Silo's Sims Hints At His Family's Secret Authority

Contains spoilers for "Silo" Season 1, Episode 5 — "The Janitor's Boy"

If we've learned anything about the lives of those in the upper echelons of the "Silo," it's that everyone is hiding something, and the 10,000 people living in the silo have no idea how many secrets are being kept from them. While Robert Sims (Common) has come across as shady ever since his introduction in Episode 2, Episode 5 has also given a different perspective of Sims, as he reveals information about his family's secret authority to the one person who won't be around to share it.

Sims tells Doug Trumbull (Henry Garrett) about Richard Elliot, a classmate who would torment him. Shortly after his father, a janitor, found out, Elliot's father had been reassigned to a job on a different level, and they had to move immediately. It was then that Sims realized that his father was much more than a janitor. He recalls his father telling him that if he wanted to shadow him, "[He'd] have to make a decision that would change my life forever." If he chose to go through the Janitor door with his father, he couldn't tell anyone what was on the other side. He tells Trumbull that he "would learn that the people on the other side of that door do the most important work of the silo."

Sims ended his monologue, but left us with questions as to how deep in his family this hidden power goes.

In Season 1, Episode 4 of "Silo" we learn that most of the jobs silo inhabitants have were passed down, after Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) tells Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) that the people who work in mechanical got their jobs from family. Walker even questions Juliette as to why she doesn't want to shadow her own father, Dr. Pete Nichols (Iain Glen). But Juliette's declaration that she was also born into it suggests that her mother, Hanna (Sienna Guillory), originally came from the lower levels of the silo, the same place Juliette decides to make her home.

We don't know how far back into his family Sims' work goes, but we now know from Episode 5 that he shadowed his father, whose work gave him the authority to reassign an entire family to a different level to protect his son from bullying. Sims' father obviously wasn't really a janitor and seems to be more tied to judicial, where Sims now works. We don't know what exactly is behind the door marked "Janitor," but Sims' admission to Trumbull makes it clear that it isn't brooms and mops. Sims' conversation with Trumbull also informs us that he ordered him to murder both Deputy Marnes (Will Patton) and George Wilkins (Ferdinand Kingsley) and to frame Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez) for the deaths of both Marnes and Mayor Jahnes (Geraldine James).

We're only halfway through the first season, and new mysteries and puzzles are revealed every episode. However, after Episode 5, the biggest question remaining is what is behind the Janitor door, and how great is Sims' authority in the silo.