Three seasons in, Silo is finally beginning to answer the questions we’ve been asking for years. Silo Season 3 has certainly divided the fanbase, introducing a controversial amnesia plot for Rebeca Ferguson’s Juliette. But little by little, we’re coming to understand why the writers introduced this; it’s to ensure there’s a narrative link between the past and the present, with Silo Season 3 finally taking us to the “Before Times” and revealing what really happened to the world as we know it.
We’d generally assumed Silo Season 3 would reveal the (fictional version of the) War on Iran. This season’s second episode does indeed drop hints – including a conspiracy theory the United States staged a dirty bomb on American soil to trigger the conflict – but the focus actually lies elsewhere. The plot keeps that in the background, instead focusing in on how the memory-erasing drugs were created – and setting up some major twists as the series continues.
Silo Season 3, episode 2 reveals the memory wipe process was developed by Victor Crnkovich, who suffered a personal trauma and became fascinated with the idea of erasng memories to “help” people heal. It didn’t take long for the US government to see the potential, with the first trials conducted on prison populations in a twisted form of rehabilitation. From there, he’s moved to testing with the Department of Defense, with his experiments supposedly conducted on traumatized vets like Daniel’s sister, Charlotte. The truth already seems to be very different.
Memory erasure is a powerful tool for the Department of Defense. It allows soldiers to be sent on covert missions without accountability; if things go sideways, their memories can be erased under the cover of simply treating trauma. Crnkovich erases memories, then invites loved ones to help “rebuild” their personal narratives through long, difficult work remembering the past with them. Daniel immediately notices the problem; the rebuilt person will be the sum of others’ memories, not their own, and lies can be introduced along with truth.
That, clearly, is what has happened in the silos. According to the Algorithm, six silos have undergone further successful resets since they were created – including Silo 18, 140 years ago. Meanwhile, many individuals have been targeted with the program along the way. The process is mostly successful, although some prove unusually resistant. Juliette, naturally, is among the resistant.
And this is where the relics come in. These have always been one of the strangest, most interesting ideas in Silo; that every remnant from the Before Times has to be destroyed, but that a handful slipped through the net. In Juliette’s time, they serve as disturbing hints of the control program, reminders that the entire population has been manipulated. We’ve spent a frankly surreal amount of time contemplating a PEZ dispenser – whose origin was revealed in the Season 2 flashback scene, when Daniel gifted it to Helen on their ill-advised date.
We finally know what purpose relics serve. When a person’s memory has been erased, it is still possible for them to reject the programming and reclaim fragments – possibly even the whole – of their past life. Physical objects are useful triggers for this, because they are concrete reminders of the truth, and the tactile experience reactivates the neural pathways. This is why the Algorithm required all relics to be destroyed after the initial reset; every surviving relic posed a real threat. They’ve since become legendary, disruptions in the closed systems the Algorithm has created.
The pieces are gradually coming together, giving us a sense of how the silo societies were created. Whatever happened to the world was deemed so traumatic that memory of it had to be completely erased from the silos’ inhabitants, an approach Crnkovich would no doubt approve of. The Algorithm was created to govern their programming, ensuring the creation of a stable society after the erasure. What’s more, the PEZ dispenser proves Helen was among the people sent to Silo 18 – and that she kept at least one relic, likely meaning she became an “outlier” who resisted the reset.
In the Silo time, it’s safe to assume Juliette will ultimately regain her memories. The clock is ticking, though, because she needs to do so before drugs are released into the water supply, forcing another colony-wide reset. This status quo is not sustainable, the Algorithm knows it, and everything is at stake in Silo Season 3.
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