Silo Season 2 Ending Explained: Juliette returns and cleans, after all; but why?

Silo Season 2 Ending Explained: After an entire season spent in Silo 17, where she met the handful of survivors and figured out a way to return home to Silo 18, Juliette Nichols is back

Steve Zahn and Rebecca Ferguson in the Silo Season 2 finale

Silo Season 2 has ended, and after weeks of what seemed like no progress in the plot, the last 2 episodes packed in enough juice to keep fans invested and waiting keenly for the next season to be announced. Silo, which is based on Hugh Howey’s books, has been given 2 more seasons to tell the story of how the remnants of humanity ended up in underground bunkers for centuries and if these survivors ever make it out to a clean and safe outside world.

A lot went down in episode 9 and 10, what with Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Fergusson) brokering peace between the 3-4 remaining residents of Silo 17, realizing that the suit she found in Solo/Jimmy’s (Steve Zahn) possession was no good after all and that she’d have to rely on the fire suit after all.

Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash), like his predecessor Judge Meadows, decides to quit as the IT head’s shadow, while keeping the information he gleaned while in the tunnel to himself and mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins). The algorithm then chooses Camille (Alexandria Riley) and not Robert Sims (Common) as the new head of IT, after they gain access to the vault.

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Here are some key elements from the Silo Season 2 finale that are relevant to Season 3

Juliette Lives

At the end of Season 1, Sheriff Juliette Nichols, who was sent out to clean by mayor and IT head Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), with help from Head of Security for Judicial, Robert Sims (Common), did not perish outside the Silo as was expected. Protected from the harsh and dangerous environment because of the better-quality heat tape from Mechanical, she does not clean and makes her way up the hillock and beyond, giving the Silo residents hope that she has survived and that the display may just be a lie.

In the Season 2 finale, moments before Silo 18 goes into full-fledged rebellion mode, with a section set to force the entrance open and step out, Juliette reappears on that not-too-distant horizon and makes her way quickly to the camera and cleans. She then holds up the message they had to see – ‘not safe, do not come out’.

After a futile attempt to pry the entrance open from the outside, it begins to open and as Juliette sprints in, she meets Bernard just outside the airlock. He’s all suited up and ready to go out and die, after a certain conversation he had with his shadow, Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash). As he tells her that his only goal was to prevent any rebellion, which could kick in the Safeguard protocol and end everything as it were, which Juliette is already aware of. She tells him that she may have figured out something to prevent that from happening.

But then, as she turns towards the airlock, the doors shut on her and Bernard, engulfing them in flames. That Juliette was wearing a fire suit from Silo 17 should be how she survives this, but Bernard’s future is up in the air at the moment.

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The Safeguard procedure

Before Juliette makes the trip back home, Solo tells her that it is imperative that she understand something called the Safeguard procedure, which, he remembers, his parents had figured out how to disable. It maybe the key to ensuring Juliette can keep the people of Silo 18 safe.

The Safeguard is an extermination protocol that is initiated by an external agency that remains unknown to Juliette at the moment. She knows what happens but not who does it, while Bernard knows both. The Safeguard is nothing but a pipeline running in the Silo with the capacity to release poisonous air and kill everyone.

A little peek into how and why the Silos came to be

In the closing moments of Season 2, the timeline shifts to another era, before the Silos were built, in a world on the brink of nuclear war. A freshman Congressman, Donald (Ashley Zukerman) from Georgia’s 15th district meets a young reporter Helen (Jessica Henwick) in what he presumes is a date, only to find that she is more interested in a dirty bomb that had gone off recently and if Iran was really to blame for it. The Congressman is said to have an army and engineering background, which hints at his likely involvement in building the Silos and their location. That both the Congressman and the reporter are key to the story is revealed when he leaves her with a candy dispenser bearing a duck on top – the same one Juliette had as a relic in Silo 18 and set off all the events so far.

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There are details in this scene, including that Donald is checked for radiation levels at the entrance of the pub, and that he was holding a pamphlet with the header ‘The New Normal’ featuring an image of people wearing hazmat suits. Such precautions were common place back then and perhaps why building the Silos became a necessity.

The introduction of these two characters hints that the before times will be a major element of the upcoming season.

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