Editor’s Note: Spoilers below for Silo Season 2 and details from the books by Hugh HoweySiloSeason 2wraps upwith an epilogue scene that starts tobuild towards an answerto the mystery of the silos' existence. Surprisingly, though, the epilogue takes place much earlier, in days not unlike ours, in Washington, DC, as Georgia congressman Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen (Jessica Henwick) talk about what is happening in the world.There’s talk of bombs, radioactivity, Iran, and the possibility of a counterattack, but they never go into detail aboutwhat happened. Is this all there is to it?
The World Ends as a Consequence of Radiological Warfare
Before Daniel enters the restaurant in DC where he is meeting Helen, he is scanned for radiation levels. He is cleared, but, like everyone, he presents low radiation levels. This is already ahint of what happened, and his conversation with Helen clarifies thatthe USA has been attacked with dirty bombs— weapons that disperse radioactive material in the atmosphere looking to poison or contaminate a targeted area — and Iran is mentioned as being responsible for them.
The idea of a global nuclear conflict has long been speculated as what caused the end of the world inSilo, and, at first, it seems like that’s what happened. Radiological warfare is supposed to make the environment toxic, and that’s exactly what the outside of a silo is like whenever someone goes out to clean, and, inDaniel and Helen’stime, this process has already begun. So, following their conversation,we are led to believe that Iran started this conflict by attacking the USA with a dirty bombin Washington, hence their radiation levels and the whole “Where were you when it happened?” talk.
What Is the Safeguard in ‘Silo’ Season 2?
“You’re out of time.”
But that’s not all. As a journalist, Helen presses Daniel for answers, revealing little about what happened. She asks whether the government intends to strike back, and questions whether there was even a bomb at all. This line is key because it implies thata larger, potentially global conflict is being reported by the authorities, but the citizensaren’t so sureabout what is going on, or who dropped the bomb. In the event of a direct attack, an equally powerful response usually follows, but, apparently, the government still hasn’t acted, so was there even an attack to begin with? Well, according to theSilobooks, not really…
In the Books, Radiological Attacks Happen Differently
In the books, there are indeed radiological attacks, but the true reasons behind them are more complex. There may have been a global conflict, indeed, otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for thewholeworld to have ended, but,at least in the U.S., Helen may be right in suspecting there is more to it, and Daniel (who seems to be the counterpart of a book character named Donald), may know more than he lets on.
In the books, Daniel is part of W.O.O.L. (World Order Operation Fifty), an initiative that starts building 50 silos as repositories for toxic waste at first, but later unveils that they are supposed to safeguard humanity from extinction in case of nuclear and radioactive crises. Indeed,nuclear blasts follow and make the surface uninhabitable for at least 500 years, and the silos are where humanity endures. However, the end comes because of a technological threat: nanotechnology.In the books, nanobots play an increasingly large role in society, to the point where they become dangerous when terrorists start weaponizing them and using them as biological weapons.
Eventually, W.O.O.L. leaders decide to take radical action against this, destroying the surface and making it uninhabitable, as a way to also destroy the nanobots. All that is left of humanity now resides in the silos, along with the leaders of W.O.O.L. in Silo 1.On the surface, benign nanobots work to cleanse the Earth and make it habitable again, while humanity issupposed to livein the silos in wait and not-so-blissful ignorance.
As always, whenever a story is adapted from one medium to another, there are bound to be differences between them.So far,Silohas done a great job of expanding on the books, but, with onlytwo seasonsto the end and with two books left to adapt, how the Apple TV+ series will expand upon the end of the world is perhaps the biggest mystery about its future.
Both seasons ofSiloare available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.Watch on Apple TV+
In a dystopian future, men and women reside in a vast underground silo governed by strict regulations, believed to shield them from the hazardous world above. The series delves into the complex social order within the silo and the mysteries surrounding their subterranean existence.
