Warning: Potential “Silo” Spoilers Ahead! Get back in the Silo if you aren’t up to date!
Apple TV’s “Silo” season 3 is nearing its final two episodes, depicting the Before Times’ doomsday silo project as well as the shakeup inside Silo 18 with Juliette’s memory returning. The ongoing tempest includes Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) having to prevent a Safeguard extermination as the new Head of IT this year, and the revelation of ex-security chief Robert Sims (Common) regarding Bernard (Tim Robbins).
With the married couple of Robert and Camille Sims careening off onto very different moral trajectories, Camille must confront troubling truths as her conscience plummets into the pits of Hades, while Robert is on a profound journey of salvation.
“The writers are incredible on this show, and we were so excited when we first saw what they were going to do,” Riley tells Space. “It was said to us in a harsh way. They said, ‘We’re going to tear you apart.’ As an actor, for both of us, it was so fun to play with.
“We see a whole roller coaster of emotions that these two go through,” continues Riley. “I think it’s interesting as an audience because we’ve come from such a stable unit where we’ve been the most level and the most tactical. So to shake that up and splinter them off has been a real trip for me. We sat with it quite a bit.”
Her better half is steering away from his murderous past towards enlightenment, which is bright news to fans who hoped his character would find a sense of peace.
“Camille is in a difficult place,” Common adds. “Robert is in a difficult place. It is redemptive, but it’s scary too, because as a character he doesn’t know where he is right now. He’s spent his whole life with judicial, like for the government, and that was because he believed it was good for the people of the silo. But now that trust is dispersed. It’s gone. He doesn’t believe that’s the truth, so now he’s trying to find the truth; I love that they’ve given our characters this much of a journey.
“People used to always approach me and say, ‘Man, you’re the bad guy. I like you’. Or ‘I don’t like you’. And I was like, ‘This dude is not a bad guy.’ Now in season 3 you’ll get to see the different colors of who Sims is, or Camille is, and you can make a decision.”
Riley’s scenes as the Head of IT, having to interact with The Algorithm’s voice piped in from Silo 1 delivering demands and ultimatums, were incredibly engrossing.
“The voice was there so I could act off that emotion, which was nice,” she notes. “But in terms of visuals, there was nothing. They were really intense scenes. I loved being in that room. It reminded me of doing almost like a one-woman show sometimes. It was just you in a stark domed theater. And we’d often run the scenes together, so it was like once you’re on the train you couldn’t get off. You were going through the turmoil constantly, take after take. It was sublime. It was a challenge, but I absolutely loved it.”
In one quiet scene in the “Farewell” episode, Sims has a poignant moment with Bernard, just before the former Head of IT is forced out into the toxic external environment. The on-set chemistry in this scene is among the best the series has to offer.
“Tim Robbins and I discovered that at this moment in time, Sims and Bernard are two of the closest people in the silo,” Common explains. “Bernard was somebody who I actually really cared about. Tim expressed to me through one of the scenes we did that he realized Robert Sims was a person Bernard loved.
“I think all our history and journey as people in the silo, in that moment when he was leaving, I felt like we were able to express that without saying anything. Just a look and an acknowledgement and an honor and respect and a love. I was kinda nervous about that moment, to be honest. But Tim did some things in it that kept it so alive and real.”
“Silo” season 3 is currently airing exclusively on Apple TV.
