Review: Silo, “Gray Goo” | Season 3, Episode 8
Info dumps are less effective than character-building as multiple false endings kick in
Back in my review of “Memory”—still the strongest episode of the season so far—I noted that info dumps on Silo sometimes provide the best moments. I like the characters on this show, and some in particular have really flourished this season thanks to the switched-up dynamics. But when it comes down to it, this is fundamentally a plot-driven series, and a large portion of week-to-week catharsis rests on its big reveals.
The flashback storyline in “Gray Goo” finally delivers that highly sought-after lore drop, and the results are … unsurprising, but satisfying enough. Most of us could assume some of the basics here: the 50 Silos were built to repopulate the Earth in a post-apocalyptic scenario, presumably following some war with Iran. Now, we’re mainly learning the specifics of the nanoweapon that Iran built and the tech Per Stensen engineered to preemptively combat that weapon. It all mostly makes sense and sets up the last couple episodes of the season competently.
But I’m a tad unsure what the show wants us to think about Per Stensen’s aims here, and in that way he reminds me of For All Mankind’s Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi). Like Dev, he’s an Elon Musk trillionaire type, except seemingly smarter and funnier and cooler and possibly more well-intentioned. The show once again uses Helen to make an obvious moral and political point here: Why not use his capital to end homelessness and poverty and cure cancer? But Stensen simply isn’t interested in any of those as a pet project, because he’s most concerned about an issue that, at least to him, feels much more pressing. And based on what we’ve seen of Iran’s weapon program, he might be correct. Why not create a bunker to potentially save humanity if you have the resources to fund it? Of course, it seems possible the truth is more complicated than that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next two episodes hold some twists that further undercut Stensen and Thurman’s supposed noble intentions. I’ve seen Fallout.
