‘Silo’ Episode 3 Recap & Ending, Explained: What Is Wrong With The Silo’s Generator?

While we are yet to understand how the Silo runs and who the Judicial is, the mystery of what lies outside the Silo is still more urgent. Juliette reached the waters at the bottom of the digger, intending to find out whatever George believed was under the water. Meanwhile, Sam has just handed Holston’s note to Mayor Ruth, nominating Juliette as the next Sheriff. Silo Episode 3 shows whether Juliette wants to be the Sheriff and if she is worthy of it.

Spoilers Ahead


The Warning

Juliette somehow pulls herself out of the darkness. With alcohol in one hand and George’s watch in the other, she goes into a trance, drinking, wondering about George, and crying to herself. She is woken up later by Knox’s assistant and feels Silo shaking. Something is wrong. She arrives in the generator room, after which she punches Cooper, a junior, out of her way and gets inside the hatch to fix the vibration. Once she is done, Knox, head of mechanical, reminds her that she cannot behave in whatever way she wants. Juliette tells him that the rotor is shattering, and they need to turn off the generator and fix it if they want to avoid a catastrophe. Knox is against it because he knows how chaotic it can be if the Silo goes dark even for an hour. He tells her to go home, get sober, and they will talk about it the next day.

Mayor Ruth Jahns and Deputy Sam Marnes meet Bernard, head of IT in Silo. They are meeting to talk about the next Sheriff, and Ruth asks Bernard about Juliette Nichols. Bernard brushes her away, saying that she is a thief who stole tape from IT. He suggests that Paul Billings is the better candidate for the position of Sheriff, and she needs to make the decision quickly because people are already taking up arms to protect themselves in case there is a compromise in law and order. Ruth and Sam then meet the common folk, reassure them, and make them understand how they need to be together. It is evident that they all love her and have already decided to vote for her in the next election. After talking to them, Ruth and Sam visit Dr. Pete Nichols, who is Juliette’s father. He is also the one looking after the newborns in the Silo. They ask why Juliette, despite being the child of a doctor, ended up in the mechanical department. Pete gives them the most logical explanation: Juliette always had a knack for fixing things. She was just 13 years old when she left him, and it’s been quite a while since Pete spoke to his daughter.

Juliette is with Martha at her workshop. She tells her about George and his clues and that she is angry at herself. But when Martha tries to reassure her, she snaps back. Martha can never know how Juliette feels because she has never even stepped outside her workshop, at least not for the last 20 years.

Under Judge Meadows’ orders, Sims, head of security, approaches Ruth and Sam, and he, too, like Bernard, tries to make her understand how Paul Billings is a much better pick for the sheriff position. But Ruth is adamant and tells Sims that she will decide who will be the Sheriff only after her trip is over.


A New Sheriff

A vibration of the railings as Juliette rests against them tells her that the rotor is malfunctioning again. Everyone rushes inside the mechanical room. Knox is overlooking the entire situation when Ruth and Sam are ushered into the engine room by Hank. Then Juliette arrives and tells everyone to stop talking so that she can listen to the rotor’s sounds and identify what’s malfunctioning. She heads inside the hatch again and manages to prevent another disaster. Ruth meets Juliette and tells her that she has been chosen by the deceased Sheriff Holsten to be the next Sheriff. But Juliette shakes her head. She needs to take care of the generator more than anything else. Ruth gives her Holston’s badge, and she and Sam leave. Later on, as Juliette is talking about it with Knox and the others in the core mechanical team, Hank asks Juliette if he can see the badge. He shows her something engraved on its back. Juliette sees it, and the next thing we know, she rushes after Ruth, catches up to her, and tells her that she is ready to become the Sheriff only if she is allowed to fix the generator. For this, it needs to be shut down. The backup is barely enough for life support, but it has to be done; otherwise, there will only be the backup to rely on, and that’s not feasible. An 8-hour power outage is thus declared, during which the Silo will be in complete darkness.


The Plan

There is probably a dent in the rotor blades that needs to be fixed. Knox’s team needs to open the generator and fix the blades. For this, they need to pause the steam flow that powers the generator. The containment chamber protects the turbine from a sudden surge in the flow of steam. If they want to turn off the generator, they have to close the valve that links the steam pipe to the containment chamber. Once they do that, they will have 30 minutes before the steam gathers enough heat, and the valve needs to be opened again. Not doing it will result in an explosion that will blow up the entire thing, and thus the 10,000 people in Silo will be left in darkness forever. Knox greenlights the mission but tells his team that they need to get it done carefully. They will lift the panels of the generator to reveal the rotor; Knox will power down the generator; Juliette will go up and see what’s wrong, signal Knox, and that’s when he will close the valve. Their 30 minutes will thus begin. Juliette chooses Cooper to be with her because she knows that he understands the generator and its functioning just as well as she does. Eight hours of backup have been sanctioned. At exactly 10 p.m., the backup power is turned on. And for a split second, the screens in Silo turn off to reveal the greenery outside before going completely dark. The people have no idea what they just saw, so they disregard it, although they’re taken aback. The camera, at ground level, must have rebooted before turning off. The Silo is in complete darkness except for the moonlight.


Does The Mechanic Repair The Generator In Time? What Is The Engraving On Holston’s Badge?

The process begins. The panels are removed, Juliette and Cooper are sent up, and they spot that one of the rotor bladed has been damaged. Cooper tries to tie the heavy blade to a rope to send it down to be repaired, but it slips from his hands and falls straight down many levels. No one is hurt. The repair team picks it up, takes it away, and starts working on it. Up in the rotor section, Juliette and Cooper start working on the damaged insides. That’s when Knox’s assistant informs Knox that they do not even have 30 minutes as the valve in the containment chamber is heating up faster than they had expected. A few minutes is all they have. Knox screams to Juliette that she and Cooper need to get down. He needs to open the valve so that it doesn’t blow up. But if he opens the valve without reinstalling the rotor blade, the generator will malfunction big time and could even be destroyed. Juliette realizes that the only way to cool the valve is to physically go inside the containment chamber and use a water hose. And that’s exactly what she does.

The temperature is very high inside the chamber, but Juliette knows she has to do it. She tells Cooper to do the needful quickly but carefully and goes down to head inside the chamber. She then starts blowing water at the valve using the hose, and the temperature starts to decrease. Knox tells his guys to work faster. The repaired blade is sent up, but Cooper has trouble reattaching it. The chamber is filling with water, and it seems that the temperature is on the rise again. Some of the pipelines start giving up and blowing up. That’s when Cooper yells that he’s done it. The blade has been reattached to the rotor. Knox immediately tells his assistant to bring out Juliette, who has almost drowned in the chamber. Cooper comes down, Juliette is pulled out, and the hatch of the chamber is closed. Knox finally opens the valve, and the generator is turned on. Everyone is waiting with bated breath to listen to it as it powers up. Soon, the loud, familiar sound fills up the entire room, and the Silo lights up. Everybody exults and hugs each other. They have managed to save the Silo and everyone in it. The next day, Juliette goes back to Martha’s workshop and apologizes to her for how she behaved earlier. She then gives Martha a relic that George found so that she can repair it. It is a camcorder.

Meanwhile, the engraving at the back of Holston’s badge says “Truth.” This is the signal that Holston had promised to give her if he found anything from George’s relics. So there has to be a reason why he chose Juliette to be the Sheriff. She leaves the Mechanical  department and is on her way up. Bernard meets Ruth and Sam and asks them about the darkness in the Silo the previous night and is told that the generator has been repaired. Surprisingly, he knows that Ruth made a deal with Juliette and warns her yet again of the consequences. Later on, we see Ruth signing the document declaring Juliette the next Sheriff. She doesn’t seem to be feeling well, and she tells Sam that she needs to use the restroom before heading to her apartment. She goes inside, and a minute later, Sam hears her fall. He breaks into the restroom and finds Ruth on the ground, choking on her own blood. Did she have any disease? Or was she poisoned? Silo Episode 3 ends with Sam screaming for help as his wife writhes in pain.

We have to wait and see if Ruth is able to make it or not. Juliette is about to take charge as the Sheriff, and she needs Ruth’s help. Also, there is the camcorder that Martha will surely repair, and God knows what footage it will reveal. If Ruth was poisoned, we can be sure that either Bernard or Sims had something to do with it. But why didn’t they want Juliette to be the Sheriff? Do they know something about her? And who is Judge Meadows? Silo Episode 4 has a lot to answer for.

Silo Episode 3 moves at breakneck speed. While we do not know much about the mystery behind George’s tunnel, we realize just how strong a woman Juliette is and that she is absolutely worthy of being the Sheriff. We also find out a lot about the generator and how it keeps Silo alive, which is important for the plot’s very essence. Also, we get hints of what we can expect, which prepares us for it.


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Shubhabrata Dutta
Shubhabrata Dutta
Shubhabrata’s greatest regret is the fact that he won’t be able to watch every movie and show ever made. And when he isn’t watching a movie or a show, he is busy thinking about them and how they are made; all while taking care of his hobbies. These include the usual suspects i.e. songs, long walks, books and PC games.

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