Silo’s Most Disturbing Concept Changes Everything We Know About the Show’s World

At the end of Silo Season 2, Episode 9, Lukas Kyle interacts with a voice known as the Algorithm at the bottom of Silo 18. The Algorithm warns him that if he tells anyone about what he’s encountered in the underground secret tunnel, they’ll implement the “Safeguard Procedure.” While sharing his discovery with Bernard Holland or any other person would’ve likely gotten him closer to answers, Lukas was so horrified that he kept it a secret.

This wasn’t the first time the Safeguard was mentioned in Silo. Lukas decoded some lines of Salvador Quinn’s cryptic letter per Bernard’s request, one of which claims that an ominous “they” created the Safeguard. Viewers who have decoded the entire letter shared their own findings via Reddit, revealing that the Safeguard is anything but what its name suggests and that there is a larger world out there than Silo 18 believes. This evidence is corroborated by the horrors Juliette Nichols and Solo uncover about the Safeguard Procedure in Silo 17’s history.

What Is the Safeguard Procedure?

The Silos Have Never Been in Control of Themselves

After confronting his past as Jimmy Conroy and accepting his parents’ deaths, Solo has an epiphany about the events that unfolded during Silo 17’s rebellion decades ago. Desperate to help Juliette save her own people by preventing what killed Silo 17’s citizens, Solo and Juliette look through his parents’ belongings to find a blueprint of the silo. Solo’s parents believed that stopping the Safeguard Procedure was the only way to save its people, as it has the power to kill all of them. Juliette and Solo discover that the Safeguard Procedure is actually a pipe on Level 14 that pumps poisonous gas into the silo’s atmosphere, murdering all of its 10,000 inhabitants.

Solo’s parents saved Silo 17’s people from death by putting a cap on the pipe, only until almost everyone decided to go outside. But the precaution might have been at the cost of his mother’s life, since he said she never returned from Level 14 that day. When confronted by Juliette later on, Bernard confirms that the Safeguard Procedure does exist, meaning that only the Head of IT and possibly high-ranking workers on Level 14 are aware of the procedure.

Why the Safeguard Procedure Exists

Hugh Howey’s Books Reveal the “Who” and “Why” Behind the Killing Machine

Bernard is confident that he knows who is behind the Safeguard Procedure, but has no clue why it’s a thing in the first place. Judging by the Algorithm’s choice of words to Lukas and their insistence on keeping the tunnel a secret, it’s pretty apparent that the “who” behind the procedure is someone who doesn’t want Silo 18 to know there are 49 other silos in existence. The rest of Salvador Quinn’s letter also suggests that the judge, jury and executioner are people in another silo.

Hugh Howey’s books provide more clarity about who controls the Safeguard Procedure and why it’s used in the first place. But it’s yet to be seen whether Season 3 will adapt the Safeguard Procedure verbatim or change parts of it to keep the intrigue, similar to showrunner Graham Yost creating the Syndrome exclusively for the show. Whichever way the Safeguard Procedure plays out in the show, there are heavy book spoilers ahead.

Related

“I Don’t Want People to Read Them Until We’re Done” – Showrunner Graham Yost on Silo Season 2 & Its Books

Silo showrunner Graham Yost breaks down how Season 2 strays from Hugh Howey’s novels and the character duos that get more of the spotlight.

As revealed in the second book Shift, the Safeguard Procedure is controlled by people in Silo 1 and is used in the event of a successful rebellion. Two cases that define a successful rebellion are a complete takeover of the IT department or gaining control of the airlock. In either case, Silo 1 activates the Safeguard Procedure to kill all 10,000 people. The specific monsters behind the procedure expose the true horrors of the show’s surprisingly advanced world.

Silo 1’s residents are put through cryogenic stasis, having gone under before nuclear detonations made Earth uninhabitable. They consist of government officials and other important personnel that are woken every few decades to work for six months, ensuring that humanity is preserved until it’s safe to live above ground. One of Silo 1’s inhabitants who was coerced into working for the silo was a freshman Congressman named Donald Keene.

Donald becomes one of the story’s most important characters, being the eyes for readers within Silo 1’s messed up system that determines the fate of thousands of oblivious people. The show cleverly avoids using his name, but it’s quite obvious that he’s the same freshman Congressman introduced at the end of Silo’s Season 2 finale in the flashback. Meaning, when Silo untangles the Safeguard Procedure once and for all, it’ll likely be through Donald’s story in Silo Season 3.

Silo Season 2 is available to stream on Apple TV+. A third season is in development.

Men and women live in a giant silo underground with several regulations which they believe are in place to protect them from the toxic and ruined world on the surface.

Release Date

May 5, 2023

Cast

Rebecca Ferguson
, Common
, Tim Robbins
, Harriet Walter
, Christian Ochoa Lavernia
, Avi Nash
, Billy Postlethwaite
, Chinaza Uche
, Iain Glen
, Remmie Milner
, David Oyelowo
, Rick Gomez
, Ferdinand Kingsley
, Shane McRae
, Chipo Chung
, Caitlin Zoz
, Matt Gomez Hidaka
, Angela Yeoh
, Olatunji Ayofe
, Khairika Sinani
, Will Patton
, Akie Kotabe

Seasons

2

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