Silo Spoilers: What Happens In The Books & Biggest Reveals

Warning! Contains major spoilers for Hugh Howey's Silo books.Apple TV+'s Silo series explains relatively little about its vast and complex dystopian drama, although once broken down and examined alongside the original books, it is possible to fill in a few gaps. Silo season 1 set the stage for its dystopian drama by introducing the core concepts and themes in Hugh Howey's original Silo novels, with 2024's season 2 delving deeper in the the nightmarish post-apocalyptic world. While it takes a few creative liberties and even introduces some original concepts in its storyline, the Apple TV+ series stays true to most elements from Hugh Howey's Wool, the first book in the Silo trilogy.

Juliette nearly meets the same fate as Allison and Holston in Silo season 1's ending when Bernard makes her step out. Fortunately for her, Martha protects her by asking the supply team to insulate her suit with good-quality heat tape. As Juliette stares into the vast expanse of the outside world's wasteland, Silo season 1's credits start rolling, with her journey picking up again when the show returned for season 2. However, there were still plenty of questions left by the time the Silo season 2 finale arrived - and many of the cliffhangers left by season 1 were resolved quite differently in the original novels.

Juliette Enters A Neighboring Silo & Finds Another Human Survivor

There's Life Outside Silo 18 In Hugh Howey's Story

After leaving Silo-18 in Hugh Howey's Wool, Juliette comes across another neighboring Silo. This Silo is not as heavily populated as Silo18 because its citizens dissolved their population through rebellion and conflict. However, Juliette still finds one survivor: a man named Solo, who lives in the Silo with a bunch of children. Using her experience working at Silo-18's Mechanical, she fixes a pump to dry out the lower levels of the new Silo and thinks of digging laterally to make her way back to Silo-18.

Silo season 2 followed Hugh Howey's novels, with Juliette making her way to Silo-17 and meeting Solo properly in episode 3 (which was named after the character). The Apple TV+ adaptation keeps the plot thread about pumping floodwaters out of Silo-17, and there being young survivors living alongside Solo too.

Juliette's Failed Cleaning Starts A Rebellion In Silo-18

Anarchy Awaits In Silo On AppleTV+

While Juliette finds a way to communicate with Lukas from her new Silo home, a rebellion breaks loose in Silo-18 after Juliette's cleaning incident. The citizens start realizing that previous cleaners were murdered by the Silo's authorities, who were using faulty tape on their suits. Enraged by this revelation, they plot an attack on IT. Unfortunately, Mechanical loses its first battle against the IT, but to continue their protest, they create steel barricades to restrict IT from entering their Silo region.

Season 2 of Silo follows this storyline in a similar fashion, though with a few tweaks. Rather than the rebellion starting due to Juliette communicating with Lukas, the mere knowledge that Juilette didn't die when she made it to the surface is enough to kick-start a revolt. Tensions are heightened when Bernard institutes new policies like a mandatory curfew. This leads to Shirley creating a group of dissenters who are ultimately responsible for starting the Silo-18 rebellion.

Bernard Trains Lukas To Be His Shadow In Silo-18

Lukas Has An Interest Arc Ahead In Silo

Bernard trains Lukas to be his new shadow but does not realize that Lukas is secretly communicating with Juliette. As Lukas trains to become the next IT head, he learns there are 50 silos. He even questions Bernard when he realizes that he could be responsible for killing Mayor Ruth. Bernard sends Lukas to the Mines towards the ending moments of Apple TV+'s Silo season 1, it seemed that the show would drift away from these plot developments in Lukas' arc.

However, Silo season 2 managed to steer Lukas and Bernard's story back to a narrative that more closely resembled the Silo novels. Judge Meadows (who is an original character created for the show) lets Bernard know just how intelligent Lukas is, which causes Bernard to reconsider Lukas' fate. While Lukas isn't Bernard's first choice to be his shadow like he is in the books, he still takes him under his wing by the time Silo season 2 concludes.

Bernard Dies During A Silo-18 Incident

Tim Robbins Time On Silo Was Always Limited

Since Juliette stays connected with Silo-18's events, she learns about Bernard's plans to send Lukas out. She builds a new suit and heads to Silo-18 to rescue him. After assuring Solo and the children that she will return, Juliette goes to Silo-18 and tries saving Lukas by wrapping him in a heat blanket. To her surprise, the man she tries to save is Bernard, who dies by suicide after jumping into the airlock chambers' cleansing fires.

It turns out that before Juliette had made her way to Silo-18, Billings had already started a rebellion against Bernard, leaving the IT head in a helpless situation. However, in Silo season 2, this moment plays out slightly differently. In the show, Bernard doesn't willingly end his own life. He resists right until his final moments, with the character staying true to his position as an antagonist right until the end.

Juliette Gets Appointed As Silo-18's Mayor

Rebecca Furguson's Silo Character Has Politics In Her Future

Following Bernard's death, the people of Silo-18 jointly agree to appoint Juliette as their new Mayor. Juliette, too, returns the favor by promising them she will lead with honesty. With this, the first book, Wool, in Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy ends and a new arc begins with the second book, Shift, in which the author introduces a whole new roster of characters.

This storyline may still play out in future seasons of Silo. As of the ending of Silo season 2, Juliette has only just returned to her former home of Silo-18. Her return was, however, celebrated by the population there, so it seems likely that the Apple TV+ show could stick to Hugh Howey's novels with regard to Juliette's future in politics.

The Silos Were Supposedly Built To Save Humanity From Nuclear Blasts

But The Real Reason Was Something Darker

Hugh Howey's second book, Shift, in the Silo series, begins with a flashback from 2049. It reveals how a Congressman named Donald Keene had unknowingly built the Silos as a part of a project called CAD-FAC (Containment and Disposal Facility). Although Senator Paul Thurman initially told him that the CAD-FAC was meant for storing the world's nuclear waste in Fulton County, Georgia, the truth turns out to be far darker.

A few years later, in 2052, when a nuclear blast destroys Atlanta during the opening ceremony of the CAD-FAC, and the attendees of the ceremony seek refuge in the CAD-FAC, Thurman finally tells Keene that the nuclear blasts were pre-planned. Much later, in Hugh Howey's second Silo novel, Thurman and other leaders who pioneered the Silos justify their actions by revealing that nanotechnology use had become prevalent in the medical industry. However, terrorists were hacking into nano-machines and using them to spread global terrorism.

Since the nanobots had already spread throughout the world and were putting everyone's health at risk, the leaders had no choice but to reset the world's population. Therefore, they faked the nukes to make a few humans accommodate the silos. The rest of humanity was destroyed by triggering all the bad nanos across the world and mass murdering billions. With this, the founders hoped humanity would be able to repopulate the planet after 500 years.

People From Silo 1 Monitor Other Silos

The First Silo Has A Sinister Purpose

Silo 1 accommodates the leading figures of all the Silos who work in shifts. While one monitors the other Silos for six months, the others remain in cryogenic sleep for decades. When Juliette survives her cleaning from Silo-18 in the year 2345, Silo 1's authorities set out to wake Thurman up to report the chaos that could ensue in the near future. However, they accidentally awaken Donald Keene, who learns that in 2550, only one Silo's citizens will be allowed to settle on the planet based on several variables determined through an algorithm.

Juliette Uncovers The Truth Behind The Silos & Its Creators

The Silo Books Provide Many Answers

In the final Hugh Howey book, Dust, Juliette discovers the truth about the world of Silo and its creators and threatens Donald Keene that she and Silo 18's citizens will come for him. In an attempt to save all Silos from their planned extermination, Keene and his sister, Charlotte, who he illegally awakens, try to understand how survivors can sustain themselves in the outside world. Charlotte even uses drones to explore the wasteland of the outside world.

As of the ending of Silo season 2, Juliette still hasn't learned the truth about the silos and who created them. What's more, there are indications that it may be Lukas who figures out the puzzle of the state of the world in the Apple TV+ series.

Silo-18 Gets Exterminated, Killing Several Citizens

The Future Is Bleak For The Residents Of Silo-18

Juliette plans to dig laterally from Silo-18 to Silo-17, while Solo and other survivors of Silo-17 wait for her. Unfortunately, Thurman wakes up during this movement and takes control over Silo 1 before releasing poisonous gas into Silo-18. As a result, only around 200 citizens from Silo-18 make it out alive, while pivotal figures like Lukas die during the process.

After getting brutally beaten and imprisoned for his conscientious objection to Silo's regulations, Keene takes it upon himself to destroy Silo-1 and encourages Charlotte to leave with a security officer named Darcy. Darcy, too, eventually puts his own life on the line to save Charlotte, leaving her as the only Silo-1 survivor.

Juliette & Other Survivors Go To The "Seed"

The Bleak World Of Silo Includes A Glimmer Of Hope

In the meantime, Juliette finds a facility map that shows how the Silos have an underground tunneling machine that can lead them to a safe zone called the "Seed." To their dismay, their Silo-17 machine does not have enough fuel to take them to the "Seed," so they walk to the location instead. When they finally emerge from a screen of dust, they realize that their Silos were surrounded by artificial toxic "dust," comprising bad nanobots, that only sold them the idea of the outside world's toxicity.

It turns out that, in reality, the outside world beyond those layers of toxic dust has already healed and is inhabitable for humans. Towards the ending moments of the Hugh Howey Silo book trilogy, Juliette and the survivors reach "Seed," where they find an abundance of materials required for their survival, including seeds that can help them rebuild civilization from the ground up. Charlotte, too, successfully reaches the safe zone and joins their pursuit of reconstructing society.

Everything That's Been Revealed About The Next Silo Book

Hugh Howey Has More Silo Novels Planned

In an AMA (via Reddit), a reader asked Hugh Howey if he plans to expand Silo's lore beyond the first three books. The author responded that he has a second trilogy "planned and outlined," but he wishes to "write them as a different person" since their stories will not be the same as the first Silo trilogy.

He also added that he has written the first few chapters of the next book and likes them so much that he doubts if he will ever change them. Whether Apple TV will adapt the subsequent trilogy will depend on Silo's overall success on the streaming platform, but the prospect does sound exciting.

Will Silo Season 3 Cover The Second Book?

Silo Season 3 Will Cover Some Arcs From Hugh Howey's Shift

Since Silo seasons 1 and 2 adapted the first Hugh Howey novel, Wool. This means that Silo season 3 will, in theory, cover the second book. However, Since the second Silo book, Shift, unfolds over 100 years before Wool's events, the show needs to bring a well-rounded closure to season 1 and 2's events before exploring the origins of Silo's post-apocalyptic world.

With that said, given how the show's creators have planned a four-season run for the series, Silo season 3 will likely have to cover at least the opening arcs of the second book to be able to conclude the entire original story in four seasons. The hinted book changes in Silo season 3's story will likely help the series achieve this.

Where Does The Final Silo Season 2 Scene Fit In?

The Silo Show May Have A Different Origin For Dystopian World

The final scene of Silo season 2 was an intriguing one. The second season ended on a flashback to three centuries before the events of the show. It featured a Congressman speaking to a woman named Helen, a journalist for the Washington Post. Helen questions the Congressman about whether the U.S. plans to respond to a dirty bomb detonated in the country (and insinuates that Iran are believed to be the culprit). The Congressman doesn't answer, but there are plenty of hints that this is the apocalyptic event that leads to humanity moving underground to inhabit the silos.

Whether the nanomachines that contributed to the end of the world will also be part of this plot, as they were in Hugh Howey's novels, remains to be seen. However, the fact that the Congressman was checked for radiation levels prior to meeting Helen does seem to suggest that the Silo TV show could be opting for a more straightforward nuclear apocalypse, losing some of the higher sci-fi elements (though, of course, these could also still be included if there are more flashbacks in Silo season 3).

How Likely Is Silo To Stick To The Book?

The Series Will Have To Make Changes To Finish The Story In Four Seasons

It is not likely that the Apple TV+ series will follow Hugh Howry's Wool books beat by beat, but with the author involved with the production, expect it to at least keep the theme and focus of the story. The idea of bringing in an entirely new cast for the possible third season to tell Silo's backstory is not likely. Instead, it might be more likely that the show will keep moving forward with the main cast but drop in flashbacks that show what happens in that second book along the way.

It is also going to be tough in some ways since the Apple TV+ show will have to deal with the budget, and while having multiple silos could happen thanks to CGI, it will also need to feature a higher financial budget regardless. From the word that the show's creators have four seasons planned out, expect a lot to be eliminated from the books to create a tighter and more focused series. It could mean some major changes in Silo, but fans who want the entire story still have the Wool book series there to read.