[Books] Wool Part 2 Summary and Differences From the Show

This is part 2 of a series summarizing the book Wool and explaining the differences for people who are more familiar with the show. Click here for part 1.

Summary: Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes go on a trip from up top to the down deep to meet Juliette Nichols, who is Marnes's pick for sheriff. Along the way they stop at the nursery where Juliette's father works to ask why he and she never visit. He explains that Juliette left for mechanical when her baby brother died and her mom committed suicide. He also says she won't accept the position of sheriff, but doesn't say she shouldn't have the position.

Farther down the silo, at the IT floors. Bernard, head of IT, who traditionally signs off on the new sheriff, insists that they should pick the third candidate on their list, Peter Billings. In fact, he's even called Billings about the position without the mayor's permission and Billings has accepted. He says Juliette is unacceptable as a potential sheriff because she effectively stole tape that was supposed to be used for cleaning suits. He also shows distain for everyone in mechanical. However, Jahns and Marnes both stick to their decision to meet Juliette. Before they leave, Bernard watches as Jahns drinks from Marnes's water bottle.

When they get down to mechanical, everyone says good things about Juliette. They finally meet with her. The mayor offers her a power holiday so mechanical can fix the generator, then asks her about the tape, which Juliette says she really did need. The mayor alludes to the fact that up top they may be too aware of IT's needs as opposed to mechanical's due to the relative proximity of IT and poor communication with the down deep. Juliette is reluctant to accept the position as sheriff, but she ultimately accepts.

The mayor and Marnes climb back up the stairs in the middle of the power holiday with the power turned down throughout the silo. Throughout their trip they have begun expressing long ignored feelings for each other, and on the way back up they sleep together.

When they reach IT, Bernard is angry that they chose Juliette and refuses to sign off on their choice, letting another IT person, Lucas, do it in his place. He also gets Sims, head of IT security, to fill up their canteens.

Also, I should mention here that during this whole part there are hints that IT has a higher priority in the Silo than it makes sense for them to have. They get access to the best quality lighting and power while the mayor had to fight to get her faulty lightbulb replaced.

As they continue upward, Mayor Jahns starts to feel sick. She stops at Juliette's father's nursery again to use the bathroom and rest, but it quickly becomes clear to everyone around her that there is something very wrong with her, although she's unaware of what it is. Then, in her final moments, she realizes that the water in the canteen she's been drinking from has been poisoned.

Down below, the generator fix goes off without a hitch, but then Juliette hears that the mayor has died.

Differences (not already mentioned in part 1):

  1. There are no screens showing the outside at lower levels. Everyone has to come to the top to see the results of the cleaning.
  2. Juliette is Marnes's pick for sheriff, not Holston's.
  3. Mayor Jahns claims she's not concerned about people seeing her and campaigning for reelection. She wants to see them.
  4. Juliette's dead brother was a premature newborn who died, not an older kid who had a heart defect. The death happened because of a faulty incubator.
  5. Juliette's mom committed suicide only because her baby died, not because Judicial destroyed her microscope. There was no microscope, or any ban on microscopes.
  6. Most people don't know Juliette's mom committed suicide because her dad filed a report with a false cause of death.
  7. Juliette got permission from her father before going to mechanical at age 13 rather than running away.
  8. IT is three levels including levels 33 and 34, not level 19.
  9. Bernard refers to mechanical as "maintenance." In the show those are two separate groups.
  10. Billing's first name is Peter, not Paul.
  11. There is very little mention of Judicial, only that Peter Billings was in line to become judge. Bernard and Sims are not pretending the judge is the one who's really in charge, and judicial is not supposed to be more powerful than the mayor. Judicial doesn't have an army.
  12. IT admits the tape Juliette stole was for the suits rather than pretending it was for the servers.
  13. Knox is fat.
  14. Shirley is more pleasant and she's married to a guy named Mark.
  15. Walker is a man.
  16. The mayor and Walker weren't friends. They didn't know each other.
  17. When mentioning an assignment Juliette was given at age 13, Mark says she would have been allowed to use pulleys and ropes to get some pumps up four flights of stairs. There's no ban on mechanized travel up and down, but people still use the stairs.
  18. Holston, Marnes, and Juliette worked on the case about George's death before Alison went out, not after.
  19. Juliette doesn't accept the sheriff position to find out about George, but to advocate for mechanical.
  20. Jahns's first name is Marie, not Ruth.
  21. Sims is IT security, not Judicial security. (Edit: Also, Sims has a very minimal role in the book and does not have access to any special secret IT control related information.)
  22. There's no desperate scramble to fix the generator. There's still pressure to do it right, but things don't go horribly wrong during the fix.
  23. There's no glitch showing everything looking green and healthy outside when they turn the power off.
  24. The mayor wasn't thinking about retiring soon, although she knew she was old and wouldn't be there forever.

Edit: 25. The travel times in the book are more specific. Jahns and Marnes spend two days traveling down to mechanical.

That's everything for part 2. I don't know when I'll finish part 3, because I need to watch the rest of season 1 again and listen to part 3 in the audiobook before I can post that, so it may take a while. Also, although parts 1 and 2 of Wool cover up through episode 3 of season 1, there are some changes that show up in those episodes that I haven't covered yet. When I finish part 3 I will make another post about extra things that were in season 1 that weren't in Wool at all, and include it in this series.

As always, let me know if there's something you think I missed, but don't worry about anything beyond part 2 of the books yet, because I'll post that later. Thanks.

Link to Part 3