Silo Season 2, episode 9: What is the safeguard?
Well, Silo Season 2, episode 9 was a lot to unpack.
Things in both silos are now reaching a boiling point, with Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) prepping for her trip back outside after that Solo (Steve Zahn) reveal and things tipping towards a full-scale riot in her home silo. But while it's all been kicking off, newly promoted head of IT shadow Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash) has been trying to solve his own mystery.
And by the end of episode 9, it looks like he may finally have some answers.
What happens to Lukas at the end of episode 9?
Since being promoted to shadow, Lukas has been trying to crack a code left by previous head of IT Salvador Quinn — the same code that Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) solved 25 years ago. By episode 9 he's managed it, revealing the following message (a part of which we see scrawled in his notebook):
"...reason to be damned. If you don't believe me go to the very bottom of the silo. Find the tunnel. You will get confirmation there."
Later, a rattled Lukas says "the life of the silo" depends on him finding the mayor. But when he's told the mayor isn't to be disturbed until that evening, he takes matters into his own hands and heads down to the bottom of the silo. When he finds the tunnel mentioned in the note, though, he suddenly hears a robotic-sounding voice address him by name.
"Before you, only three people have reached this door," says the voice. "Salvador Quinn, Mary Meadows, and George Wilkins. I did not speak with Wilkins. Quinn and Meadows were both given the same directive you will now receive. If you speak to anyone about this conversation, or what you have seen down here, we will have no choice but to initiate the safeguard. Do you know what the safeguard is, Mr. Kyle?"
Lukas' nervous response? "I do."
Who is the voice that speaks to Lukas?
The short answer is we don't know. But we can make some guesses. As Lukas discusses with Bernard (Tim Robbins) earlier in the episode, we now know there are multiple silos. Fifty-one, to be exact. Whoever speaks to Lukas appears to have some kind of higher authority, given that they've been issuing "directives" to Silo 18's heads of IT. Is it possible that whoever speaks to Lukas is the head of IT at a different silo? Maybe one that has authority over all the other silos?
The other option is that the voice might not belong to a person at all. It sounds faintly robotic, so there's always the chance that it belongs to some kind of omnipotent artificial intelligence that has control over all the silos.
What is the safeguard?
When the voice refers to "the safeguard," it's clearly a threat. If Lukas tells anyone about what he's heard or seen, they'll have "no choice but to initiate" it. Clearly, the safeguard isn't something designed to keep the occupants of Silo 18 safe. So what exactly is it?
Once again, we don't know for sure yet. Clearly it's something that was in Quinn's code, and the phrase we see on Lukas' notes — "...reason to be damned" — seems ominous. What seems just as ominous is the fact that Quinn, the former head of IT, felt that he needed to hide its meaning in code, as well as the fact that whatever Judge Meadows learned when she cracked the code drove her to start drinking.
In a nutshell, whatever the safeguard is, it's something that makes the occupants of Silo 18 who learn of it feel helpless and afraid. Maybe it's a safeguard aimed at protecting the owner of the voice, and the other silos, if they feel that Silo 18 is starting to get out of control?
How to watch: Silo is streaming now on Apple TV+ with new episodes releasing weekly.