I’m not 100% sure that’s why she acted that way. Her dialog to Sims was fairly enigmatic. It’s possible there’s more to her character.
Well less subtle now.
I’m just surprised how close together they are.
Not really understanding how it all makes sense but I’m in for S2 when it eventually comes.
Re: Distance.
For as big as they supposedly were, it looked to me that they were much too close to each other.
Overall, I enjoyed the season a lot, and am looking forward to season 2. I thought the subtle reveal about the tape was handled really well. I do think the main issue was pacing, with episodes 4-6 or so being somewhat placeholder-y. Did we really need lots and lots of flashbacks of how much Juliette loved her dead boyfriend? And the unbelievable inanity of the (otherwise very exciting) turbine repair scene remains a blot on its record.
Started out stellar, middle section OK, final section very very good.
So I haven’t read the books and so maybe there’s a better explanation for these things, but I found what we’re supposed to understand as the reasoning behind some of the deception to be bizarre and illogical. They’re really tricks on the audience that make little in-universe sense.
Okay, why the green healthy environment fakeout? That is a very elaborate ruse, it takes a ton of computing power to create a convincing simulation to fake out the people who put on the suits and go out. It’s not just a pre-recorded video, but a live augmented reality simulation that fools you as you look and move around. You’d have had to have mapped the nearby area very well, have access to tech that’s way behind anything that most people have access to in the silo, make high tech helmet that integrates a seamless AR display, etc. And all of that effort… just to trick the person into wiping a camera off? Sure, it may be the future where this technology is relatively easy to do, but then that means they’re saving their best tech not for actually running the fucking silo where they’re using 80s style terminals but for this gimmicky fakeout.
I think that’s what we’re meant to infer, because they make a plot point several times of saying “lots of people go out saying they’ll never clean, and then they do” and we’re meant to infer that the people who see the green vibrant world are thinking “oh, wow, the world is safe! People need to see that it’s safe! I need to clean the sensor!”
But even that is pretty dumb. It might make sense if the sensor was buried under dirt and couldn’t see anything - then the person going out to clean might have the thought that the Earth healed since the sensor was buried and anyone last saw the outside. But the sensor is only ever a little bit dirty. They clearly see a wasteland, uninhabitable Earth on the camera. There’s no way that the cleaner would think “huh, I guess a few specs of dirt on the camera somehow made the world look like a bombed out shell, but wiping those bits of dirt off will surely show everyone the truth!”
And how does that explain seeing the brief verdant Earth flash as the systems were powering down when they had to shut down the turbine? So there’s an augmented reality simulation of a green Earth running at all times, but the real sensor (of the wasteland Earth) is run on top of that simulation, so that when they start shutting down the real camera, there’s a moment where that’s shut down but the AR fake green Earth isn’t? Not only did they make nothing of that plot point (people saw it, but no one ever mentioned it again), but it doesn’t make any sense. It’s purely a “wtf is going on” fakeout on the audience. It’s meant to mislead us that the burned out Earth is the fake, sitting on top of the real camera (the green world), and it’s basically just a lie to the audience.
And the way Walk saves Juliette. It was a huge deal that she overcame her agoraphobia to be the hero. Okay, but… was she supposed to know what was going on? That the reason people were dying was that they were getting substandard tape on their suits so they succumbed to poison? I guess this one may just be “Walk was so concerned about Juliette that she pulled the one string she could and got supply to give her the absolute best suit possible” but the way it played suggested that she knew what was going on with the poison and the improperly sealed suits.
Having a show that’s a mystery drop clues that are just meant to confuse the audience and ramp up the WTF-factor even though these things don’t really make sense in the story or the world of the story is a cheap gimmick that’s, at best, manipulative towards the audience. The show Lost used to live on this sort of bullshit, and it’s poison for a legitimate mysterious story.
I’m not asking anyone who read the books to spoil anything, but I’m just wondering if there’s more information that will make this eventually make sense, or if this is it, the big reveal, and it just doesn’t really make sense when you think about it?
Your take is exactly the same as mine. They get the fake view which they think is the real view to make them clean the lens. But they have watched other people clean and know that it does no good. Why would they think that their cleaning would be any different? It’s a major plot hole.
Walker figured out somehow that using the superior tape will save Juliette. I can live with that. Juliette figured out that the helmet is bullshit because it’s the exact same scene as was shown on the hard drive.
To me, the big reveal is that the outside world is truly unlivable and that there are multiple other silos. I wonder how different the cultures are in the other ones and if some of them are defunct and if Bernard is in communication with his counterparts in the other ones.
I haven’t read the books but from what I understand there are three books and this season covered half of the first one. The second season will finish the first book.
Which is what I was referencing with
I’m hoping there is some more sense making of it as the story gets further along, and I can ignore the technology needed issue (great technology exists in this world but it is hidden from the residents by intent for … reasons) but the other points are all head scratchers.
Maybe it never comes together. But I’m hopeful it will.
I’m in for S2 for sure. I understand that it’s already been written so unaffected by the writer’s strike and filming has started.
Juliette sat and talked with Walk before she was arrested - I think Juliette figured out about the tape and told Walk.
But at that point she was believe the display that was a lie was the community display. She only realized that the display that is a lie was the visor when she saw the same exact bird formation.
So how or why did she think it was poisonous air leaking in that IT heat tape is too poor of quality to protect against??
She might not have known that it was a problem with the air - she may have just figured out that the tape was so weak it had to be on purpose. And whatever the purpose was, she figured she ought to thwart it.
It’s ambiguous whether it’s the outside air or what’s sprayed on the cleaners as they walk up the ramp. I think it’s the ramp spray because if it was the outside air, there would need to be a giant filtration system and the maintenance people would know about it.
And the second book is about
the history and building of the silos.
I think they could pretty much skip those storylines and the audience wouldn’t miss it.
As part of the audience that is the biggest mystery. These things were clearly designed with keeping residents ignorant, of past science and technology, of history, of the nature of the world. of each other on different levels let alone of the existence of other silos … curiosity itself as a trait is to be stomped out, to be punished, is seen as threat.
Why? To what end? What is leadership (Bernard and his line) afraid of? How did this happen?
Not asking for spoilers, just saying that I’m more curious about that than I am invested in Juliette’s fate.
It’s definitely interesting but I don’t think the TV show could very easily incorporate it into the series.
I haven’t read the books, so this is all pure speculation. This is a world that is literally turned upside down and the symbolism of mirrors (remember where the cameras are often hidden) and whether what we see is a true reflection seems to be a major theme of the show.
From what origin story we do have, we know that sometime in the past there was some type of rebellion in the silo that wiped out their history. I think it’s quite obvious that is only at best a half truth. Either those in the know wipe the history and put the pact in place to secure their position of power by blaming the rebels, or it was actually those now in the know who rebelled and succeeded, deliberately doing those things to secure power.
But the camera does need cleaning. We’re meant to believe that people have lived in the silo for at least a number of generations. The leadership may not have totally nefarious reasons for keeping everyone in the dark -
Sorry - posted too soon. Will continue in next post 
(Cont.)
The leadership may not have totally nefarious reasons for keeping everyone in the dark - I think Mayor Holland genuinely thinks it’s for the best. It may be they still want to know when the world outside is habitable again. Maybe back in the past, before the rebellion, cleaning was just a regular job detail (which would explain why they had the suits) and it’s only since that time that it has become a punishment. It’s a complete WAG, but the verdant world simulation is maybe just a motivator to get the cleaning done.
OB
That much is explicit. It doesn’t make sense that someone who has witnessed numerous cleanings would think that their cleaning would be different. The cleaning would wipe off any dust, not change the scene entirely.
I can’t come up with a remotely plausible explanation for the flash-of-green as the screens rebooted. That just seems dumb.
As for why people would clean, whether they would believe the fake green on their visors, etc… I think it’s important to remember that they live in an incredibly closed-off and in many ways ignorant society, they don’t really know what video cameras are, they’ve certainly never heard of VR, and the who cleaning/outside/etc ritual is imbued with nearly holy weight by their society. Also, they might already be feeling the effects of poison/drugs/whatever that were sprayed on them (assuming the poison actually comes from the “airlock”).
So I don’t think any “hey, it doesn’t make sense, they should figure out that…” analysis from our modern perspective is particularly fair or useless.
There’s nothing to figure out though. They’ve seen several people clean and each time we still see the same scene with the grime removed. Why would they think that their cleaning would make the scene change regardless of what’s real?