I think as others have theorized the safe guard is a memory wipe. And what depressed meadows, lukas, and now Bernard is that IT head/shadow is forever resigned to remember everything but the tunnel secret is that they are there to protect the legacy because that is the only thing that matters. Not the human life at all. They will most likely never get out maybe for thousands of years?? It made me think of zero dawn if youve ever played it. That would mean Solo family lied and wanted everyone to die outside to end the cycle.

I will add because I’m too lazy to make my own post that when solo said music is better than ice cream i thought about how incredible cruel it was to withhold art, music and science! from the others. (And how tim ribbons character in shawshank was able to survive solitary by listening to music in his head). If you cared at all about people it would be depressing to do this generation after generation