Abhiroop Das
Created by Graham Yost, Apple TV+’s ‘Silo’ adds a new dimension to its post-apocalyptic story with season 3, particularly that of the past. In what is often called the “before times” section, we see how the world was more than three centuries ago, and exactly what went wrong to lead things to the present. When engineer turned Congressman Daniel Keene first teams up with journalist Helen Drew, it is to uncover the truth about what happened to his sister, Charlotte, who was in a mysterious army accident.
As Daniel and Helen navigate memory-erasing technology, deep-state conspiracies, and a chance encounter with a billionaire building giant silos, they end up falling in love and starting a family. The final stretch of the season, however, breaks this perfect world down, separating Daniel and Helen before introducing us to an unrecognizable version of the former, and giving no clear answers as to what happened to the latter. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Daniel is Stripped of His Memories and Emotions Until Only a Killing Machine Remains
The season 3 finale of ‘Silo’ confirms that Daniel Keene was subjected to memory erasure and reprogramming sometime after the nuclear apocalypse, which is how we arrive at his present identity, Troy. Though we don’t know what happened immediately after what is shown at the end of episode 9, chances are that Daniel was brought to Silo 1 and held there against his will. Given what we know about him, Daniel is not the type of person to simply submit to authority without question, and in these circumstances, he would want to know who launched the nukes, why, and, perhaps most importantly, what happened to Helen, their unborn baby, and Charlotte.
One detail that suggests the entire nuclear war was planned in advance is that Daniel and Helen are split up early on. While she is sent on a routine tour to Silo 18, Daniel is sent to Silo 1, the central and most important silo, where virtually everyone in positions of power is concentrated. This framing is no coincidence, as the plan to transform Daniel into one of Silo 1’s soldiers was likely set in stone from the start, and explains why everyone was acting so suspiciously around him. Given his genius in the field of engineering, Daniel naturally made for a good candidate for the silos’ long-term management, which explains the cryogenic sleeping, and also why Dr. Victor took away his memories and created a much colder, tactical version of Daniel, named Troy.
Helen Might be Long Dead, But Her Lineage Possibly Remains
Although Daniel may have been successfully turned into the killing machine that is Troy, that doesn’t mean that all his memories are gone. Instead, he often sees contextless flashes from his past life, particularly of his time with Helen. However, he is completely unable to remember even her name, much less her importance in his life. While the final scene of the season does seem to send him on a track of recovering these memories, it might already be too late. More than 300 years have passed since the nuclear apocalypse, and while Daniel may have been kept alive with the help of cryogenic technology, such a thing doesn’t really exist in Silo 18. The more likely explanation, then, is that Helen most likely died more than two centuries ago.
While Helen may be almost certainly dead, one can never fully predict the twists and turns in the series. It is possible that Victor and the others at Silo 1 may have saved her life as well, but that seems unlikely. The more probable string of events is that Helen survived and found herself trapped in Silo 18, unable to contact her loved ones. Given that she was roughly 8 months pregnant and in an extremely high-stress situation, we don’t really know if her baby survived or not. The former possibility makes for a more interesting prospect, though, as it means that someone in Silo 18 might be a descendant of Helen and Daniel. The irony of it all, though, is that all of this information has been stripped away from these characters, and now, they are forced to fight each other by the greater powers that govern this world.
Read More: Silo Season 3 Finale Recap and Ending Explained: Does Daniel Remember Helen?
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