How Silo Did The Last of Us Part 2
... better.
WARNING: This will contain spoilers for The Last of Us 2 and Silo.
Zelphia and I finished up the second season of Silo just a couple of days ago. We love this show. While some moments in the second season were considered slow by some, we found the second half of the season to be gripping.
During episode 9 there’s a scene that lasts approximately 8 minutes. It’s a beautiful encapsulation of everything I love about the show. It also reminded me of The Last of Us Part II, and (funny enough) the Christian Faith.
The Last of Us is a story about revenge and the destructive cycle it brings. Its narrative is two-fold. On one side, Abby is living life after taking revenge on a man who killed her father (Joel). The other, Ellie, is pursuing the people who killed her friend (Joel).
The player watches as Ellie descends into a darker and deeper pit of anger, malice, and destruction. It’s honestly a gross experience. The violence is turned to 100 and Ellie will do things that will make the player uncomfortable.
On the other side of the narrative, Abby is reconnecting with her humanity. She’s learning about the importance of forgiveness and helping others even when it could be a detriment to herself.
Dunkey made a great observation in his video about this game; Abby is going through what the first game is all about, finding humanity in a monstrous world, while Ellie is backsliding away from humanity and into monstrosity.
The themes of The Last of Us Part II are revenge and redemption. It drags players through the horrible choices Ellie makes while pursuing revenge and makes them watch as she lives through the consequences of her actions.
At the end of the day, I think players (who gave the game a chance) walked away with this message;
Revenge destroys. Evil begets evil.
But it’s much more about revenge.
The Last of Us Part II is a 20-hour game that comes with the context of the first game. It’s brutal, it’s effective, and it’s hated by many. Even people who “enjoyed” the game shy away from the brutality and most will admit that it’s not something they want to experience again.
Silo takes a completely different approach to deliver a similar message.
Instead of showing people the destruction of revenge, it highlights the beauty of forgiveness and collaboration.
I spent a while trying to figure out how to explain this scene that I wanted to talk about. I don’t think the details are important—what even is a silo and why do people live in it?
What’s most important about this scene is that there are:
A person named Solo has access to important supplies and food, but he’s sworn an oath never to let anyone get to them.
A group of teens who need supplies and food from Solo. However, they also want to take revenge on him.
Instead of this show showing how destructive and horrible revenge is, it stops it in its tracks. Instead of the teens taking revenge, they learn about what happened to Solo—his trauma and his story. Solo also learns about the teens—they have a baby.
Solo allows the teens into the vault and the teens no longer want revenge.
It’s an incredibly emotional scene and even while watching it over multiple times I still feel my eyes tearing up. That’s because the message is clear:
Good begets good.
and that’s a much more compelling notion than evil begets evil.
Where The Last of Us Part II stopped, Silo goes further. We get to see what happens when people come together. To help each other and collaborate.
Solo’s vault is filled with instruments, books, toys, a sewing machine, puppets, music, and ice cream—things the teens have never seen. We get to see the wonder on their faces while they see the most incredible things.
Rather than showing what evil can do, Silo shows what good can do
I do think The Last of Us Part II’s approach does work and is important, but I think Silo does it more importantly.
The final moment of The Last of Us Part II intentionally leaves players feeling hollow. There’s little catharsis and not much to hang your hat on—murder is horrible, and revenge is bad (who would have thought).
Silo, however, shows viewers that empathy, genuine care, and collaboration can lead to wonder, love, and growth. It’s beautiful. Rather than showing what evil can do, Silo shows what good can do, and I think that makes it more important and helpful.
Change, at least not positive, does not come from hatred of evil. It’s not enough. Hatred will drown you and evil will be at the forefront of your thoughts if you choose to major on what’s wrong.
The Christian faith is clear in this. We don’t grow by honing in on what we hate—sin. We grow by fixing our eyes on Him. We love Christ and He sits firmly on the throne of our hearts. That’s what’s chiefly on display in our lives. Not a hatred of sin.
It’s not enough to hate—you need to show your love.
All of this because of a video game and an AppleTV+ show.