By 
This article contains spoilers for Silo season 3 episode 9, “Farewell”
Silo’s third season has flipped between the past and the present, with occasionally mixed results. In both eras, our characters have searched for answers, but in the penultimate episode, it all comes down to “why?”
The first half is flashback-free and focuses on Bernard Holland’s (Tim Robbins) final sacrifice. Things are bleak in Silo 18, so its former head of IT decides to provide the rebellion with the ultimate distraction so they won’t be gassed into oblivion. Yet things are somehow even bleaker when we finally cut to Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and Helen Drew’s (Jessica Henwick) sunny, happy, and promising past for the back half of the episode.
After rejecting Per Stensen’s (Colin Hanks) offer to get involved in his silo project from the ground up, Daniel and Helen take the NDA money and embrace a quiet life, excited to start building a family. Their curiosity gets the better of them, though, and when an offer emerges to view the risible AI bro’s futuristic folly, Daniel and Helen decide to check it out. When discussing it with their OBGYN, she describes it as a “chocolate factory,” and a look flashes over Daniel’s face, the first of many that will scream “something is terribly wrong” in this installment of the show.
The Creeping Dread
Charlotte and Anna’s beautiful Atlanta home, where Daniel and Helen stop to catch up, is overflowing with lush greenery, but even the trees and plants feel claustrophobic, and the weather is gloomy and overcast. The foursome smiles and laughs as they reminisce and chat about the future, but they’re crowded for dinner in a muted room. “The light’s finally at the end of the tunnel,” says Anna of the silo project’s unveiling, and Charlotte remarks that it’s not daylight they see, but a train. The dread of Stensen’s upcoming event is already palpable, and we’re not even there yet.
As Charlotte and Anna discuss the hardships of the last six months, the light from the fire pit dances across their faces. It should be cosy, but after seeing the fire rage in the tunnel following Holland’s walk up the plank, it’s anything but. “Have you heard of the Pact?” Charlotte asks Helen, and we’re about to get a painfully brisk history of the sacred rulebook. Charlotte simply dismisses it as “some crazy shit” that Anna co-wrote with Dr. Crnkovich.
Later, Crnkovich admits, “AI wrote it, we just did some editing,” because of course it did. He also has a distinct feeling that if Daniel had been around, he might have noticed some key pieces were missing from their puzzle. “Hopefully, we’ll never have to find out if we did a good job,” Crnkovich says, and the bodies of everyone killed by the consequences of the Pact roll in their graves.
When a sweeping yet ominous score finally shows us the completed silo project, no breeze stirs, and the sky’s light casts a slightly sickly hue over our characters. Daniel and Helen arrive to find they’ve been separated into different tourist groups, with Helen ushered into Silo 18, her bright red jumper a visible warning of things to come. Meanwhile, Daniel is sent to Silo 1, where all the important people are. The couple reassure each other, but we know what this means. If anything happens, Helen will be having her baby far away from Daniel, and we start to get a gut feeling that something is definitely going to happen.
The project’s visitors were selected by a lottery we suspect was based on genetics, but is Stensen crazy enough to trap them all underground for 500 years to remake the world as he sees fit? Yes, absolutely. Silo’s Elon Musk stand-in has already proved ambitious and pigheaded enough to see his project through to completion, and he holds so much power with the U.S. government that he can make anything he wants happen.
The End of the Beginning
When we finally set eyes on a distracted, vaguely uninterested Stensen, he watches none other than Peter Gabriel himself perform a soundcheck for the evening’s festivities. Gabriel’s melancholy song gets under our skin as everyone else listens, bemused by his presence. As viewers, we already know the legendary singer-songwriter will probably be dead, along with his descendants, because Crnkovich casually mentions he’ll be visiting the doomed Silo 17. Charlotte’s absence at the tech check is notable, and Daniel’s worry turns to panic when his texts to her go unanswered at first, then return with an out-of-character response.
A suspicious Henry tries to keep Daniel close to Silo 1 as he attempts to connect with Helen. The tension builds, the score darkens, and every facial expression speaks volumes. When the nuke goes off, we know it’s no accident. Stensen clearly arranged it to force everyone down into the silos so he could see his project play out in his lifetime. It’s unclear whether just one nuke went off in Atlanta or whether the rest of the country was sacrificed to make his project worthwhile, but one nuke is enough to inspire our horror and despair at his absurdity and madness.
“Farewell” ends with the nuclear blast flowing across the land and Daniel’s future blown to smithereens as he escapes toward the entrance to Silo 1 with Henry and, presumably, Anna, Senator Thurman, Stensen, and Crnkovich. The most important people herded into the ruling silo and the project’s “crazy” AI-written Pact, while hundreds of thousands must live with the decisions of just a few, following an obnoxious trillionaire’s design and a flawed algorithm.
The Fundamental Question
The episode is a masterclass in apocalyptic dread, split between past despair and present desperation, with Holland still teasing an uncertain future. “Somewhere in Silo 1 is a person,” Holland tells Juliette before he goes outside to die. “Flesh and blood. No different or better than you or me. A person deciding our fates. Turns out, after all this, the wizard is nothing more than a man behind a curtain. And if that man were in this room right now, I’d kill him with my bare hands.”
We’re not in Kansas anymore. It’s way too late to stop Stensen’s plan, yet Holland seems certain that Juliette is the unifying force who can finally reach Silo 1 and change everything. Holland’s voice holds hope, but the events we see play out in the rest of the episode are so mirthless and drenched in foreboding that we can’t imagine anyone standing a chance against those left in Silo 1 and what they have decided is the right way for people to live.
The survivors ask themselves, “Why?” The answer is that one rich man decided he could. Nothing more, nothing less. It hits as close to home as it does miles underground.
Silo season 3 concludes on Apple TV on September 4.
The post Silo Season 3 Episode 9 Is a Masterclass in Apocalyptic Dread appeared first on Den of Geek.
