Through the Pages: Wool (18-21)

Welcome to week 6 of Through the Pages: Wool, a weekly discussion on various chapters in Wool as we reread the book in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation and log in our predictions on what will stay, what will go, what might be added, and what lines we want to see make it in. Will beloved small characters be cut? Merged? Will seemingly small characters gain a bigger role?

This week’s piece covers chapters 18 through 21. Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool will be published each Thursday, covering a group of chapters in Wool. The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie.

Eamon Ambrose

After the tragic events of the previous chapter, we’re jolted forward in time to Jules languishing in her own cell, preparing for cleaning. It’s quite a shock to the reader, until we’re pulled back again to the aftermath of Jahns’s death with Jules now settling into her job as sheriff.

One thing I think we may see in the TV show is more of Jules on the job. I was always a little disappointed that we never really got to see her as sheriff properly, so I think a few police procedural episodes with her and Marnes will be shoehorned in. I’ve got a feeling Marnes’s tragic death may be treated differently too, in order to give him more screen time with Jules.

Bernard and Jules have their first face-to-face meeting, which is understandably frosty as the tension rises between them. Stargazer Lukas makes his first appearance, and I think that visually, this will be an interesting scene between him and Jules in the darkened cafeteria.

Casting:
I’m sticking with the Irish here and putting Domhnall Gleeson forward for Lukas!

Crystal Watanabe

Chapter 18, though brief, seemed like something that would be a good teaser opening for an episode, and so I think (and hope) we’ll see it play out that way, then go into a flashback episode. Chapter 19 will probably largely be condensed down into Jules sitting in the cell thinking, and we’ll end up getting to know her through some kind of expansion, possibly Jules remembering the case with Holston and the suspected murder of her former lover. That would 1) give more time to world-build 2) give us more time in the down deep 3) let us get to know Jules. Plus, if they pick a known name for Holston, this would give him more screen time. I’m leaning toward flashbacks interspersed with the present.

Jules’s first meeting with Bernard will, of course, be crucial, and I can’t wait to see it play out, with her fire and his smugness. I think the scene between them will probably be longer, or we’ll be given several, just so that we can understand how important it is that he’s become acting mayor and what kind of power he will enjoy until a new one is chosen.

Although Lukas showed up earlier in IT, the scene in the cafeteria will be good for immediately establishing that he’s not the cold bastard that Bernard is. I’m undecided as to whether they’ll follow the book for Marnes, as he seems like a good choice to deviate from the book and keep alive. I would be on board with that kind of change rather than seeing Marnes succumb to Bernard’s intentions.

Casting:
I wanted to wait before fancasting Lukas, and this time I’m going to go with Nicolas Hoult or Logan Lerman. They’re both in the right age range and have a somewhat innocent boyish look.

Lines that should make it in:
Jules to Bernard: “I believe we’ll find the party responsible was the one with the most to gain. Mayor.”

Samuel Peralta

History repeats itself as Jules is framed in scenes—preparing to clean, spending time in the holding cell—that parallel both Holston’s and his wife’s journey as they uncovered the secrets of the Silo. But now the stakes are higher. The enemy is showing itself, no longer simply hiding in the shadows. IT. Bernard Holland. Guardians, through the servers, of the history of the Silo—a history hiding a secret so important that those who uncovered it died.

An encounter and long conversation with Lukas, a mysterious man studying the night sky from the viewscreen—and the growing realization that there are wonders outside that no one has imagined (stars!)—portends a growing relationship that will serve as the backdrop as the story continues. By now, viewers have been hammered with the deaths of three major characters, but the death of yet another will bring home the message that no one is safe, and perhaps not even Juliette. Can she break the cycle? Does that opening scene with Jules at the airlock mean that the cycle is inevitable, that she will fail? Or will she uncover the secret of the Silo and avoid the fate of others before her?

Casting:
I’m going to stick with my casting of a person of color for Lukas. Last week I called for either John Cho or Harry Shum Jr. This week I’m throwing Michael B. Jordan’s name in the hat for the producers to think about. What say you?

Lines that should make the show:
Bernard: “But now I hear you’re investigating for foul play?”
Jules: “I suppose you should know, as acting mayor, that we’re treating this very much as a murder.”
Bernard: “Oh my. So the rumors are true. Who would do such a thing?”
Jules: “I believe we’ll find that the party responsible was the one with the most to gain… Mayor.”

Jules: “What the hell was that?”
Lukas (laughing): “A star.”

Peter Cawdron

WOOL is a slow burn, which gives it plenty of time for character development, but once we reach Casting Off, the body count starts to climb. Bernard is the bad guy. That’s been building for a while and becomes more evident in how he throws his authority around, but the intriguing aspect of this portion of the book is the growing awareness of societal bonds with the Pact. We begin to see that Bernard, and indeed all the characters, are part of a system of control. Bernard is enforcing the Pact. Jules is questioning it.

When it comes to the TV series, I’m expecting to see these two diverging threads explored in more detail as they speak to modern life. Laws are set by governments and need to be enforced to have any meaning, but should that enforcement be mindless? Can it be abused? What greater purpose does it really serve? These are the underlying questions in WOOL, they’re the current that draws the story downstream. And there are plenty of parallels in our time when it comes to everything from BLM to COVID to Climate Change. Some people abuse the rules and hide behind them to cling to power. The real champions question them and ensure laws are honestly and equitably enforced and have a real purpose. That’s the course that’s being charted for us in WOOL. I really hope the screenwriters amplify these societal issues underlying the tension as it builds, as this is where the book gets readers to think on a deeper level.

Angela Traficante

As a first time reader of Wool, all I can say is: How about we stop it with all the heart-wrenching deaths? My poor soul is having a hard time coping.

This set of chapters does a great job of continuing to upset the status quo, both with the framing chapter of Juliette preparing for her cleaning, and with Marnes’s death. It feels like just when we thought that we’d get a chance to breathe with Juliette as sheriff, we are being told, “Haha, nope!” I’m not actually sure that the TV show will use the frame of Juliette preparing for cleaning, and I’m not sure I want it to. I don’t know how that plays out yet, but I think I want to be surprised by it when it happens. Juliette is obviously being set up for the difficulty of her role, and I don’t think I’d like to know in advance that she ultimately fails in some way. I want to see her clash with Bernard play out, and I want to watch as she develops her own methods. I feel like it would be a little hard to root for her in the show if we know the outcome already.

Similarly, I think I’d like to see more of Marnes’s struggle played out in the TV show. Since these chapters in the book are from Juliette’s point of view, it’s a little difficult to show what’s going on outside of her direct understanding, but the TV show should be able to open us up much more to Marnes’s emotions. And I can’t be the only one excited to see Lukas and Juliette’s chemistry on screen. I’m already picturing their meet-cute—the darkness, the stars, the sparse dialogue that still conveys so much. It’s interesting that we get both the final death of a relationship (Jahns/Marnes) and the first bloom of one within the same chapter.

Casting:
Although I already did some speculating on Lukas last week, I’ll reiterate my desire for Timothee Chalamet, who I think can bring that sort of enigmatic nature as well as the optimism we see in this chapter.

Lines that should make the show:
Lukas: “The longer you do this, the better you see at night.”

Will Swardstrom

I’ll confess: I knew the deaths were starting to rack up, and I knew what was coming, so I had a peek at Angela’s reaction to this week, and it played out about how I remembered my own feelings from this section when I read it years ago. At this point, we’re seeing main character after main character kick the bucket, and then Part III of WOOL (Casting Off) starts with a view of the future with Juliette standing at the airlock looking over her suit, echoing what Holsten did just chapters ago. If I recall my own reading reaction all those years ago, I was probably like “Oh, heck no.”

And that’s Hugh Howey for you. I really think he loved to paint himself into a corner and then figure out how to get himself out. As readers, we aren’t seeing the sliver of hope for our protagonists, but it’s there. Ultimately, at the end of the day, Howey is giving us hope, but we have to cling to it when everything around us is telling us to despair.

Getting back to the book, I do love that right after the vision of Jules in the suit, we go back a few days and see her adjusting to life as sheriff. I think seeing her reaction to outside screens as a contrast to Holsten and those who lived near the top of the silo is really interesting and hope the show explores how different people in the silo view their home differently. We also see that Jules is smart—she knows something is off. Between Holston’s death and then Jahns’s, there is something wrong with the silo, and the first thing she does on her own time is research her predecessor in the job.

The interaction between Jules and Bernard is great, and that first meetup between the two might be one of the great parts of the show—the dynamic between the shadow king of the silo and the girl who believes she has the authority to take him down if need be.

Casting:
Lukas gets a nice little introduction here, and I hope they get someone Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) to play him. I think he’d be a fun choice and a nice switch up from his HP persona.

Lines that should make the show:
I don’t know if I have any specific lines, but that first conversation between Jules and Bernard. The FEELING of that conversation needs to be in there. It might not translate word for word from the page to the screen, but that awkward feeling and the power dynamic he is trying to hold over her is crucial.

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 18–21. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 22–25. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool (15-17)

Welcome to week 5 of Through the Pages: Wool, a weekly discussion on various chapters in Wool as we reread the book in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation and log in our predictions on what will stay, what will go, what might be added, and what lines we want to see make it in. Will beloved small characters be cut? Merged? Will seemingly small characters gain a bigger role?

This week’s piece covers chapters 15 through 17. Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool will be published each Thursday, covering a group of chapters in Wool. The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie.

Will Swardstrom

This is the end of the second short story of five that comprises the WOOL Omnibus, and it’s the first one that Hugh Howey wrote after the massive success of the first WOOL Kindle book. As such, he had to kneecap us at some point, and at the very end of Proper Gauge, we get it good. He wasn’t afraid to kill the silo’s sheriff in the opening chapters of the book, and he was sure to let us know he wasn’t afraid to kill off anyone around 20 percent in when Mayor Jahns slowly slips away from Marnes there in the doctor’s office.

We got comfortable with Jahns and Marnes and fell into an easy rhythm with them as they went up and down the stairs of the silo. We got comfortable with them and rooted for them as a couple and with them as they verbally sparred with the IT Department. But as we soon found out, that was too much for Bernard.

But it does bring up a lot of questions heading into Part 3 of the book: Was the water intended for Jahns or Marnes? How does Marnes react? Who is the next mayor? How does Juliette handle this changing situation? Is she still the next sheriff since Jahns never made it all the way back to her office? There are so many questions at play, and while all those are floating around, the POV shifts back to Jules as she tries to get Mechanical back in working order before she departs for the upper levels.

It’s interesting that in one way, the power is now fixed for the silo thanks to Juliette and her skills with the machinery, but the political power of the silo is quite broken and the rest of the book will definitely show whether Jules is up to the task of repairing this kind of power. How will all this play out in the show? Pretty well I’d say. I imagine they’ll milk the Jahns and Marnes relationship a bunch so when she dies, just about in his arms, it is traumatic for him and the audience. I loved the way the news trickled down the silo at the very end, and I hope we see it in the show almost as a wave that washes over the silo, leaving a power vacuum in its wake.

Eamon Ambrose

This is a heartbreaking but pivotal moment in the story. We now know the lengths Bernard will go to to get what he wants and just how treacherous he is. I think some backstory in the form of flashbacks for Jahns and Marnes will be introduced before the final scene to make it even more tragic. Hugh did something really clever with these two characters, making them two instantly likeable, decent people. The fact that there’s a hint of romance between them makes them even more endearing, and Jahns’s demise all the more tragic, coupled with the fact that the poison that kills her was meant for Marnes, so not only has Marnes lost the woman he loves at the very moment when their relationship has shifted to a new level, when he finally gets all he’s ever wanted, but the fact that it should have been him is just devastating.

Meanwhile in Mechanical, Juliette is making the most of the power holiday to get the generator back online. We briefly see Shirley and Marck again before news of Jahns’s death filters down just as they celebrate the successful repair.

Crystal Watanabe

I mentioned before that it’s been a long time since I read Wool, so this has been a great refresher for me. For some reason, I had thought that both Marnes and Jahns drank from the canteen, so that was a bit of a surprise for me. I can see this happening at around episode 3 or 4, possibly 5, depending on how much expansion they do to worldbuild. It sounds mean, but I really want new viewers to become attached to Jahns so that her death is felt much more. In a book, you can very easily become attached to a character through narration, which I think is why we could so easily fall in love with her in very little book.

This is not as easy a feat in a TV show format, which is why I think her story will have to be stretched out across several episodes—and then in plunges the knife of loss! <evil laugh> Kidding. Sort of. Anyway, I have no doubt that they’ll play up Bernard, and I do think we’ll get a brief glimpse of Lukas during his little tantrum. I’m looking forward to how they choose to portray Bernard.

It’s a tiny scene, but I hope they put in the little girl reading the picture book. I had commented in a post of Hugh’s somewhere that I’d love to see his picture book Misty the Proud Cloud make an appearance, and this would be a great time to do it! I think Juliette turning the generator on and then learning about what happened is a great way to tease the next episode, something that shows nowadays rely on more and more, so my guess is that will be mostly intact.

Casting:
For Lukas, I’m not really sure yet, since I can’t remember off the top of my head what he’s described as looking like, so I’ll wait for future installments to lodge a guess.

Lines that should make it in:
Bernard: I won’t sign it.
Jahns: Then next time, I won’t ask.

Samuel Peralta

After calling Jules to adventure, the climb back up for Marnes and Jahns becomes an exhausting punctuation of the size of the Silo. The shared journey, the companionship, the exhaustion, all conspire towards a long-foreshadowed love scene that will definitely be embraced by the AppleTV adaptation.

Haunted by past relationships, it will be achingly sweet and quickly alert the viewer that something tremendous and tragic is in store—such a union cannot last, and sooner or later it will end in tragedy. How will it end? The confrontation when they return to the IT level and Bernard refuses to confirm Jules’s appointment as the new sherriff—that sinister confrontation hints broadly as to what is to come.

Then suddenly, without warning, it happens. Viewers will be shocked as yet another major character (and major actor casting) is taken off the table. But the story continues, because we close with Jules triumphantly ending one stage of her life—her life in Mechanical—to begin anew in another role, in another chapter of WOOL.

Casting:
I wouldn’t want to alert folks too much to the importance of Lukas to later chapters at this stage, but we also need someone capable. A stealth actor with range. Perhaps a person of color. I’m going to go out on a limb and call for either John Cho or Harry Shum Jr.

Lines that should make the show:
Bernard: I won’t sign it.
Jahns: Then next time, I won’t ask.

Bernard: “You think you’ll outlive another sheriff? Why do I somehow doubt that?”

Peter Cawdron

Re-reading WOOL and thinking about it as a TV series, I’m expecting the screenwriters will draw upon the material to expand the dialogue. There are parts of the story that cry out for a discussion between two characters. It works well in book form but could never be portrayed on the screen in quite the same way.

For example: “What was it all about, this life they lived un underground confines? What was out there, over those hills? Why were they here? And for what purpose? Had her kind built those tall silos crumbling in the distance? For what? Why had Holston, a reasonable man… been thinking to want to leave?”

To my mind, these are the questions that drive the story forward. Although the immediate concern is a murder, it’s against this backdrop that it unfolds. I’m thinking the scriptwriters are going to expand upon this to build the overarching story arc. I suspect sections like this will be handled as perhaps diary entries or conversations with a close friend.

Angela Traficante

Wool just won’t let up on the drama! As heartbreaking and hard-hitting as it was, I loved the juxtaposition between the development of Jahns and Marnes’s sweet relationship, and the sudden devastation of Jahns’s death. It was extremely impactful that their closeness was, in a way, her downfall.

There’s a lot of silent communication in these chapters—the relationship between Jahns and Marnes, Jahns’s death and seeing what’s going on around her as she slips away, Juliette learning about what happened. I hope all of that is preserved in the TV show, because I think it’s cinematically beautiful and a way to add variety and texture to the shots.

When it comes to the end of this part, I expect the cinematography to do some cuts here between Bernard, Jahns, and Juliette as these chapters come to their unfortunate climax, cementing the “sides” of the story and the idea that something fishy is definitely going on with IT. There is no way Jahns’s death won’t be discovered to be murder, so how the new sheriff goes about tackling that will be an interesting conflict indeed. I’m looking forward to seeing Juliette versus Bernard. The idea of both literal and metaphorical “power” is starting to come through very strongly in the novel. I expect there will be a constant struggle when it comes to that, and also the very definition of what “power” itself is. These first few episodes of the TV show have a chance to lay the foundations for that dynamic.

Casting:
We briefly see Lukas in this chapter! Although I’m the Wool newbie in this read-along group, I did peek a little ahead and saw that Lukas will be important. Is it cheating to vote for Timothee Chalamet as Lukas? And while I know he’s a little old for the role, my mind also went to Donald Glover after his performance in The Martian.

Lines that should make the show:
Bernard: “Whatever it takes to power their decrepit legs out of here and back to wherever it is they belong.”

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 15–17. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 18–21. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool (11-14)

Welcome to week 4 of Through the Pages: Wool, a weekly discussion on various chapters in Wool as we reread the book in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation and log in our predictions on what will stay, what will go, what might be added, and what lines we want to see make it in. Will beloved small characters be cut? Merged? Will seemingly small characters gain a bigger role?

This week’s piece covers chapters 11 through 14. Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool will be published each Thursday, covering a group of chapters in Wool. The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie.

Angela Traficante

Ah! We meet the famous (infamous?) Juliette, and she’s every bit the tough and clever enigma she was foreshadowed to be. I love that she managed to get exactly what she wanted before she gave in to what Jahns wanted. In addition to opening up the character list a little, I’m really excited to see the TV show’s portrayal of the down deep, especially in contrast to the upper levels and mid levels. I’m hoping for color changes, shape changes, accent changes, and little details that show the difference in what people care about at every level of the silo.

Added to that, I love the idea that Jahns and Marnes are basically an inconvenience once they are down beyond the middle of the silo or so. Even without a lot of detail, it was very clear that everyone down there really just wants them gone so they can continue on with their work without the interference of “tourists.” This set of chapters also opened up the strange relationship with Jahns and Marnes! I wasn’t expecting the two of them to have feelings for one another beyond being longtime coworkers, but they clearly do. I guess it’s not so strange, to develop that sort of attraction when you’ve known someone for so long, and in such a stressful situation.

Marnes’s tenderness with Jahns is particularly sweet, and I hope that comes through on screen. And speaking of sweet things, can I just mention how cute I found it that silo-dwellers call skyscrapers “those ancient aboveground silos”? Just goes to show that we all have different perspectives. On a final note, that conversation about the heat tape seemed quite important. I’m curious to know why…

Casting:
I’m already sort of loving the idea of Rebecca Ferguson in the role of Juliette. She’s exactly what I pictured, and we’ve seen both a hefty amount of versatility from her as well as experience in sci-fi.

Lines that should make the show:
Marnes: “You just lean into each step, and before you know it, you’re home.”
Marck: “Because she’ll damn well do [the job]. Even if you don’t really expect her to.”

Will Swardstrom

The four chapters we looked at this week are huge and key chapters for the story, BUT…I could certainly see some huge changes here for the TV show. It really depends on how deep (pun mildly intended) the producers want to get into silo life.

In the first chapter and a half, Jahns and Marnes navigate the stairs down to the bottom of the silo—Mechanical. In those chapters, we get details on what is contained in the levels of this huge vertical tunnel they call home. We get details on the 144 floors and what is on floor 100 (a giant bazaar). We learn about the farms and all the people that work and inhabit these floors. It’s very informative and chews up a good chapter and a half, but if they need to move the story along, I could definitely see them cutting a lot of the detail here in favor of getting to Juliette faster.

OH, and speaking of Jules, this is the big part of the second half of these chapters. We finally get Marnes and Jahns down to Mechanical, and we meet Juliette for the first time, and almost instantly we can see why Marnes liked her for the sheriff job. She’s tough and no-nonsense. She doesn’t want the job, which is probably what makes her perfect for it. I do think the show will spend a little time down deep with Jules to get a good introduction to the character and to establish just how far away her life is from the job she eventually agrees to on Level 1.

Casting: Juliette is the only known cast member as of this writing, and I think it’s brilliant. The things I really remember her from are The Greatest Showman and the Mission Impossible films. In each of those, she seemed to be well composed and clean. With our first meeting of Jules in Mechanical, I’m fascinated to see her getting into the work of keeping the silo running. Great choice and I look forward to seeing her in the role.

Lines that should make the show:
I don’t know if it’ll make the show, but when Marnes and Jahns are talking about the afterlife and where Holston’s soul has gone, Jahns says “It’s still with us. That’s what they’d say, anyway.” Could be a really interesting conversation on the stairs. Later, when they reach the lower levels, Jahns thinks to herself, “It was like another world down here,” and I could see that becoming dialogue in the show for sure.

Eamon Ambrose

As Jahns and Marnes make their way down to Mechanical to meet with Juliette, the trip continues to serve as exposition for silo life, detailing the various floors and customs as day-to-day life goes on around them. I’m looking forward to these scenes and can’t help but wonder if my mental picture of the silo will match that of the production. I hope they don’t go for anything drastically different. The Down Deep and Mechanical especially should be impressive.

I think a lot of the Jahns/Marnes dialogue will be cut for shorter more succinct scenes showing their increasing desire to act on their feelings for each other. We finally get to meet Juliette, who immediately uses the situation to negotiate what she wants, before eventually agreeing to take the job. Jahns and Marnes finally have a moment before another confrontation with Bernard changes everything.

Casting:
I think Cameron Britton would make a great Knox. He’s got the stature and the acting chops to pull it off.

Lines that should make the show:
Jahns: “I’ve been married more to his ghost than to him.”

Crystal Watanabe

I have a confession to make this week, and it makes me feel both thrilled and clueless: I don’t think I picked up on the mentions of Jahns’s husband in my previous readings of Wool. Did I only read Wool once, and not again after Shift or Dust? I can’t remember, but rereading these chapters, I audibly gasped at the mention of Donald. Consider my mind blown. I can’t wait for this to play out.

Reading these chapters reinforced in my mind that unlike “Holston,” we won’t see “Proper Gauge” take up a single episode. I think they’ll use the trip into the down deep as a worldbuilding method, plus build up IT, plus introduce Juliette, plus build up Marnes and Jahns, over the course of at least two or three episodes, and we won’t see its conclusion until at least midseason.

As I mentioned, though, the simple trip down probably only works in a book, and more would have to happen than just them walking down and building their cute senior crush on each other, so again, I think this is where we’ll see story expansion. I mentioned an up-top scuffle with post-cleaning tension release before, but maybe we’ll also see Marnes’s infamous rabbit turned into a full farm-level episode. We might also get some kind of porter expansion, with some drama there. I could see a full episode being dedicated to convincing Juliette to accept the position, along with expansion behind the heat tape.

Casting:
I can’t wait to see Juliette come to life. She is arguably the character who saved me from book fatigue (I was sick of YA protags and just wanted a book to star a grown-up for once, with a grown-up mentality, and boy did she deliver), so she’s important to me in a reader sense. For Knox, there are a bunch of Hey, It’s That Guy! actors who could fill his shoes, but Kristian Nairn (Hodor) comes to mind. I’m not sure if we’ll see much of Marck and Shirly, so I have no guesses there.

Lines that should make it in:
Juliette: “Down here, we joke that this place was laid out to keep us well out of the way.”
Marnes: “They make the best ones. The ones who have no interest in it.”

Samuel Peralta

The overwhelming visual feel in these episodes would be that the Silo is like a space station—albeit located underground instead of in outer space—an engineered shelter, cramped, self-contained, with sections contributing to different aspects of the balanced ecology. This balance is precarious—even a single unaccounted-for rabbit in the agricultural section can throw a wrench in the delicate cycles of the Silo.

That rabbit is symbolic of the havoc that someone like Allison or Holston could cause to the Silo’s precarious balance of power, of peace. Three sections of forty-eight sections, and the descent is as much an exposition of the Silo’s ecosystem as the relationship between Jahns and Marnes. The book focuses on the tediousness and weariness of the stairwell journey to emphasize the size of the Silo, and the adaptation has to be careful to balance this against what this is all leading to: the introduction of Juliette, the deepening mystery of why IT does not want her as sheriff, and her inevitable acceptance of the job. This is our heroine, and this is her call to adventure.

Casting:
Rebecca Ferguson will be perfect as Juliette.

Lines that should make the show:
Juliette’s monologue on the machines that keep the Silo running—that provides the power, the oxygen, the waste removal—is telling, and prophetic. Most of this should make the final cut for the adaptation. In addition, Shirly and Marck’s exchanges with Marnes and Jahns as they consider Juliette’s suitability as sheriff contains touchstones of character illumination and foreshadowing:
Marck: “I guess what I’m sayin’ is that if you want to give Jules a job, be very careful.”
Marnes: “Why be careful?”
Marck: “Cause she’ll damn well do it. Even if you don’t really expect her to.”

Peter Cawdron

The silos in WOOL are more than simply skyscrapers underground. They’re entirely self-contained, self-sustaining communities, spanning 144 floors. Within those floors, there needs to be ever conceivable support for life, from power to sewage to air recycling to farming to schools, hospitals and nurseries. Out of all of this, though, we learn that 1/4 of all the power produced by the silo goes to IT. A bunch of computer servers don’t feed people or heal the sick. Within the silos, they barely do anything at all. And so we see the disparity and tension continuing to grow. There’s more than one world beneath the surface. There are two. There’s the world that’s seen, full of dust and grime, and there’s IT. With hundreds of years stuck below the surface and a history of violent uprisings to counter the abuse of power, life in the silos is fragile. The problem with the supply of heat tape being hoarded by IT exposes how life in the silo isn’t all what it seems.

Lines that should makes the show:
Knox: “Gitemoffanddowntojules.”
I suspect the role of Knox will be expanded beyond what’s in the book. He’s just too distinct and important later in the story to be a sideline character at the moment.

“Good luck getting IT to power down shit” captures the frustration Jules (and others feel) about the murky world of IT “I guess what I’m sayin’ is that if you want to give Jules a job, be very careful.”
“Why be careful?”
“Cause she’ll damn well do it, even if you don’t really expect her to.”

“We joke that this place was laid out to keep us well out of the way.”

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 11–14. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 15–17. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool (8-10)

Welcome to week 3 of Through the Pages: Wool, a weekly discussion on various chapters in Wool as we reread the book in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation and log in our predictions on what will stay, what will go, what might be added, and what lines we want to see make it in. Will beloved small characters be cut? Merged? Will seemingly small characters gain a bigger role?

This week’s piece covers chapters 8 through 10. Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool will be published each Thursday, covering a group of chapters in Wool. The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie.

Peter Cawdron

The mayor and the deputy conduct background checks on Jules, our protagonist. She’s intelligent, diligent, and conscientious, but she’s a reluctant hero. Trust is hard won in the silos. Power is greeted with suspicion. There are factions within the silo, and we meet Bernard the head of IT. In a world where space is at a premium, the IT revels in conference rooms and grand entranceways. Although, technically, the mayor is in charge, it’s clear Bernard doesn’t see it that way and conflict begins to build. This is something that will only intensify over time.

Lines that should makes the show:
“Been a long time since we had a lass for a sheriff.”

Angela Traficante

Have I mentioned that I love the imagery of knitting? I hope that’s a continued theme in the novel, and that it gets pulled into the TV series. While I haven’t nailed down the exact meaning (or meanings) of its inclusion, it’s obviously important. I’d love for the TV series to keep the opening shots here the same, especially if they can incorporate this idea of ancient artifacts handed down from generation to generation, which seems like it will be another important theme going forward.

There’s a lot to read between the lines so far, which I expect the TV show to lean into, but I like that we’re opening up the world a bit in this next part. I’m excited to see more of the silo and potentially explore characters who won’t die off immediately! And I’m really intrigued by how the show will choose to show the literal and metaphorical distance between the top, middle, and bottom parts of the silo. This journey that Jahns and Marnes are taking is the perfect opportunity to explore the difference in the culture of the levels—accents, styles, clothes, work schedules, lightning, and so much more.

The scene I’m most looking forward to is the introduction of Bernard, and how he and Jahns interact. There’s so much going on between the two of them, but the mystery and guessing is part of the fun of exploring a story. The fact that Bernard ushers them away so quickly will definitely draw a lot of attention from the audience, not to mention IT’s very clear secrecy. I’m picturing giving viewers a small glimpse of what’s inside and intriguing them with a sight so very different from the rest of the silo, full of advanced and gleaming servers and devices.

Casting:
Now that I know she’ll be a major character, my mind is on Jahns, and I’m trying to imagine her perhaps played by Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, or Tilda Swinton. Someone who can bring some serious gravitas to the role. And this may be a really oddball pick, but I’m loving the idea of Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Bernard. Or maybe Daniel Dae Kim? Someone thin, tall, and capable of that calculating menace that seems to be necessary for him.

Lines that should make the show:
“Never figured to outlive so many. Sure as sin don’t see me outliving you.”
“Jules is your girl.”

Will Swardstrom

So chapter 8 is essentially the start of the second of five short stories that makes up the WOOL Omnibus. Since our two main characters from the first story—Holston and Allison—are both dead at this point, we’re shifting to our main protagonist, Juliette. But to get to Jules, we need to do a lot of setup and silo exploration, so Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes serve as temporary main characters in the interim.

To be honest, it’s a little bit of a bold choice for Howey here as both Jahns and Marnes are definitely older and aren’t exactly the young and beautiful characters that Hollywood loves to focus on. We get a lot of hints about a previous relationship between the two that was never fully pursued, so the audience is treated to two characters who have each other’s backs as they head down the silo. These chapters are crucial in many ways – we meet Jules’ emotionally distant father and Bernard, the IT Director, who certainly seems to think he’s leading a shadow government of sorts in our little silo. We also see the literal depths of their home and how far humanity had to go to save themselves from whatever mysterious apocalypse befell them.

While I think these are very important scenes for the book and the show, I could definitely see them incorporating some of this in different ways—flashbacks with Jules’s father, for example, or a meeting with Bernard up in Jahns’s office. By the time we finish these three chapters, I think the audience is probably starting to realize that there are many, many secrets of the silo, and Bernard keeps a lot of those secrets, especially after he tried to hire his own choice for sheriff over Mayor Jahns’s head.

Casting: Dr. Nichols: Like I said above, you need someone who can be emotionally distant. The man will need to be older and an authority figure as well, so I’ll pick Brendan Gleeson. I think he could be great and he kinda looks like Rebecca Ferguson a bit.
Bernard: Based on description and personality, I first was hedging towards John Malkovich, but I think Toby Jones would be a fantastic choice or maybe even Andy Serkis.

Lines that should make the show:
Jahns and Marnes:
“Think of it as a goodwill mission,” she said.
“I’m gonna think of it as a fact-finding raid,” Marnes muttered.

Eamon Ambrose

Here’s where our story starts in earnest. In the aftermath of Holston’s cleaning, a vacuum now exists in the sheriff’s office, and it is down to Mayor Jahns to decide his successor. There should be some nice visual touches to the opening here, with Jahns knitting by the wallscreen, maybe a macro shot of the needles and wool in action. Now that I think of it, that would make a great title sequence for the show—you’re welcome, Apple!

We’re also introduced to the odd but sweet relationship between Jahns and Marnes, which although it may seem mostly professional on the surface, soon becomes obvious that it is much more, although neither seems to have ever acted on their mutual affection. This is a strange time in the silo, after a cleaning where people are letting off steam. As Jahns and Marnes make their way down to Mechanical, there’s an interesting contrast between descending and ascending the silo’s stairway compared to Holston’s upward climb. Jahns likens it to drowning, a spiraling downward, knowing the ease of the descent will be punished by the trip back up. We are given a brief tour of the silo as they descend, eventually meeting Juliette’s estranged father Peter in the nursery, and getting some background into Juliette’s reasons for moving to mechanical.

Next stop is the infamous IT, as we are introduced to the equally infamous and instantly unlikeable IT head, Bernard. While the true level of Bernard’s villainy is not yet obvious, it’s clear he’s someone used to getting what he wants, and the conflict between him and Jahns leaves Bernard aggravated at not being able to handle the situation. It’s a great scene between them both and shows just how tough Jahns is.

Casting:
Main choice for Bernard here for me is Vincent D’Onofrio. He’d be perfect. Alternatively, and probably closer physically, maybe Toby Jones. For Peter Nichols, I’d love to see Bryan Cranston.

Lines that should make the show:
“Going down ain’t a problem for me. It’s the going back up I can’t stand.”

Crystal Watanabe

It’s funny rereading “Proper Gauge” again, this time with actual knitting knowledge. When I first read Wool, I didn’t fully grasp all the various terms, but now things like “This was her favorite part, casting on. She liked beginnings.” have new meaning for me. And as someone who currently has almost forty knitting projects in progress, you could say that casting on is my favorite part too. I also happened to pick up that she’s knitting with cotton, not wool, which was something I’d actually been wondering about the past few weeks, given the title of the book. But I couldn’t remember if the silo had animals at all, much less sheep for wool.

It’s been years since I read Wool, but the very distinctive change in tone from Holston to Jahns was still just as enjoyable to experience now. You can feel the advanced years in her narrative voice. I would love to see this episode open with her knitting uptop. While it’s possible we’ll see Jahns and Marnes cut, I somehow don’t think they’ll take them out. As with Holston, I think we’ll end up with Proper Gauge comprising an entire episode, as it would give the show a convenient way to worldbuild, just like it did for the book. A slow descent into the silo would be like a tour, and stops at important floors are a good way to bring important departments into a brief focus.

The only problem there is that it’s a bit of a slow sort of storyline for a second episode, and so I think we may see some expansion here before they head down to Mechanical. Perhaps they’ll expand on the post-cleaning activity that’s briefly mentioned. The descent into the silo might end up being better as a third episode, which might then throw viewers off as to the fate of Jahns and Marnes. Either way, the IT meeting with Bernard will be crucial in setting up the political tension and power structure of the silo, and I’m looking forward to that. I think we’ll see Peter Nichols, even though Juliette’s tragic family backstory could be relayed through a report, because it’s a peek into the population aspect of the silo.

Casting:
For Peter Nichols, someone large and intimidating with a rather flat demeanor and yet can also smile and seem to have a rarer, kinder side since the man is in charge of babies. The first person that comes to mind is Stellan Skarsgard. For Bernard, I would love to see Jason Isaacs. He was just AMAZING in The OA, one of my all-time favorite shows, and since he was a huge OA nerd, I would love to see him become sucked into the world of the silos. He’s got the perfect look of a devious smart guy, and he’s a fantastic actor.

Lines that should make it in:
It’s not technically a line of dialogue, but I’d like to see this make it into a spoken line: “We weren’t supposed to live like this.”

Samuel Peralta

Viewers already know that the first casting (see what I did there?) for the WOOL adaptation is Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette. So when Marnes presents Jahns with his folder of candidate replacements for Holston, viewers will have been primed to expect Juliette, his first choice, to eventually take center stage. The mayor’s journey to meet her face-to-face, and check-in with Juliette’s father, and with Bernard, will hold up nicely in its double purpose to advance the story and to provide the audience with a more complete view of the silo.

At this time, viewers would have already been shocked by the one-two punch of Allison and Holston’s deaths in the first episode(s) of WOOL, and the passive-aggressive confrontation with IT’s Bernard on Juliette’s candidacy for sheriff will increase that tension with the anticipation that perhaps Marnes or Jahns—or both—will not survive.

Casting:
Scottish actor Iain Glen would be one of my top choices to play Juliette’s father, Dr. Peter Nichols. IT’s Bernard is a more difficult choice for me. Toby Jones definitely came to mind, but I’d lean toward Lars Mikkelsen or his brother Mads Mikkelsen—either could pull off this complex character, I would think. We shall see.

Lines that should make the show:
I adore the verbal fencing match between Jahns and Bernard as they discuss Juliette’s candidacy. It’s a foreboding of the struggle between moral power and raw power, between good and evil. Every lunge and riposte in the conversation is perfectly executed in the book, and I’d love to see most of it intact on screen.

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 8–10. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 11–14. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool (4-7)

Welcome to week 2 of Through the Pages: Wool, a weekly discussion on various chapters in Wool as we reread the book in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation and log in our predictions on what will stay, what will go, what might be added, and what lines we want to see make it in. Will beloved small characters be cut? Merged? Will seemingly small characters gain a bigger role?

Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool will be published each Thursday, covering a group of chapters in Wool. The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie.

Samuel Peralta

One of the most effective and poignant devices that Hugh Howey uses in the novel is the way Holston and Allison’s scenes play out like mirror images of one another. This will work incredibly well visually as well, so I’m hoping to see that on screen.

Allison’s scenes are a one-two punch: not only are they flashback memories for Holston as he suits up and gets ready for the journey outside, they are also foreshadowing that journey. Each scene—past and present, present and future—plays against each other like a Greek drama, pushing and pulling each other inexorably towards the final tragedy. That final chapter, though, that’ll be an amazing trick on screen without dialogue. The final revelation of betrayal inside the helmet, as Holston takes it off, in the world outside the helmet, and his discovery of his wife’s remains—all are beautifully composed. But will the viewer understand, without the ability to read Holston’s thoughts? One could imagine a new monologue would be written for this scene, or a new dialogue with someone inside the Silo, or perhaps some of Allison’s past revelations about what she knows could be reused as voiceovers in this scene… but wouldn’t it be amazing if the director were able to communicate this final part without words? It would be breathtaking.

Lines that should make the show:
“I want to go out. I want to go out!”
“IT. Eye, Tee. They’re the ones. They know.”
This line, or something like it, should make the final cut. It deepens the mystery, raises more questions than it answers, propels the viewer into the next chapter of WOOL. My guess for the final scene is that prevous dialogue between Holston and Allison will be voice overs outside the silo and Allison’s final resting place, something like: “You and I know something new, and now it all makes sense. It makes perfect sense.”

Peter Cawdron

All novels start with an inciting incident. It’s something that spurs the protagonist into action and sets them on their journey. In the case of WOOL, though, that inciting incident impacts the entire community rather than the protagonist. In fact, we don’t meet the protagonist until we’re 8-10 chapters into the book. This gives WOOL an eerie feeling.

As the reader, you’re not sure who you should rally behind. I expect this will play into the TV series as well, with Jules being an unlikely hero rather than a strident one. As the book includes flashbacks of Holston’s past and the death of his wife, I suspect this, too, will play into the TV show really well. My expectation is that the first seven chapters will be one episode as there’s so much world-building and the twist would make a great hook for the next episode.

Angela Traficante

I fervently hope that this set of chapters is as much of a punch to the gut to viewers as it was to me. I expect that these initial seven chapters will make up the first episode of the TV series, and they were a rollercoaster ride, a cruel string of betrayals.

I’m excited to see if the TV show will play with color—there’s so little mention of it in the story that it should be an important detail of the set design. The color-coded pockets on the suit. That yellow airlock door. Those blue skies. The gleaming, shiny skyscrapers. I also expect sound to play a huge part here. I’m imagining a lot of shots from Holston’s perspective inside the suit, so I’m eager to see how they use noise to amplify or diminish tension. The klaxon, the hissing, the metal groaning, birds flying through the air, Holston’s own breath. I can’t wait to see a shot of him whirling around in surprise, scanning the horizon. It would be such a triumphant moment, only to be followed by the soul-crushing wreck of the final minutes and that “boulder” that will block Holston’s path.

There’s so much imagery in the first few chapters that I feel will likely come into play as the story progresses. The idea that the silo is very, very deep and only a tiny portion of it is visible above the ground. The idea of grime covering what is real—or isn’t real. The idea of who may or may not be interested in watching cleanings. I hope we see subtle nods to all the important themes at the beginning of the show. And more than ever, I hope we get a big-name actor and actress for Holston and Allison, if only so that their deaths will be all the more shocking to the audience.

Lines that should make the show:
“It should give you more time out there than anyone has had before.”
“You’ve felt that, right? That we could be anywhere, living a lie?”

Will Swardstrom

These chapters—the remainder of the original “WOOL” short story—they really are the springboard on which the entire book (and then trilogy) is based. And these chapters showed us one very important thing: Hugh Howey was a man who could not be trusted. Throughout these chapters, Hugh is dancing around one of the central ideas of the whole book: What is the truth, and who gets to know it? Through a series of flashbacks and present-day narratives, we see glimpses of Holston and Allison’s marriage. We are left with a fleeting but very real sense that while these people live in a place that is safe, that safety comes with secrets. What are those secrets?

Originally, that question was very open-ended, as Hugh left the questions up to the minds of his readers, but when the story took off, all of a sudden those secrets gave birth to an entire world that we’ll continue to delve into in the coming weeks. As I’m rereading the story now, it certainly has some Snowpiercer vibes that didn’t exist when I first read the novel (since the film came out after Hugh’s novel). I can definitely see some of the same visuals here in this TV series, to a certain degree.

Casting: I didn’t cast Marnes or Nelson last time, so I’ll cover that here. Marnes – I picture an older, grizzled deputy. The obvious choice would be someone like Sam Elliott, but I don’t want to go obvious. Let’s go with Viggo Mortensen, famous for Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. He can be gruff but also have the range that we see in the coming chapters. Nelson – he’s only here briefly, but the name brought Tim Blake Nelson to mind, and he might be an amazing choice for this role.

Lines that should make the show:
The best lines here all go to Allison. The lines by Allison that start Chapter 5, showing the desperation some in the silo feel about what they believe is outside compared to the lives they have.
“I want to go out. I want to go out. Iwanttogoout.”
“Nothing you see is real.”

Eamon Ambrose

This part’s the clincher, the one that, not unlike the silo’s denizens, locks you into this world and refuses to let you leave. One of the more unusual aspects of Wool is that the story should, and did, end here. If Hugh had decided never to write another word about the silo, it would still have been a perfect short story. The fact that we now know this is only the beginning of the saga is an insanely good bonus. It’s essentially two important events—the day of Holston’s cleaning and a flashback to Allison’s heartbreaking demand to leave the silo, and her explanation why.

It’s hard not to feel for Holston on both counts. Holston’s cleaning will be really interesting, as there is little to no dialogue, so it will rely on visuals and music to play this out. The music will be so important here, and I don’t envy whoever gets to score it, because it will be a huge challenge, but man, if it’s done right, it will be mindblowing. Visually, color, of course, will be the big factor here, the mundane concrete grey of the silo and the deathly grey of the outside will briefly be replaced with abject beauty—and then comes the sucker punch. There’s so much betrayal going on here it just leaves you reeling, and I really hope that’s portrayed effectively. The advantage they have here is that people who don’t know the story will expect Holston to live, as he’s essentially the main character at this point, so it will be a big shock to many. Can’t wait to see the reactions after this plays out!

Lines that should make the show:
Nelson: “It should give you more time out there than anyone has had before.”
It’ll be interesting to see how he looks when he’s saying this. He’s had plenty of practice at this stage.

Crystal Watanabe

I’m really looking forward to this part of the theorized single first episode, mostly because so much of it is in Holston’s thoughts, and I don’t think they’ll go for voiceover narration, meaning some of his thoughts will need to be transferred to dialogue or subtle visual cues. It’s possible Nelson will simply get merged with Marnes, but I don’t think that’ll happen, as Nelson’s presence itself is a nice clue to the structure of the silo, which needs to be packed into this introduction to the world.

I think the “why do they clean?” question is important enough that this will make it into dialogue, whether between Nelson and Holston or Holston and Marnes, I’m not sure, but I think it will be there. It’s needed to build the anticipation. If I had to guess, they’ll do it with Nelson, and like in the book Holston will see the fear in his eyes, but instead of only thinking it, he’ll simply say aloud to Nelson, “You think I won’t do it.”

Allison’s cleaning is pretty important for building anticipation for Holston’s as well, so I think we’ll see quite a lot of it and the buildup to it, with Allison’s theorizing trimmed down to the most essential, because she does say more than needs to be said for TV. I don’t think we’ll see Holston’s gradual descent to where he is in the present, as viewers will be able to fill in those holes themselves based on how Holston looks in comparison to the flashback. I think Holston will have been relatively quiet in the present up until he gets outside, and then he’ll start talking a lot in the suit, whether to himself, to Allison, or to the people inside who (he thinks) can’t hear him.

Holston’s cleaning is probably the part of the episode that I think is the hardest to pull off, simply because so much of it is in Holston’s head, and smart TV viewers will have their poke-a-hole-in-the-plot brains churning. This is where I think things will likely change for TV, because people will ask: If he sees the world in green, why wouldn’t he just rip his helmet off right then and there? And it’s a valid question, one that’s more easily answered in book form. The show will need more, so I think IT (unbeknownst to viewers) is fully monitoring Holston, and just when they think he’s about to remove his helmet to possibly mouth warnings or rebellion, “Allison’s” voice will crackle on. She’ll tell him it looks safe, but it’s not just yet. She’ll sound overjoyed and tell him to head up the hill, that she’ll meet him there. This would, of course, be a fake voice from IT, but viewers won’t need to know that just yet. I think Holston’s death in the book translates to screen fairly well, and we’ll see a lot of it almost exactly as written.

Lines that should make it in:
Allison: “IT. Eye. Tee. They’re the ones. They know.”

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 4–7. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 8–10. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!