Silo's season finale ended with the wrong scene

What a wild week of television (and life in general, really). Instead of the usual slow patch following the winter hiatus, some heavy, drama-filled episodes hit the airwaves this week across both broadcast and streaming. While I could ramble on about many, though without a point, here are some musings about the few I had particularly strong thoughts on.

Silo — Season 2

There have been many complaints online about the pacing of Silo Season 2, which I (almost) wholeheartedly disagree with. I found the season to be fascinating. After Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) did the unprecedented and failed to clean, watching circumstances devolve in Silo 18 and a rebellion brew and build throughout the season, before finally coming together in the finale, offered quite expansive insight into both the mindsets of those underground and how the so-called “Founders” prepared centuries in advance for this specific scenario. To counter 18’s building rebellion with Juliette discovering the aftermath of the 17’s rebellion—and subsequent deaths for nearly all 10,000 residents after opening the airlock—decades prior lent itself to increasing the tension and adding some much-needed nuance to the previously black-or-white viewpoint of those in I.T. tasked with preventing such rebellion and keeping the silo intact.

Do I wish Juliette would have had more to do? For sure. However, Juliette was the star throughout the majority of the first season, and taking a slight step back allowed the series to focus on some much-needed exploration of her friends and family. My primary quibble about the season is ending on such a lackluster flashback to the world pre-silos. There are interesting things teased that will be worked into next season, like Iran’s dirty bomb, but overall it’s a rather unsettling and anticlimactic scene to leave us with and pales in comparison to Juliette and Holland (Tim Robbins) trapped in the decontamination chamber and engulfed in flames. In my opinion, the scene would have worked much better at the beginning of the episode, rather than following such game-changing moments. Or perhaps it wasn’t necessary to include whatsoever.

The Sex Lives of College Girls — Season 3, Episode 9

The loss of Leighton (Reneé Rapp) and how the series has tried to handle it has created quite a mess in Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls. Essentially dividing the largest aspects of Leighton’s personality, albeit going a bit more in-depth and adding some unique twists, between newcomers Kacey (Gracie Lawrence) and Taylor (Mia Rodgers) was unexpected. But there was no good way to handle it. Thus far, I have not been the biggest fan of Taylor, though I’ll wait to see how the finale plays out after the latest cliffhanger before taking a firm stance. However, after a rocky start and some bitching and moaning (from me) about Kacey’s immersion into the core friendship, I have quickly come to adore her.

Though it’s been a while since I have watched the first two seasons, I may prefer the core friendship with Kacey. While Leighton was my favorite, I don’t know that I ever really believed the friendship from her side. With Kacey, her introduction was a little rough, but how she has been seamlessly integrated into the core group has been inspired. She meshes quite well, riffing off them and delivering snark without being rude or mean. Plus, it’s nice to see how they’re dramatically influencing Kacey’s growth, just as they did for each other — whereas I feel the majority of Leighton’s growth, though not all, came from her time at the women’s center and the relationships she forged there.

In addition to her role in the core friendship, the series has also given Kacey a romance worth rooting for with Cooper (Roby Attal). The others have had such terrible or sloppily written romances with men, including the “good” relationships, but the blossoming relationship between Kacey and Cooper is being handled so thoughtfully. It’s still complicated by college and sex, in addition to Kacey’s self-esteem issues, but they take each step with a healthy, mature mindset, separating this romance from all of the others we’ve seen. It’s interesting to learn what the show is capable of nearly three full seasons in (and hopefully more to come).

Aside from this week’s realization that Kacey is my favorite of the main characters, the progression (or rather, destruction) of the relationship between Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) and Brian (Michael Hsu Rosen) has left me speechless. It was so sudden, as was Bela and Arvind (Nabeel Muscatwalla) calling things off. At the very least, they are great examples of the season’s incredible pacing issues. Furthermore, I’m joining the conversation about whether Bela is going to have a bisexual awakening. There were definitely some vibes, if not with Taylor then with the girl encouraging Bela to get on stage and share her comedy again (whose name I cannot remember and I cannot be bothered to turn the show back on for this right now).

The Traitors (US) — Season 3, Episode 4

What. An. Episode. Honestly, it’s probably one of the series’ strongest, specifically as far as the drama at the roundtable and banishment. As I stated previously, I don’t believe these Traitors—Bob the Drag Queen, Danielle, Carolyn, and Boston Rob—are particularly killing it thus far. Their choices for the daily murders have been downright questionable, lacking any strategy whatsoever (and causing chaos is a strategy, but that’s not what they’re doing). There is no method to their madness; right now, none of them can agree on anything and they aren’t willing to listen to each other. It’s a free-for-all in the Traitors’ turret.

It’s disappointing to see Jeremy go, especially as his only “crime” was correctly naming Danielle as one of the Traitors. If the players were actual fans of the show, rather than so-called celebrities who hadn’t heard of the series until the offer rolled in, perhaps the contestants would have been able to put two and two together and see Danielle for what she is. But, everyone seemed to forget that he had ever mentioned her name after Alan tossed his photo on the ground — and Gabby, bless her heart, thought too hard about seeing Danielle leave the secret room the night before and completely confused herself.

It’s rather surprising that Boston Rob stepped up and took the shot at Bob (the Drag Queen) himself at the banishment. Was it deserved? Definitely after Bob’s unprovoked comment at the end of the mission about everyone needing to look at the three men who came into the game late. Was it smart? Probably not. He’s not only turned his fellow Traitors against him incredibly early, or at least made them severely question his judgment, but some folks were just smart enough to mumble on about how certain he was about Bob being a Traitor and how you can only be certain if you’re one yourself. That suspicion will follow him to the end, should he make it that far, and we’ve seen people lose over a lot less. In my opinion, Carolyn is the only Traitor playing a somewhat smart game; the beautiful irony is that it’s entirely unintentional. She was overruled and ignored by Bob and Danielle before Boston Rob joined them, not even able to speak her mind during that first meeting without being cut off, and now Boston Rob and Danielle are going to be too busy butting heads to care what she thinks. I’m curious to see which of her fellow Traitors she temporarily aligns herself with or if she’ll stay neutral and quiet, letting them fight each other while working on a plan to get them both sent packing. Alas, maybe I’m overestimating her abilities, but she has been making points about how her fellow Traitors aren’t playing strategically.

All that matters following Bob’s beautiful banishment is my girl Britney has a shield protecting her from the next murder. And, thankfully, The Traitors is capitalizing on Britney’s comedic abilities and providing us with some funny clips of her in the diary room or whatever. Also, it’s not important, but Bob’s comment to Dylan about Zac’s acting was unnecessary and quite a nasty thing to say.

Found — Season 2, Episode 9

Returning from hiatus, NBC’s Found continues to be such an intriguing adventure. This outing finally did a bit more to explore Detective Mark Trent (Brett Dalton), and teasing more to come on the horizon, which was a treat. Since learning about what Gabi (Shanola Hampton) did to Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and his escape from her clutches, Trent has been a bit exhausting. The antagonistic twist on the character and his potential slow-burn romance with Gabi has lasted far too long, making the character even more difficult to enjoy or sympathize with than he already was as a cop on a very anti-police series. It’s nice to see that alleviated somewhat after a well-deserved verbal bitch-slap from Gabi. I also enjoyed the slight change in Gabi that accompanied this sparring with Trent, with Gabi no longer putting up with his morally superior bullshit or feeling like she deserves to be on the receiving end of his unyielding contempt.

On the other hand, the series needs to take a beat and slow down a little. They are rapidly burning through material, putting too little focus this season on the procedural aspect of the M&A team searching for missing persons. There was a great pace in the first season, but we’ve been moving at breakneck speed since Sir escaped Gabi’s basement. In this episode alone, Dhan (Karan Oberoi) is shot, Sir’s unseen accomplice attacks Gabi from behind, and Sir breaks into Trent’s house, steals Trent’s service weapon, accuses Trent’s father of shady involvement in cold cases of seven missing children who disappeared over a year, and then Gabi arrives to see the gun discharged inside and the fates of both men left in the ether.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint, but it feels we’re in a race to wrap everything up in a bow by season’s end. Not to mention, the weekly cases have been drastically lacking, which needs to be a priority moving forward if it is to last for years to come.

Finally, I absolutely loathe how many of these characters regularly treat Gabi. They take out all of their problems on her, blaming her for everything, including things that aren’t her fault, while also greatly exaggerating the issues she causes. Gabi always bears it, but it’s not right and is infuriating to watch. This time, it’s Dhan’s husband Ethan (Lee Osorio) who kicks Gabi (and only Gabi, not the others from M&A) out of the hospital while Dhan is in surgery and fighting for his life, admitting he needs “space” from her and doesn’t want to “share” Dhan in what could be the final moments of their relationship as he has through the rest of it. So, her best friend is in the hospital on death’s door, and once again someone blames Gabi for things entirely out of her control. She’s a bigger person than me because his behavior is utterly astounding and despicable. Worse, the series always acts like these characters are right to lash out at Gabi, no matter how harshly they do so. This pattern must change because it’s making it difficult to like anyone besides Gabi.

Well, that’s all for this week! What shows will I be writing about next week? I honestly don’t know, so stay tuned!