Silo Season 3, the highly-anticipated next chapter in Apple TV‘s hit dystopian drama, is right around the corner. And since it’s been over a year since Silo‘s Season 2 finale aired, we figured fans might need a refresher before reuniting with Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) and the show’s compelling characters.
As a whole, Silo‘s sophomore season picked after Juliette went out to clean. We saw her explore Silo 17, befriend Solo/Jimmy (Steve Zahn) and other survivors, then return to Silo 18 in hopes of saving her loved ones from danger. While she was gone, all hell broke loose in Silo 18 as its citizens moved towards a rebellion and Bernard (Tim Robbins) and Sims (Common) clashed with Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner).
Ahead of Season 3 — a mix of original storylines and Hugh Howey’s novels Shift and Dust — fans will want to recall where exactly we left Silo at the end of Season 2, Episode 10, “Into the Fire.” So Decider’s Silo Season 2 recap features key takeaways from the finale, along with links to episodic Season 2 recaps, Season 3 info, and more. Here’s everything to remember before Silo Season 3 returns on Friday, July 3!
Silo Season 2 Recap: What To Remember Before Silo Season 3
Before we dive into the finale, it’s important to remember that Silo Season 2’s penultimate episode dropped a major reveal: The Safeguard. When Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash) descended that rope and explored the water at the bottom of the silo, he found the massive door that was teased throughout the series. The Algorithm — a mysterious voice emanating from speakers — stopped him in his tracks and shared that before he arrived, only three other people had reached the door: Salvador Quinn, Mary Meadows, and George Wilkins. Though The Algorithm didn’t speak with Wilkins, Quinn and Meadows were both given the same directive Kyle received.
“If you speak to anyone about this conversation or what you have seen down here we will have no choice but to initiate The Safeguard,” The Algorithm explained. “Do you know what the Safeguard is, Mr. Kyle?” Lukas confirmed he did, but viewers at home were still in the dark until the finale offered some much-needed clarity…
Silo Season 2 Ending Explained: Season 2, Episode 10 “Into the Fire” Recap
Before Lukas and Shirley parted ways in the penultimate episode, he revealed that when the camera in Juliette’s helmet stopped working, she was still alive. In Season 2’s finale, Shirley informs Juliette’s dad Dr. Nichols (Iain Glen), and with renewed hope and motivation he agrees to work with Walker (Harriet Walter), Billings (Chinaza Uche), Knox and Shirley to outsmart Bernard and Judicial.
In full view of Bernard’s cameras, the team discusses plans to storm the barricade and hold off raiders for three hours so they can rig the generator to explode. After hearing their seemingly private chat, Bernard sends raiders to the barricade to fight and arrest Mechanical’s key members and Billings. As Bernard exhales in relief, Sims and Camille look on in distress. “Did we choose the wrong side?” Sims asks, suggesting he and his wife put their support behind Mechanical to save the silo. “By delivering Billings’ message? Maybe,” Camille replies. She assures him the message could still pay off and goes to get their son, while Sims sets out to snatch Bernard’s #18 key in hopes of getting into the vault.
Billings, Shirley, Knox, and Walker are thrown in the same cell as Carla (Clare Perkins), but Walker and Carla are set free, per the secret deal she made with Bernard. Disgusted by Walker’s betrayal, Carla disses her and asks to stay in the cell with Mechanical. A distraught Walker demands to see Bernard, and as he sits with her awaiting confirmation that the generator is safe, she tells him a story. Turns out the generator is so loud that over the years Mechanical’s crews developed hand signals to communicate with each other over the noise. While Bernard was watching her and her friends through the security camera, they were using those hand signals to have an entirely different conversation. So no, Walker isn’t a traitor. She secretly told Knox they were being watched, and the generator was never set to blow. The real plan was Dr. Nichols and Hank (Billy Postlethwaite) setting off explosives on the stairs. After a failed attempt, Dr. Nichols takes off George’s watch and gives it to Hank, asking him to give it to Juliette when she returns. “Tell her I love her. Tell her to never stop fighting, never stop being herself, because her whole life she’s been perfect just the way she is,” he says before sacrificing himself for the good of the silo.
Bernard’s gloating is cut short when Dr. Nichols’ blast takes out out the stairs between levels 92 and 90, trapping all raiders below the explosion. In a desperate attempt to protect IT, Bernard calls on Sims for assistance, but before he arrives, Bernard and Lukas reunite, and Lukas quietly shares his devastating update. “If it hears this, we’re dead. I solved the code..it’s true,” Lukas says. “It’s why Meadows quit as your shadow. It’s why I quit.” After hearing Lukas’ message about The Safeguard, a defeated Bernard slowly walks upstairs, where he bumps into Sims. “You still wanna be my shadow? You got it. You’re now my shadow,” he tells Sims before sharing the vault code and handing over the key. “Good luck, Robert. You were very loyal, until you weren’t.” When Sims and his family finally enter the vault, however, The Algorithm only orders Camille to stay…
Juliette’s Journey Back To Silo 18: Are Juliette And Bernard Alive?
Back in Silo 17, as Jimmy explores his childhood home he finds a note that reads “SAFEGUARD PROCEDURE,” which jogs a crucial memory. He remembers The Safeguard is a pipe that pumps enough poison into the silo to kill 10,000 people. His parents were able to disable it by capping the pipe. But before he and Juliette can fully investigate, they hear the Silo 18’s explosion rush Juliette’s trip back. She suits up, says an emotional goodbye to Jimmy and the kids, and promises she’ll try to return to save them.
As Juliette begins her journey back to Silo 18, Bernard grabs a backpack, a suit, and a gun. Just as it seems he might take his own life, he hears cheers from the cafeteria where a suited-up Juliette appears outside the display window, cleans the camera, and holds a note to the screen that reads: NOT SAFE DO NOT COME OUTSIDE. For a moment, she fears she’ll never be able to get back inside, but the large metal door opens, revealing a suited-up Bernard, desperate to go outside after learning the Silo’s fate was never in his hands. He holds his gun to Juliette until she assures him she knows how to disable The Safeguard, but before the two get back inside safely, the two get trapped in the silo’s and drop to the ground as flames shoot from the walls. Did they survive? We’ll have to wait to Season 3 to find out. But Season 2 isn’t over just yet…
The “Before Times” Takes Us To Washington D.C.
In Season 2’s final jaw-dropping six minutes, Silo takes viewers out of the fire and into the rain. We leave the silo behind and head to familiar looking, above-ground, pre-apocalyptic Washington, D.C. on a rainy night, where a congressman (Ashley Zukerman) meets a woman named Helen (Jessica Henwick) for a date at a bar — or so we initially think…
“Let’s get it out of the way. Where were you when it happened?” Helen asks the congressman shortly after he arrives. “I was in session that day, serving the good people of Georgia’s 15th,” he replies. Helen thoroughly Googled him before she arrived, so she knows he’s a freshman congressman representing 15th district of Georgia with a Masters in Engineering at the University of Georgia and experience in the Army Corps of Engineers. When she shares her findings, he says, “I’d better change the subject before I start bragging about what we did in New Orleans” and asks if she knew anyone who was affected by “the dirty bomb.”
Helen gets straight to the point and admits that she’s there to talk about the dirty bomb. “I’m here because I think the people you work for — and by that I mean the citizens of this country, not the shadowy creeps who pay for campaigns — I think the people need to know if there are plans to strike back against Iran, whether or not there really was a radiological weapon attack on the US,” she says. “How about you? What do you think?”
Seemingly unsurprised by her ulterior motive, the congressman puts his jacket back on and says “I think I’d better go.” Before he leaves, he hands her a gift he “panic bought” at a convenience store around the corner from his apartment: a Pez dispenser, the same Relic that George gave Juliette in the silo!
What Will Silo Season 3 Be About? Which Book Is Silo Season 3 Based On?
Per Apple TV’s official synopsis, “Silo Season 3 continues the saga of a dystopian society of 10,000 people living underground under mysterious circumstances, while revealing an origin story set centuries earlier. In the present, Juliette Nichols survives her forced ‘cleaning’ but returns with memory loss as the silo recovers from rebellion and faces a dangerous new threat. Meanwhile, in the ‘Before Times,’ journalist Helen Drew and Congressman Daniel Keene uncover a conspiracy that pulls them into a chain of events with catastrophic, irreversible consequences.”
Silo Season 2 Recaps:
Want to take an even deeper dive back into Silo Season 2 but don’t have time for a full rewatch? Here are links to Decider’s Silo Season 2 recaps and coverage to refresh your memory.
Stay tuned for more Silo Season 3 coverage from Decider.
Silo Season 3 premieres Friday, July 3 on Apple TV with new episodes streaming every Friday.