‘Silo’ Recap: ‘The Janitor’s Boy’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Silo’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve received a comprehensive understanding of what life would be like beneath a repressive and controlling regime, courtesy of the Apple TV+ series, Silo. For this dynamic and refreshing new series, has explored in great detail how complete control of our lives and our daily habits would wipe away much of the beauty that humanity currently exhibits. Since art and creativity would fade away in the name of routine, structure, and the greater good, and the human spirit would in fact, become quite gray in nature. Since there was nothing to feed it aside from daily tasks and a fight for survival.  
​
But what has also made this series quite fascinating, is how it has pointed out that while such horrors would exist in this kind of world, the human spirit and all that it stands for wouldn’t totally be crushed. For curiosity would still persist, just in secret, and our desire for more and our desire to carve our own path, would also remain… even if such a nightmare went on for generations. Because eventually… we would want to fight to have truth and freedom prevail. But what would that kind of fight look like? Especially when the control in question is so tight and total? Well, it just so happens, that the next episode in this series takes the time to answer those questions, and that made ‘The Janitor’s Boy’ quite the fascinating and remarkable tale. 

Simply because it informed us that the only way to really break down a totalitarian regime, would be to play its own game and confuse it and force it to cannibalize and attack itself, and trick it so that it would expose its own lies and collapse in the process. A lesson that was made possible in ‘The Janitor’s Boy’ by having Juliette be put to the test. Because it turned out that Marnes was indeed murdered following that brief stare down with the intruder in his home last week, and that meant… that the new sheriff had a full-on crisis brewing on her hands. Because the mayor and a top deputy were dead, and fear was swirling about the Silo and that meant… Juliette had to dig in and catch the killer post-haste to keep order in the Silo, and that allowed for her… to come to understand the inner workings of the up-top and the executive brass, through the most unlikely of allies. 

---

For Sandy was eager to explain how things work in the upper levels, and that Judicial wasn’t to be trusted, and tended to manufacture evidence and scenarios to make false arrests, and keep order in the Silo, and that was likely going to happen here. In order to swiftly end this investigation and give everyone peace, and that knowledge… gave Juliette great pause. For it implied that there was indeed some grand conspiratorial darkness at play here. The kind that likely brought about the end of a good mayor and a good deputy for reasons that weren’t clear just yet beyond one thing… in that, Judicial wanted total control. And they had no problem killing and doing what must be done to keep it and that put her and her plans in jeopardy as well. Since any plot to catch a patsy could be used to oust her and install Billings, her new chief deputy, as the new puppet Sheriff.
​
Not to mention, someone innocent would come to great harm and none of this sat well with Juliette. Especially since it could jeopardize justice for George… so she used this information… to play Judicial like a fiddle. Wherein she was able to oust of one their own as the culprit of these murders, which in turn… forced Sims to kill the man to keep the secrets of what happened buried as deep as the Silo. A move that left Judicial reeling because it made Juliette look as competent as the audience knew her to be, allowing for her to keep her job and gain trust and this set the stage for the real fight ahead. Wherein she can now use her clout and her knowledge of the artifacts she has found over the years to work within the system and use the fear of the past to shake Judicial to its core and give her the resources she needs to solve who killed George… and learn why Marnes and Jahns were killed and perhaps, end the stronghold upon the last vestiges of mankind without Judicial ever knowing how such a surprise could occur. 

Because those that want total control are often laser focused on said control and anything that feeds that narrative and desire, serves as their weakness, and that plan and everything that came before its genesis, brought forth one incredible story. One that catapulted the plot forward, and showcased Juliette’s brilliance and understanding of people and things, and this is a story that chilled us to the core. Since we now know that Judicial is a scary division and has plans for the Silo regarding control. The terrifying kind where no one is safe if they have concerns in the slightest and that’s all the more reason to love Juliette’s plan. Because it truly should confuse and confound and expose the truth and potentially free the people of the Silo from the oppression they face, and it will be interesting to see how this plan unfolds in the weeks to come. Until next time.

---

Powered by JustWatch