Silo Season 3 Episode 10 “Troy” Recap & Review: Silo 1 Changes Everything

Spoilers ahead for Silo Season 3, Episode 10, “Troy,” including the season finale ending.

Silo Season 3 ends not with another rebellion, but with something potentially much bigger: the first real look inside Silo 1, and Juliette Nichols deciding that surviving is no longer enough. She wants to take Silo 1 down. But before we get there, “Troy” finally begins answering one of the season’s biggest questions: What happened to Daniel after the Before Times?

Daniel Is Troy. And Silo 1 Has Been Watching Everything

After the bombshell ending of episode 9, the final episode of season 3 opens with Daniel waking violently from cryogenic sleep as Dr. Victor calls him by another name: Troy.

Seven years have passed since his previous awakening. We also discover that Silo 1 is unlike any silo we have seen before. There are elevators, advanced computers, drone operations, cryogenic chambers and, most importantly, people actively monitoring the other silos. Troy is awakened because Silo 17 is collapsing. Thousands of residents have escaped outside after their rebellion, creating the possibility that they could reach another silo. When returning them safely underground becomes impossible, Troy makes a horrifying decision. He orders them killed. Drones release the compound and then open fire on survivors. Troy watches almost emotionlessly as the number of living people drops.

It is one of the darkest sequences Silo has given us, particularly because we now understand that the destruction of a silo isn’t necessarily some automatic process left behind by the Founders. There are people making these decisions.

But Troy Still Remembers Helen

Something from Daniel’s old life has survived. Helen. Troy doesn’t know her name, but every time he wakes from cryogenic sleep, he sees flashes of a mysterious woman. He asks Victor to investigate. Then comes one of the episode’s most revealing details. Victor already has a file filled with notes asking essentially the same question. Troy has apparently remembered her again and again. Which makes Helen’s complete absence from this finale even more conspicuous. After last week’s devastating separation of Daniel and Helen, we don’t see Helen at all.

Where is she? What happened to their baby? And why was Daniel transformed into Troy while apparently being stripped of his memories of the woman he loved? Those may now be among the biggest unanswered questions heading into Season 4.

Camille Sims Finally Chooses a Side

Meanwhile, Silo 18 is seconds away from being destroyed by the safeguard. And this is where Camille’s season-long character development finally pays off. For much of Silo, Camille has been difficult to read. She is intelligent, calculating, fiercely protective of her family and perfectly capable of manipulating almost anyone around her. But when the moment comes, she makes her choice. Camille deceives the Algorithm. She makes it appear that her Raiders are preparing to attack the rebels when the cylinders they’re carrying actually contain oxygen. That buys Knox, Shirley and the others enough time to locate and pinch off the safeguard pipe. And for perhaps the first time, Camille isn’t maneuvering for power. She’s trying to save everyone. When the safeguard fails, Camille confronts the Algorithm with the question that has really been hanging over the entire series:

Why does it have the right to kill them? The answer, that humanity had entered a terminal cycle of self-destruction and the silos were created as its last hope, explains the Founders’ justification. It doesn’t justify what Silo 1 has become.

Freedom Day

When Camille releases the prisoners and Anthony runs into her arms, Silo 18 experiences something it has arguably never had before. Freedom. Knox calls it the first real Freedom Day. And there’s a wonderful irony here: Bernard, the man who spent years protecting the system, may have ultimately helped destroy its control over Silo 18. His body still lies outside beneath the tree while the people inside celebrate surviving the very system he once defended.

Juliette and Lukas, Is There Something There?

Then comes a much more intriguing moment. Juliette finally reaches Lukas by radio. Their relief at hearing each other’s voices is immediate. Lukas tells her: “I’ve missed you.” Juliette pauses. She doesn’t say it back. But she doesn’t exactly shut him down either. Instead, when Lukas says he has learned so much about the universe that he’d love to bore her with, Juliette tells him she can’t wait for him to bore her with it. That little spark between Juliette and Lukas has been teased all season, and the finale deliberately leaves it simmering rather than resolving it. There are slightly more pressing matters at the moment. Like overthrowing Silo 1.

Victor’s Final Act

The failed safeguard changes Victor. After watching Silo 1 destroy Silo 17 and nearly do the same to Silo 18, something finally breaks. He sends Troy a confidential file and then takes his own life. When Troy is awakened again, 35 years have passed. Silo 18 has destabilized, Juliette has survived her cleaning and returned, and Silo 1 is once again preparing for the possibility of an external safeguard. But Victor has left Troy one final message. The woman he keeps remembering has a name: Helen Drew. Troy breaks down. And suddenly Daniel isn’t quite as gone as Silo 1 believed.

Juliette’s Next Target: Silo 1

Meanwhile, Juliette, Camille, Knox, Shirley, Walker and the others descend into the flooded digger void and reach the mysterious door Lukas discovered. The Algorithm warns Juliette not to investigate further and threatens the entire silo. Juliette appears to accept a compromise: Silo 18 won’t contact another silo, and Silo 1 won’t activate another safeguard. Of course she doesn’t believe it. Neither should we. Juliette realizes that simply defending Silo 18 isn’t enough. Every other silo remains vulnerable to the same system. Her solution? Get to Silo 1 first. “We need to take out Silo 1.” And there is our Season 4 mission.

Wait, did Comic-Con Give Us a Season 4 Clue?

This finale made me think back to something I noticed inside the Silo activation at San Diego Comic-Con this summer. The silo inside the activation looked different from the silo we had been watching on the series. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. Now I do. The design looked remarkably similar to what we finally see inside Silo 1 in this episode. Or maybe it’s just my imagination getting the best of me. Yet, there was something else. During the activation, we were suddenly rushed out because the “safeguard” had been triggered. Under black light, graffiti appeared on the walls: “JL” which certainly seemed to suggest “Juliette Lives.” And on another wall: “The truth does not come without cost.”

 

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Knowing what we know now, that feels considerably less random. Was the Comic-Con activation foreshadowing Silo 1? And could “the truth does not come without cost” be pointing toward what happens when Juliette finally reaches it? I’m not ready to say the activation revealed that Silo 1 will be destroyed. But after watching “Troy,” I’m definitely looking at those clues differently.

Where Does Silo Go From Here?

Season 3 ends with two characters moving toward answers from opposite sides of the story. Juliette now knows there is a larger force controlling the silos, and she intends to find Silo 1 and stop it.

Troy has finally learned Helen’s name. My guess? Those two journeys eventually collide. Juliette and the people of Silo 18 will have to find a way beyond their own silo if they’re going to save everyone else. And Troy may begin searching for the truth about Helen, their child and the life that was taken from Daniel before he became Troy. Which brings me back to the question the finale conspicuously refuses to answer: Where is Helen? And perhaps even more importantly: What happened to their baby? Those may be the questions that finally connect the Before Times, Silo 1 and Juliette Nichols.

And now we wait for Season 4…

This season has been so much fun with all of you. Thanks for reading and hanging out with me on Threads, too! I’ve never been so invested in a TV show like I have been with Silo. It has been all consuming and filled with intense moments. My most memorable moment was meeting Ashley Zukerman (Daniel/Troy)at Comic-Con. Do you have a favorite moment of this season?

And don’t skip the credits!

The Season 4 teaser opens with Helen answering my “Where is Helen?” question, at least partially. But the biggest surprise comes at the end. Juliette encounters a man in a white suit and asks, “Who are you?” His answer: “I don’t know.” It’s Daniel! So my theory that Juliette and Daniel’s stories are headed for a collision? We apparently won’t have to wait long. The bigger questions now are where they meet, why Daniel no longer knows who he is, and what happened to Helen and their baby.

While I wait for season4, I’m going to read the books. Have you read them?

Silo now streaming on Apple TV