Published Jun 29, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
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Silo season 3 is completely different from the Apple TV sci-fi series' first two seasons, in a good way, and it ushers in a new era for the dystopian show. The streaming service is well-known for its success in the sci-fi genre, and after watching excellent new seasons of Apple TV sci-fi series like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and For All Mankind in 2026, I had high expectations heading into Silo season 3. Additionally, the show itself had proved one of the streamer's best genre releases, which is saying something, in its first two seasons. I was not disappointed.
Silo is a show that keeps undergoing transformations with every new season. In season 1, viewers were slowly shown how this dystopian world operated, navigating the silo's history and web of lies alongside Rebecca Ferguson's Juliette Nichols. In season 2, Juliette not only ventured outside the silo but into another, meeting a whole new roster of characters and learning about the Safeguard, a contingency in place that could fully wipe out Juliette's friends back home. Silo season 2's ending saw her face a fiery welcome when she got back to her silo, while also introducing two key characters from the past.
Silo Season 3's Past Storyline Is A Major Change That Works
Image courtesy of Apple TVThe Apple TV dystopian sci-fi series' transformative path continues with its biggest twist in Silo season 3. At the end of season 2, viewers were introduced to Ashley Zukerman's Daniel and Jessica Henwick's Helen, a United States congressman and an investigative journalist who were on a "date" before the silos came to be. Both characters return as main players in Silo season 3, with the show dividing its screen time between Juliette's story in the present and what Daniel and Helen are up to in the past. Initially, I was intrigued by this major change, though wary of how it would play out.
It also helps that Zukerman and Henwick are incredibly charismatic performers, and they have electric chemistry as Daniel and Helen.
Well, there is nothing to fear, as I found Silo season 3's past storyline to be easily the most exciting part of the sci-fi series' return. Silo goes for something completely fresh three seasons into its run, and it pays off. The series' world has always been a mystery, and going back in time to see how everything came to be puts events into a whole new context. It also helps that Zukerman and Henwick are incredibly charismatic performers, and they have electric chemistry as Daniel and Helen. Watching their back-and-forth dynamic was refreshing, as they differed from Juliette immensely.
Daniel and Helen find themselves drawn to a conspiracy of global proportions, with ramifications that can be felt to this day in Juliette's storyline. There is a lot of fun to be had in Silo season 3 by seeing how elements, characters, and events from the past timeline connect to what we have already seen in the show and what Ferguson's character finds herself dealing with in season 3. There is also a nice sense of growing urgency in the past timeline that should keep viewers on the edge of their seats the deeper Daniel and Helen go in their search for the truth.
Level 1 of 144 · Top Level Access How Well Do You Know Silo? “I want to go out.”
🌿Up-TopThe farms and Judicial
💡MidsIT and Supply
⚙Down DeepMechanical keeps it alive
🌀OutsideDon't look at the sky
📜The PactLaw is light
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01
The silo is a buried cylindrical structure whose residents have never known the surface. It's divided into the Up Top, the Mids, and the Down Deep, all connected by a single spiral staircase that takes a porter the better part of a day to climb. How many levels does it contain?
A100 B144 C200 D50
✓ Correct! 144 levels. Mayor Jahns lives on Level 1, IT is on Level 34, Judicial on Level 13, Supply in the Mids, and Mechanical sits at the bottom around Level 140. The spiral staircase has no elevator — porters spend their entire working lives on it. The number mirrors Hugh Howey's source novel and the show's production bible.
✗ Wrong shaft. The answer is 144 levels, a number lifted straight from Hugh Howey's Wool books and preserved by showrunner Graham Yost. Mayor and Judicial live up top on Levels 1-20, IT sits in the middle at 34, and Mechanical — where Juliette works — is buried near the bottom around 140. Porters do almost nothing but climb.
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02
The show centers on Juliette Nichols, a brilliant Mechanical engineer reluctantly dragged up from the Down Deep into the Sheriff's office on Level 1. Which actress — previously seen opposite Tom Cruise in four Mission: Impossible films and Timothée Chalamet in Dune — plays her?
ARosamund Pike BRebecca Ferguson CZoe Saldaña DCharlize Theron
✓ Correct! Rebecca Ferguson — Ilsa Faust in the Mission: Impossible films and Lady Jessica in Dune Parts One and Two. She also executive-produces Silo, signed a multi-year development deal with Apple, and has called Juliette one of the most demanding roles of her career. Her performance anchors every episode of the series.
✗ Wrong cast. The answer is Rebecca Ferguson. She's also an executive producer on Silo, which is why the series is so Juliette-focused from the pilot onwards. Rosamund Pike, Zoe Saldaña and Charlize Theron have all done sci-fi leads, but Silo is Ferguson's show — a natural extension of the tough, grounded, slightly haunted women she played in Mission: Impossible and Dune.
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03
The series is adapted from an indie self-publishing phenomenon that started as a 2011 Kindle short story, went viral, and grew into a full trilogy. Who wrote the novels that Silo is based on?
AAndy Weir BPierce Brown CHugh Howey DBlake Crouch
✓ Correct! Hugh Howey. He published the first Wool novelette on Amazon in 2011 while working as a bookseller, refused a traditional publisher's print deal that asked for digital rights, and negotiated one of the most famous indie-author print-only contracts ever signed. The trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust) has sold millions and the Apple show retained him as a consulting producer.
✗ Wrong stack. The answer is Hugh Howey. Andy Weir wrote The Martian and Project Hail Mary. Pierce Brown writes Red Rising. Blake Crouch wrote Dark Matter and Recursion. Howey famously built the Wool books episode by episode on Kindle self-publishing, went viral, and kept his digital rights when a publisher came calling — a case study in the indie author movement.
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04
The silo's harshest punishment, reserved for those who utter one specific phrase or commit serious crimes, is exile to the toxic surface. Before dying in the poisoned air, the condemned are expected to perform a single task. What is it called?
AThe Reckoning BCleaning CThe Walk DThe Ascent
✓ Correct! “Cleaning.” Exiles are given a helmet, protective suit and a wool pad, then sent outside to wipe the silo's external sensor lens so everyone inside can keep seeing the “view.” Almost everyone cleans, even the ones who swore they wouldn't — a mystery the series gradually unpacks. The suits are famously not what IT claims they are.
✗ Wrong verdict. The answer is “Cleaning.” Anyone who says “I want to go out” is granted their wish — they get a suit, a helmet, a wool pad, and a walk to the external sensors. They're expected to wipe the lens so the silo can keep watching the outside world before the toxic air kills them. And almost everyone, mysteriously, does it.
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05
Silo premiered on May 5, 2023, as a flagship sci-fi original for which streamer — the same home as For All Mankind, Severance, Foundation, and Ted Lasso?
ANetflix BPrime Video CApple TV+ DMax
✓ Correct! Apple TV+. The show slots neatly into Apple's prestige sci-fi bench alongside Severance, For All Mankind and Foundation, and Hugh Howey's involvement as consulting producer was a key part of the pitch. Apple renewed Silo through Season 4 before Season 2 even aired — an unusually early greenlight that locked in the show's complete run.
✗ Wrong stairwell. The answer is Apple TV+. The show premiered May 5, 2023 and Apple committed to the complete four-season run early — the same kind of long-leash deal they gave Severance and For All Mankind. Netflix, Prime and Max have their own dystopian shows, but Silo is pure Apple: polished, slow-burn, auteur sci-fi.
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06
The pilot opens with the silo's current sheriff walking into Mayor Jahns' office and uttering the six words no one is ever supposed to say. Which actor plays the doomed Sheriff Holston Becker, whose exile sets the entire series in motion?
ADavid Oyelowo BTim Robbins CCommon DIdris Elba
✓ Correct! David Oyelowo. The Selma star opens the series as Holston Becker — a sheriff three years into grieving his wife Allison's cleaning, who finally asks to be sent out himself. His decision to walk off into the hills rather than clean the sensors is the cliffhanger that triggers Juliette's promotion and the show's central mystery.
✗ Wrong badge. The answer is David Oyelowo. He's on for the entire first episode as Sheriff Holston and returns in flashbacks later in the run. Tim Robbins plays the terrifying Head of Judicial Bernard Holland (spoiler: not just Judicial). Common plays deputy Paul Billings. Idris Elba is not in the show at all — though that would be a good call.
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07
Juliette's investigation kicks off after her boyfriend George, an IT tech from the Down Deep, is found dead at the bottom of the staircase — ruled a suicide. He had been collecting pre-silo artifacts flagged as illegal relics under the Pact. One item in particular, hidden inside a metal case, becomes her key clue. What is it?
AA book of banned poetry BA camera CA 1970s-era hard drive DA compass
✓ Correct! A hard drive. George — really George Wilkins, played by Ferdinand Kingsley — had been quietly collecting pre-silo tech, and the hard drive he hid contains files Judicial and IT will kill to keep buried, including evidence about what the outside world really looks like. It's the thread Juliette pulls that unravels the whole first season.
✗ Wrong relic. The answer is an old hard drive, hidden inside a pressure-sealed case in George's workshop. The drive contains outlawed pre-silo files — including data that suggests the “view” everyone in the silo trusts is not what it appears. Juliette recovers the drive after George's death and that single clue drives the entire first season's investigation.
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08
Silo's slow-burn tone and military-adjacent world-building owe a lot to its creator and showrunner, who previously developed Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Justified, and FX's The Americans. Who adapted Hugh Howey's novels for Apple?
ADamon Lindelof BGraham Yost CDavid Benioff DRonald D. Moore
✓ Correct! Graham Yost — the Canadian writer-producer who wrote the Speed screenplay in 1994 and then spent decades as a prestige TV showrunner on Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Justified, The Americans and Sneaky Pete. Hugh Howey stayed on as consulting producer, and Yost has been candid about streamlining the Wool timeline for a four-season Apple run.
✗ Wrong writers' room. The answer is Graham Yost. Damon Lindelof runs Lost, Watchmen and The Leftovers. David Benioff co-created Game of Thrones. Ronald D. Moore made Battlestar Galactica and For All Mankind (also on Apple). Yost brought his Band of Brothers / Justified sensibility — taut, ensemble, procedural — to Howey's dystopia.
REVEAL MY RATING →
Judicial Review Complete Your Silo Clearance
🗝
/ 8
Founder's mind — or still stuck cleaning sensors?
⤴ DESCEND AGAIN
My only issue with the past storyline, if you can really call that something bad, is that I ended up being more drawn to it than the present. I wish there were a better balance of events and pacing between the two different stories. However, as it stands, whenever Silo season 3 cut to Daniel and Helen, I was fully glued to the screen. When the sci-fi series went back to Juliette, particularly in the first half of the season, I was hoping we would get back to the past timeline most of the time.
While I prefer what Silo season 3 does with its new characters to the journey Juliette goes on, that is not to say that the present timeline is bad by any means. Instead, I just feel like the novelty of finally seeing different locations, characters, and getting to understand how the world came to be the barren wasteland we know in the sci-fi series was more interesting. Zukerman's Daniel and Henwick's Helen are also more energetic players than Ferguson's Juliette, which, taking into account the fact that they did not spend their entire lives trapped in an underground silo, makes sense.
Silo's Final Chapter Is Set Up Nicely
Still, there is plenty to enjoy in the present timeline. The setup for Juliette's story in Silo season 3 also puts her in a very different place. After all, had she just arrived home and told everyone about the Safeguard mechanism, that major crisis would have been averted instantly. Instead, Silo season 3 takes Juliette on a memory loss journey after her narrow escape from a fiery death in the season 2 finale. There are positives and negatives to this choice. I enjoyed seeing Ferguson play a different, softer kind of Juliette, as she is not as confident in her situation.
All in all, the show did a solid job with Juliette and Ferguson tapped into a new side of the character, but it was just not as strong as what Silo season 3 does with its past storyline, and that is okay.
That said, I felt like it dragged on for a bit too long, which hurt the pacing of the season. There are many surprises in Juliette's side of the story, with exciting returns, compelling mysteries, and the same kind of game-changing reveals that fans have come to expect from every season of the dystopian sci-fi series. All in all, the show did a solid job with Juliette and Ferguson tapped into a new side of the character, but it was just not as strong as what Silo season 3 does with its past storyline, and that is okay.
Common's Robert Sims continues to be a commanding presence on the show, but it was his wife, Alexandria Riley's Camille Sims, who was the biggest surprise of the season to me. Camille gets more to do in season 3 with a complex storyline that deals with what is at stake. After finishing Silo season 3, and knowing what happens next in the books — Apple TV's Silo is based on Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy — the dystopian series has done a great job of setting up what comes next, with an exhilarating finale.
Silo season 4, which has already been announced, will serve as the final season of the series, bringing the story from the books to an end. After a solid third season that changed the game for the show with an entirely new set of characters and an exploration of the past, I am confident that season 4 will stick the landing. After watching Silo season 3, I can't wait to see how it all concludes with another batch of episodes that will hopefully not take too long to arrive.
Silo season 3 debuts on Apple TV on Friday, July 3, with episodes airing weekly.
English (US) ·