This article contains Silo season 3 spoilers.
Silo season 2 ended with a major shift in narrative. No longer would we be entirely focused on the trials taking place inside the show’s dingy, post-apocalyptic underground silos; we were also granted the chance to go back in time and finally find out how and why pockets of survivors got stuck in them. It was a twist not only faithful to Hugh Howey’s Silo book series, but also a much-needed jolt of energy for the Apple TV show, which had slowed its pace considerably in its second season to focus on character building.
Season 2’s dual perspective of the events taking place in Silos 17 and 18 was replaced by a new dual perspective: the aftermath of Juliette’s return to Silo 18 in the present and Daniel and Helen’s investigation into the plan to retaliate against Iran’s dirty bomb attack on Washington, D.C., in the past. In the latter’s flashbacks, we were out in the “real world” where our new characters, a conflicted congressman and a determined journalist, could move freely for the first time, darting around from pubs to government buildings and parks as an exciting political conspiracy unfolded.
Silo felt renewed and energized. It was also a relief to be fully outside for once because that’s all we want for our survivors in the present, isn’t it? A return to the freedom of the world, liberated from the threats of the insidious Legacy AI and the spiral staircase that leads some poor souls down to the dreaded mines, should they make a serious enough mistake. But as exciting as it’s been to see Daniel and Helen form an allegiance and begin digging into the chain of events that will lead to siloed existence, that remarkable and invigorating twist has arguably been undermined by the one unfolding in the present day, and as Silo season 3 flits between those two stories, the excitement of the past is being canceled out by the infuriating present-day scenes of Juliette’s amnesia plotline.
Juliette’s forced memory suppression at the hands of a Legacy-pilled Camille Sims is not a part of Howey’s Silo books. In the source material, Juliette instead triumphantly returns to Silo 18, becomes mayor, and sets about bringing reform to the silo. She does not forget her time outside; that particular twist is a major deviation from the books, introduced by the show’s writers… and it is absolutely exasperating.
When a main character in any show has memory loss, intrigue is typically at a minimum. The audience suddenly knows much more than the character and has to twiddle their thumbs, waiting for them to catch up with the story. In Silo’s third season, Juliette revisits people and places she should recognize but doesn’t, asks redundant questions, and chases answers that the show has already given us. Her slow progress is enormously frustrating. In the first three episodes of season 3, Juliette still hasn’t caught up, and despite the looming threat of a deadly “safeguard” if she and Lukas Kyle begin telling people what they know, Juliette’s scenes feel like a holding pattern as the show spins its wheels and delays key events.
Season 3 currently has a real problem: half of the show is treading water, while the other half makes you lean forward in your seat and try to pay attention again before being drawn back into yet another scene where Juliette tells a character she simply can’t remember why they matter. It’s a different problem from the one season 2 had, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
Although some people enjoyed the second season’s slower storytelling, others found it a struggle to get through, especially toward the end of the season, when the writers spent a large handful of episodes finally getting Juliette back to Silo 18 to save its denizens from mass death. In contrast, season 3 is giving many of its viewers a constant sense of whiplash. One minute, Daniel and Helen are on the case, tracking down evidence and exposing another piece of the Silo puzzle; the next, the temptation sets in to scroll on their phone while Juliette says “I don’t know you” to someone else who would simply love to get the plot back on track.
To be sure, it’s clear that Doctor Victor Crnkovich, performing his controversial tests on memory suppression and recall in the past, is how Legacy and IT end up messing with memories in the present. These two plot points may indeed converge in a different, surprising way later in the season. After all, a vital, underlying part of Silo’s narrative is that those in charge of the silos can (and do) use forced amnesia to control individual identities and those of its societies, preventing rebellion and free thought. However, that doesn’t make Juliette’s memory loss scenes any less frustrating.
It does feel like there was a missed opportunity to choose a different narrative path for the show’s main character so that this season could truly improve on the one that preceded it. Unfortunately, in order to make the third season feel satisfying as a whole, there needs to be a whole lot of momentum in the present-day story, and fast.
New episodes of Silo season 3 premiere Fridays on Apple TV.
