For the first two and a half seasons of the post-apocalyptic Apple TV epic Silo, we only had two lesbian characters, buried deep in the ground: a badass mechanic, Martha, played by Harriet Walter who rarely left her apartment, and her ex-wife Carla, head of Supply, played by Clare Perkins. Their relationship was not a major plotline, but I was happy for the representation anyway. Elder lesbians! The best at their respective jobs! Love to see it.
This season, we got introduced to some more lesbians, this time in the aboveground storyline. Congressman Daniel Keene finds out his younger sister Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay, who played queer on Harlots) had been in an accident while she was working as a Navy pilot. After she recovered, she joined her brother and the reporter Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) to learn more about what brought her plane down, and there she met the Senator’s daughter Anna (Morven Christie). The two hit it off and were flirting on a private plane and I kind of thought that was the most we were going to get, but then the aboveground timeline had a little time jump and the next thing we know, Charlotte and Anna are married! They have a cute double-date night with Daniel and Helen and gosh you’d almost forget this was an apocalypse show.
However, at the end of the episode, Charlotte is nowhere to be found. Daniel tries to text her and gets a response that makes him suspicious she doesn’t have access to her own phone. I texted my friend, LESBIAN IN PERIL. Though based on how the episode ended…a lot more people than just Charlotte are in peril.
Now, for the majority of this season, I held onto a bonkers theory: I thought the aboveground and belowground timelines were running concurrently. I was so convinced the silos were a social experiment being done before any nukes had ever gone off. My theory was kiboshed by the end of the episode, HOWEVER, I still don’t think 300 years have passed between the aboveground timeline and what Juliette Nichols is up to. I think it’s possible it has only been 50 years, or fewer, and the Vitamin D+ they use to erase everyone’s memories, combined with the Pact and the “AI” voice, led them to believe it’s been a lot longer, telling them fictional stories about past rebellions and other resets. I think that’s why artifacts and relics were outlawed, lest they trigger memories. Otherwise, what would it matter if they had things from the old world? So now, my newest unhinged theory is: what if Charlotte IS Martha. This week, they talked about how the Vitamin D+ shakes memories up so bad some parents forgot to feed their own children. So it’s not unreasonable to think a person or two forgot their own name. And Navy pilot to mechanic isn’t an insane pipeline…JUST SAYING.
Anyway, I’ve been having a lot of fun trying to untangle the mysteries of this world, going full red string murderboard about it, and I am STRESSED but excited to see what Silo‘s season finale brings this week. Fingers crossed all lesbians will be found and accounted for, safe and sound and underground.
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+ And you can watch it here.
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+ Queer actors Poppy Liu and Stephanie Hsu voice sisters in animated series Dang!, which drops on September 8th
+ Billie Eilish officiated her brother’s wedding this weekend
+ Also ICYMI, today, August 31st, is your LAST CHANCE to vote in the 2026 Autostraddle TV Awards!
Comments
Yo! The 50 years theory! Didn’t anyone notice THE SAME tree outside Silio18. How could a 300 yo tree look exactly the same?
SUSPICIOUS
It’d be interesting to see, if they go that route, how they square it with the book series, where there had indeed been an extended time period (though some of the folks from the aboveground plotline got cryogenically frozen and defrosted periodically)
Great article on Silo’s lesbian characters! I love seeing more queer representation in sci-fi. Speaking of audio, if you ever record podcast discussions about shows, you can remove background noise to make your voice clear.
I don’t see the theory… It implies that the Juliette-timeline folks forgot about their grandparents, and their parents forgot about theirs, and so on, so what feels like 300 years is actually 50. Nah, too many things forgotten; their memories would easily come back. Just seeing the stars in the cafeteria would trigger the memories of doing outdoors stuff with the family.
Besides, the air outside should be constantly poisonous if only 50 years had passed, whereas the last episode (and s2 as well) implied that the nano-poison is actually triggered at will by silo 1. And Martha would need to be older, around 90 years old considering Charlotte is in her late 30s.
Then who is controlling the drones!! Charlotte already isn’t remembering stuff from her childhood and she just had one treatment of the Vitamin D+, she only has memories of stories people told her now. So I think if given high enough doses, the memories of their old lives wouldn’t be so easily triggered!
I had the same theory as you, Valerie. I was convinced that it was just the same timeline and that they were lying and using the vitamin D+. I’ve already seen the finale, but I don’t know, I still don’t think it’s been 300 years either way.
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please do a spoiler warning next time!