Silo season 2 is at an end, and it left us with a whole lot of questions. "Into the Fire" was a powerful episode for Apple TV+'s post-apocalyptic science fiction series, featuring at least one major death as well as a violent clash for the fate of Silo 18. And that's not even getting into the major cliffhanger for Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), who was last seen diving to the floor in a small room full of fire.
But by far the most mind-bending turn of the finale was its final scene. After flames engulf the airlock where Juliette and Bernard (Tim Robbins) are trapped, we cut to black. When the show resumes, it's in a far more alien — yet familiar — landscape. Yes, Silo has brought us back out to the world as we know it, leaping into the past to show Washington D.C. before the apocalypse. There, we meet two brand new characters who have a discussion utterly filled with tantalizing bits of lore.
What exactly is going on with that scene? Who are these new characters? Read on for more information, but beware SPOILERS for the set-up of the second book in Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy, Shift.
Who are Donald and Helen in Silo?
The two characters we meet in this scene are Donald Keene, a freshman Congressman from Georgia played by Succession's Ashley Zukerman, and Helen, a reporter played by Game of Thrones veteran Jessica Henwick (and whose surname has not yet been revealed). In Shift, we meet these characters after they are already very familiar with each other. In the show, we're getting to see their very first meeting.
When does the final scene of Silo season 2 take place?
But when does this meeting take place? Over the course of their awkward date, which is really more of an excuse for Helen to drill Donald about the U.S. government's plans in response to a nuclear threat, we learn that we're in the past. Donald gifts Helen the duck PEZ dispenser which we see later in Silo 18, though many years have passed and its much worse for the wear by the time we see it in the main timeline.
However, this meeting also contains some interesting clues, like the fact that Helen considers the word "date" is archaic. Shift deals with a few different time jumps, so I don't want to go too deeply into the details of the timeline. But suffice it to say, this is hundreds of years before Juliette's time — but after our own present. The earliest time we see in Shift is the year 2049, but this scene could be set (and likely is set) even earlier.
As for what's going on in the world, that's the big question. Helen and Donald reference an event that happened in New Orleans involving a "dirty bomb" that was believed to have been launched by Iran. And when Donald first arrives, the bouncer of the restaurant where they're meeting scans him to make sure he's not radioactive. So while the world isn't quite the wasteland we see in Juliette's time, it's clear that it's already speeding toward some sort of catastrophe.
If you want to learn more details, the book you're looking for is Shift, the second novel in Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy. We'll see how the television show adapts those events when it returns for season 3.
As of this writing, Silo season 3 is currently filming. The crew plans to film seasons 3 and 4 back-to-back. If I were a betting man, I'd say we'll be seeing more of Donald and Helen sometime in 2026.
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