The first season of Apple TV+’s Silo wrapped up last week with a game-changing finale that saw Sheriff Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) finally uncover the truth about the titular Silo, and what lay beyond. Based on the hit book series by Hugh Howey, Silo is easily one of Apple TV+’s most notable science fiction series this year. It kept the quality consistent right up to the end, which expertly set up a second season.
We’re going to talk all about it below, so here’s your warning that there are SPOILERS for the season finale of Silo beyond this point.
Silo ending explained
The big twist of the Silo season finale, “Outside,” is that Juliette Nichols finally leaves the Silo. Everyone before her died after trying that, so things were looking pretty grim for her. Throughout the season, her quest to uncover the truth led her and several others to believe that the world outside was actually lush and full of life. But upon exiting the Silo, Juliette realizes that the lush landscape she saw in a recorded file is actually a hologram, seemingly meant to give those exiled from the Silo a few moments of peace before their deaths. The world is just as barren and inhospitable as everyone thought.
However, Juliette manages to survive her ordeal thanks to a little help from her friends in the mechanical sector of the Silo, who give extra attention and care to her suit to make sure it’d hold up outdoors. Yes, everyone else who went out before her died, but only because their suits were shoddy.
The final stinger is that Juliette discovers that there are more Silos out there. What state are they in? Will she make contact?
Silo season 2 is currently filming, will not be delayed by WGA strike
Those questions are for season 2, but actor Rebecca Ferguson couldn’t wait that long to know the details, as she revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"I’ve read the books, but I also know that we deviate a bit from the book to be able to create the narrative that we need to do the show, so I wasn’t sure where [showrunner] Graham [Yost] was going with it. Once I got to that, my head went, “And then what?” I called Graham and went, “Season 2, what’s happening?” He was like, “I haven’t pitched it yet to Apple.” I was like, “I don’t care. What’s happening?” I’m always 10 steps ahead. But I’m in it right now. We’re shooting [season 2], so I’m very excited."
For us casual viewers, the most exciting bit in there is that Ferguson said filming is currently underway on season 2. Ferguson revealed that Silo is one of the rare shows that isn’t being held up by the writers’ strike, since scripts were done far ahead of time. She’s already read scripts for the entire season, and from the sounds of things they’ve already been workshopped extensively.
"I’m producing it, and we had all of the script changes and everything prior to the strike so that we’re able to continue to do it, thanks to all of the preparations that we did. I’m full in. I’m soul, heart, and body in this project, and it’s really f—ing good. I think season 1 was very, very good, but it’s nothing compared to what we’re doing now. We’ve done the introduction. We know the characters. Now it can go dark. Now things can happen."
Rebecca Ferguson talks filming Silo finale
Ferguson also talked about what it was like filming Juliette’s final scene of the season, where she finally beholds the outside world:
"It was just visualizing everything that she has been through. The biggest task for me is to act an emotion that I live with every day, which is that of being outside. These people have never experienced the height of skies, horizontal views, depths, gravel, stones. They obviously have fields and corn, but this is completely different … it’s flabbergasting just to be able to stand in that moment. And then on top of it, you put the journey of the lie, the screen is the lie, and the bodies, and walking up a hill, and what you see. There’s a lot to bring in there.That’s why season 2 is so interesting, because everything has been flipped upside down. The growth of the character is so interesting. This thing on Instagram came up yesterday, oddly enough — there was a chimpanzee, a research monkey, that’s been locked inside a cage its entire life, and they let it out for the first time. And the way it looked, the way it ducked for the sky, the way it ran out on the field, the curiosity and feel of what was out there, you could see it, and the joy obviously, the breathing just through the chest. Everything is different, the air. I thought about that chimpanzee a lot. It’s also just really f—ing sad. It’s kind of the same for Juliette. And once you leave, then what? We don’t know what happens to her. She doesn’t know. She’s standing there by herself, that really f—ing scary moment, which is also oddly exciting and new."
All of Silo season 1 is streaming now on Apple TV+. There’s no word yet on when to expect season 2, but we’d guess we won’t see it until sometime in mid-2024 at the earliest.
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