Breaking Down the Shocking Ending of Silo Season 2

Warning: Major spoilers for the Silo Season 2 finale ahead.

Silo, based on the books by Hugh Howey and created for television by Graham Yost, has become one of the crown jewels of Apple TV+, recently earning a two-season renewal for Seasons 3 and 4 (the latter of which is set to be the show’s final installment). The compelling sci-fi series follows the lives of those living in the “silo,” a mysterious underground structure inhabited by 10,000 people. They know they’ve lived there for over 100 years, but not how they got there, why, or what lies beyond its walls.

When the Season 2 finale, “Into the Fire,” written by Aric Avellino and directed by Amber Templemore, releases Jan. 17, it’s bound to leave fans with more questions than answers. Over Zoom, Yost discussed the shocking finale, including three major scenes at the very end, the especially surprising final sequence that could change everything, and what to expect from Season 3.

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A major cliffhanger for Juliette and Bernard

In the Season 2 finale, the silo has been plunged into chaos. Ever since Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) went outside in the Season 1 finale and went over the hill, uncertainty has been brewing: Is there life outside the silo? Has everything been a lie? Juliette has become a symbol of truth and hope for the citizens of the silo, and those who believe she is still alive have united to fight for their freedom. They’ve had enough, and they’re ready to leave—completely unaware of the devastation that awaits them outside.

As the silo faces an all-out war, Juliette has spent Season 2 in the neighboring Silo 17 but is finally ready to return to her original silo after finding the materials to fix her suit. Juliette has also uncovered the secret of the safeguarding procedures, a remotely-accessed poison that’s capable of decimating every life in the silo with barely a second thought. Juliette sets out to return to her silo (number 18) to warn everyone about going outside, and to find a way to shut down the safeguard.

Before things go in a shocking direction, the finale has some big plans for Camille (Alexandria Riley). Her husband Robert Sims (Common) leads her and their son to the vault, but the all-knowing voice says only Camille can stay—despite Sims’ endless dedication to the silo, he is not deemed the best person to be the next head of IT.

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That’s a big move for a show that didn’t even conceive of Camille as a character until late in Season 1. “Writer and director Aric Avellino and I were in a jam on Episode 9 of Season 1,” recalls Yost. They were trying to find a place for Juliette to hide out. They settled on Sims’ house, which led them to think further about his life, leading to the creation of Camille, Sims’ wife. While the show follows the Howey novels fairly closely, things develop differently; genders are flipped, and deaths happen in different ways. “I think you owe the audience some new stuff. You can’t be just a slavish or a direct translation from page to screen,” Yost says. “Then we got Alexandria Riley, and it was like “Oh my god, she’s good, let’s write for her,” he explains. Riley’s impressive performance led to an expanded role in Season 2, and according to Yost, the decisions she made in Season 2 impressed the all-knowing, all-listening voice that has chosen her for greater things. “That presence detected something in her, a certain quality that would make her a great person to be—and the best person available—head of IT.”

The Season 2 finale barely gives the viewer any time to process this major development, as Juliette makes her long-awaited return to the silo. This emboldens the civilians who have taken control of the silo, shocked but hugely relieved to see Juliette approaching, to clean the camera—something she refused to do when leaving—thereby sowing the seeds of revolution. She holds up a warning to the people of the silo that it’s not safe to leave.

Before we can see their likely confused reactions, we see Juliette enter the walkway to the silo, only to be greeted by Bernard (Tim Robbins), the current mayor and head of IT, and by far the most powerful person in the silo. But Bernard is at his wits end and just wants to be free of the burden of leadership, one which has only worsened throughout Season 2. He’s no longer trusted, and the people of the silo want vengeance for a lifetime of lies. Bernard just wants to go outside and die. They briefly discuss the deadly safeguard procedures—Juliette doesn’t know who sets off the poison or why they do it, Bernard knows the who but not the why, “But I don’t f-cking care,” he tells her. “It never really mattered,” he adds, deflated. But Juliette may just have a solution to shut down the safeguard, which gives Bernard a glimmer of hope.

Before they can discuss it, the door back to the silo begins to shut. Juliette rushes in and Bernard races after her, saying she can’t go inside. They both wind up stuck inside the airlock, and fire begins to appear, soon submerging the entire airlock in violent flames. Juliette is thrown to the side, and the episode ends. Yost wouldn’t comment on the specific fates of Bernard or Juliette, but he was clear that the scene is a big deal: “One thing that this show made clear in Season 1 is, anyone could die. The fire is not good. And there are very serious consequences.”  

A shocking coda changes everything

Many creators would be satisfied to end a season on a major cliffhanger that puts the lives of its two biggest characters in jeopardy. But Silo saves its most shocking moment for something completely unexpected: A journey into the past, hundreds of years before silos even existed.

“One of the things I was looking forward to is going from the sound of fire in the airlock to rain over black. And having the audience just go ‘Sorry, what? Rain?’ There’s no rain in the silo,” Yost says. The effect is unsettling and completely unexpected. It’s almost like you’ve accidentally changed channels and are watching a different show—something Yost said a friend of his thought when watching the episode. 

Just as the Season 1 finale amped up the stakes by expanding the show’s scale in revealing that there were dozens of other silos, the Season 2 finale expands the timeline of the show by throwing things back to the past. To Yost, the end of Season 1 was not a cliffhanger—”It was a step forward.” Similarly, he sees the Season 2 finale as another step forward, even if it’s going back in time. The final scene takes place in Washington, D.C., where two people we’ve never seen before, Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) and Helen (Jessica Henwick) are meeting for the first time at a bar.

As Yost explains, there was debate about whether to end with the flames or something different. “There were times when talking with Apple and others involved in the show: ‘Do we need this scene? Should we start Season 3 with that?’ We have Juliette in an airlock filled with fire and could go out there. That’s a conventional cliffhanger.” Instead, Yost wanted to take things in a whole new direction. “I wanted to establish that we’re going to see how this whole thing started.” 

Daniel and Helen meet under the pretense of a date, but Dan is a congressman, and what journalist Helen really wants from him is information. She’s particularly interested in a “dirty bomb”—particularly, whether the rumors of one exploding in New Orleans are real, or merely fabricated to advance a war between America and Iran. Dan doesn’t answer, instead choosing to leave. It’s all vague, but it gives the viewer a chance to piece some details together: It was likely the bomb and the escalation of a war between America and Iran that led to the creation of the silos. “We wanted something where the audience goes, ‘Oh sh-t! Oh sh-t’ and that was the Pez. It’s not a cliffhanger, but it is a leaning-forward story moment,” says Yost.

About the Pez: Before Dan leaves, he gives Helen a gift. Helen opens the brown paper bag to reveal a Pez dispenser with a duck on top. She begins to smile, and the episode cuts to black, ending Season 2—for real this time. This isn’t just some random token of Dan’s appreciation, however. It’s the exact same Pez dispenser that’s found in the silo hundreds of years later, existing as a relic, a forbidden item and symbol of the past that normal civilians are not allowed to possess. The message is clear: However life in the silo began, these two played a part in it. 

For those left confused by the sudden shift in the Season 2 finale, Yost offers assurance that we will get clarity on the beginning of the silos in the next season. “We get into the origin story, but we’re also deep into our silo world,” he says. There’ll also be more to learn about the dirty bomb. “In Season 3, we’ll find out what happened to Silo 17”—the silo Juliette spent the vast majority of this season in. “By the end of Season 3, you’ll know what happened to the people who went outside of 17, and the why and how of all of that. That’s a big thing that will get solved—and how the whole thing began.”

“One of the things I loved about the books,” Yost explains, “Is that Hugh [Howey] paced out the revealing of the answers to the mysteries, and we’re trying to keep to that too.” The audience finds out, as Juliette finds out. More mysteries are certain to be answered in the final two seasons—but we’ll have to wait and see if it’s still Juliette uncovering them.