Through the Pages: Wool 49-52

Welcome to week 13 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 49 through 52, as we end “The Unraveling.” Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions! The six Through the Pages: Wool contributors will include five Wool veterans and one Wool newbie. With the end of this part and the coming TV series, we will be taking an extended break after this week’s installment.

Please note that due to personal reasons, regular contributor Eamon Ambrose will be on hiatus for this installment. Look for his contributions again when we resume our analysis later in the year!

Will Swardstrom

Chills. This is one of the things that really stuck out in my memory from the first time I read WOOL—the moment that Juliette got on the wire and talked to Bernard and we get that confirmation that not only are there multiple silos, but that those silos talk to each other. Wow. Literally game-changing for the book. At the time this was written, it was the end of the fourth short story that was all tied together, but this moment really opened everything up so we could, of course, end this book with a fifth part, as well as set the stage for the entirety of SHIFT and DUST. The duality of Jules’ story alongside the madness of the uprising in her home silo really set the stage for that moment. I do love Solo and find him even more fascinating this read-through than I did the first time I read the book.

Casting:

I think someone with a comedic background who wants to go into dramatic acting could be amazing here as Solo. When I think old farmer, I think James Cromwell (maybe due to his time as the farmer from Babe), and he could do a great job in that role, of course.

Lines that should make the show:

“Shut up and listen, Bernard. Just shut the f*** up and listen to me very carefully.” Bernard waited. He could taste the copper of his own blood in his mouth. “I’m coming for you. I’m coming home, and I’m coming to clean.” —Jules and Bernard at the end of this section.

This could be iconic. Really framing the entire name of the book in one statement.

Crystal Watanabe

I think we’ll probably get to see at least an entire episode dedicated to the attack on IT, though I can’t really guess at what starting and ending points it’ll be contained to. I actually think now that it’s possible they’ll move things around so much that the attack will be in Season 1, though that’s a wild guess. It could go two ways: focused entirely on 18, or 18 interspersed with Solo/Juliette in 17. If forced to pick one, I’d say it’s better to plant seeds with Solo/Juliette in a previous episode, then focus entirely on 18 in another, then end with Juliette’s call to Bernard. I’m picturing a weird combo of Desmond (Jules) calling Penny in LOST, and Wyatt Earp in Tombstone with his “You tell ’em I’m coming. And hell’s coming with me, ya hear? Hell’s coming with me!” lines. That’s basically the vibe I got from her wanting to call and then spitting vengeance. I do think her line needs some tweaking for a TV show format, as I think it reads better than it would sound out loud.

Lines that should make the show:

“It was amazing to Knox that they all knew, instinctively, how to build implements of pain. […] Knowledge somehow dredged up from the brutal depths of their imagination, this ability to deal harm to one another.”

“Anyone with eyes and ears could tell: some kind of reckoning was coming.”

Peter Cawdron

Juliette is stuck in a dead silo, while her original silo is descending further into chaos. This is the dark before the dawn, but the dawn won’t come quickly or easily in WOOL. What looked like a chance for change with a revolution has turned to disaster. No one is safe. This is a third act that makes the final, coming act of the book look impossible.

The only other TV show that has had a cascading series of reveals over a prolonged period is LOST. The problem with LOST is those reveals were ultimately meaningless dead-ends. In WOOL, however, they all lead somewhere, and that, I think, is what makes the story a classic and will make it resonate with viewers. It’s LOST but with an actual storyline!

I suspect some of the narrative will be converted into dialogue in this section, like “All I have is the fear I’m leading good people to their slaughter” and “Once made, who will unmake these guns?” (which is a very Pandora moment, acknowledging how this shifts society within the silos).

Lines that should make the show:

Juliette and Silo have some great dialogue in this section.

On finding forbidden books, Juliette says, “It would take ten lifetimes to read all these,” followed by Silo saying, “I don’t think they were meant to be read.” This is poignant and will stir the imagination. The conversation goes on to say, “It’s a backup of the backup.” To which, Juliette asks, “A backup of what?” And it’s in this context we get the first notion of “seeds” and Juliette comes to understand the silos are seeds buried beneath the ground, awaiting germination. It casts the whole story in a new light!

As the story progresses, Juliette says, “Someone has to know about all of this… the people in my silo need to know.” To which, Silo replies, “People in your silo already do!” This is another poignant moment where we see Juilette being forced to confront her reality, that she’s been lied to on multiple levels.

Angela Traficante

Although this part does end with a big confrontation between the people of mechanical and the people of IT, I personally feel like the most emotional aspects of the story are coming from Juliette’s side. Visually, I imagine there will be a lot of juxtaposition that can be done with the all out battle at IT versus the silent and despairing loneliness of Silo 17.

Watching Juliette come to realize how truly small and barbaric her life has been as she pores over the maps and the scale of the world is impactful. She sees herself as a savage, and I think her own understanding can be shown quite handily as true when you see the devastation of Silo 17 and the soon-to-be disorder and chaos of Silo 18.

The communication barriers really show themselves strongly here, both between silos and within Silo 18 itself, and I think that’s a great way to build dramatic tension and irony within the TV show—letting the audience see things that the characters will only get to see later.

And can I say, the ending of this part is an amazing hook for an episode ending or even a season ending. That tense conversation between Juliette and Bernard, the bomb, and Lukas’s general uncertainty about the future and knowing he may have picked the wrong side. I’m already imagining some sweeping views and epic music.

Lines that should make the show:

“And anyone with eyes and ears could tell: some kind of reckoning was coming.”

“I’m coming for you. I’m coming home, and I’m coming to clean.” (Juliette)

Samuel Peralta

I love the parallel structures here: Jules and Solo in the ruined silo, fallen to a past uprising, poring over manuals in the old IT war room… and Bernard and Lukas in the main story’s silo, anticipating a new uprising, poring over manuals in the newly-revealed IT war room. Will the main story silo escape the fate of the ruined Silo? And how many silos are there? Were they connected? And, in an amazing development that sets up the next chapter, that very connectedness via IT enables Jules to contact Bernard, to reveal that she is in fact alive, and to throw down an electric challenge that makes the reader anticipate what’s coming in the next part of the saga.

Casting:

Let’s have Hugh Howey do a cameo here as Pieter the farmer.

Lines that should make the show:

The reveal:

Solo: “This is us. Silo seventeen. [Here is] number twelve. This is eight. And silo one up here.”

And another reveal:

Juliette: “Wait. What do you mean you heard from them?”
Solo: “They called… Through the wire. You just talk in it.”
Juliette: “You need to show me.”

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 49–52, bringing us to the end of “The Unraveling.” Join us in the future when we resume for the final part! Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool 44-48

Welcome to week 12 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 44 through 48, as we continue with “The Unraveling.” Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

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

Please note that due to personal reasons, regular contributor Eamon Ambrose will be on hiatus for this installment. Look for his contributions again in the coming weeks!

Crystal Watanabe

Juliette’s encounter with Solo is something I’m really looking forward to in the show because that conversation is just one more broadening of Jules’s understanding of the world both before and now, only now it’s through time, when she learns how long he’s been living by himself. I can actually see them pulling from Shift for this episode, to show some flashbacks of Solo’s time and the history of the fall of his silo. I think it makes more sense to focus mostly on Jules and Solo for an episode, but returning to the uprising after that little mini story concludes, ending with Lukas and Bernard and the directive for “In the Case of a Failed Cleaning” would be a great cliffhanger for an episode.

Casting:

Since I just saw him in The Adam Project, I could see Mark Ruffalo being a good Solo. He’s got that confused older man act down from the MCU, and he’s also got the friendly face that goes with Solo’s personality.

Lines that should make the show:

“Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.”

Peter Cawdron

At this point in the novel, there’s a disconnect in the story. Those in the original silo assume Juliette’s dead (and with good reason, given their toxic world), while Juliette descends into a dead silo that mimics her own in every way. Originally, WOOL was released in a serialised format, with one section (novella) being released every month or so. Roughly a year later, it was combined into an omnibus that became the novel we know today. A consequence of that is it has always been stories within a story. This becomes apparent as we explore the dead silo and find that it’s not entirely abandoned. Solo is a tragic character. He’s a survivor—and that leaves us wondering what it means to survive in this world. Is it a choice between dying and going mad? Juliette has to confront this as she begins learning about the world before and beyond the silos, getting her first glimpse of reality. She begins to see it wasn’t just the suit visor that lied to her. Everything in her world is set up to mislead and control her.

Lines that should make the show:

“Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.” (Although this is narrative rather than speech, I hope it makes it into the series as it highlights the contradiction of ‘self-defense’ using firearms. This is a polarizing topic in the US. It would be interesting to see it challenged within WOOL as a series as it would provoke thought and discussion.)

—”And tell me, where will you be, Knox of Mechanical, when the bombs fly? When these men and women who look up to us are facing their gravest test, where will you be?”

—”You know where.”

Angela Traficante

Although I know things are building up for the rebellion in Mechanical and Lukas’s discovery of the secrets of the silos, I think the stars of these chapters are Juliette and Solo. The deep and resounding stillness that Juliette experiences as she wanders through the dead silo for days is only magnified when she meets Solo and realized he has been experiencing the same thing for literal years.

Continuing off the last set of chapters, I think lingering shots of the emptiness, cold lighting, and judicious music and sound effects meant to emphasize silence will be pivotal in crafting the mood. It will be especially important to have that for Juliette and Solo, since I think things will very quickly get loud and intense in Mechanical, so the show can use the noise and crowd there to highlight Juliette and Solo’s isolation even more.

Something else that stands out in these chapters is the rot of bodies, food, and all the organic things in Juliette’s new silo. Again, it’s a literal representation of what could happen to her old home—rotting and fading away. It’s also obviously thematic when it comes to the intrinsic problems of silos, of people, and of the disasters they create for themselves. I think it will be pretty important to demonstrate the visual decay and decomposition, as well as Juliette’s reaction to it.

Casting:

I picture someone like Hugh Jackman or Mark Ruffalo for Solo. Someone in their 50s, gruff, scraggly, with a lot of gravitas, who can stand up against Rebecca Ferguson’s outstanding acting.

Lines that should make the show:

“And tell me, where will you be, Knox of Mechanical, when the bombs fly? When these men and women who look up to us are facing their gravest test, where will you be?” (McLain)

“In the event of a failed cleaning: Prepare for war.”

“We are the seeds. This is a silo. They put us here for the bad times.” (Solo)

Will Swardstrom

This is a major point in the books… the dam is breaking, and we’re seeing the early stages for both Juliette and Knox in their new lives. For Juliette… what is life like in a different silo, a silo where something went wrong? The visceral language Hugh uses when she’s tripping over bodies and discovering what’s inside is brutal and wonderful. Then the issue of her suit and getting it off before the suit ends up killing her after all.

As for Knox… man, that scene with “In Case of a Failed Cleaning: Prepare for War.” The closing lines of that particular chapter in this set seems to confirm what Hugh has been setting up ever since Jules stepped outside the silo… or even since Holsten went outside. War is coming and the entire silo is in danger.

I love seeing Lukas being thrown into the deep end with Bernard and seeing him learn these things for the first time…just as the audience does as well. Aside from that, of course, Jules’ trip to the other silo is terrifying and energizing. The concept of an entire structure devoid of people… or is it? The terror of almost dying, to surviving possibly long enough to die of starvation, to finding out that there is one other person. I gotta be honest, I’m not sure I’d do what she did in tracking Solo down. I’d probably run the other way and hope he never found me. Solo’s story is almost like this worst-case scenario of the silo. Of course, death is horrible… but is complete and utter aloneness in a gigantic metal post-apocalyptic tube better?

Casting:

I think someone with a comedic background who wants to go into dramtic acting could be amazing here as Solo. Like an Andy Samberg or maybe like a James Marsden—as long as we hook them up with a crazy beard. Of course, Will Forte kinda pulled off this part a little already with his show The Last Man on Earth, so maybe we just shift him over to the silo?

Lines that should make the show:

“We have cause for more hope than they’ll dare give us. There’s more at our disposal to broaden our horizons than that.”

“We need to keep in mind the after,” McLain said. “After you’ve bludgeoned some people to death and the blood is dripping through the grates, what then? Do you want people living in fear of that happening again? Or of whatever you put them through to get there?”

Samuel Peralta

Momentum is taking me through the next chapters like a steam locomotive. I’ve read this all before, and yet the Juliette’s journey through the devastated silo is a real descent into the circles of Dante’s Inferno, a hellscape of almost unthinkable proportions. This half-broken machinery, the decaying farms, the emptied living quarters – all these are a premonition of what the future might hold in Juliette’s own silo, and therefore what is at stake. And yet, in this wilderness where there first seems no sign of hope, there is one, in the form of Solo. He is a chance to discover what actually happened that led to the devastation, and also a sign that survival may not be unattainable.

Casting:

I picture Jeff Bridge’s Fisher King in the role of Solo—grizzled, scraggly, with the mileage of life showing. Or Hugh Jackson’s tired Wolverine, battle-scarred and weary. Who would be the equivalent now? Let’s up the stakes a bit and cast… Jared Leto.

Lines that should make the show:

McLain: “And tell me, where will you be, Knox of Mechanical, when the bombs fly? When these men and women who look up to us are facing their gravest test, where will you be?”
Knox: “You know where I’ll—”
McLain: “Damn straight. And you’d better well know that I’ll see you there.”

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 44–48. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 49–52, the end of “The Unraveling.” Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool 39-43

Welcome to week 11 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 39 through 43, as we continue with “The Unraveling.” Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

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

Please note that due to personal reasons, regular contributor Eamon Ambrose will be on hiatus for this installment. Look for his contributions again in the coming weeks!

Samuel Peralta

Momentum is taking me through the next chapters like a steam locomotive. I’ve read this all before, and yet the details escape me, like a dream I’m trying to remember. Will Juliette find clean air in the new silo before suffocating in her suit? What happened to this silo that caused such devastation? What will Bernard reveal to Lukas, his new shadow and appointed successor as head of IT? Will the folks at Supply join the rebels of Mechanical, or will they stand for maintaining the status quo?

Casting:

I can’t help thinking of McLain being played by Nichelle Nichols—older, frail, but with a sense of dignity and power. If not, I’d love to see utterly Wakanda’s regal Queen Ramonda in the role—Angela Bassett.

Oh… Let’s have some fun and cast Boston Dynamics’ Spot as Jackson.

Lines that should make the show:

Walker’s entire speech to Supply, to win them over to the cause, has the urgent eloquence of President Whitmore’s call to arms in Independence Day, or Aragorn’s rallying his forces at the gates of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I’d keep it all!

Crystal Watanabe

The content of this block of chapters could probably span a few of episodes at least, and I think there’s a good chance we’ll see an expanded storyline with Supply and McLain, simply because while the focus of the book is on Mechanical and IT, a show would have a lot more room to touch on other important aspects of the silo, and Supply would be right up there in order of importance. Plus, McLain just screams expanded character. With Lukas, he’s getting in deeper and deeper with Bernard, learning more than most other people in the silo know, and yet he’s also in the dark about so many other things going on that he’ll make a great source for tension and anticipation.

Juliette’s journey to the other silo will be macabre and terrifying, especially given how sensitive we all are now about germs and air and whatnot. In addition… she’s alone. Is there anything more universal than the fear of being somewhere terrifying all by yourself and yet motivated by the fact that people back home need you? I can’t wait to see what they do with her in this situation. Loads of big storylines, all coming to a head. I also hope to see them expand on the societal dynamics of the silo, which McLain touches on a bit while planning with Knox. It reminded me of Wilford’s train in Snowpiercer, both the movie and the TV show, though the TV show had a lot more room to explore the classes within their miniature society than the movie did. I look forward to a similar exploration of these very human complications.

Casting:

I can’t really picture anyone in my mind for Jenkins or Jackson, but for McLain, I wouldn’t mind seeing someone like Julianne Moore. I really liked her tough lady demeanor in Children of Men, and I can see her bringing that same gruff-but-caring vibe here.

Lines that should make the show:

“God built more than one.”

Peter Cawdron

At this point in the novel, there’s a disconnect in the story. Those in the original silo assume Juliette’s dead (and with good reason, given their toxic world), while Juliette descends into a dead silo that mimics her own in every respect. Juliette has no way of knowing what’s happening in her silo, and those in her silo have no way of knowing she’s alive. Despite this, the two stories are entwined. We see Juliette physically descending into a hellhole as her original silo slips further toward upheaval. The imagery and implications are unmistakable, and I suspect this will play well in the series. There’s a sense of hopelessness and frustration with both journeys, and yet it’s clear this is not the end for either silo. To my mind, this sense of dread drives the story on.

Lines that should make the show:

“No one has ever been sent to cleaning for listening.”

“Don’t you see? We’ve been living the uprising. Our parents were the children of it, and now we feed our own children to the same machine. This will not be the start of something new, but the end of something old.”

“God built more than one.” (Although this is a thought, I suspect Juliette will utter this, as it’s blasphemous in her world and marks a turning point in her understanding.)

Angela Traficante

I love these sections where we get multiple perspectives all handling tense situations. In this set, we have Juliette trying to figure out if the new silo is safe, Knox really starting to understand the depth of the corruption in their silo, and Lukas getting drawn deeper and deeper into the conspiracy.

It’s interesting that the new silo Juliette finds herself in is basically a preview of what could happen to her old home. I could imagine some flashbacks of her life to connect the idea of a living silo with what it could become: a dead silo. As she explores, I expect we’ll have lots of lingering shots on details, especially those that connect the two silos and show that this was likely all part of some plan and that these two silos are mirrors of one another.

I can’t wait to watch the uncertainty come through in the TV series. Juliette not knowing her new situation, not knowing if she’s safe, not knowing what to do next, not even knowing if the people back home saw her clear the hill and move on. Knox and his people teetering on the edge of a fall into true rebellion, not knowing what actually happened to Juliette yet wondering if they could follow in her path and live. Lukas caught in the middle, unsure of where his loyalties may lie. This last one is interesting for the viewer, too, as I think there could be a definite will-he-won’t-he arc set up for Lukas that is just as engaging as Juliette (will she or won’t she survive?) and the people of Mechanical (will they or won’t they rebel?).

Lines that should make the show:

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” (Epigraph)

“She laughed madly and stumbled toward the stairwell, drawn to the green glow of light, breathing deeply and too exhausted to appreciate this, the impossible life still in her.”

Will Swardstrom

This is a major point in the books… the dam is breaking, and we’re seeing the early stages for both Juliette and Knox in their new lives. For Juliette… what is life like in a different silo, a silo where something went wrong? The visceral language Hugh uses when she’s tripping over bodies and discovering what’s inside is brutal and wonderful. Then the issue of her suit and getting it off before the suit ends up killing her after all. As for Knox… man, that scene with him in Supply, passionately drumming up support and just flat out putting his life on the line as a revolutionary—I would love to see that on the scene. Give the right actor those lines in that situation, and you’ll find a fan favorite in no time. We do also get a brief bit with Lukas and Bernard where Bernard finally starts to admit the truth to someone, and Lukas will have to make a lot of choices from this moment on. Just some great setup for the rest of the story to come.

Lines that should make the show:

“We have cause for more hope than they’ll dare give us. There’s more at our disposal to broaden our horizons than they’ll allow. We have been raised on a pack of lies, made to fear by the sight of our kinsmen rotting on the hills, but now one of us has crossed over that! They have seen new horizons!” -part of Knox’s speech to Supply. Just… wow.

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 39–43. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 44–48. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!

Through the Pages: Wool 35-38

Welcome to week 10 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 35 through 38, continuing “The Unraveling.” Join us as we make our way through the pages and comment with your own predictions!

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

Please note that due to personal reasons, regular contributor Crystal Watanabe of Pikko’s House will be on hiatus for this installment. Look for her contributions again in the coming weeks!

Angela Traficante

I’m so excited to find that this is the set of chapters where Lukas really comes into his own and shines. I think it will be incredibly important how Lukas’s actor (and the director) choose to portray his assessment of Juliette’s personal belongings, as well as how they frame his reaction to Bernard wanting him as his shadow. This is a bit of a turning point for Lukas, probably the first time in his life he’s really been torn between anything, and I’d love to see a bit of understanding from him that everything is about to change forever—and he’ll be a part of that. And not only that, but that his choice will be important and have an impact.

Similarly with Walker and the down deep. This is a turning point here too, possibly the first time many of these people have spoken aloud the traitorous thoughts that they may have held inside for years. Facial expressions, gestures, and musical cues will all be super important in shaping the change from continuous status quo year after year to chaos.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we leave Juliette’s story for a while after the reveal of the other silo and all the dead bodies of its occupants. I’d love to see maybe a whole episode or two where we focus on Silo 18’s issues and let Juliette’s fate simmer in the back of the viewers’ minds. It’s clear now within the book that everyone’s fate is not only being drawn together, but that the fate of the silos themselves is being drawn together, so I love the idea of using the destroyed silo as a looming threat while we watch Bernard freak out, and Lukas reassess his entire life, and Walker spur on a rebellion.

Lines that should make the show:
“I came because I heard. Jules. Out of sight. But it wasn’t them in IT that figured nothing. I did it.” (Walker)

“This is how it starts. This is how the uprising begins…” (Walker)

Will Swardstrom

The dam is breaking. With each additional chapter we see it. More and more and more the tension that had seemingly been building inside the silo for decades (or longer) is going to spring. Each of these chapters is just another small way that we see the strain of the system and how it’s going to explode. We start with Lukas going through Juliette’s room and finding pieces of her past that may or may not reveal more about our wayward protagonist. Then we switch to Jules at the new silo—finding the piles of dead bodies and a much more dire situation than what her silo looked like when she left. Will her silo get this bad? That’s the question that nags us as we see her figure out how to get into the underground building. Walker’s up next and we see the manic beginnings of an uprising as her support in the down deep knows that IT is corrupt and now they get to decide what to do about it. Finally, Lukas is back in IT… and Bernard is frantic. What happened… how did Jules get so far… what clues did she leave us? But in his frenetic energy, finally… a win for the good guys as Bernard decides to take on Lukas as his Shadow and potentially tell him everything. I loved these chapters for the building anticipation that comes with it. I think these will probably be in a season 2 of the show, but seeing the aftermath of Jules’ escape could be lots of fun.

Lines that should make the show:
“I need a shadow, Lukas.” Bernard’s hand felt small in Lukas’ own. He watched as his arm was pumped up and down. “I want you to be that man.”

Eamon Ambrose

This is really where Wool shifts gear. Not only do we have Juliette discovering another silo, but also we have Walker delivering information about Juliette’s discovery to his peers that will inevitably lead to another uprising in silo 18. In the meantime, Bernard, incensed at the failed cleaning, takes Lukas even further under his wing. His blind trust of Lukas is somewhat odd, but he is now struggling with a potential loss of control, not to mention becoming somewhat unhinged, and he needs an ally. There’s an interesting scene in IT where this happens, with Bernard losing his composure and lambasting Sims, his head of security. Juliette’s harrowing entry into the new silo will be an interesting scene, not to mention the stark and haunting contrast of seeing the inside of a dead silo. The horror of what she discovers in he darkness should make for a chilling episode.

Lines that should make the show:
Walker’s chilling line “This is how the uprising begins-” sets the stage for what’s about to come, but it’s not something he’s proud of. He knows the consequences.

Peter Cawdron

“The bodies were everywhere…” Seeing one functioning silo and another in ruins sets up a nice juxaposition which Hugh Howey uses to full effect in the novel, so I suspect we’ll see this play out in the series as well. In essence, we find ourselves exploring a dead silo while society begins unravelling in the original silo, threatening to plunge it into the same chaos. We simultaneously learn the same truths about the silos but from different perspectives, being life and death, hope and ruin.

Samuel Peralta

Hugh’s shifted the paradigm for this season of WOOL—Juliette lives! There are many Silos! Now it’s time to ratchet up the tension.

And ratchet he does, beginning with Lukas rummaging through Juliette’s things before handing them to Bernard, Juliette’s agonized entry into the new Silo, the simmering revolt in Silo 18’s Mechanical as witnessed by Walker and Knox, and the final turn of the screw in this part—Bernard’s choice of Lukas as a shadow. This last twist ups the stakes tremendously. Where will Lukas’s loyalty lie? With a woman he barely knew but fell in love with? Or with the Silo, whose current order under IT he will have pledged to protect? The reader—and the viewing audience—will be at the edge of their seat.

Casting:
So many of the secondary characters already cast (wrongly on my part, as it turns out!) are coming into play here. I’m starting to be wary about making my own casting decisions in parallel with real life.

Lines that should make the show:

So much of the first half of this section is internal monologue that will translate beautifully in a visual format—Lukas’s search through Juliette’s belongings, Juliette wading through the dead and her struggle in the new Silo’s airlock. But the second half contains two telling sections that I think will make it through to final cut. First, Walker’s sudden realization in Mechanical…

Walker: This is how it starts… This is how the uprising begins.

And Bernard’s monologue that changes everything…

Bernard: You know why I’ve never taken a shadow? It’s because I shudder to think of anyone else running this place. But I’ll have to, one of these days… Silos have burned to the ground before because of one man’s hubris. All it takes is improper planning, thinking you’ll be around forever, but because one man disappears and leaves a sucking void behind, that’s enough to bring it all down. (pause) Today is that day, I think. (pause) I need a shadow, Lukas. I want you to be that man.

And that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our show predictions for chapters 35–38. Join us next week for our analysis of Chapters 39–43. Reread along with us and comment below with your own predictions!