Welcome to #TransTuesday! Here we are, finally at the end! It’s part nine THE UNINTENTIONAL (?) TRANS ALLEGORY OF SILO! Tillyvison now in 3D, it’s time to Silo up! Everything’s been leading here, and the ending maybe isn’t what you think it is!
No time to be cute. Here’s PART 1.
Tilly! You’re always cute. True. PART 2.
I can be not cute if I want to tho. PART 3.
Perhaps I cannot. Is my cuteness inherent? PART 4.
Is there a way to even tell? PART 5.
How would you know? PART 6.
This requires lots of research. PART 7.
Hmm? Oh! This is the last link so there’s no time for research now! On with the (end of the) show! PART 8.
EPISODE 10
Sims gets a message from a raider that Billings tried to get into Juliet’s apartment. He asks Billings why he went there. Billings says he thought if he could figure out why Juliet wanted to go out he might be able to find her, but then lies and says he found nothing.
Sims notices Billings’ hands shaking, that he has the Syndrome. So in lying to cover for the truth he discovered, enough of his own truth got out and Sims has clocked him as trans and part of the problem.
When Juliet gets the Jane Carmody file uploaded so the entire Silo sees it, Bernard tells everyone in the control room to shut their eyes, and then shuts down the entire system in the silo.
Bernard: “What you have just seen, you will unsee.” This is showing you that the people in the control room have NO IDEA that the feed from the outside world is a lie. THEY HAVE BOUGHT INTO EVERYTHING THEY’VE BEEN LIED TO ABOUT AND NOT QUESTIONED IT.
And Bernard knows to lose THEM, the very cis people that enable his control, would completely rob him of all his power. It’s vital THAT EVEN THOSE AT THE TOP BUY INTO THE LIE because then they will fight to uphold it (sometimes without even realizing it).
When Sims and Bernard catch up with Juliet in Walk’s workshop, Sims says his son keeps asking if the scary lady is going to come back. Juliet: “How many families do you think ask the same about you?” He is, AGAIN, a hypocrite.
Cis people scream THINK OF THE CHILDREN about trans kids but REFUSE to think of what they’re DOING to the trans kids by forcing their bodies through the wrong puberty and setting them up for a lifetime of dysphoria. H Y P O C R I T E S.
Bernard: “If you’d been able to do what you wanted to, you would have killed everyone in the silo.” Juliet: “People can handle the truth.” Because to cis people, transition is death. It also reeks of “how am I supposed to explain trans people to my kids?!”
Well, y’know… it’s super easy actually? “Some people were told they were boys, but they’re actually girls. And it goes the other way too. And some people are neither of those, or both, or sometimes one and sometimes the other.” It’s… not hard. At all.
Bernard: “I wish I shared your optimism.” LIES. Because to share her optimism means he’d be okay with people learning and accepting the truth, but he’s not. Because they’re a threat to his control. He smashes up the drive.
His deal for Juliet, to save her friends from punishment by association, is that she needs to stop saying she didn’t ask to go out and waive her right to a hearing. She takes the deal, because she doesn’t want life to be harder for the people she cares about.
Up she goes in shackles. She looks at the spot where George fell. The spot he landed looks like a cage, but the impact broke it open. HIS FALL BROKE THE CAGE. Juliet knows, now. Freedom awaits.
Juliet walks up the staircase and everyone stares. Did you know some cis people tend to… stare at trans people in public? It’s true. And not great. See the Trans Tuesday on STOP STARING AT US (trans people are human beings).
But a kid smiles. Even here, just seeing her is inspiration for those to come after.
Walk opens her door and comes out, terrified. “Come on you old fool you’re all she’s got. You’re not gonna die. Just feels like it.” If it will help Juliet, Walk will finally COME OUT OF THE CLOSET. Being our true selves, out in the world, absolutely helps other trans people.
And this is what allows Walk to find out about the heat tape issue which, we learn at the end of the episode, is WHAT SAVES Juliet. Solidarity. Trans siblings. Community. We can’t do it alone, we need each other.
In the footage of George’s death, he escapes a guard and threatens to go over the rail. George: “You were ordered to take me alive right? So I could be tortured until I gave up the hard drive and the people I worked with.” And over he goes. He gave his life for the truth, for the cause.
He sacrificed himself so that those who came after would have a chance of realizing their own truth.
Trans rights are where they are now (in half this country, anyway) because of the trans people who came before us, who marched, and protested, and fought for themselves. And for US.
In the control room, Bernard asks how things are and Sims says they’re quiet today. Hasn’t been this quiet since Holston went out to clean.
AAAGGH! Do you remember when Holston went out? They CLAIMED the silo was full of unrest and on the verge of riots then! Lies lies lies!!
Bernard tells Lukas that in recognition of his helping them he won’t be sent out to clean. But he WILL be sent to the mines for ten years. You can be a pick me and “one of the good ones” to our oppressors (coughCaitlynJennercough) but they do NOT care about you.
They hate you just as much as they do the rest of us. And they will toss you aside as soon as you’ve helped them oppress the rest of us. So glad you sold us out, Lukas! Thanks a bunch! What a gas station hot dog.
Billings tells his wife that Sims knows he has the Syndrome. Wife: “So what does that mean? Are you fired? Do we have to move?” AGAIN caring only about how it affects HER and not him. The cis grief of it all is INFURIATING. But they’re going to grant him an exemption.
Billings is cooperating! He will continue hiding his transness from everyone he can, and he sold us out just like Lukas for a promise of “an exemption.” THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU MY GUY, THANKS FOR NOTHING.
Billings goes to see Juliet with Bernard. Bernard: “I want you to know I take no pleasure from this. Any of it.” Juliet: “So quit.” But he won’t! It’s hollow! This is the same bullshit her dad did!
I don’t HATE trans people, I don’t WANT to oppress you, but look I HAVE to vote for Republicans so my taxes are lower! We can still be friends even though I’m stepping on your neck, right? Don’t be mad at ME! You’re so rude! UGH UGH UGH
Bernard: “I think about [quitting] at least once a day. But I don’t want to burden you with my troubles.” He’s so MAGNANIMOUS and HE’S THE REAL VICTIM HERE. Calling out transphobia is the same as being transphobic! Both sides! *fart noises*
Bernard: “…your troubles started at conception. Your parents weren’t supposed to have children. But accidents happen.” There it is. People like HER MOM, an egg, a Flamekeeper, a GENDER NON-CONFORMING PERSON, SHOULD NOT PROPAGATE THEIR WAYS.
Bernard: “Every human life has value.” LIEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! Do you know what Juliet is? A HUMAN LIFE. He doesn’t mean EVERY human life. He means SOME human life, the ones HE cares about. Nobody else is important. It’s the same shit Sims was saying.
Bernard: “You’ve been of great service to the silo. But once you became sheriff and you started to look into Wilkins’ death…” Juliet: “I outlived my usefulness.” Once you’re no longer useful to upholding the cis status quo, out you go. Bye.
Juliet lays out the truth: “If this place needs the death of George and Jahns and Marnes and the sheriff and his wife, there’s something very wrong with this silo. And you know what, I don’t want to be of great service anymore.” FUCK YOU, TRANSPHOBES.
Juliet says she won’t clean. Bernard says nobody intends to but always does, as the founders saw in their infinite wisdom. As her last request, Bernard gives her Holston’s badge. She flips it over and looks at TRUTH scratched in it. This is it.
Bernard takes out the smashed parts to drive 18. The disc is damaged but intact. His show of destroying it was just that, a show. Whatever info is on there, he’s keeping it for himself. The details are immaterial, what matters here is again “rules for thee but not for me.”
Bernard reads their little going out spiel, which includes “I hope that you will clean, so we will see the world outside our sanctuary as it is, and thereby be reminded that here is safe, and there is not.” It’s all about fear and control, to keep us from transitioning.
Juliet’s last words? “I’m not afraid.” Out she goes. She looks around. Sees EXACTLY the Jane Carmody video and recognizes the pattern the birds are flying in. The display in her helmet is also a lie!
She walks to the sensor. Drops the wool. She will not clean! She will not participate in the oppression of others.
She trips on something she can’t see due to the display video in her helmet. She finds Holston’s body by feel. Her hand goes through the fake image. Bernard, watching. “She knows.” Sims: “Knows what?” Again this is showing you that Bernard knows the real truth, and Sims does not.
IT would have had to set up the fake displays and spy room, they’ve always been the real bosses… THE CONTROL OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION is how they spread the lies and maintain their power.
Juliet leaves Holston’s badge on his body. She stumbles, this is where the others died. But… now she’s got the GOOD heat tape from Walk.
Bernard runs into the server room. His 18 red light keychain is lit up and he opens the door. Remember that he saved the drive! So what’s in the server room?
Juliet’s display changes (did Bernard shut it off? Did she get out of range? dunno) and she sees a desolate wasteland. As she walks over the hill and out of view of the silo’s sensor, everyone is shocked, even Sims. And as she walks, we see there are other silos all around.
Now I’ve seen people complaining about this, as if it means “the fascists were right” and that’s the message of the show. But for ten episodes that’s been the OPPOSITE of the message of the show. It’s not suddenly changing.
Because what you need to realize is that the POINT is THEY WERE LYING ABOUT WHAT’S OUTSIDE. They were knowingly SENDING PEOPLE TO THEIR DEATH WITH FAULTY HEAT TAPE, which is why they were so mad when Juliet stole it.
They could have been found out, the entire jig might have been up. They weren’t actually letting people be free by sending them out, it was a death sentence. But let’s talk about the other silos out there.
Because I think these represent other countries (or STATES, ahem) where society treats trans people with respect, like any other human who is maybe left-handed or a redhead. It’s just a condition of our birth. Not a big deal.
We can be and ARE valuable members of society, of BETTER societies that choose not to oppress us for not conforming. And if people trapped in silo 18 KNOW THAT, they know LIFE CAN BE BETTER. AND THEY MIGHT CHOOSE TO GO OUT.
AND SURVIVE. AND FIND A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE. AND LEARN THAT EVERYTHING IN SILO 18 HAS BEEN A LIE. AND THEN BERNARD HAS LOST ALLLLL THE POWER HE HAS.
It’s lies upon lies, all to maintain control.
And that is ENTIRELY what the season has been about all the way through.
As to what the other silos mean in the surface story, and what’s in the server room, what Bernard is doing with drive 18, what Sims’ actual goal is, what happens to Juliet… we won’t know until season 2. But all of that is immaterial to the trans allegory of season 1.
Because season 1 is here for you and complete in every way it needs to be. And I want to send a huge THANK YOU to Graham Yost and everyone involved with season 1. I LOVE THIS SHOW. It means so much to me, you have no idea.
Trans people HAVE a history that was ERASED. Society wants mirrors to keep lying to us. Cis people put their feelings over ours. The water is huge and scary and could drown us, but we can transition and learn to swim, and others can show us how. And then we can teach others too.
We should have a better world than what we’ve got. And in COMMUNITY with each other, and true cis allies, we can all fight for the better world we deserve.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
WE ARE THE FLAMEKEEPERS.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com
