Silo is nearing the end of its third season, and things are coming to a head in explosive fashion. For the past nine episodes, Silo has woven a split narrative between Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) and her friends in the present, and Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and his journalist partner Helen (Jessica Henwick) in the past. This has shown us how the silos were originally made, as well as how they're all coming apart after Juliette unearths more answers than the "Algorithm" from Silo 1 would like.
Silo season 3 episode 9, "Farewell," brought both of those storylines to the point of no return, but that's especially true for the past, where Daniel and Helen attended the unveiling of the Silo project. As they're gently steered toward different silos, Daniel eventually realizes something is very wrong. He and Helen get in touch over their cell phones, standing on the embankments around their respective silos so they can see one another, just as a bomb drops in the distance.
Daniel is tackled by security and dragged inside Silo 1, screaming for Helen. The last we see of Helen, she's also begin grabbed by a yellow-jacketed tour guide, ushered toward Silo 18 — the very same silo where Juliette lives, roughly 300 years later.
Did Helen make it to safety in time? And will she and Daniel ever be reunited? To speculate on what's to come for Helen and Daniel, we have to get into MAJOR SPOILERS from Hugh Howey's second Silo book, Shift.
Does Helen die in Silo?
Let's start with the big question first: did Helen survive the blast? Provided that Silo keeps following the overall arc of the books — which it has so far — Helen will survive those final moments of episode 9. But that doesn't necessarily mean we'll see much of her again. Despite being a standout part of this season, I don't expect Jessica Henwick's character to reappear much outside of some guest starring moments.
That's because in the book, we never really see much of Helen at all. Instead, Shift primarily follows Donald Keene (renamed Daniel in the show), who awakens in Silo 1 and gradualy regains his memories over the course of the book. The narrative is split between Donald's present, where we learn that Silo 1 is unlike any other silo, utilizing cryo-sleep to keep its original inhabitants alive and overseeing the program over the course of centuries; and the past, where we see Donald's part in the silo-building project.
The romance between Daniel and Helen is much more prominent in the show, which makes their seperation far more heartbreaking. Nonetheless, Helen's absence is still felt deeply by Donald in the book, and he spends much of the novel trying to figure out what happened to her.
Eventually it's revealed that both Helen and Donald were planned to be in Silo 2, but a last minute switch separated them. Helen went to Silo 2 as planned, where she eventually remarried and had children with another Silo project member named Mick.
By the time Donald discovers this, however, Helen is long dead from natural causes. Their separation when the bomb drops is truly their final moment together in the book, and likely will be in the show as well.
How Silo has changed Helen's fate — and why it matters for Juliette
Beyond upping the trauma of Daniel and Helen's separation scene at the Silo unveiling, there are a few crucial ways the show has changed the set up for Helen's future.
The first is that Helen is already pregnant with Daniel's child, as opposed to the book where she has children with someone else. That becomes especially poignant in light of the fact that Helen is in a different silo in the show — Juliette's silo. In the book, she lives in Silo 2; in the show, she's trapped in Silo 18, where characters like Juliette, Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash), and Robert Sims (Common) will one day live.
This paves the way for Helen and Daniel's descendants to become a relevant part of the main Silo storyline. We don't know who exactly would be their descendant yet, but it's doubtful the writers of the show would have made these changes to Helen's story if they weren't planning on utilizing them down the line. Helen is already pregnant, and she's in a different silo to line up more closely with the characters we already know from the present day. It's all but certain there's a connection there that will be revealed in time.
That could have an even great impact as the show gets into its fourth and final season, which will primarily adapt the events of the third book, Dust. Without delving too deep into those spoilers, Dust sees Donald Keene and Juliette Nichols' worlds collide in ways that decide the future of humanity. With this extra layer of connection thanks to Helen, the crossover between Silo 18 and Silo 1 could be even more impactful in the television show.
For now though, we're left with the sobering knowledge that while Helen may have survived the blast, she and Daniel are most likely destined to never see each other again.
Only one more episode remains in Silo season 3. It premieres this Friday on Apple TV.
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