In its Season 3 finale episode, “Troy,” Silo changed forever. After a full season with two parallel timelines, one following Juliette in Silo 18 in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the other following Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick), Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman), and Daniel’s sister Charlotte (Jessica Brown-Findlay).
In the penultimate episode, we finally saw what actually caused the apocalypse, but that was far from the biggest surprise in the season. The finale was so shocking even the cast members didn’t know what to expect.
“It’s so brilliant because I just adored this show even before being in it,” Jessica Brown-Findlay told Inverse. “So with every page turn, I was going to be like, ‘What’s happening?’”
Read on for an explanation of just what happened — and how Brown-Findlay approached it.
Warning! Spoilers for Silo Season 3 Episode 9, “Troy,” ahead!
Helen Drew and Daniel Keene moments before the apocalypse in Silo Season 3.
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Who Is Troy In The Silo Season 3 Finale?
In the final episode of Silo Season 3, we see Daniel flashing back to the last time he saw Helen before the nuclear bomb went off. Then, suddenly, he’s being woken up from cryogenic slumber by Victor. Victor calls him “Troy,” and apologizes for “rapid-sequencing” him. Troy asks how long it’s been, and Victor says it’s been seven years.
It quickly becomes clear where we are in the timeline: Troy has been woken up in order to handle the rebellion on Silo 17. He is sent to a command room where he meets “Susan,” played by Jessica Brown-Findlay. Even though they were siblings in the past, here they don’t recognize each other at all.
“It’s mind-blowing seeing Charlotte-as-Susan look at this human being,” Brown-Findlay tells Inverse. “It’s almost like she looks through him, that first point of contact that they both make with each other and it’s gone.”
Together, Susan and Troy — completely unaware of their bond — are assigned to use drones to massacre the rebels from Silo 17 to keep the peace in the other silos. But before they engage in the mission, Susan questions Troy’s order. She says that if only a few rebels are hurt, the rest of the fugitives would go back into the Silo and not come back out. She sees the young children, couples, and families who are enjoying the outdoors for the first time in their lives and actually feels sympathy. Troy dismisses this, but Susan outright refuses to do it.
Troy coldly dismisses her and takes command, obliterating all 9,835 rebels. Senator Rosalind Thurman (Laura Innes), now called The Director, asks him what the consequences should be for Susan, but says that she’ll be lenient because “she’s important to my daughter.” Charlotte was married to the Senator’s daughter, so clearly she remembers her past life.
The next time we see what’s going on in Silo 1, Victor is committing suicide. His last order was to have Troy woken up, and he’s quickly brought up to date with what’s going on in Silo 18 — basically, now the past timeline has caught up with the future one. Meanwhile, in the Silo, Juliette and her allies make it to the Forward Vault, where the mysterious Algorithm speaks to her. The Algorithm is revealed to be Troy speaking through a voice changer, and he offers her a compromise: if Silo 18 doesn’t make contact with other silos, then they won’t be massacred. But Juliette isn’t content with this deal, and she makes a resolution to take down Silo 1.
In the future, Charlotte is called “Susan” and Victor is referred to as “The Founder.”
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What Will Happen in Silo Season 4?
Back in Silo 1, Troy finds a message from Victor answering the question he asked so many times: the woman’s name is Helen Drew. Troy tears up, as if the memories come flooding back. But according to Jessica Brown-Findlay, he won’t be the only one who deciphers memories of the past.
“All I can say is you can’t keep that down, especially with Charlotte,” she says. “It will bubble up, and it’s going to ignite something in her. Imagine someone of Charlotte’s energy, all of that being suppressed for centuries; it’s going to have a real springboard explosion for how that follows through into [Season] 4.”
So while we’re seeing the memory-controlled versions of Daniel and Charlotte, it doesn’t seem like they’ll stay that way for very long. But now that they’re in the future, how could they be reunited with Helen? Is she still alive? We may know more than ever, but the fourth — and final — season has some major questions to answer.
