Hugh Howey’s Silo saga unfurls through three expansive novels that grow progressively more ominous as the author reveals this world’s mysterious living arrangements. The narrative is complicated, and the story’s structure could have proved unwieldy to film, and although Apple TV+’s upcoming Neuromancer will soon take on the supposedly “unfilmable” challenge under the highest expectations, I previously feared the same for Silo.
Fortunately, those fears were unfounded because Showrunner Graham Yost (Justified, Slow Horses) clearly lived and breathed Howey’s creations while painstakingly building an extreme underground world. In the first season, the show introduced Rebecca Ferguson‘s Juliette, a brilliant, autistic, and no-nonsense mechanic essential to humanity’s survival as they know it. To oversimplify what followed, Juliette was exiled during the most recent season finale with a cliffhanger ending unveiling more silos. Let’s sum up what has been revealed thus far about her next moves.
Plot
To kick things off on a fun note, Apple TV+ posted a video of Ferguson acknowledging that she and the writers are very aware of those Silo fan theories. She addresses several here, including the “Common’s Leather Jacket” situation: “Dude, I don’t know, I’ve asked the same question.”
On more concrete notes, viewers will recall that the first season saw Juliette recruited as her silo’s mayor, and it wasn’t long before Bernard (Tim Robbins) and Sims (Common) put a target on her back. Bernard, of course, wanted that power, and Juliette’s curiosity and tendency to dig too deep into the silo’s mysterious history (including a murder case) didn’t help matters. Once forced outside, Juliette not only refused to ritualistically “clean” (the show did issue a recent teaser with a message from the Order: “In the case of failed cleaning, prepare for war”) but disappeared over the hillside. And we began to see how Bernard was losing his sh*t while Juliette began to seek new shelter.
A new trailer confirms that Bernard will, in fact, learn that silo occupants are figuring out that Juliette is still alive despite his attempts to brainwash everybody. Additionally, Yost recently told Entertainment Weekly that Juliette survived due to Martha Walker (Harriet Walter)’s improvements on the cleaning suit, and the season premiere will see Juliette pulling out the “engineering” stops “to stay alive.” Along the way, the episode will show us past efforts of those that went outside to stay alive, which will lead Juliette to “follow the trail of bodies that will lead her into a dead silo.”
Back at home, more trouble will be brewing, according to Yost:
“There’s the beginnings of a call for rebellion, because Juliette went over the hill, so maybe it’s safe outside. And yet what we saw over in the other silo is what can happen if the rebellion goes wrong and all the people died, so that’s the basic tension of the season.”
A new preview clip reveals that Juliette’s apparent survival (from an inside-the-silo POV) is causing an uprising that might drive Barnard nuts. Good.
From there, the season will split into dueling stories between Juliette’s home silo and the one where she is taking refuge.
As potentially complicated as dueling settings sound, this is actually a simpler structure than Howey’s second book, Shift, and it sounds like Yost and Apple TV+ could be splitting that book into two seasons, although that is a mere guess on my part. This would jibe with Ferguson previously telling Collider that Apple TV+ has a four-season plan for the show:
“I believe that the show has an ending, and I know when that is. So that’s the answer. You will find out when the show is done. To be honest, I don’t think it’s a secret. The books are the books. It’s three books, and the three books are divided into four seasons. So I believe, unless any Apple person is gonna jump on, I think we’re absolutely fine with saying Season 1, we’ve done. Season 2 is shot and coming out, and we’re now looking at green-lighting Seasons 3 and 4. And I think we would film them maybe together, and that would be the end.”
Before that happens, however, the below character will surface, and those are Steve Zahn’s unfriendly-looking eyes:
Readers will know exactly what’s up with Solo, but to avoid spoilers, Zahn and Ferguson have simply revealed to Variety that he is a “scary and weird” dude. And I will tease that whatever you might be envisioning from Solo (as a visual), you aren’t expecting what will materialize onscreen.
Cast
Steve Zahn has indeed arrived to portray Solo, one of the best characters of the Hugh Howey book series. Rebecca Ferguson will be back in both expansive and claustrophobic confines as Juliette, and Common’s infuriating wardrobe stable will be back on Sims’ bod. Additionally, Harriet Walter returns as Martha Walker with Tim Robbins as Barnard.
Additional Silo cast members include Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, Billy Postlethwaite, Alexandria Riley, Caitlin Zoz, Shane McRae, Rick Gomez, Remmie Milner, and Clare Perkins.
Release Date
A ten-episode season begins on Friday, November 15, 2024 with weekly drops through January 17, 2025.
Trailer
This first full second season trailer shows the drama unfolding in two silos.