Abhiroop Das
Developed by Graham Yost, Apple TV+’s ‘Silo’ season 3 delves into the sprawling post-apocalyptic world first introduced in the sci-fi novels of Hugh Howey, this time tracing back to its creation. Episode 9 reveals the exact moment when the whole world turned upside down, with a nuclear blast separating Daniel from Helen. Meanwhile, in the present, Juliette and Bernard‘s plan to distract Camille and the Algorithm works, as Knox and Shirley’s crew manages to drill into the very heart of the Judicial Department. Their goal is to destroy the pipe that can trigger the so-called Safeguard meant to wipe out Silo 18, and as a race for control ensues, the past and present collide to reveal the grand, devious truth of what these silos truly are. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Silo Season 3 Finale Recap
‘Silo’ season 3 episode 10 begins with various glimpses of Helen from throughout the season being hazily stitched together, until they are revealed to be the contents of Daniel’s mind. As he wakes up from a bed of gooey liquid, Dr. Victor Crnkovich refers to him as Troy. Surprisingly, Daniel shows no reaction to that either, and things only get more confusing when we learn that he has been in and out of cryogenic sleep for centuries. For now, Daniel, as Troy, has been woken up to oversee an emergency situation, as the people of Silo 17 seem to have revolted. This contextualizes the events so far as taking place 35 years before the events of ‘Silo,’ and, in this timeframe, Jimmy, AKA Solo, is just a kid. As the people of the silo come pouring out into the open, Daniel makes a chilling decision to have every one of them killed.
Surprisingly, the person in charge of this mission is Daniel’s sister Charlotte, who is now referred to as Susan. When Daniel asks for the people to be killed en masse, Charlotte hesitates before being dismissed. As thousands die within seconds, Victor has to cover his own eyes in horror, but Daniel remains unaffected. As it turns out, his memory was wiped out not long after the initial incident, and since then, he has been reprogrammed into a specialist, Troy, meant to handle such cases with ruthlessness. However, he cannot help but be shaken by the memory of a woman he keeps seeing, and urges Victor to tell him her name. From there, the story jumps back into the present, where the entirety of Silo 18 is in a state of panic. This time, we see the events unfolding from the other side, as the Algorithm is revealed to be none other than Victor himself, using a robotic filter to mask his voice.
With the entirety of the Judicial Department toppling down, Victor gives Camille five minutes to mobilize her forces and take down Juliette’s team before he unleashes the Safeguard to poison the entire Silo 18. Meanwhile, Knox and Shirley manage to break through the concrete layers and reach the pipe meant to bring in the poison and begin clamping it shut. Ultimately, this turns into a battle of time, with Juliette and Robert helplessly awaiting what could very well be their victory or their death. However, Knox and Shirley are successful in clamping the pipe shut, and with Camille betraying the Algorithm and sparing the rebels, the battle seems won, until Victor decides to wake Daniel up from his sleep once again, this time with an important revelation.
Silo Season 3 Ending: Does Daniel Remember Helen? Where is She?
‘Silo’ season 3 ends with Daniel hearing Helen’s name again and being hit with a wave of emotions, but not necessarily memories. Though Victor goes to great lengths to erase all memories of Helen from Daniel’s mind, he ultimately decides to give the secret away, right before killing himself. However, it’s important to note that all Daniel has for now is the name, and he most likely doesn’t remember that she is his wife. What he has, for now, are vivid images of the past flashing through his mind, telling him that this mysterious woman was a big part of his life before everything changed forever. Given how smart Daniel is, it shouldn’t take him long to connect the dots by himself, and the real story starts from there.
Although Daniel, as Troy, seems comfortable with having no memory of his past, remembering anything about Helen should be powerful enough to trigger a chain reaction. He already senses a growing unfairness in how leaders like Victor and Thurman are allowed to retain their memories, even across several cryogenic cycles, while he always has to start anew. That alone should tell him that there was something different about him before he became Troy, something that might have made him rebel against the authorities before his memories were wiped out. The fact that Victor, perhaps the only man Daniel trusted, also sent him this video as his final act is also a coded message in and of itself, and it might just be what prompts Daniel to regain his agency and ask the right questions.
Though Daniel is bound to remember more about Helen down the line, that doesn’t mean that he can actually reunite with her. Centuries have passed since the two got separated, and while Daniel has been kept alive and relatively ageless with the help of cryogenic technology, Helen was almost certainly not as lucky. Based on the last we see of her in episode 9, it’s possible that she made it to Silo 18, but got trapped in with everyone else. The duck-shaped PEZ dispenser that Juliette has effectively confirms this link, but it also means that Helen likely died centuries ago. Thus, the narrative is moving towards Daniel remembering Helen, as well as their child, who might just be an ancestor of one of the characters we know in Silo 18, perhaps even Juliette.
Why Does Victor Kill Himself?
Before Daniel discovers who the woman in his memories really is, he has to face another big revelation, that of Victor’s death. Having led the silo network for centuries as one of the founding fathers, Victor was never expected to take a step this drastic, which is what prompts Daniel to reconsider everything he knows and has learned about this life. The biggest push comes from Victor himself, who left a video file for Daniel, announcing how relieved he felt when Juliette and the rest disabled the Safeguard. In reality, Victor took his own life after he was unable to cope with the guilt of slaughtering thousands of people, all in the name of a peace he himself doesn’t quite believe in. As Camille and Bernard point out, behind the monotone voice of the Algorithm is a human just as confused about things as they are, and this helplessness is what contextualizes Victor’s decision.
Throughout the season, Victor establishes his technique of erasing and rebuilding memories as a therapeutic exercise, one that allows characters to acknowledge their past without feeling its emotional weight. We even see this work in the case of Daniel, who, as Troy, has no remorse about taking too many lives and hardly any curiosity about how he ended up here. However, by the end, we know that Victor was simply using this technique as a coping mechanism, one that ultimately fails. Right before his death, he looks at a picture of his deceased daughter and bursts into tears, as if all the memories are returning to him in their complete capacity. While he takes his life to free himself from the guilt of taking countless lives, the video he sends to Daniel can be interpreted as his final attempt at breaking the cycle.
Will Juliette Attack Silo 1? Will Camille Join Her?
Following Juliette’s temporary victory against Silo 1 by cutting off Silo 18’s Safeguard, she has all the plans to escalate the conflict to the next stage. Knowing what happened to Silo 17, she understands that simply freeing the residents is not a solution, as the humans in charge have enough firepower to wipe out everyone within minutes. Instead of breaking the silo open from the top, she seeks an action plan from further down, drawing on Lukas Kyle’s experience of reaching the bottom of the construct. While Daniel and his team believe that Silo 18 is now on the back foot and will focus on defense, Juliette’s plan is to exploit their own unpreparedness. Having had a largely reactive role this season, Juliette is more than ready to take back control in the next season.
Juliette’s advances in the season finale are only made possible because of some last-minute assistance from Camille. The fact that Camille keeps this hidden not only from Juliette but also from the Algorithm and, effectively, even the audience, speaks to how powerful she can be as an ally. While her interests are aligned with the Algorithm for the most part, two key events force a shift in her stance. The first is Robert’s betrayal, which forces her to confront why someone who truly loves her would go to such extreme lengths to counter her actions. These seeds of doubt finally take root with Juliette’s questions, specifically when she poses the big “Why?” Camille has no answer for why the Algorithm has the power to kill them, and the moment she decides to rebel against that arbitrariness is the moment Victor and company lose this battle.
What is Behind the Forward Vault?
Though the final stretch of season 3 uncovers most of the secrets surrounding the silos, the actual constructs themselves are simply too big to understand in one go. The ending, for instance, reveals yet another aspect of the silos that we previously knew only from a distance. The Forward Vault, as it is called, sits at the very bottom of the silo, surrounded by water and separated from the upper chambers by a wall that is several feet thick. It appears that Silo 1 has a working camera fitted directly to the door, which raises the possibility that it is a passage they can access, or that they might have had access to at one point. When Juliette touches it, though, Daniel is pushed to the point of calling for a truce, all to prevent the residents from opening the door.
Given that Daniel refers to the giant door as the Forward Vault, it is likely the passageway we see in episode 9, the one Helen and the other guests enter the silo through. If it does connect to an alternative entrance to the silo network, there is also a chance that it may be directly connected to the other silos. Early on, Juliette figures out that Silo 1 is likely at the center of a circular structure comprising all the other silos, and given that they are not connected from the surface, an underground route might explain a lot of things. In the future, this mysterious doorway might very well emerge as the new decisive battleground between the residents of these silos and the people who have been ruling over them for centuries.
Read More: Is Helen Dead or Alive? Is Jessica Henwick Leaving Silo?
You must be logged in to post a comment.