Through Silo Season 2’s return to the 2024 TV schedule, the further mystery behind Silo 17’s past and Silo 18’s future continues to intrigue. With the fallout of Juliette’s exile in Silo Season 2’s early episodes coloring what we’ve seen so far, it appeared that this new round of author Hugh Howey’s best-selling dystopia was going to break into a more segmented sort of drama that would alternate between those two stories. However, Episode 3 proved that that format wasn't sticking around for long.
After seeing Episode 3, “Solo,” learning more about Steve Zahn’s enigmatic presence wasn’t the only clue we got for what the future will hold. The narrative has also now returned to a more traditional back and forth between “A” and “B” stories, and after speaking with showrunner Graham Yost, the reason for that decision was pretty clear.
Silo Season 2 Almost Alternated Between Silos For Its Story
Adding to everything we know about Silo Season 2 is the fact that the two stories in focus are parallels that set up a potentially explosive collision. As Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) continues to learn more about Solo (Steve Zahn) and the revolution that seemed to tear apart Silo 17, Bernard (Tim Robbins) is focused on taking the steps needed to prevent this seemingly foretold event from happening at Silo 18.
The first two episodes of this season had me anticipating an alternating story structure that would have focused solely on one side each week. And to that point, Graham Yost did say that this was on the table as a concept. However, he also revealed to CinemaBlend that the following concern for the audience took that off the table pretty quickly:
We landed on that pretty quickly. I'll be honest, there was a brief time where we thought about alternating episodes for like six episodes. And then we said, ‘No, that's crazy making and it's gonna be frustrating to the audience.’ We need to cut back and forth, but first let's establish their stories.
I can definitely see why the Silo team wouldn’t want to frustrate the audience when returning to the hit Apple TV+ drama. We’re in a phase now where Season 1’s status as a breakout hit will either prove to be a fluke or a lasting pattern. This is important as the trilogy of Hugh Howey’s books has been earmarked for a potential four-season run, with a possibility for the final two batches to be filmed back to back.
However, that didn’t stop the first couple of episodes from having that more insular focus. And in further remarks about the matter, the Justified mastermind explained to me in greater detail why this compromise was the best-case scenario.
How Graham Yost And The Silo Team Better Defined Season 2’s Story
Giving me further insight into why Silo’s episodic alternating approach wouldn’t have worked for every episode, Yost divulged a piece of knowledge from his showrunner mind that surely convinced me.
Using Rebecca Ferguson’s series lead as the pivot point, and taking into account Season 1’s finale shocking us all with Juliette Nichols walking into the wastes of the apocalypse, here’s how he and his team defined Season 2’s best point of entry:
There's no sort of playing around with whether or not she's alive, because we saw her alive at the end of the series. Stringing that out would be a mistake, but we did come up with this prologue idea that would then feed into her returning to the screen. And then we knew we wanted to roll back the clock. So we see her story in Silo 17, that spell plays out maybe five days, something like that. Now we roll back to the moment right after she walked over the hill, but we're with Bernard pretty much [in] the moment, 10 minutes later.
Admittedly, if Silo was supposed to leave us with the impression that Juliette was going to die, it probably should have ended with Silo 18’s doors opening, followed by a quick cut to black. I’m glad that wasn’t the case, because not only were we assured of the pretty obvious answer to how long she’d survive in the wild, but it also pushed the story team and the showrunner to come up with some new twists that’ll enhance this tale’s progression.
Now’s not the time to fall into a predictable rhythm anyway, what with the inhabitants of Silo 18 starting to rebel against “The Order” in their own ways. There’s now a ticking clock on both ends of this story, as Juliette’s race to uncover the past could help or hinder Bernard’s countdown to a potentially volatile situation with the folks of Mechanical.
With seven episodes left in Season 2, it’s only a matter of time before someone makes a move that only further fans these flames; and the results promise to be as carefully constructed as Graham Yost’s comments suggest. Looking back on talking about Silo's amazing Season 1 cliffhangers with the cast, it only heightens my anticipation for what happens next.
Silo Season 2 continues to unfold for those with an Apple TV+ subscription, with new episodes debuting on Fridays until the season finale on January 17th, 2025. And if you’ve somehow stumbled into this write-up without watching an episode, don’t worry! You can also catch up on Season 1’s stories in that very same location.
