information. It would be the last thing that management would want its citizens to know—that their government had been illegally invading their privacy.
It was made quite evident in Silo Episode 7 that Judge Meadows was certainly afraid of Robert, because of which she requested that Juliette take his permission before interrogating Gloria, and now we clearly understand her concern. Maybe Robert is pulling the strings of all the people in the Silo from his secret little dungeon, inside the Janitor’s storeroom, to enforce the laws of the Pact and maintain order. However, there is one more question that we have in mind. Does Bernard Holland, the head of the IT department, have any idea about Robert’s secret operations? Bernard had quite literally told Juliette that he has all the information about everything that happens in Silo, but does he know that a part of the system is exploiting people with his power? The upcoming episodes of the series will probably shed more light on the matter. It would be really interesting to see if Juliette, who now shares the thoughts of the Flamekeepers, would be able to stop these treacherous leeches. And if not, what would be her ultimate fate?
