Silo Season 2, episode 3: Who is Solo?
Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) is only three episodes in to Silo Season 2, and she's already had a bumpy ride. The bad news? She's trapped in an abandoned, water-logged silo surrounded by corpses and poisonous air, completely separate from her friends and family with the threat of death looming at every turn. The good news? She's made a new friend!
But who exactly is Solo (Steve Zahn), the apparent sole survivor of Silo 17? Why is he the only person still alive? And why is he so determined to stay hidden in the vault?
Let's recap episode 3 and see what we know so far.
Who is Solo?
After meeting Solo at the end of episode 1, Juliette gets to know more about him in episode 3. Unfortunately, the news he has for her isn't exactly what she wants to hear.
"My name is Solo. Just Solo, because I'm in here all by myself," he says. "So I'm Solo. And no one forced the people out. They chose to leave. And when they did, it was a nice day. Everybody was smiling. And then that dust started to blow again. And I think the poison went away for a bit, but it came back — and a lot of it. And that's when they all died."
Solo goes on to tell Juliette a story about Ron Tucker, a man who wanted to go outside but refused to clean, instead writing "Lies" on the camera lens before disappearing round the corner.
"Two days later they painted on the screen — 'Lies', right over what he had written," Solo continues. "And that's when the fighting started. So Russell put me in here. Russell was the head of IT, and I was his shadow. And Russell told me don't – no matter what – never let anyone in the vault. Ever."
Is Solo telling the truth?
On the surface, Solo's story sounds believable enough. We've already seen the bodies outside Silo 17, and we know it's abandoned. His tale about people rebelling and then going outside, only to die, makes sense. Solo being the Head of IT's shadow would also make some sense, given that it's only the Head of IT and their shadow that have access to the vault.
On the other hand, there are also gaps. When Juliette asks Solo about the bodies outside the vault that "aren't as old as the other ones," he refuses to respond. He also evades some of her other questions, and when he recounts the day everyone went outside, his eyes dart away from Juliette just before he says, "It was a nice day." It seems as though there are things he's not telling her.
Then there's the question of those bodies outside the vault. Near the end of the episode Juliette discovers the words "WE WILL GET IN SOONER OR LATER" scratched across the doorway that faces Solo's viewing slit, implying people have tried to get inside the vault before. The question is, why didn't Solo want to help them? And if he's telling Juliette the truth about what happened in Silo 17, why does he react so badly to some of her questions? It seems like there's something more going on here...
How to watch: Silo is streaming now on Apple TV+ with new episodes releasing weekly.