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S01.E03: The Architect Of Social Well-Being


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(edited)

We have Cal’s dad with dementia and Xavier’s dad with Parkinson. Sinatra’s son is dead. Any more critical illnesses in store to pull our heartstrings? Manipulative storytelling. 

Quote

“I have a message from the president. He said if something should happen to him, I should find you. He said Billy Pace is dangerous.”

Yeah, Billy is sus and he should be included in the list of prime suspects from the beginning. Agent Robinson is so incompetent. But it’s too early for him to be the killer. And he doesn’t seem bright enough to be a mastermind.

Quote

“Xavier, you are here because I chose you. Everyone’s here because I chose them.”

Gabriela Torabi is an architect of social well-being because she’s the gatekeeper. Her manipulative streak is a major red flag. 🚩 

I wonder if Gabriela had something to do with Teri couldn’t make it to the plane to Paradise? She says Xavier is her wild card. Xavier being in a vulnerable state (after losing his wife) makes him easy to be exploited. Just a theory.

 

Edited by Snazzy Daisy
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I guess I should have watched this episode first before posting in the second episode thread. I wondered who picked the people and it turns out it was just Sinatra's therapist. The fact that it was just down to 1 person is kind of crazy.

The story that Billy and Jane were turning off the security footage so they could play with the President's stuff was too silly for them to be believed. They were definitely doing something else.

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(edited)
16 hours ago, HelloooKitty said:

So there are some GREAT actors in this and I’m enjoying it but I definitely have to use some suspension of disbelief. If I think about logistics questions things start to fall apart so I just try not to. 

I can't stop thinking about how the town "works", and it does my head in. There were plastic containers in the grocery store. Do they take them back and refill them? Do they grow cotton to harvest and weave to make more clothes? They established that dairy is plant based when they said the cheese on the cheese fries is nut cheese, but how do they get water for processing nuts into "dairy"? Do they have a power plant and water processing plant?

Are the blue-collar workers paid living wages? Do they even use money in the town? Why do they want more babies to be born when there has to be finite resources? I CAN'T STOP THINKING!

Edited by bilgistic
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I've decided not to think about the logistics of the town too much. 

I'm assuming we're going to find out what Sinatra's role in the gov't is, and how she got so much power, and what her actual position is. Is this a riff on Musk? 

How does she get to boss everyone around like this? 

Marsden is doing a great job playing Cal as kind of a dick, but a charming one nonetheless. 

And Sterling K Brown is great.  I can't believe they're exposing the other agent as a bad guy so quickly. Is it a misdirect? 

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(edited)
On 1/30/2025 at 9:40 AM, bilgistic said:

I can't stop thinking about how the town "works"

The President is more like a mayor.

If I had to live in a bunker, this is one of the better ones! Of course we are only three years in, at some point there could be a rebellion or pandemic or something.
 

Robinson mentioned something suggesting that they will be down there for at least a Century. So they need babies, but maybe whatever caused the End Of The World caused a fertility crises?

As for the logistics, what is up with the SUV sized cars? They must all be electric because how would they extract and refine gas? They cars must be limited to the security staff. Everyone else must be walking. Traffic congestion doesn’t seem to be a problem.

What is powering the bunker? A huge nuclear reactor?

Edited by marinw
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59 minutes ago, marinw said:

As for the logistics, what is up with the SUV sized cars? They must all be electric because how would they extract and refine gas? They cars must be limited to the security staff. Everyone else must be walking. Traffic congestion doesn’t seem to be a problem.

What is powering the bunker? A huge nuclear reactor?

Well, it looked like they had all the classic great works of art lining the walls of the boardroom, so maybe they also gathered up all the strategic petroleum reserves and put them in a bunker under the bunker?  

Oh and they apparently have a bus system, to deliver the domestic workers. Don’t want to change things too much. 

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14 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Well, it looked like they had all the classic great works of art lining the walls of the boardroom, so maybe they also gathered up all the strategic petroleum reserves and put them in a bunker under the bunker?  

I noticed the art in the boardroom and also at Sinatra's house. I wonder when they snatched those up.

(edited)
15 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Well, it looked like they had all the classic great works of art lining the walls of the boardroom

I can’t decide if those are originals or reproductions.

15 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Don’t want to change things too much. 

They don’t want a new world, they are desperately clinging to an idealized facsimile of an America which is supposedly gone. I say supposedly since whatever caused the end of the World is so Vague things on the surface could be fine.

Edited by marinw
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14 hours ago, marinw said:

I can’t decide if those are originals or reproductions.

They looked like fairly bad reproductions, although I'm sure the mega-rich looted the world's great museums before going underground.

I would love to see an analysis of the water; there must be some dosing of heavy tranquilizers and mood stabilizers going on for these people to seem so happy and care-free, and to keep them controllable. Just imagine the survivor guilt!

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(edited)
10 minutes ago, Broderbits said:

there must be some dosing of heavy tranquilizers and mood stabilizers going on for these people to seem so happy and care-free, and to keep them controllable

I hadn’t thought of that, but drugging the populace would make sense. See also: Brave New World and THX 1138

Edited by marinw
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17 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

I noticed the art in the boardroom and also at Sinatra's house. I wonder when they snatched those up.

 

16 hours ago, marinw said:

I can’t decide if those are originals or reproductions.

 

1 hour ago, Broderbits said:

They looked like fairly bad reproductions, although I'm sure the mega-rich looted the world's great museums before going underground.

You know, I just assumed they were the originals and the organizers of all this went and scooped them up when it was obvious the world was ending, but now that I think more about it, I'm not sure how that would have worked.

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3 hours ago, Broderbits said:

They looked like fairly bad reproductions, although I'm sure the mega-rich looted the world's great museums before going underground.

More info to support my opinion that they are reproductions: one of the paintings shown was Gainsborough's Blue Boy, which is actually about 70 inches tall. The version on that wall was no where near that size.

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Is this how the world of Silo began?  Or Fallout?  I’m watching too many post apocalyptic shows. (Wonder why? Heh.)

Dr Gabby was standing way too close to Xavier while she was speaking. It creeped me out. I guess she accomplished her goal of seducing him so she could pass along the message. Why does Xav trust her so implicitly?

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On 1/30/2025 at 2:44 AM, nilyank said:

Yeah I thought it was sex as they were kissing earlier.

If Billy is involved--he and Jane could have been messing around with the President's stuff some of the time to explain the cameras being shut down and then he could have been shutting the cameras down other times when Jane wasn't there and doing criminal stuff and no one would question it after he and Jane were "found out". I don't think Jane was on duty the night of the murder (unless I'm misremembering) but the cameras still got shut down. And maybe Jane is involved too and helping Billy cover. Just a theory! It seems too early, as others have said, for it to be Billy acting alone.

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(edited)

Someone just mentioned farm land, in this city, but then we hear that the cheese fries are made with cashew cheese. 

So, the other secret service guy, may have set this up for months, and used his agent partner to do it, playing Wii Tennis on the sly.  Or having sex. I thought it was too convenient that he woke up, just after the cameras came back on. 

On 1/31/2025 at 8:43 PM, marinw said:

I can’t decide if those are originals or reproductions.

They don’t want a new world, they are desperately clinging to an idealized facsimile of an America which is supposedly gone. I say supposedly since whatever caused the end of the World is so Vague things on the surface could be fine.

So, it could be like the Truman Show, or The Village.  His wife could be fine?

On 2/1/2025 at 11:48 AM, Broderbits said:

They looked like fairly bad reproductions, although I'm sure the mega-rich looted the world's great museums before going underground.

I would love to see an analysis of the water; there must be some dosing of heavy tranquilizers and mood stabilizers going on for these people to seem so happy and care-free, and to keep them controllable. Just imagine the survivor guilt!

I was thinking I’d be going crazy, even though it looks like a beautiful place to live.  

Edited by Anela
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I am still not sold on the logistics mentioned above. I cannot ignore that there is no way a limited amount of people would be transported to a bunker, as beautiful as it might be (not really), live the same life that destroyed the planet before, and be compliant with billionaires running them. They must put something in the water (where does it come from) to control them. Fascism pure and simple

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Another good episode.  I'm really liking this, and I actually didn't expect to.  I'll be honest, the murder mystery is good, the casting is great, but I'm really sticking around because I'm so intrigued by the building of the underground city to save humanity part of it.  If it wasn't for that, I don't know if this show would have hooked me.

The one thing that bothers me is that they're making the female secret service agent look sooo incompetent.  In light of recent IRL events and accusations, that is just not sitting right with me.  I'm now sort of hoping that she's the killer, she's just playing the part of "who, little ol' me?" innocent one, Billy is her puppet, and that she's really a mastermind assassin playing the long game.  OK, yeah, that's going a bit far, but I want a redemption for her in some way.

On 1/28/2025 at 5:44 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

I wonder if Gabriela had something to do with Teri couldn’t make it to the plane to Paradise?

I was thinking the same thing!  Last episode I thought I saw X's wife on the plane with him, but I went back for a rewatch and that was his daughter (different hairstyle than she has now).  But I'm with you on this - I think Teri didn't make the list.  I don't know if Gabriella personally selected all 25,000 people or not, but she certainly was the bouncer deciding whether or not they got past the rope line and into the club.  

On 1/30/2025 at 9:36 AM, SeanBug said:

I'm assuming we're going to find out what Sinatra's role in the gov't is, and how she got so much power, and what her actual position is. Is this a riff on Musk?

In Ep 2's flashback to the Billionaire's Summit, Sinatra and Cal already had known each other for some time, but I didn't get the impression Cal was in any political office at that time.  My guess is that once Sinatra became convinced the world was going to end, Sinatra convinced Cal to run for office, funded the campaign, and did this so she'd have someone in the White House who would be on board with building this underground city.  So, sorta like Musk, but with the intent to SAVE the world.

On 1/31/2025 at 7:13 PM, marinw said:

Robinson mentioned something suggesting that they will be down there for at least a Century. So they need babies, but maybe whatever caused the End Of The World caused a fertility crises?

If I had to ensure the continuation of the human race, I'd stock the city with random sperm/egg/embryos from pre-disaster fertility clinics and everyone who wants to get pregnant uses IVF at random.  This would ensure "cousins aren't having babies", would ensure genetic diversity, racial/ethnic diversity, etc.  

But I still don't understand how things can be so bad that they are down there for 100 years, but two teenagers can easily reach the surface and hang out in the airplane hangar.  I can think of no disaster in which both would be true.

On 1/30/2025 at 8:40 AM, bilgistic said:

I can't stop thinking about how the town "works", and it does my head in.

I'm right there with you!  I was wondering last episode if the entire town is vegan, vegetarian, or at least pescetarian, as having large animal farms would be a drain on the system.  I laughed out loud when X complained about cashew cheese, because I feel the same way!  It's not cheese!  I was actually scanning the background in the grocery store to see if there was meat, and I didn't see any.  A whole lot of produce.  But there were packaged goods, which surprised me.  I like that they showed a community garden.  But I love thinking about the how and why of this, and I like that Gabriella explains some of it.  

On 1/31/2025 at 8:18 PM, SoMuchTV said:

they had all the classic great works of art lining the walls of the boardroom

I didn't even notice this!  

In an earlier episode thread I wondered if this was the ONLY bunker in the world, or if there were others in the US and around the world.  If the world's greatest art is here, that supports this being the only bunker.  But we have yet to have one non-American character, except for Build Me a City guy.  How would you get France to give you the Louvre's greatest treasures without securing a spot for the French President and his family?  Also, since we know the above ground hangar was untouched by whatever disaster occurred, it stands to reason that other buildings exist (except on the East coast) and art and historical treasures have been warehoused above ground.

 

 

 

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On 2/5/2025 at 9:47 AM, chaifan said:

In Ep 2's flashback to the Billionaire's Summit, Sinatra and Cal already had known each other for some time, but I didn't get the impression Cal was in any political office at that time.  My guess is that once Sinatra became convinced the world was going to end, Sinatra convinced Cal to run for office, funded the campaign, and did this so she'd have someone in the White House who would be on board with building this underground city.  So, sorta like Musk, but with the intent to SAVE the world

Cal was a Senator when they met at the Summit.

Sinatra clearly bankrolled most of Paradise, though likely got contributions from other billionaires that got seats inside too.  
 

Billy definitely used the other agent as a cover and was part of the murder set up but she doesn’t know about that.  She probably was relieved of duty and went home.  
 

 

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