Silo Season 1 became a new obsession of mine the minute it dropped. I knew this was something I would want to consume as much of as humanly possible. After the second season aired, Apple announced that Silo had received a two-season renewal but would finish with its fourth season. It was a happy-sad moment because I knew I had two more seasons coming, but it also meant the series already had an end goal in sight. Once that seed has been planted, people become expendable. Instead of simply building the world around these characters, the show is now working toward creating a meaningful ending so that, once we have made it through all 40 episodes, it feels like we have taken a meaningful journey.

Even though the second season separated Juliette from the rest of Silo 18 and sent her into Silo 17, it also gave us a terrific new character and a wonderful performance from Steve Zahn as Solo, who is sorely missed this season. Then the finale introduced the Before Times through reporter Helen Drew and Congressman Daniel Keene, played by Jessica Henwick and Ashley Zukerman. This was the scene that showed us the little Pez dispenser that had previously existed only as a relic inside the silo. Season 3 takes that introduction and turns it into half of the show, moving between Juliette’s world and Daniel and Helen’s attempts to understand the conspiracy developing around them.

After the coup at the end of Season 2, you might reasonably have assumed that Lukas Kyle and Bernard Holland were both dead. Season 3 opens in such an odd way that we initially don’t know what happened to either of them. There has been a time jump, and Juliette is emerging from some kind of coma with almost no memory of her past. Silo 18 has rebuilt itself around Juliette as its hero and new mayor, while Camille and Robert Sims, who spent much of the previous season hedging their bets and playing both sides, have elevated themselves into positions of power. Robert is now the judge, while Camille is the head of IT and communicates with the mysterious voice that once issued orders to Bernard.

Camille doesn’t officially have an IT shadow, although the closest thing she has is Emerson, who leads the Raiders and does much of her dirty work. She has also become somewhat separated from Robert, while former sheriff Paul Billings is pulled into investigating a murder with far deeper implications than the identity of the killer. The reason this person was murdered and the secrets they uncovered are more interesting than the murder itself. Elsewhere, Knox and Shirley are still together and trying to make their relationship work, while Knox and Juliette remain somewhat at odds. Juliette simply doesn’t remember why. Her memory loss is so extreme that she doesn’t even remember having a father, meaning she can’t properly mourn the man who sacrificed himself to save countless lives after spending years helping preserve the silo’s lies.

Why is Juliette forgetting everything? Season 3 answers that through both timelines by introducing a memory-erasing drug disguised under the harmless-sounding name Vitamin D Plus. When released into the water supply, it gradually causes people to forget. Daniel encounters an earlier version of this through his sister Charlotte, played by Jessica Brown Findlay, a fighter pilot who survives a crash and is sent to a special facility where the drug is used to help her forget her PTSD. As the season progresses, we learn that there may be a far more nefarious, large-scale purpose behind it. Juliette is clearly being drugged, but the bigger question is why. Her friends need her to remember because she still has unfinished business involving the survivors she left behind in Silo 17. If Juliette can’t remember those people, how can she possibly save them or her own silo?

Despite their absence from the first few episodes, Bernard and Lukas are still alive and work their way back into the story in interesting ways. I especially enjoyed Tim Robbins this season, even though his entire performance is delivered through what is essentially a vocal shred. Bernard nearly died and is inexplicably still alive, but he doesn’t have the strength to speak at full volume. He raspily dispenses the knowledge Juliette and her allies need to advance their plan, subvert Camille and hopefully overthrow whoever is communicating with her from beyond the IT headroom. Once Juliette remembers the Safeguard she discovered in Silo 17, the story becomes a race to disable it before it can be used against Silo 18, while also avoiding the forgetting drugs long enough to remember what they’re supposed to be doing.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Helen continue uncovering the truth about Charlotte’s crash and the technologically advanced people monitoring their every move and trying to bring them into a mysterious project. Rebecca Ferguson once again delivers a standout performance, but Robbins takes a character who had become incredibly unlikable and somehow makes him partially redeemable. Even Common has more to do as Robert begins questioning his place in all of this. Camille’s support for the forgetting drugs could eventually cause their son, Anthony, to forget his parents while they forget they ever had a son.

That does lead to one of my larger quibbles with the season. I would assume that Camille, as the head of IT, would be exempt from the drugs because the voice needs someone capable of running the silo. If everyone forgets too much, somebody might forget that the headroom exists or that there is even a Pact. How would a child like Anthony survive if his parents completely forgot they had a child and he forgot he had parents? The series never clearly establishes that certain people are receiving untreated water instead. Giving everyone amnesia would be a nonsensical solution if the goal is to preserve a functioning society. A whole silo full of people wandering around confused about who they are and what they’re supposed to be doing isn’t especially productive.

I also had a problem with Episode 9, which possibly overplays its hand regarding the characters’ proximity to a nuclear explosion. Without giving away every detail, there is one. Considering where it occurs and where the people we should be concerned about appear to be, they should be far enough from the blast to survive. Much of Daniel’s storyline takes place around Atlanta, with a billionaire buying an enormous amount of farmland to construct the silos. To acquire that much land and spread the silos out as widely as the series suggests, they would have to be pretty far outside the city. They might eventually need to worry about radiation carried by the wind, but the immediate blast probably wouldn’t reach them. Then again, this is also a show that suddenly introduces cryogenic freezing as though it is already part of the natural fabric of the world. It would be like having someone teleport in the season finale. I would like to know when and how humanity made that technological leap.

Those issues didn’t stop me from being fully engaged by Juliette’s storyline. I kept waiting for the forgetting drugs to leave someone wandering around completely confused about who they were and what they were doing. More importantly, the series understands exactly how to function as the third chapter in a four-season story. Season 3 asks plenty of questions without answering all of them, but some of that is clearly intentional setup for the final season. Juliette isn’t finished with Silo 17, while Daniel, Helen and Charlotte remain likely centerpieces moving forward. The finale is a genuine game changer that confirms some things, redefines others and positions the characters for one final battle.

Silo remains one of the feathers in Apple TV’s cap. Pixelogic continues to do a nice job with the audio description, and the show propels itself forward with engaging performances, mysteries and subplots that keep the audience strapped to the couch waiting for the final season. Unless, of course, you accidentally took some Vitamin D Plus.

Fresh: 8.9/10